HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Janet Ellen Morris (born May 25, 1946) is an American author of fiction and nonfiction, best known for her fantasy and science fiction and her authorship of a
non-lethal weapons Non-lethal weapons, also called nonlethal weapons, less-lethal weapons, less-than-lethal weapons, non-deadly weapons, compliance weapons, or pain-inducing weapons are weapons intended to be less likely to kill a living target than conventional ...
concept for the U.S. military.


Background


Writing

Janet Morris began writing in 1976 and has since published more than forty novels, many co-authored with her husband Chris Morris or others. Her debut novel, written as Janet E. Morris, was ''
High Couch of Silistra ''High Couch of Silistra'' (renamed as ''Returning Creation'' for the integral edition of the series) is a science fiction novel, the first book in the Silistra quartet by American writer Janet Morris. Published in 1977 by Bantam Books, '' High ...
'', the first in a quartet of character-driven novels with a female protagonist. According to original publisher
Bantam Books Bantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by parent company Random House, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House; it is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter B. Pitkin, Jr., Sidney B. ...
, the Silistra quartet had over four million copies in print when the fourth volume, '' The Carnelian Throne'' was published. Charles N. Brown, co-founder and editor of ''
Locus Locus (plural loci) is Latin for "place". It may refer to: Entertainment * Locus (comics), a Marvel Comics mutant villainess, a member of the Mutant Liberation Front * ''Locus'' (magazine), science fiction and fantasy magazine ** ''Locus Award' ...
'' magazine, is quoted on the
Baen Books Baen Books () is an American publishing house for science fiction and fantasy. In science fiction, it emphasizes space opera, hard science fiction, and military science fiction. The company was established in 1983 by science fiction publisher an ...
reissues of the series, noting that the stories featured "engrossing characters in a marvelous adventure." Morris has contributed short fiction to the
shared universe A shared universe or shared world is a fictional universe from a set of creative works where more than one writer (or other artist) independently contributes a work that can stand alone but fits into the joint development of the storyline, chara ...
fantasy series ''
Thieves' World Thieves' World is a shared world fantasy series created by Robert Lynn Asprin in 1978. The original series comprised twelve anthologies, including stories by science fiction authors Poul Anderson, John Brunner, Andrew J. Offutt, C. J. Cherr ...
'', in which she created
the Sacred Band of Stepsons The Sacred Band of Stepsons is a fictional ancient cavalry unit created by Janet Morris and based on the historical Sacred Band of Thebes, an elite strike force of paired lovers and friends that flourished during the fourth century BC in ancient Gr ...
, a mythical unit of ancient fighters modeled on the
Sacred Band of Thebes The Sacred Band of Thebes (Ancient Greek: , ''Hierós Lókhos'') was a troop of select soldiers, consisting of 150 pairs of male lovers which formed the elite force of the Theban army in the 4th century BC, ending Spartan domination. Its pre ...
. She created, orchestrated, and edited the
Bangsian fantasy Bangsian fantasy is a fantasy genre which concerns the use of the afterlife as the main setting within which its characters, who may be famous preexisting historical or fictional figures, act and interact. It is named for John Kendrick Bangs (1 ...
series '' Heroes in Hell'', writing stories for the series as well as co-writing the related novel, ''The Little Helliad'', with Chris Morris. Most of her fiction work has been in the fantasy and science fiction genres, although she has also written historical and other novels. Her 1983 book ''I, the Sun'', a detailed
biographical novel The biographical novel is a genre of novel which provides a fictional account of a contemporary or historical person's life. Like other forms of biographical fiction, details are often trimmed or reimagined to meet the artistic needs of the fiction ...
about the Hittite King Suppiluliuma I was praised for its historical accuracy; O. M. Gurney, Hittite scholar and author of ''The Hittites'', commented that "the author is familiar with every aspect of Hittite culture." Morris has written, contributed to, or edited several book-length works of non-fiction, as well as papers and articles on non-lethal weapons, developmental military technology and other defense and national security topics.


Academic, strategic and business activity

Morris was elected to the
New York Academy of Sciences The New York Academy of Sciences (originally the Lyceum of Natural History) was founded in January 1817 as the Lyceum of Natural History. It is the fourth oldest scientific society in the United States. An independent, nonprofit organization wit ...
in 1980. Morris served as Research Director and Senior Fellow (1989–1994) at the U.S. Global Strategy Council, as well as Adjunct Fellow at the
Center for Strategic and International Studies The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C. CSIS was founded as the Center for Strategic and International Studies of Georgetown University in 1962. The center conducts polic ...
(1993–1995). Morris co-authored ''The Warriors Edge'', which explores embracing unconventional psychological combat techniques, in 1990. Janet Morris and the USGSC's campaign for the creation of a non-lethality panel resulted in the assembly of the Non-Lethality Policy Review Group, led by Major General Chris S. Adams, USAF (ret.) in 1991. The group earned the political backing of
Sam Nunn Samuel Augustus Nunn Jr. (born September 8, 1938) is an American politician who served as a United States Senator from Georgia (1972–1997) as a member of the Democratic Party. After leaving Congress, Nunn co-founded the Nuclear Threat Initiat ...
, chair of the
United States Senate Committee on Armed Services The Committee on Armed Services (sometimes abbreviated SASC for ''Senate Armed Services Committee'') is a committee of the United States Senate empowered with legislative oversight of the nation's military, including the Department of Defe ...
. Janet Morris published numerous white papers in 1991, detailing the USGSC's non-lethal war doctrine proposals. The papers promoted diversifying and expanding non-lethal weapon capability for use in increased American intervention in global conflicts. The papers urged additional development of anti-personnel incapacitants as well as vehicular area denial devices. In 1991, Morris visited the Moscow Institute of Psycho-Correlations and observed the demonstration of the transmission of subliminal commands via
infrasound Infrasound, sometimes referred to as low status sound, describes sound waves with a frequency below the lower limit of human audibility (generally 20 Hz). Hearing becomes gradually less sensitive as frequency decreases, so for humans to perce ...
. In 1995, Morris and her husband founded M2 Technologies. Since that time, their writing output has decreased in proportion to the increasing success of the company, which works with U.S. federal and military agencies on non-lethal weapon systems, novel technology applications, and software. In 2003 and 2004, she served on the
Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, mi ...
Independent Task Force on Nonlethal Weapons and Capabilities and contributed to the Task Force report, ''Nonlethal Weapons and Capabilities'' (2004).


Equestrian

A lifelong horsewoman, Morris and her husband bred
Thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are c ...
s from 2003 to 2013 and still maintain a World-Champion producing
Morgan Horse The Morgan horse is one of the earliest horse breeds developed in the United States. Tracing back to the foundation sire Figure, later named Justin Morgan after his best-known owner, Morgans served many roles in 19th-century American histo ...
breeding program begun in 1996. Her foundation mare, "UVM Christine" (pictured above), won Morgan Grand National Champion Four-Year-Old Mare, World Champion Senior Mare, and Reserve World Champion Mare in 1998. Other Grand National and Reserve Grand National and World Champions followed, including Reserve World Champion and Reserve Grand National Champion Park Horse, "Pastorale" in 2001 and 2002; homebred Grand National Champion Morgan Snaffle-Bit Reining Horse, "Spring Diva", in 2003; Grand National Champion Pleasure Driving Gelding "Burkland Rafinesque" in 2008; and homebreds "Privilege", World Champion Western Pleasure in 2014; and "Concordia", World Champion Pleasure Driving in 2018. The Morrises' Morgan breeding program was featured on the cover and in a profile article in ''Equine International'' in 2009.


Select fiction bibliography


Silistra

*''
High Couch of Silistra ''High Couch of Silistra'' (renamed as ''Returning Creation'' for the integral edition of the series) is a science fiction novel, the first book in the Silistra quartet by American writer Janet Morris. Published in 1977 by Bantam Books, '' High ...
'' (1977) aka ''Returning Creation''
Silistra Silistra ( bg, Силистра ; tr, Silistre; ro, Silistra) is a town in Northeastern Bulgaria. The town lies on the southern bank of the lower Danube river, and is also the part of the Romanian border where it stops following the Danube. Sil ...
is the name of an actual city and province in
Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...
*''
The Golden Sword ''The Golden Sword'', published in 1977, is a science fantasy novel by American writer Janet Morris Janet Ellen Morris (born May 25, 1946) is an American author of fiction and nonfiction, best known for her fantasy and science fiction and ...
'' (1977) *'' Wind from the Abyss'' (1978) *'' The Carnelian Throne'' (1979)


Kerrion Empire

*'' Dream Dancer'' (1980) *'' Cruiser Dreams'' (1981) *'' Earth Dreams'' (1982)


''Threshold'' (with Chris Morris)

*'' Threshold'' (1990) *''
Trust Territory United Nations trust territories were the successors of the remaining League of Nations mandates and came into being when the League of Nations ceased to exist in 1946. All of the trust territories were administered through the United Nati ...
'' (1992) *'' The Stalk'' (1994)


''ARC Riders'' (with David Drake)

*''ARC Riders'' (1995) *''The Fourth Rome'' (1996)


Novels

*'' I, the Sun'' (1983) *''The 40-Minute War'' (1984) (with Chris Morris) *''Active Measures'' (1985) (with David Drake) *''Afterwar'' (1985) *''Medusa'' (1986) (with Chris Morris) *''Warlord!'' (1987) *''Kill Ratio'' (1987) (with David Drake) *''Outpassage'' (1988) (with Chris Morris) *''Target'' (1989) (with David Drake)


Series contributed to

* Merovingen Nights *The Fleet * War World *
Thieves' World Thieves' World is a shared world fantasy series created by Robert Lynn Asprin in 1978. The original series comprised twelve anthologies, including stories by science fiction authors Poul Anderson, John Brunner, Andrew J. Offutt, C. J. Cherr ...


The Sacred Band of Stepsons saga

*''Beyond Sanctuary'' (1985) *''Beyond the Veil'' (1985) *''Beyond Wizardwall'' (1986) *''
Tempus Tempus is a Latin word meaning time and a Finnish, Swedish and German word meaning grammatical tense. It may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Television *"Tempus, Anyone?", 1996 episode of ''Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Super ...
'' (1987) *''City at the Edge of Time'' (1988) (with Chris Morris) *''Tempus Unbound'' (1989) (with Chris Morris) *''Storm Seed'' (1990) (with Chris Morris) *''The Sacred Band'' (2010) (with Chris Morris) *''The Fish the Fighters and the Song-girl'' (2012) (with Chris Morris)


''Heroes in Hell''

*'' Heroes in Hell'' (1986) *''
The Gates of Hell ''The Gates of Hell'' (french: La Porte de l'Enfer) is a monumental bronze sculptural group work by French artist Auguste Rodin that depicts a scene from the ''Inferno'', the first section of Dante Alighieri's ''Divine Comedy''. It stands at 6 ...
'' (1986) (with C J Cherryh) *'' Rebels in Hell'' (1986) (with C J Cherryh) *'' Crusaders in Hell'' (1987) *'' Angels in Hell'' (1987) *'' Masters in Hell'' (1987) *'' Kings in Hell'' (1987) (with C J Cherryh) *'' The Little Helliad'' (1988) (with Chris Morris) *'' War in Hell'' (1988) *''
Prophets in Hell ''Heroes in Hell'' is a series of shared universe, shared world fantasy books, within the genre Bangsian fantasy, created and edited by Janet Morris and written by her, Chris Morris (author), Chris Morris, C. J. Cherryh and others. The first ...
'' (1989) *'' Explorers in Hell'' (1989) (with David Drake) *'' Lawyers in Hell'' (2011) (edited with Chris Morris) *'' Bridge Over Hell'' (2012) (Michael A. Armstrong) *'' Poets in Hell'' (2014) (edited with Chris Morris) *'' Dreamers in Hell'' (2013) (edited with Chris Morris) *'' Poets in Hell'' (2014) (edited with Chris Morris) *'' Doctors in Hell'' (2015) (edited with Chris Morris) *'' Hellbound'' (2015) (Andrew P. Weston) *'' Pirates in Hell'' (2017) (edited with Chris Morris) *'' Hell Hounds'' (2017) (Andrew P. Weston) *'' Lovers in Hell'' (2018) (edited with Chris Morris) *''
Hell Gate Hell Gate is a narrow tidal strait in the East River in New York City. It separates Astoria, Queens, from Randall's and Wards Islands. Etymology The name "Hell Gate" is a corruption of the Dutch phrase ''Hellegat'' (it first appeared on ...
'' (2019) (Andrew P. Weston)


Select short story bibliography

* "Raising the Green Lion" (1980) * "Vashanka's Minion" (1980) * "A Man and His God" (1981) * "An End to Dreaming" (1982) * "Wizard Weather" (1982) * "High Moon" (1983) * "Basileus" (1984) * "Hero's Welcome" (1985) * "Graveyard Shift" (1986) * "To Reign in Hell" (1986) * "Power Play" (1984) * "Pillar of Fire" (1984) * "Gilgamesh Redux" (1987) * "Sea of Stiffs" (1987) * "The Nature of Hell" (1987) * "The Best of the Achaeans" (1988) * "The Collaborator" (1988) * " ..Is Hell" (1988) * "Moving Day" (1989) * "Sea Change" (1989) * "Interview with ''the'' Devil" (2011) (with Chris Morris) * "Tribe of Hell" (2011) * "Babe in Hell" (2012) (with Chris Morris)(2012) * "Which Way I Fly Is Hell" (2012) * "Boogey Man Blues" (2013) appeared in ''What Scares the Boogey Man?'' edited by John Manning * "Hell Bent" (2013) * "Alms for Oblivion" (2013) (with Chris Morris) * "Dress Rehearsal" (2014) * "Seven Against Hell" (2014) (with Chris Morris) * "The Black Sword" (2014) (with Chris Morris) appeared in ''Nine Heroes'' edited by Walter Rhein


Select non-fiction bibliography

* "Nonlethality: A Global Strategy" (1990, 2010) (with Chris Morris) * "Weapons of Mass Protection" (1995) (with Morris and Baines) * ''The American Warrior'' (1992) (Morris and Morris, ed.)


References


External links


Janet Morris fiction bibliography
*
Council on Foreign Relations Independent Task Force Report on Nonlethal Weapons and CapabilitiesNonlethality: A Global StrategyWeapons of Mass Protection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, Janet 1946 births Living people 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American women novelists American fantasy writers American science writers American science fiction writers American military writers Women military writers American women short story writers American short story writers Women science fiction and fantasy writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers American women non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers