Millar, Martin

Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.

(1956- ) Scottish author whose first novel, Milk, Sulphate and Alby Starvation (1987), is a gonzo depiction of downmarket countercultural life in 1980s Britain, edging close to the fantastic in its depiction of intersections between Comics, Drugs and Videogames; it does not, however quite venture over the borderline. Lux the Poet (1988), set in a very similar venue and protagonist, introduces a rogue Angel, marking Millar's first engagement in what became typical of work under his own name, teasingly Crosshatch tales in Urban Fantasy settings [for Angels, Crosshatch and Urban Fantasy, and Low Fantasy below, see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below]. The Good Fairies of New York (1992) sets a crew of Scottish fairies aloose in New York, to comic effect. Tank Girl: The Movie: A Novel (1996) comically exaggerates aspects of Tank Girl: The Movie (1995), the Post-Holocaust film which it novelizes.

For many years, Millar has been best known for his Low Fantasy Thraxas sequence beginning with Thraxas (1999) as by Martin Scott, which won the World Fantasy Award: a remarkable accomplishment, given that this award had not previously been given to comic fantasy (Fritz Leiber was recognized for a horror novel, and no Terry Pratchett tale has ever won). The series' scruffy noirish eponym gets into various scrapes and conspiracies in this first volume, and in several subsequent tales, all as by Scott [see Checklist below]; as in most low fantasies, the background remains relatively stable. Lonely Werewolf Girl, a shorter Urban Fantasy sequence opening with Lonely Werewolf Girl (2007), has as might be expected a female Werewolf protagonist.

Millar is of the most direct sf interest for Supercute Futures (2018), a Young Adult tale set in a devastated Near Future Post-Holocaust London where – perhaps not entirely consistently – international capitalism and the Media Landscape it feeds off remain relatively intact. In the end, the planet remains bleak. [JC]

Martin Millar

born Glasgow, Scotland: 14 October 1956

series

Thraxas

Thraxas (London: Orbit, 1999) as by Martin Scott [Thraxas: pb/Julian Gibson]
Thraxas and the Warrior Monks (London: Orbit, 1999) as by Martin Scott [Thraxas: pb/Julian Gibson]
- Thraxas (New York: Baen Books, 2003) as by Martin Scott [omni of the above two: Thraxas: pb/Monte Moore]
Thraxas at the Races (London: Orbit, 1999) as by Martin Scott [Thraxas: pb/Julian Gibson]
Thraxas and the Elvish Isles (London: Orbit, 2000) as by Martin Scott [Thraxas: pb/Julian Gibson and Paul Young]
- Death and Thraxas (New York: Baen Books, 2004) as by Martin Scott [omni of the above two: Thraxas: pb/Tom Kidd]
Thraxas and the Sorcerers (London: Orbit, 2001) as by Martin Scott [Thraxas: pb/Mark Thomas]
Thraxas and the Dance of Death (London: Orbit, 2001) as by Martin Scott [Thraxas: pb/Mark Thomas]
- Thraxas Books Five and Six: Thraxas and the Sorcerers / Thraxas and the Dance of Death (no place given: for the author, 2017) as by Martin Scott [omni of the above two: Thraxas: pb/]
Thraxas at War (London: Orbit, 2003) as by Martin Scott [Thraxas: pb/Mark Thomas]
Thraxas Under Siege (London: Orbit, 2005) as by Martin Scott [Thraxas: pb/Mark Thomas]
- Thraxas Books Seven and Eight: Thraxas at War / Thraxas Under Siege (no place given: for the author, 2017) as by Martin Scott [omni of the above two: Thraxas: pb/]
Thraxas and the Ice Dragon (no place given: for the author, 2013) as by Martin Scott [ebook: Thraxas: na/]
Thraxas and the Oracle (no place given: for the author, 2015) as by Martin Scott [ebook: Thraxas: na/]

Lonely Werewolf Girl

Lonely Werewolf Girl (place not ascertained: Meadow and Black, 2007) [Lonely Werewolf Girl: pb/]
Curse of the Wolf Girl (London: Piatkus, 2010) [Lonely Werewolf Girl: pb/John Coulthart]
The Anxiety of Kalix the Werewolf (London: Piatkus, 2010) [Lonely Werewolf Girl: pb/]

individual titles

Milk, Sulphate and Alby Starvation (London: Fourth Estate, 1987) [pb/]
Lux the Poet (London: Fourth Estate, 1988) [hb/Colin Williams]
Ruby and the Stone Age Diet (London: Fourth Estate, 1989) [pb/Maya Hayuk]
The Good Fairies of New York (London: Fourth Estate, 1992) [pb/Jason Brooks]
Tank Girl: The Movie: A Novel (London: Penguin Books, 1996) [tie to the film Tank Girl: The Movie: pb/]
The Goddess of Buttercups and Daisies (London: Piatkus, 2015) [pb/]
Supercute Futures (London: Piatkus, 2018) [pb/]

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