William Forstchen

William R. Forstchen written by: Shivanshu Trivedi What happens when a person lucky enough to get the most revered mentors of the field, then dedicate their life to study of the subject and finally pick up a pen to give words to all their thoughts. Well, they create marvels. They produce masterpieces and challenge the standards.

The best place to start is the Ice Prophet series, the earliest of William Forstchen's multi-book series: it opens with Ice Prophet (1983) and runs to 3 books across 1983–1985, ending with A Darkness Upon the Ice (1985). William Forstchen's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.

William Forstchen has 152 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1983 and 2023. 136 of them belong to 13 named series — the largest being the Magic: The Gathering series with 17 books — and 16 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.

Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. William Forstchen's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Ice Prophet (1983–1985, 3 books), The Gamester Wars (1987–1993, 3 books) and Crystal (1988–1991, 2 books), plus 9 more.

This guide splits William Forstchen's 152 books into 13 named series and 16 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Magic: The Gathering (17 books, 1994–2023); Wing Commander (10 books, 1992–1999); Lost Regiment (9 books, 1990–2000); After/John Matherson (4 books, 2009–2023); Civil War/Gettysburg (4 books, 2003–2011), plus 8 further series.