In Memoriam: Ru Emerson, 1944 – 2025
In preparing Monday’s post, which refeatured an earlier SF Signal post on Elfrid, the heroine of Ru Emerson’s debut novel, The Princess of Flames (1986), I discovered that the author passed away in August of last year.
As you’ve doubtless already figured out, I’m a fan of The Princess of Flames, but I also enjoyed her Tales of Nedao trilogy:
To the Haunted Mountains (1987)
In the Caves of Exile (1988) and
On the Seas of Destiny (1989)
Ru Emerson also wrote another standalone novel, The Sword and The Lion (1993), under the pen name Roberta Cray, which still has a place of honour on my bookshelves.
These do not comprise all her works, but are the ones by which I knew her, and considered her a Fantasy “name.” Her stories enriched my reading life and her passing leaves a notable gap in the Fantasy pantheon.
