Martha Wells was born in 1964 in Fort Worth, Texas, and was graduated from Texas A&M University with a B.A. in Anthropology. She currently resides in Bryan, Texas.
Her first novel, The Element of Fire, was published by Tor in hardcover in July 1993 and was a finalist for the 1993 Compton Crook/Stephen Tall Award and a runner-up for the 1994 Crawford Award. The French edition, Le feu primordial, was a 2003 Imaginales Award nominee. Her second novel for Tor, City of Bones, was a 1995 hardcover and June 1996 paperback release. Both novels were on the Locus recommended reading lists. Her third novel The Death of the Necromancer (Avon Eos) was a 1998 Nebula Award Nominee and the French edition was a 2002 Imaginales Award nominee. Her fourth novel Wheel of the Infinite (HarperCollins Eos) was a 2000 hardcover and 2001 December paperback release. In 2003 Wells published The Wizard Hunters (HarperCollins Eos/May 2003), the first book in a fantasy trilogy taking place in the world of Ile-Rien from The Element of Fire and The Death of the Necromancer. Her books have been translated into numerous languages, including French, German, Russian, Italian, Polish, and Dutch.
Wells has also written an number of other books, including a fantasy series for young adults that includes the novels Emilie and the Hollow World (2013) and Emilie and the Sky World (2014); two novels set in the universe of Stargate Atlantis - Reliquary (2006), and Entanglement (2007); and the novel Empire and Rebellion: Razor's Edge (2013). This last is set in the Star Wars universe and is notable for placing Princess Leia Organa front and center as the main heroine.
Her most notable works comprise the fantasy series "The Books of the Raksura", consisting of five novels and a number of short stories. The series, which began with the 2011 novel The Cloud Roads, takes place in the lush and varied Three Worlds, and is centered around Moon, a member of the shapeshifting Raksura species. Popular and critically-acclaimed, the series was nominated in 2018 for the Hugo Award for Best Series.
In 2017, Wells embarked on a new series of novellas, The Murderbot Diaries, an SF series about a self-aware android who must reckon with its newfound autonomy. The first book in the series is entitled All Systems Red. It was nominated for the 2018 Philip K. Dick Award and the 2018 Hugo Award for Best Novella. It won the 2017 Nebula Award for Best Novella, making Wells the first graduate of TAMU to win a Nebula Award. All Systems Red has also won the 2018 Locus Award for Best Novella and a 2018 ALA/YALSA Alex Award. The second book in the series, Artificial Condition, was released in May 2018, and the third, Rogue Protocol, came out in August 2018. The final novella, Exit Strategy, was released in October 2018.
In August 2018, All Systems Red won the 2018 Hugo Award for Best Novella.
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