Biography
Wim Gijsen was one of the Netherlands' most successful writers of modern Science Fiction and Fantasy books. Previously he had been known as a writer of prose, poems, children's books and various works on meditation, vegetarianism and yoga, and translated a book on Tarot by Eden Gray. In 1980 he published his first science fiction novel De Eersten Van Rissan (The First Ones of Rissan). One year later the second part of the series was released: De Koningen Van Weleer (The Kings of the Past). He also wrote another science fiction series: Iskander de Dromendief (Iskander the Dream Thief) and Het Huis van de Wolf (The House of the Wolf).
Until his death, he continued writing fantasy literature, with the Deirdre-trilogy being his most popular work today.
Gijsen repeatedly used a special theme in his books: A distant planet, where humans coming from Earth have settled down centuries ago and have forgotten about their technological past, now live in a culture that resembles Earth's Middle Ages, with only few people who are aware of technology and who do not share the belief in magic and superstition that the human society has adopted.
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