New Mexico is a genuine science fiction capital: George R.R. Martin writes A Song of Ice and Fire from Santa Fe, Roger Zelazny lived and wrote there, Grand Master Jack Williamson taught in Portales, and Walter Jon Williams and Daniel Abraham (co-author of The Expanse) round out a remarkable community. Anchored by Santa Fe and Albuquerque, the long-running Bubonicon convention, and the Jack Williamson Special Collection at Eastern New Mexico University, the state has hosted one of the densest concentrations of SF and fantasy talent in the country. This is a reader's path into it. For the collecting view, see the New Mexico science fiction collecting guide; for the full canon, Best Books Set in New Mexico.
Published June 2026 · Curated by Josh Eldred, New Mexico Literacy Project
A Song of Ice and Fire — George R. R. Martin
The most famous fantasy series of the era, written from Martin's longtime home in Santa Fe, where he bought the long-closed Jean Cocteau Cinema and reopened it in 2013. Begin with A Game of Thrones. Martin's Albuquerque-rooted Wild Cards shared-world anthologies, co-edited with Melinda Snodgrass, are the other essential strand of his New Mexico work.
Lord of Light — Roger Zelazny
One of the great stylists in the field, Zelazny lived in Santa Fe for the last twenty years of his life. Lord of Light won the 1968 Hugo Award for Best Novel, and his Chronicles of Amber remains a fantasy landmark. A central figure of the New Mexico SF community until his death in 1995.
The Humanoids — Jack Williamson
The "dean of science fiction" and an SFWA Grand Master, Williamson taught for decades at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, which houses the Jack Williamson Special Collection. His career spanned the pulps to the modern era; The Humanoids and the story "With Folded Hands" are the classics to start with.
Hardwired — Walter Jon Williams
A Nebula Award-winning New Mexico author with a wide range, from the cyberpunk classic Hardwired (1986) to the space-opera Dread Empire's Fall series. His two Nebulas came for the shorter works "Daddy's World" and "The Green Leopard Plague," and he was one of the original players in the Albuquerque game that became Wild Cards.
Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse) — James S. A. Corey
The hit space-opera series and basis for the acclaimed TV show, written under the pen name James S.A. Corey by Albuquerque's Daniel Abraham with Ty Franck. Abraham — also a major fantasy author in his own right (The Long Price Quartet) — is a central figure in the contemporary Albuquerque SF scene.
A Very Large Array: New Mexico Science Fiction and Fantasy — ed. Melinda M. Snodgrass
The book that documents the phenomenon: a University of New Mexico Press anthology whose only common thread is that every author lived in New Mexico, among them Williamson, Zelazny, Martin, Snodgrass and Walter Jon Williams. The single best way to grasp how deep the state's SF bench runs.
The New Mexico SF community
The talent here isn't a coincidence — it's a community. Writers drew other writers; Bubonicon (Albuquerque's SF convention) and the shared-world Wild Cards project knit them together, and the Jack Williamson Lectureship in Portales has brought the field's biggest names to eastern New Mexico for decades. The full speculative-fiction shelf, including the state's deep fantasy and horror catalog, is gathered in the New Mexico speculative fiction collecting guide.
The bench runs deeper than six books. Stephen R. Donaldson, whose Lord Foul's Bane (1977) opened the Thomas Covenant chronicles, lives in Albuquerque. Fred Saberhagen, creator of the Berserker series, lived there from 1975 until his death in 2007. The late Suzy McKee Charnas, a Hugo and Nebula winner who made her home in New Mexico, wrote Walk to the End of the World (1974), and Rebecca Roanhorse's Trail of Lightning (2018), set in a future Dinétah, won the Locus Award for best first novel. Martin's reach runs to television too: he is an executive producer of AMC's Dark Winds, adapted from Tony Hillerman's Navajo detective novels at the top of my New Mexico mystery list. If your interest in the state's other worlds runs to nonfiction, the Roswell and UFO reading list sorts the believers from the skeptics.
Frequently asked questions
Which famous science fiction authors live or lived in New Mexico?
George R.R. Martin and Melinda Snodgrass (Santa Fe), Daniel Abraham and Stephen R. Donaldson (Albuquerque), Walter Jon Williams and Rebecca Roanhorse all live in New Mexico. Roger Zelazny lived in Santa Fe until his death in 1995, Jack Williamson in Portales until 2006, and Fred Saberhagen in Albuquerque until 2007.
Why is New Mexico a science fiction hub?
A dense, decades-old community of SF writers, Albuquerque's Bubonicon convention (first held in 1969), and the Jack Williamson Special Collection at ENMU, all captured in the 1987 anthology A Very Large Array.
Where should I start?
With A Game of Thrones, Zelazny's Lord of Light, or Williamson's The Humanoids.
Is The Expanse written by a New Mexico author?
Half of it is. James S. A. Corey is the joint pen name of Albuquerque's Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, and Orbit published the first novel, Leviathan Wakes, in June 2011.
Did the Wild Cards series start in New Mexico?
Yes. Wild Cards grew out of a Superworld role-playing campaign George R.R. Martin ran in Albuquerque for a group of writers that included Melinda Snodgrass, Walter Jon Williams, Victor Milán and John J. Miller. Bantam published the first volume in January 1987.
Cite This Guide
Eldred, J. (June 2026). Best New Mexico Science Fiction & Fantasy. New Mexico Literacy Project.
https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/best-new-mexico-science-fiction-fantasy
Original curation by Josh Eldred. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.