Matthew Theron Ruff (born September 8, 1965) is an American author of a small, but very diverse collection of novels. All of them feature (sometimes quite dark) humor and somewhat fantastic elements.
Matt is definitely One of Us, as anyone who follows his blog can attest. His website
contains a lot of interesting and funny details about the creation of his works.
He has written, in chronological order:
- Fool On The Hill (1988) - his debut novel, inspired by his time in, and set at, Cornell University. A Fantasy Kitchen Sink about a young writer caught between Greek gods, talking animals, the fair folk, and monkeys with typewriters.
- Sewer, Gas & Electric: The Public Works Trilogy (1997) - a Post Cyber Punk novel, according to The Other Wiki. Set in the near future after a pandemic has wiped out (nearly) all black people, it features mutant sharks in Absurdly Spacious Sewers, androids, eco-pirates, and Ayn Rand in a bottle.
- Set This House in Order: A Romance of Souls (2003) - Ruff's most well-known and critically acclaimed novel. Features numerous characters. In a way.
- Bad Monkeys (2007) - a homage to Philip K. Dick. Features a very Unreliable Narrator and one hell of a Twist Ending.
- The Mirage (2012) - in this Alternate History novel, set in a Mirror Universe in which the United Arabian States fight The War on Terror against western fundamentalism in the wake of the 11/9 attacks on the Bagdad Twin Towers.
- Lovecraft Country (2018) - a black man in 1950s America gets conscripted into the internal struggles of the American wizarding community.
