Margins
Elfhome book cover 1
Elfhome book cover 2
Elfhome book cover 3
Elfhome
Series · 12
books · 2003-2024

Books in series

Wyvern book cover
#0.5

Wyvern

2012

Wyvern is a short story set on the world of Elfhome, shortly after the first Startup. Kate has years of experience dealing with exotic animals becoming a dangerous nuisance. She's dealt with lions, tigers and bears in the most remote areas of Earth. This time, she's on Elfhome, a parallel world of elves and magic. This time, she's been hired to stop a wyvern the size of a 747. This time, she's in way over her head. Two hundred miles from the nearest human, deep in virgin forest full of magical animals, with only the elf warrior Stormsong as her native guide, Kate races to keep the crew building the new railroad from becoming a literal movable feast.
Bare Snow Falling on Fairywood book cover
#0.9

Bare Snow Falling on Fairywood

2014

A free novella from the Elfome unverse that takes place directly before Elfhome #1
Tinker book cover
#1

Tinker

2003

Inventor, girl genius Tinker lives in a near-future Pittsburgh which now exists mostly in the land of the elves. She runs her salvage business, pays her taxes, and tries to keep the local ambient level of magic down with gadgets of her own design. When a pack of wargs chase an Elven noble into her scrap yard, life as she knows it takes a serious detour. Tinker finds herself taking on the Elven court, the NSA, the Elven Interdimensional Agency, technology smugglers and a college-minded Xenobiologist as she tries to stay focused on what's really important—her first date. Armed with an intelligence the size of a planet, steel-toed boots, and a junkyard dog attitude, Tinker is ready to kick butt to get her first kiss.
Pittsburgh Backyard and Garden book cover
#1.5

Pittsburgh Backyard and Garden

2016

A free novella Story from the Elfome unverse that takes place during Elfhome #1. "Welcome to Pittsburgh Backyard and Garden. Today, we're tackling a common garden pest, the strangle vine." Hal Rogers grinned at Jane Kryskill's camera and motioned for her to pan right with the slightest tilt of his pith helmet. "No way in hell," Jane murmured.
Monsters In Our Midst book cover
#1.6

Monsters In Our Midst

2023

The third novella in the Pittsburgh Backyard & Garden arc. This story takes place immediately after the events of Chased by Monsters in July while Tinker is still being held prisoner by the oni. Jane Kryskill has so many secrets to keep. There’s the huge one; that Pittsburgh is being besieged by beings from another world, unleashing giant monsters upon the unsuspecting city. There’s the secret that she found and rescued not only her baby sister—kidnapped eight years earlier—but the little tengu boy, Joey Shoji, nephew of the Chosen One. And on the personal side, she’s keeping her upcoming marriage to Taggart from Hal Rogers, star of Pittsburgh Backyard and Garden. Now Nigel Reid has dropped yet another secret on the team—somewhere in the city is a box filled with baby dragons, locked in a magical sleep.
Wolf Who Rules book cover
#2

Wolf Who Rules

2006

The popular fantasy novel Tinker introduced the inventor-heroine of the same name, who lives in a near-future Pittsburgh, which shares an interdimensional border with the land of the elves. In this sequel, Wolf Who Rules, the elven noble whose destiny is intertwined with Tinker, finds himself besieged from all sides. Viceroy and head of the Wind Clan, he had been able to guarantee the safety of everyone in his realm, but faced with an oni invasion, he has had to call in royal troops and relinquish his monopoly of Pittsburgh, which is now entirely stranded on Elfhome. He now struggles to keep the peace between the humans, the newly arrived Stone Clan, the royal forces, a set of oni dragons, the half-oni children who see themselves as human, and the tengu trying to escape their oni enslavement. Meanwhile, Tinker strives to solve the mystery of a growing discontinuity in Turtle Creek. She's plagued with inexplicable nightmares that may hold the keys to Pittsburgh's future. The only clue from the Queen's oracle to help Tinker is a note with five English words on it: Follow the Yellow Brick Road. Oni, and dragons and tengu? Oh my!
Blue Sky book cover
#2.5

Blue Sky

2012

Blue Sky is a short story set in the Elfhome world, a fantasy series by Wen Spencer. Pittsburgh – a city from Earth magically stranded on the world of elves. Captain of the Team Big Sky hoverbiking racing team, John Montana has lived in fear for his younger half-brother. Blue Sky isn't the only half-elf in Pittsburgh, but he's the only one whose father was one of the holy warrior caste, the sekasha. John has kept Blue Sky's parentage a secret because sekasha are above the law. They can kill anyone they want; take anything they want. When Blue Sky's secret is discovered, John's only hope to save his brother is their old friend, Tinker.
Elfhome book cover
#3

Elfhome

2012

Book Three of the Elfhome series, the follow-up to exciting Wolf Who Rules and the award-winning fantasy-SF novel that started it all, Tinker. Elfhome. A world of powerful magic, beautiful elves, man-eating trees, frost-breathing wargs, and god-like dragons. Pittsburgh. A city that has been stranded deep in virgin elfin forest to stave off an invasion by the merciless oni. Its population of sixty thousand humans and a handful of elves are pitted in war that will only end in genocide. Winter is coming. Supplies are running low. All political ties are fraying. Hidden somewhere in Pittsburgh's crumbling neighborhoods, a vanguard of oni are growing in number and attacking from the shadows. And children are disappearing. Girl genius Tinker was once a human orphan, growing up on the Pittsburgh streets. Now she's an elf princess with all the bells and whistles. She rules over a melting pot of humans, elves, half-oni, and the crow-like tengu. Prejudices are rampant, pitting even the elves against each other. Hoverbike races, concerts of rock and roll fused with elf music, and artist communes of human and elves are proof that Pittsburgh can be a place where races and species can meet and meld in freedom. Tinker is determined to make her city a place of such freedom. She's going to have to kick butt and take names. And she has to do it quickly. Seven elf children are already missing—and the oni eat their prisoners when they outlive their usefulness. Tinker uncovers ancient secrets and a web of betrayal as she searches for the children. The oni will stop at nothing to win, so neither can she. At five foot nothing, Tinker's greatest weapon has always been her intelligence. Politics, she discovers, is a battle of wits, and she's heavily armed.
#3.5

Peace Offering

2012

A free novelette from the Elfome universe that takes place during Elfhome #3.
Wood Sprites book cover
#4

Wood Sprites

2014

Even though they attend a school of gifted students in New York City, child geniuses Louise Mayer and her twin sister Jillian have always felt alone in the world, isolated by their brilliance. Shortly before their ninth birthday, they make an amazing discovery. They’re not alone. Their real mother was astronaut Esme Shenske and their father was the famous inventor, Leonardo Dufae. They have an older sister, Alexander, living on the planet of Elfhome, and four siblings still in cryogenic storage at the fertility center. There’s only one problem: the frozen embryos are scheduled to be destroyed within six months. The race is on to save their baby brother and sisters. As a war breaks out on Elfhome and riots start in New York City, the twins use science and magic to plow over everything standing in their way. But when they come face to face with an ancient evil force, they’re soon in over their heads in danger.
Harbinger book cover
#5

Harbinger

2022

The war against the oni heats to a flashpoint even as Tinker learns that the enemy has a dangerous new weapon, the nactka. What’s more, the Stone Clan has sent its most famous warlords, the Harbingers, to take control of the allied war effort. Are these elves friends or foes? Tinker’s newfound baby siblings are up for grabs. The babies, though, are wood sprites and aren’t going to take things lying down. Team Mischief go!
Storm Furies book cover
#6

Storm Furies

2024

THE GODDESS OF WAR RIDES, HERALDED BY STORM FURIES The oni have invaded Pittsburgh on Elfhome. And, so far, it looks like they are winning. All this is according to prophecy. But the prophecy is big on symbols and light on specifics. Tinker and her allies are doing the best they can to defend the city and the civilians caught in the crossfire of a war between elves that’s been brewing for centuries. But the enemy has no hesitation whatsoever in involving innocents. All the pieces in this deadly game are in place—and everyone trusts Tinker will save them. All she needs is a plan. And then the lights go out, and the storm begins to rage . . . At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).

Author

Wen Spencer
Wen Spencer
Author · 21 books

John W. Campbell Award Winner Wen Spencer resides in paradise in Hilo, Hawaii with two volcanoes overlooking her home. Spencer says that she often wakes up and exclaims "Oh my god, I live on an island in the middle of the Pacific!" This, says Spencer, is a far cry from her twenty years of living in land-locked Pittsburgh. The Elfhome series opener, Tinker, won the 2003 Sapphire Award for Best Science Fiction Romance and was a finalist for the Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award for Fantasy Novel. Wolf Who Rules, the sequel to Tinker, was chosen as a Top Pick by Romantic Times and given their top rating of four and a half stars. Other Baen books include space opera thriller Endless Blue and Eight Million Gods.

548 Market St PMB 65688, San Francisco California 94104-5401 USA
© 2025 Paratext Inc. All rights reserved