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Joseph Malik

Goodreads Author

Born

The United States

Website

http://www.josephmalik.com

Twitter

jmalikauthor

Genre

Fantasy, Thriller, Fiction

Member Since

February 2014

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Joseph Malik is an author, adventurer, swordsman, and retired gunslinger for the Illuminati. His debut novel, Dragon’s Trail, sold over 10,000 copies in eighteen months while receiving mainstream critical acclaim, qualifying him for the 2017 and 2018 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in Science Fiction and Fantasy.

Raised in a traditional Blackfeet home in East Glacier Park, MT, he has been a longtime panelist and demonstrator at science fiction and fantasy conventions, sought-after for his expertise in outdoorsmanship, edged weaponry, and warfighting, as well as his personal history of doing all his characters’ stunts–from BASE jumping to blacksmithing. This level of experience and hands-on knowledge have allowed him to create a se Joseph Malik is an author, adventurer, swordsman, and retired gunslinger for the Illuminati. His debut novel, Dragon’s Trail, sold over 10,000 copies in eighteen months while receiving mainstream critical acclaim, qualifying him for the 2017 and 2018 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in Science Fiction and Fantasy.

Raised in a traditional Blackfeet home in East Glacier Park, MT, he has been a longtime panelist and demonstrator at science fiction and fantasy conventions, sought-after for his expertise in outdoorsmanship, edged weaponry, and warfighting, as well as his personal history of doing all his characters’ stunts–from BASE jumping to blacksmithing. This level of experience and hands-on knowledge have allowed him to create a series of military fantasy novels that do for knights in armor what The Hunt for Red October did for the nuclear submarine.

Medically retired from the U.S. Army for combat-related injuries in 2022, his assignments and attachments included USSOCOM, USASOC, Joint Special Operations Task Forces, and the Defense Intelligence Agency. He attended the French Foreign Legion Desert Commando School in the Horn of Africa, and has helped train and advise militaries and intelligence organizations around the world.

Dragon’s Trail became a Kindle #1 bestseller in Epic Fantasy in the U.S., Australia, and Canada, and reached #1 in Kindle Sword and Sorcery in the UK. as well as becoming a Barnes & Noble Nook bestseller. The followup, The New Magic, launched into the Kindle Epic Fantasy Top 50 New Releases and reached #23 on Goodreads’ recommendation list for the 2019 Hugo award.

He holds a B.A. in English from the University of Washington with a linguistics minor, and studied counterintelligence and domestic terrorism at American Military University. He is a full member of SFWA, represented by Sarah Hershman at Hershman Rights Management, NY.

His forthcoming book, I Wrote a Novel About a Woke Special Ops Team and Broke the Brains of People who Failed the ASVAB: A Memoir will be out shortly. Be sure to read the review-bombs left on Stonelands for context.

Joseph Malik and his wife homestead on Puget Sound. ...more

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Joseph Malik’s books

Average rating: 4.13 · 577 ratings · 130 reviews · 3 distinct works • Similar authors

	Dragon's Trail (The Outworlders, #1) 4.12 avg rating — 453 ratings — published 2016 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The New Magic (The Outworlders #2) 4.23 avg rating — 111 ratings — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Stonelands 3.62 avg rating — 13 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

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Joseph Malik's Blog

Killing Your Baby: Why Authors Should Disconnect from Social Media

So, hey. I talked about this on (ironically) my social media some months back, but I have long been planning to nuke my professional social media presence once I launched Stonelands. I pushed that date to the right as launch neared, because Worldcon was coming up, as was the launch party. Now, it’s done.

I’m going to run down a

Series by Joseph Malik

The Outworlders (2 books)
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Joseph Malik (Goodreads Author)

4.14 avg rating — 564 ratings

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Joseph’s Recent Updates

Joseph Malik and 1 other person liked Ellen Saunders's review of Stonelands: "Stonelands is a military portal fantasy the author claims is "guaranteed to piss off the worst people." It'll probably do that; bigots and fanatics will not like it. And as others have said, misogynistic Seals might want to seek their reading elsewhe" Read more of this review »
Nov 20, 2025 08:09PM · see review
Joseph Malik and 2 other people liked Tom S.'s review of Stonelands: "I served alongside SFC (Ret.) Malik in a supervisory position at the U.S. Special Operations Command Intelligence Directorate. SFC (Ret.) Malik did not contact me to review Stonelands. I have not been in contact with him since he left the military. He" Read more of this review »
Oct 21, 2025 10:49PM · see review
Joseph Malik and 2 other people liked Mike Pearce's review of Stonelands: "Easily Joe's best book to date, and that's a pretty high bar. It's more than just a portal fantasy; it's an explorations of Special Operations culture and more broadly human relationships. The author spent 10 years with SOCOM, and his experience offe" Read more of this review »
Oct 02, 2025 03:03PM · see review
Joseph Malik made a comment in the group Goodreads Librarians Group — Bunch of Books Not Mine -- and One that Is topic " Hey, thanks. When/how can I get editing privileges? The page doesn't show the back matter or external review blurbs. Thanks. ...more "
Aug 06, 2025 08:47AM
Joseph Malik joined the group Goodreads Librarians Group
Aug 06, 2025 07:25AM · like

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topics	posts	views	last activity
Hooked on Books : Fabulous Fall BINGO	13	45	Nov 04, 2023 03:30PM
Sword & Sorcery: ...: * What are you currently reading?	3163	710	Jan 30, 2026 06:48PM

Joseph’s Quotes

“If you can't annoy somebody, there is little point in writing.”
― Kingsley Amis, Lucky Jim

tags: annoyance, writing

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Tweets from @altomov/my-goodreads-com-friends If you need help promoting your work, my Sci-Fi/Fantasy Team can advertise your book in our active Fa ...more

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Goodreads Librarians are volunteers who help ensure the accuracy of information about books and authors in the Goodreads' catalog. The Goodreads Libra ...more

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Hi there! SFFBC is a welcoming place for readers to share their love of speculative fiction through group reads, buddy reads, challenges, ...more

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Readers, authors, illustrators, and editors aggregate here to discuss Sword & Sorcery books and related media (movies, comics, blogposts, etc.). ...more

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A place to connect writers with beta readers. Sometimes writers get so involved in the plot they can't see the wood for the trees. Hang on a sec'--th ...more

Flights of Fantasy — 1220 members — last activity Dec 30, 2025 12:45AM
Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Horror, and YA/MG. We reads it. As a group, we seek to read BotM that are a little off the beaten paths. We love the Gaimans, Sande ...more

SciFi and Fantasy eBook Club — 3769 members — last activity Jan 31, 2026 03:06PM
This is for those of us whose preferred format is the ebook ... So, Whether you're a Kindle, Nook, Sony, iPad, Google, or whatever person; come on in ...more

Goodreads Reviewers' Group — 13334 members — last activity 3 hours, 20 min ago
This group helps to bring Reviewers and Authors together! Reviewers can make their own thread to post their reviews in, or post their reviews in the r ...more

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Joseph Malik's Blog

Killing Your Baby: Why Authors Should Disconnect from Social Media

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