Taran Matharu

Taran Matharu was born in London in 1990 and discovered a passion for reading at an early age. By the age of nine, he began crafting his own stories, setting the foundation for a lifelong dedication to storytelling.

Eager to gain insight into the publishing industry, Taran secured an internship in Digital Sales at Penguin Random House. During a break to travel, he began writing what would become the Summoner series as part of NaNoWriMo 2013. Thanks to daily updates on Wattpad, it swiftly amassed over 3 million reads in under six months. To date, his Wattpad works have accumulated over 8 million reads.

His Summoner trilogy consists of The Novice (2015), The Inquisition (2016), and The Battlemage (2017). It was acquired by Macmillan in the US, becoming a New York Times bestseller. Taran later added The Outcast (2018) and The Summoner’s Handbook (2018) to expand the Summoner universe.

He subsequently wrote the Contender trilogy—The Chosen (2019), The Challenger (2020) and The Champion (2021)—which sold in a major six-figure deal in the US, and was also published in the UK.

Dragon Rider, the first instalment of Sunday Times bestselling Soulbound Saga—and Taran’s first adult novel—was sold to the UK and US in a six-figure pre-empt, publishing in April 2024, with Tainted Khan set for release in April 2025. Across all his titles, Taran’s books have been published in 17 languages and have sold over 3 million copies in English.