Sean Russell was born 1952 in Toronto. At the age of three his family moved to the outskirts of the city, where they lived in a cottage at the beach of Lake Ontario. At the age of ten he decided to become an author, and the fantasy genre caught him years later, while reading J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. After university, he moved to Vancouver, and two years later to Vancouver Island, where he still lives with his family. He published his first novel in 1991.

His first historical naval novel Under Enemy Colours, published in 2007, introduced a new Royal Navy hero, Charles Hayden, and HMS Themis, a fictitious frigate.

Initiate Brother

The series is laid in a fantasy empire combining aspects of China and Japan

• Vol. 1: The Initiate Brother, DAW Books, 1991, ISBN 0-88677-466-7
• Vol. 2: Gatherer of Clouds, DAW Books, 1992, ISBN 0-88677-536-1

Moontide and Magic Rise

• Vol. 1: World Without End, DAW Books, 1995, ISBN 0-88677-624-4
• Vol. 2: Sea Without a Shore, DAW Books, 1996, ISBN 0-88677-665-1

The River into Darkness

This fantasy duology is a prequel to the "Moontide and Magic Rise" duology.

• Vol. 1: Beneath the Vaulted Hills, DAW Books, 1997, ISBN 0-88677-794-1
• Vol. 2: The Compass of the Soul, DAW Books, 1998, ISBN 0-88677-933-2
• Vol. 1-2: The River into Darkness, Science Fiction Book Club, 1998, ISBN 1-56865-901-6 (omnibus)

Memoirs of a Bow Street Runner

Sean Russell wrote these books in collaboration with Ian Dennis under their common pen-name “T. F. Banks”.

• Vol. 1: The Thief Taker, Delacorte Press, 2001, ISBN 0385335717
• Vol. 2: The Emperor's Assassin, Dell Books, 2003, ISBN 0440240840

Swans' War

• Vol. 1: The One Kingdom, HarperCollins, 2001, ISBN 0-380-97489-4
• Vol. 2: The Isle of Battle, HarperCollins, 2003, ISBN 0-380-97490-8
• Vol. 3: The Shadow Roads, HarperCollins, 2005, ISBN 0-380-97491-6

Themis series

Written as by S. Thomas Russell, these books are historical fiction about HMS Themis, a Royal Navy frigate,at the time of the French Revolution

• Under Enemy Colours (2007)
• A Battle Won (2010)