Kenneth Bøgh Andersen ( ; ; 29 November 1976)Information about individual authors. (Danish). is a Danish author best known for his The Great Devil War series of young adult fantasy novels, as well as the Antboy series of children's superhero novels and the Slaget i Caïssa series of fantasy novels directed at a younger middle grade audience. He is a prolific author who has written multiple horror short story anthologies and participated in collaborative horror anthologies with other authors, and has also written multiple reimaginings of classic horror novels and classic scary fairy tales, primarily the ones colelcted by the Brothers Grimm. Due to the lack of the letter Ø in all languages aside from Danish and Norwegian, in most foreign literature markets he has been known professionally as Kenneth B. Andersen.
Personal life Kenneth Bøgh Andersen was born to two Danish parents, Steen Bøgh Andersen and Kirsten Bøgh Andersen (née Jochumsen) on 29 November 1976 in the town of Snekkersten, Northern Zealand, Denmark. Throughout his childhood, Andersen's family moved around so that he came to grow up in Henne, Lydum, Snekkersten and Ringsted in that order.Biografi – Kenneth Bøgh Andersen (Dansk) He now lives in Valby. On 2 October 2005, Andersen was married to school teacher Camilla Dalgaard (née Hanse) and they have two children. at Dansk Filmdatabase (Danish). Andersen also has a dog named Milo.Lucia, Eva (15 January 2018). "Forfatter-interview #80 Kenneth Bøgh Andersen". Eva Lucia's book review website. on the English version of Kenneth Bøgh Andersen's official website.
In spite of Kenneth Bøgh Andersen dealing with religious faith and mythology, primarily of the Judeo-Christian form, Andersen describes himself as an atheist, but he believes that the Bible is "full of great stories" and that it contains a wealth of elements to discuss, and sees it as "very inspiring" in regards to the reality he has written in his Great Devil War series of books,Andersen, Kenneth Bøgh (24 October 2015). Dagbladet Information. (Danish) and has also stated that it was always important for him that when he had to put the Bible "under loving – and sometimes the opposite – treatment, it is also important to me that I don't invent things that aren't actually there [in the text]." He has been quoted saying that for this reason, the God that he presents the books still had to be omnipotent, omnibenevolent, omniscient and so on, but that one does not have to look very deeply in the Bible before finding this notion problematic and paradoxial.Andersen, Kenneth Bøgh (17 September 2016). Børn & Bøger Blog, Landsforeningen Skole & Bøger. (Danish) Despite his atheism and certain of his treatments of biblical narratives being viewed as sacrilegious by certain fundamentalist Christian Danes, Andersen has been invited by several Christian priests to partake in sermons in various churches, and has agreed to do it on occasion.30 August 2016. Rosinante & Co Publishing's YouTube channel.Christoffersen, Philip (28 February, 2023 08:00 pm). Kirke & Tro, Kristeligt Dagblad. (Danish)
Career Early career Although Andersen says he has always loved to read, it was not until he was introduced to Stephen King at age 15 when his school teacher gave him a copy of The Shining that he was inspired to write books himself. He says the book "blew his mind and I was instantly hooked." According to Andersen, he was however not very good. Andersen wrote his first book, Nidhugs Slaver (English translation: The Slaves of Níðhöggr) around a year after this, while in tenth grade of folkskole. The publisher that he sent the book to rejected it. (Danish) After finishing his folkeskole education, his high school education at Haslev Gymnasium and then an education at N. Zahles Seminarium, Andersen went on to become a certified teacher and worked as one until 2007 when he switched to writing full-time.
According to Andersen, it took him seven years and fifteen turned-down manuscripts before he finally got his first novel published, which was Slaget i Caïssa. Andersen debuted in 2000 with the fantasy trilogy Slaget i Caïssa (English: The Battle of Caïssa) and subsequently wrote and had published a large amount of books for children and young adults in the genres of fantasy, horror and science fiction. His books have won multiple awards and have so far been translated into Swedish, Norwegian, German, Icelandic, Spanish and English.
Andersen has also written the Antboy series of comedic superhero books aimed at younger children, which was adapted into three live action feature films, Antboy in 2013, Antboy: Revenge of the Red Fury in 2014 and Antboy 3 in 2016.
The Great Devil War book series
Andersen is best known his six-volume Great Devil War series, which began with The Devil's Apprentice in 2005. The first book of the series has been optioned for both a live-action and animated film adaptation, and the series as a whole has been optioned for a live-action series adaptation, though the project is currently indefinitely on hiatus due to disinterest from streaming platforms. The Great Devil War were the first of Andersen's novels to be translated and released in English, the translations initially being released by self-publishing on Amazon. In 2018, when Andersen hired a traditional American publishing agent, Jennifer Lyons of Lyons Literary Agency, the books were pulled from the platform in favor of looking for a means of getting them published traditionally in English. All six novels have been translated into English, though only the first five were published.Andersen, Kenneth Bøgh (22 December 2020). Official Great Devil War Facebook page. Tantor Audio, subsidiary of Tantor Media, produced adubiook versions of the five books that were translated into English, narrated by Jeffrey Kafer, which are still available through Amazon's Audible service.
Despite several years of representation by Lyons, the series did not succeed in garnering interest from U.S. publishers, and in 2025, six years after initially recalling the books, Andersen reacquired the English-language publishing rights from Lyons and decided to reinstate the English editions himself. He announced the decision with a promotional image of all volumes in the series on his oficial English Facebook page. Four days later, on November 29, 2025, he released another post on his English page that went into more detail about what had happened, and gave a release schedule for each book in the series, specifying the month and year for each volume, including the sixth book, which marks the first time that the English translation of The Fallen Devil will be made available. According to the post, Andersen had decided to go with Amazon's on-demand publication service again, and this time also made the books available in hardcover format. Earlier on that same day, Andersen had already made available the English editions of the first two books, The Devil's Apprentice and The Die of Death. The republication also marks the first time that the English translations were made available in hardcover format. The republication was scheduled to take place throughout late 2025 and early 2026, beginning on November 29, 2025 and culminating with the sixth and final volume, The Fallen Devil, in April 2026. Andersen theorized that the lack of interest from U.S. publishers was because they did not feel it was appropriate to publish a coming-of-age story set in Hell that combined a cozy hometown atmosphere with a sympathethic protral of Lucifer.
In Denmark, the Great Devil War book series was groundbreaking because of the way it addressed topics such as life and death, good and evil, faith and knowledge, the afterlife, and much more, in a philosophical way, both contrasting them and explaining why most of them cannot exist without the other, on a level that both youth and adult readers could understand, and therefore the first volume of the series, The Devil's Apprentice, was introduced into the curriculum of the majority of Danish folkeskole schools, both in the primary (5th–6th grade) and secondary grades (7th–9th grade). To this day, it is one of the best-selling and most widely read Danish fantasy novels and Danish books in general. The books are also known for the way they present concepts, events, beings and people known from Christianity, Judaism and a wide range of other mythologies (Christian Taoism, Norse mythology, Greek mythology etc.) in a partly respectable and faithful manner and humorously quirky way. The series also uses a wide range of supplementary and sometimes apocryphal texts, primarily from Christianity and Judaism, for research, including the Talmud and Zohar. Andersen also employed theological as well as more popular though non-biblical interpretations of the Bible into the work, such as the idea of Adam and Eve being immortal until eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, or the medieval concept of the Devil having once been an angel who was cast out of Heaven and given the name "Lucifer", which was made most famous by John Milton in his epic poem Paradise Lost, another influence on the series, with it even containing his own retelling of its story in The Wrongful Death.Carlsen, Annica Caroline (5 May 2009). Dagbladet Information. (Danish) (Danish)Hansen, Mette Skov (14 March 2020). Interview, Kristeligt Dagblad. (Danish) Although many of the mentions or retellings of Biblical narratives are mostly faithful to the original texts, Andersen changed them in certain places sometimes in order to either connect them more to his general worldbuilding, to put a humorous spin on them, or to make a statement about the idea of free will and belief. A central concept through the novels is the idea that the faith of sapient beings, primarily humankind, shifts reality, and thus humankind has created God but God has also created humankind since the majority of humans believe it is so, and every mythology, afterlife, mythological creature, person or god has existed or still exist, however just in their own under- or sub-world, all connected through a nexus of stairwells in a dark space, though the settings of the series are still the Earth, Hell and Paradise, with Hell serving as the primary location. Another major inspiration for the books was Dante Alighieri's epic poem The Divine Comedy, especially in regards to the concept the condemned souls in Hell being punished in accordance with their crimes and sins, and in relation to the visual description of Hell but also in particular Purgatory. He also used the being of Geryon exactly as he appears in the Inferno part of Dante's poem in the second book of the series, The Die of Death.Andersen, Kenneth Bøgh (2007). Dødens terning. Høst & Søn. (Danish)Andersen, Kenneth Bøgh (11 October 2018). The Die of Death. Kenneth Bøgh Andersen & Høst & Søn.
The Geryon of Dante's 14th century epic poem Inferno bears no resemblance to any previous writings. Here, Geryon has become the Monster of Fraud, a beast with the paws of a bear or lion, the body of a wyvern, and a scorpion's poisonous sting at the tip of his tail, but with the face of an "honest man" (similar to a manticore).