The Two-Timers ( 1968), a well written tale of Parallel Worlds, Doppelgangers and murder, demonstrates Shaw's ability to handle characterization and, in particular, his talent for realistic dialogue. A man who has been blinded and condemned to a penal colony on a far planet invents a device (see Invention) that enables him to see through other people's and even animals' eyes, and thus manages to escape. Shaw's first novel was Night Walk ( 1967), a fast-moving chase story.
He later incorporated it, together with two thematically-related examinations of the theme, into Other Days, Other Eyes (fixup 19). Built around the intriguing concept of Slow Glass, a kind of Time Viewer through which light can take years to travel – thus allowing people to view scenes from the past – this story remains his best known. And Isles Where Good Men Lie" (October 1965 New Worlds) – he published "Light of Other Days" (August 1966 Analog), which established his reputation as a writer of remarkable ingenuity. In the meanwhile Shaw published his first professional story, "Aspect" (see Matter Transmission), with Nebula Science Fiction in August 1954, followed by "The Trespassers" (his first professional sale but published second) in the December 1954 issue during the mid-1950s he contributed several more stories to Nebula and one to Authentic Science Fiction before ceasing to write for some years. Shaw was early involved in sf Fandom, with stories and articles published in the Fanzine Slant from 1951 and his first book being The Enchanted Duplicator ( 1954 chap) with Walt Willis, an allegory of fan and Fanzine activities he received Hugos in 19 for his fan writing, which was also collected in such volumes as The Best of the Bushel (coll 1979 chap) and The Eastercon Speeches (coll 1979 chap) the former is a selection from his column "The Glass Bushel" in Hyphen (two later instalments were to appear in Science Fiction Review in 1984) and the latter assembles five early examples of the Serious Scientific Talks (joky and only tenuously scientific) which were for many years highly popular at Conventions.
He worked in structural engineering until the age of twenty-seven, then aircraft design, then industrial public relations and journalism, becoming a full-time author in 1975. Working name of Northern Irish author Robert Shaw (1931-1996), in Canada 1956-1958 and the mainland UK from 1973.
0 kommentar(er)
