ELIOTT, E.C.

   Pseudonym of UK writer Reginald Alec Martin (1900-), whose Kemlo sequence of CHILDREN'S SF novels had a powerful emotional impact on many of their youthful UK readers, shaping the thoughts towards sf of an entire generation of them. The sequence is: Kemlo and the Crazy Planet (1954), Kemlo and the Zones of Silence (1954), Kemlo and the Sky Horse (1954), Kemlo and the Martian Ghosts (1954), Kemlo and the Craters of the Moon (1955), Kemlo and the Space Lanes (1955), Kemlo and the Star Men (1955), Kemlo and the Gravity Rays (1956), Kemlo and the Purple Dawn (1957), Kemlo and the End of Time (1957), Kemlo and the Zombie Men (1958), Kemlo and the Space Men (1959), Kemlo and the Satellite Builders (1960), Kemlo and the Space Invaders (1961) and Kemlo and the Masters of Space (1963). Kemlo and his friends, living with their parents in SPACE HABITATS, are young adolescents of the first generation to be born in space, and can therefore breathe vacuum. Despite this implausibility, the tales of the children's adventures are surprisingly enjoyable for their type and vintage - the space-station settings, with families and above all children routinely Up There, were innovative (at least in children's sf); the characters seemed real, rather than being grim-jawed adult male heroes or indestructible precocious superbrats; and the books as a whole compare favourably with those being produced at about the same time by, for example, Captain W.E. JOHNS. A second, much shorter series, the Tas books, stopped after Tas and the Space Machine (1955) and Tas and the Postal Rocket (1955).

   JC/DRL

   See also: JUVENILE SERIES.