RANDLE, Kevin D.

(1949-)

   US writer who served in the Army as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam 1968-9 and in the Air Force as an Intelligence Officer 1976-86. He began publishing sf with "Future War" for Combat Illustrated in 1978, but became an active writer only in the 1980s, beginning 2 sequences in 1986: the Seeds of War books, all with Robert Cornett - Seeds of War (1988), The Aldebaran Campaign (1988) and The Aquarian Attack (1989) - and theRemember! books, also with Cornett: Remember the Alamo! (1986), Remember Gettysburg! (1988) and Remember Little Big Horn! (1990). The first series is an unremarkable example of military sf, though told with some verve; the second is a more exhilarating TIME-TRAVEL sequence, in which veterans are enlisted to travel to famous battles, where they must make sure that events take their proper course. The Jefferson's War sequence - The Galactic Silver Star (1990), The Price of Command (1990), The Lost Colony(1991), The January Platoon (1991), Death of a Regiment (1991) and Chain of Command (1992) - is again military sf, carrying members of the United States Space Infantry into various tight corners. The Global War sequencebegan with Dawn of Conflict (1991); the Star Precinct sequence, with Richard Driscoll, began with Star Precinct (1992),Star Precinct \#2: MindSlayer (1992) and Inside Job (1992).

   JC

   Other works: Once upon a Murder * (1987) with Robert J(oseph) Randisi (1951-), a game tie; 3 nonfiction UFO books, The October Scenario (1988), The UFO Casebook (1989) and UFO Crash at Roswell (1991) with Don Schmitt.