COMPTON, D(avid) G(uy)

(1930-)

   UK writer, born of parents who were both in the theatre; he has lived in the USA since 1981. DGC's novels are almost always set in the NEAR FUTURE, and each presents a moral dilemma. The future is used as a device for bringing contemporary trends into a clearer focus. Most of the interest lies in personal relationships and the behaviour of people under stress; minor characters are observed with humour which frequently arises from class differences. Endings are ambiguous or deliberately inconclusive. Later novels have varying modes of narrative technique. DGC's rare public utterances confirm the impression that he is not interested in the staple concerns of GENRE SF.DGC's first sf novel was The Quality of Mercy (1965; rev 1970 US), concerning a genocidal plot, using a biological weapon, to combat OVERPOPULATION. In The Silent Multitude (1967) the crumbling of a cathedral city reflects a disintegration in the human spirit. Farewell, Earth's Bliss (1966; rev 1971 US) shows the plight of social misfits transported to MARS. SYNTHAJOY (1968), a more complex novel, brought DGC wider notice, particularly in the USA. A surgeon and an electronics engineer develop tapes which enable unremarkable people to enjoy the experiences of those who are more gifted or fortunate. This basic idea is a premise for the exploration of a moral problem and the observation of human beings in extreme situations. The Steel Crocodile (1970 US; vt The Electric Crocodile 1970 UK) presents the danger of new knowledge and its application. Chronocules (1970; vt Hot Wireless Sets, Aspirin Tablets, the Sandpaper Sides of Used Matchboxes, and Something that Might have been Castor Oil 1971 UK; a further apparent vt, as Chronicules 1976 UK, is almost certainly a publisher's misspelling) is a TIME-TRAVEL story. The Missionaries (1972 US) describes the efforts of some evangelizing aliens with a good deal of social comedy.DGC's strengths as a writer are all displayed in the much admired The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe (1974; edited version vt The Unsleeping Eye 1974 US; vt Death Watch 1981 UK). A woman in her 40s is given four weeks to live. A reporter with eyes replaced by tv cameras has the job of watching her decline for the entertainment of a pain-starved public in a world where illness is almost unknown. The reporter sees one of the transmissions and realizes that the camera cannot tell the truth; the recorded film is without mind and therefore without compassion. The sequel, Windows (1979 US), depicts the consequences of the reporter's decision to opt for the oxymoron of literal blindness; neither character in the end is allowed to escape into solitude. The former novel was filmed as La MORT EN DIRECT (1979). In DGC's most recent solo novel of real interest, Ascendencies (1980 US), manna-like free energy begins to fall from space, but the side-effects include profound displacements, both physical and in the domestic psyches whose traumas have always inspired his best work. Ragnarok (1991) with John GRIBBIN shows DGC's grasp of character depiction, but its near-future plot - a scientist brings on a nuclear winter in an attempt to enforce disarmament - owes much to his collaborator's grasp of scientific process. But Nomansland (1993) and Justice City (1994) each increasingly demonstrates his recapture of the humane smoothness with which, in earlier books, he so eloquently anatomized the near future.

   MA/JC

   Other works: The Palace (1969); A Dangerous Malice (1978) as by Frances Lynch; A Usual Lunacy (1978 US); Scudder's Game (1985 Germany, in German; English text 1988); Radio Plays (coll 1988 chap).See also: COLONIZATION OF OTHER WORLDS; COMMUNICATIONS; COMPUTERS; CYBERNETICS; CYBORGS; DISASTER; MEDIA LANDSCAPE; OVERPOPULATION; POWER SOURCES; PSYCHOLOGY; RELIGION; SCIENTISTS.