DALEY, Brian C.

(1947-)

   US writer whose first novels were the SCIENCE-FANTASY Coramonde sequence - The Doomfarers of Coramonde (1977) and The Starfollowers of Coramonde (1979) - which puts into an ALTERNATE-WORLD setting a tale of MAGIC, court politics and quest, starring a Vietnam veteran who helps his friend, the rightful ruler, fight off an evil sorcerer. Of slightly greater sf interest is the Alacrity FitzHugh sequence - Requiem for a Ruler of Worlds (1985), Jinx on a Terran Inheritance (1985) and Fall of the White Ship Avatar (1986) - whose hero, Alacrity, hurtles through sf adventures on a galactic scale. BCD's best single novel has perhaps been A Tapestry of Magics (1983), a fantasy whose central conceit - a tapestry which is also a magical singularity - recursively recruits into the tale, from various eons and realities, characters both real and fictional, including some of Robert A. HEINLEIN's, perhaps in acknowledgement of Heinlein's own RECURSIVE later fiction.BCD remains best known, however, for his highly competent and colourful Star Wars ties, Han Solo at Star's End * (1979), Han Solo's Revenge * (1979) and Han Solo and the Lost Legacy * (1980), which admirably set out to infill Solo's pre-saga life, and which were assembled as Star Wars: The Han Solo Adventures (omni 1992); Star Wars: The NPR Radio Dramatization *(1994) is a radio play. Other ties include Tron * (1982) (TRON) and the two sequences of Robotech tv ties with James Luceno, writing together as Jack McKinney: the first comprises Robotech \#1: Genesis * (1987), \#2: Battle Cry * (1987), \#3: Homecoming * (1987), \#4: Battlehymn * (1987), \#5: Force of Arms * (1987), \#6: Doomsday * (1987), \#7: Southern Cross * (1987), \#8: Metal Fire * (1987), \#9: The Final Nightmare * (1987), \#10: Invid Invasion * (1987), \#11: Metamorphosis * (1987) and \#12: Symphony of Light * (1987); the second sequence, the Sentinels books, comprises The Sentinels \#1: The Devil's Hand * (1988), \#2: Dark Powers * (1988), \#3: Death Dance * (1988), \#4: World Killers * (1988) and \#5: Rubicon * (1988); both sequences conclude with Robotech: The End of the Circle * (1990). Luceno and BCD, both still writing as Jack McKinney, continued with some independent titles: Kaduna Memories (1990), about a detective in 21st-century Manhattan, and the first volumes of the Black Hole Travel Agency sequence, Event Horizon (1991),Artifact of the System (1991),The Big Empty (1993) and The Shadow * (1994), a film tie. It could not be argued that BCD has much built upon the promise of his first books, but nor could it be said that he has ever given bad value. He has become one of the necessary journeymen.

   JC