DUNCAN, Dave

   Working name of Scottish-born petroleum geologist and writer David John Duncan (1933-), in Canada from 1955. His singleton novels have divided fairly evenly between fantasy and sf. The first, A Rose-Red City (1987 US), complicatedly puts its 20th-century protagonist into a walled UTOPIA, where demons (and the Minotaur) oppose his attempts to extract Ariadne from the world. Shadow (1987 US) is a SCIENCE-FANTASY tale of dynasties in trouble on a strange planet "light-years hence". West of January (1989 US) is a crowded PLANETARY ROMANCE set on a world whose day and orbit are of approximately the same duration and in which a not particularly attractive hero - his name is Knobil and, as the book is at times comical in intent, the K can be assumed silent - has adventures all day long, some of which carry subtle stings in their tails. Strings (1990 US), also sf, features a significantly naive protagonist caught up in events the book's readers understand better than he, as a desperately terminal Earth must be escaped, via superstring transport, and a princess must be succoured. DD's work has all the flamboyance of tales written strictly for escape, but (as has been noted by critics) never for long allows his readers to forget what kind of problems he is inviting them to dodge. His most virtuoso passages seem almost brazenly to dance with despair.

   JC

   Other works: The Seventh Sword fantasy sequence, comprising The Reluctant Swordsman (1988 US), The Coming of Wisdom (1988 US) and The Destiny of the Sword (1988 US); the Man of his Word fantasy sequence, comprising Magic Casement (1990 US), Faery Lands Forlorn (1991 US), Perilous Seas (1991 US) and Emperor and Clown (1992); Hero! (1991 US), an sf juvenile; The Reaver Road (1992), a fantasy.