ENGDAHL, Sylvia Louise

(1933-)

   US writer, employed in the field of computer programming 1957-67. Her novels, though marketed as juveniles, appeal as well to adults for their intelligence and humanity. Enchantress from the Stars (1970) and its sequel The Far Side of Evil (1971) are perhaps her best-known works. The first describes, with suggestive analogues between traditional and technological versions of crucial events (to a savage, all technology is MAGIC), the early career of Elena, who is in the Anthropological Service and must protect the "primitive" culture of one planet from a technologically more advanced culture from a neighbouring world. The second continues her career on another planet, which SLE describes as a totalitarian DYSTOPIA. A second series consists of This Star Shall Abide (1972; vt Heritage of the Star 1973 UK), Beyond the Tomorrow Mountains (1973) and The Doors of the Universe (1981). The societal design in these books, set on a planet with an imposed RELIGION, takes, not unusually, the shape of a pyramid, with benign but hidden representatives of an alien race ruling the world; more surprising is SLE's refusal to dismantle - after the time-honoured pattern - this hierarchy.

   JC/PN

   Other works: Journey Between Worlds (1970).As Editor: The Universe Ahead: Stories of the Future (anth 1975) with Rick Roberson; Anywhere, Anywhere: Stories of Tomorrow (anth 1976).Nonfiction: The Planet-Girded Suns: Man's View of the Other Solar Systems (1974); The Subnuclear Zoo: New Discoveries in High Energy Physics (1977) with Rick Roberson.

   See also: CHILDREN'S SF.