ENGH, M(ary) J(ane)

(1933-)

   US librarian and writer whose first sf novel, ARSLAN (1976; vt A Wind from Bukhara 1979 UK), established a strong underground reputation in its first incarnation as a paperback original; a hardbound edition has since been released. Arslan, a young warlord from NEAR FUTURE Turkestan, has enigmatically conquered both the USA and the USSR. He personally occupies the small Illinois town of Kraftsville, mentally and physically seducing a teenage boy while at the same time driving the book's protagonist into a state of powerful ambivalence about the cunning rape of his land. The book is subtle, seductive and very frightening. The House in the Snow (1987) is a juvenile of marginal interest. Wheel of the Winds (1988), a complex tale set on an alien planet and told from an alien perspective, perhaps inevitably lacks the hypnotic grip of ARSLAN, but the deadpan narrative "face" of this superficially cold novel conceals layers of passion. The main CONCEPTUAL BREAKTHROUGHS offered by the novel will be those experienced by the reader. Rainbow Man (1993) incorporates a sharp SATIRE on RELIGION into a tale whose star-hopping female protagonist displays an implausible and incorrigible innocence in the face of extremely clear warnings; but in the end does manage to escape the fundamentalist planet.

   JC