FELICE, Cynthia (Lindgren)

(1942-)

   US writer who began publishing sf with "Longshanks" for Galileo 2 in 1976. Her first novel, Godsfire (1978), depicts an ALIEN planet inhabited by felines who dominate the local humans but who have never seen their sun because of the unending rain. Almost too well constructed - almost facile in its zestful plotting - the book demonstrated CF's technical skill, her romantic inclinations and a tendency to slough off hard solutions. Her next book, The Sunbound (1981), for instance, failed to produce a protagonist capable of hewing to CF's intricate plot demands without seeming an arbitrary creation, yet the family romance at the tale's heart required characters who could be intrinsically believed in. Of her later solo singletons, Downtime (1985) interestingly combined alongevity intrigue in a distant solar system, aliens, and romance, but The Khan's Persuasion (1991) once again demonstrated a gap between the qualityof her sf perceptions and the easy flow of the plotty romance idiom through which she presents characters. CF's two collaborations with Connie WILLIS, Water Witch (1982) and Light Raid (1989), benefit from Willis'ssignificantly harsher mind but are still somewhat heavily plotted.

   JC

   Other works: Eclipses (1983); Double Nocturne (1986); Iceman (1991).

   See also: WEAPONS.