FRANKOWSKI, Leo A.

(1943-)

   US writer known principally for his ALTERNATE-WORLD series, the Adventures of Conrad Stargard: The Cross-Time Engineer (1986), The High-Tech Knight (1989), The Radiant Warrior (1989), The Flying Warlord (1989) and Lord Conrad's Lady (1990), with further volumes projected. The series features a Polish-US engineer, Stargard, who in the first volume is transported to medieval Poland via TIME TRAVEL. He settles down quite happily to the task of reshaping his native land into a country capable of surviving the next perilous decades, being overseen all the while by the time-travellers who have mistakenly conveyed him there. By changing the technology of medieval Poland, Stargard is of course changing timelines - in perfectly orthodox sf-adventure fashion - but the author's clear indifference to the plotting rigours expected in tales of this sort increasingly detracts from the flow of the story. Copernick's Rebellion (1987) deals with GENETIC ENGINEERING in a NEAR FUTURE Polish setting,where LAF's inability to create women (though he is strong on breasts) is seriously irritating.

   JC