FROST, Gregory (Dee)

(1951-)

   US writer who began publishing sf with "Rubbish" for FSF in 1984, and most ofwhose work for a decade was governed by its fantasy tone, including his first novel, Lyrec (1984), which does evoke PARALLEL WORLDS but within a structure of story that does not permit an sf reading; his later sequence,based on Celtic mythology and comprising Tain(1986) and Remscela(1988), is pure fantasy. The Pure Cold Light(1993), on the otherhand,is sf, though its plot does play on after-death experiences in amanner peculiarly stretching of the sf frame; overall,though, the book is a remarkably ingenious tale of government and corporation conspiracies involving possible ALIENS, CYBERPUNKriffs in the wastes of NEAR FUTURE Philadelphia, a femaleprivate investigator, and a drug - Orbitol - whosereality-challenging effects are reminiscent ofsome passages in the work of Philip K. DICK. Literary allusions abound, and wit,and excesses ofnarrative energy; but because the basic tale veers into the incredible and thecamp, it seems clear that what GF needs in future is a premise capable of taxing hisinventiveness.

   JC