GEAR, W. Michael

(1955-)

   US writer with extensive training in American archaeology; married to Kathleen O'Neal GEAR. He began publishing sf with the competent Spider sequence - The Warriors of Spider (1988), The Way of Spider (1989)and The Web of Spider (1989), plus The Artifact (1990), which serves as a prequel - about the conflict between a newly discovered lost-colony offshoot of humanity and the reactionary Directorate which attempts to control human space. The former, who are of Native American stock and worship a god called Spider, are sexually and culturally irresistible to the women who first discover them, but WMG fortunately has too many complex interstellar doings to present for sentimental romancing to dominate the proceedings. The Ancient Americans sequence, all written with Kathleen O'Neal Gear - People of the Wolf (1990), People of the Fire(1991),People of the Earth (1992), People of the River (1992), People of the Sea (1993) and People of the Lakes (1994), with 4 further volumes planned - has, because of its carefully plausible venue, little fantasy or sf content beyond occasional reference to true visions derived from proper shamanistic practice; but of course the prehistoric-sf subgenre was always likely, as our knowledge of the past gained definition, to be transformed into fictionalized history. Other sf novels include Starstrike (1990) and the Forbidden Borders sequence - Forbidden Borders: Requiem for the Conqueror (1991),\#2: Relic of Empire (1992) and Countermeasures (1993) -about an Earth prevented by a GRAVITY barrier from reaching more than a few nearby star systems.

   JC