GORDON, Rex

   Most frequently used pseudonym of UK writer S(tanley) B(ennett) Hough (1917-) for his sf work, although under his own name he has published Mission in Guemo (1953), the borderline-sf thriller Extinction Bomber (1956) and Beyond the Eleventh Hour (1961), a story of nuclear HOLCOAUST in which all the major nations of the world except the UK and India destroy themselves. As RG, he began publishing sf with Utopia 239 (1955), whose protagonists escape a nuclear holocaust by TIME TRAVEL into the future, where a sexually liberated UTOPIA uses its high technology to survive the consequences of the final war. No Man Friday (1956; vt First on Mars 1957 US), a ROBINSONSADE which is perhaps RG's strongest book, retells Crusoe's adventures on MARS, in quietly convincing terms, though the science is sometimes shaky; the film ROBINSON CRUSOE ON MARS (1964) does not credit RG, though the storyline bears notable resemblances. First to the Stars (1959 US; vt The Worlds of Eclos 1961 UK) is thematically similar: a crash-landed man and woman try to survive and breed without any cultural aids at all. First Through Time (1962 US; vt The Time Factor 1964 UK) is a time-travel thriller that asks most of the standard questionsabout predestination. Throughout his career RG showed a strong grasp of human motivation that jarred against a rather superficial use of sf themes and scientific knowledge in general; his underlying pessimism about humanity has seemed as a consequence rather underargued.

   JC

   Other works: Utopia Minus X (1966 US; vt The Paw of God 1967 UK); The Yellow Fraction (1969 US); Creative Writing (nd but c1983 chap) as by S.B. Hough, nonfiction.