GRAVEL, Geary

(1951-)

   US writer and (since 1978) a Certified Sign Language Interpreter. He began publishing sf with The Alchemists (1984); it and its sequel, The Pathfinders (1986), make up the first 2 volumes of the Autumnworld Mosaic sequence, set in a Galaxy abandoned by superior ALIENSafter they have passed their technologies on to the human race, which proceeds to conquer the neighbouring planetary systems, sometimes to the detriment of existing inhabitants. The first novel describes an attempt on the part of a human group to thwart the "expansionists" on a planet occupied by nonsentient humanoids; the second involves a damaging plunge into the "dark beyond space" where as-yet-unrevealed mysteries of cosmogony reside. Further volumes are projected. The Fading Worlds series - A Key for the Nonesuch (1990) and Return of the Breakneck Boys (1991) -is a SCIENCE-FANTASY adventure set in a mysterious GAME-WORLD-like arena, into which the protagonist initially stumbles when he uses a borrowed key to gain access to, as he thinks, a toilet. Further volumes of this series, too, are projected. GG continues to seem a polished writer who has not quite yet unleashed what seems a considerable talent.

   JC

   Other works: Hook *(1992), a version of the film for young adults; various ties to Batman, the Animated Series, including Batman, the Animated Movie: Mask of the Phantasm * (1994), and 4 linked texts: Batman, the Animated Series: Shadows of the Past* (1993), \#2: Duel to the Death * (1994) and \#3: TheDragon and the Bat *(1994).