GREEN, Joseph (Lee)

(1931-)

   US writer of sf and technical journalism who began publishing sf in 1962 with "The Engineer" in NW. An Affair with Genius (coll 1969 UK) assembles some of his better early work. Although many of his 70 stories to date (not all sf) have appeared in the USA - along with popular-science articles in ASF that demonstrate the lucid gift of exposition visible also in his fiction - it was in the UK that he first established his name, and there that most of his books were first published. The Loafers of Refuge (1962-3 NW; fixup 1965 UK), his first novel, chronicles the gradual comingtogether, to their mutual benefit, of colonizing humans and humanlike natives on the planet Refuge, mainly through the mediation of the protagonist (COLONIZATION OF OTHER WORLDS). JG's best novel to date is probably his second, Gold the Man (1971 UK; vt The Mind Behind the Eye 1972 US), which deals very competently (though not in depth) with avariety of themes from SUPERMAN to ALIENS and INTELLIGENCE. Gold is Homo sapiens born with about 4oz (120g) of extra association neocortex. As an adult he is asked to "operate" a brain-damaged giant invader from inside its head (GREAT AND SMALL). Returning, thus incorporated, to the alien's blandly UTOPIAN home planet, he works out the reason for the imminent destruction of its sun: sentient sunspots. All ends well. Further novels include Conscience Interplanetary (1965-71 var mags, fixup 1972 UK), the uneven story of a Conscience whose job it is - in an unhappy replay of the protagonist's role in The Loafers of Refuge - to adjudicate as to the INTELLIGENCE of alien species before allowing human beings to exploittheir planets.

   JC

   Other works: Star Probe (1976 UK); The Horde (1976 Canada).

   See also: COMMUNICATIONS; MATTER TRANSMISSION.