HERZOG, Arthur (III)

(1927-)

   US writer and editor who has also worked with the Peace Corps and as a political manager. His first sf novel, The Swarm (1974), convincingly posits an ecological catastrophe when the African honey-bee mutates and invades North America (ECOLOGY; HIVE-MINDS). Partly based on fact (African bees have indeed bred with South American bees to form a large and belligerent hybrid), the novel is well researched and written, as are Earthsound (1975), in which a seismologist attempts to warn sceptical New Englanders of an approaching earthquake and is thought to be merely hysterical, and Heat (1977; rev 1989), which is an early attempt to deal with the greenhouse effect. In later novels, AH moved less convincingly towards SATIRE. In IQ 83 (1978) an attempt to retune DNA predictably backfires, and the America series - Make Us Happy (1978) and Glad to Be Here (1979) - takes him shakily into the realms of DYSTOPIA.

   PN/JC

   Other works: Aries Rising (1980); The Craving (1982).

   See also: DISASTER.