HOYLE, Trevor

(1940-)

   UK writer who has, most unusually, been able to apply an erudite surrealism to works directed towards a mass market. He had not, however, yet mastered this technique for his first novel, The Relatively Constant Copywriter (1972), a dourly joky FABULATION which he self-published. Heremains best known for his Q series-Q: Seeking the Mythical Future (1977), Q: Through the Eye of Time (1977) and Q: The Gods Look Down (1977)-set ina variety of ALTERNATE WORLDS and detailing the work and crises of its overall protagonist, a Myth Technologist who, in the second volume, must cope with the re-creation, on an alternate world, of an experimental Adolf Hitler whose existence threatens to leak into our own familiar Earth (HITLER WINS). TH's mature range was demonstrated by the publication in the same year, 1979, of This Sentient Earth (1979 US; vt Earth Cult 1979 UK), an unremarkable sf adventure, and The Man who Travelled on Motorways (1979), an intensely crafted hegira through the apocalyptic inscapes of aUK approaching the end. The Last Gasp (1983 US; rev 1990) is a salutary dreadful-warning tale about terminal POLLUTION, implying very clearly that humanity's behaviour could be described as lemming-like. Vail (1984), once again focusing on motorways, presents a NEAR FUTURE UK in DYSTOPIAN terms. K.I.D.S. (1987; vt Kids 1990 US) is a horror tale which climaxes innuclear HOLOCAUST. It may be that, in finding several audiences, TH has failed to find any one audience that properly recognizes him; but he still has readers, and they continue to look for his work.

   JC

   Other works: Three BLAKE'S SEVEN tv ties, being Blake's Seven * (1977; vt Terry Nation's Blake's 7: Their First Adventure 1988 US), \#2: Project Avalon * (1979; vt Terry Nation's Blake's 7: Project Avalon 1988 US) and \#3: Scorpio Attack * (1971; vt Terry Nation's Blake's 7: Scorpio Attack 1988 US); The Rock Fix (1977); The Stigma (1980).