JENNINGS, Phillip C.

(1946-)

   US writer who began publishing work of genre interest with "Tadcaster's Doom" for FSF in 1986, and who during the next few years published over 30 often pyrotechnical stories, several of which described a world dominated by "bugs" - personalities in electronic storage. Some of the best of these stories are assembled as The Bug Life Chronicles (coll 1989). PCJ's first novel, Tower to the Sky (1988), set in the sameuniverse, explosively depicts a human campaign in 3700CE to escape the crowded Solar System and the Gatekeepers who bar us from the stars, via the eponymous skyscraper; this contains much of humankind within it, is tall enough to reach into space, and is convertible into a starship. PCJ's exuberance is intermittently chaotic, but he now seems to be exercising greater control over his material; the next years may see work of very considerable worth.

   JC