JETER, K(evin) W.

(1950-)

   US writer of importance as an author of horror novels, the highly charged claustrophobia of his style fitting the essential affect of that genre rather better than it does sf. His early work, generally conceived in sf terms, gives off an air of hectic congestion which sometimes interferes with the presentation of ideas, the articulation of a barrier through which to penetrate; for him, as for most HORROR writers, CONCEPTUAL BREAKTHROUGHS tend to end in tears. Nevertheless, his firstpublished novel, Seeklight (1975 Canada), fascinatingly combines tried-and-true narrative conventions (its protagonist is the scion of an ex-leader, whose rivals need to kill the lad) with exorbitant reality-twists (a sociologist intermittently uses advanced technology to intervene and to make queries about the action). The Dreamfields (1976 Canada) similarly juxtaposes contrasting realities, in this case a land ofdreams occupied by ALIENS but dominated by sick human teenagers. Morlock Night (1979) is a sequel to H.G. WELLS's THE TIME MACHINE (1895) whichboth extends the original story and, by conveying a Morlock invasion backwards in time to the sewers of late 19th-century-London, may well constitute the first significant STEAMPUNK novel, long before the flush period of that subgenre in the late 1980s. But Soul Eater (1983), KWJ's first outright horror novel, is more accomplished than any of these.KWJ's most significant sf may lie in the thematic trilogy comprising Dr Adder (1984) - his first novel (written 1972), long left unpublished because ofits sometimes turgid violence - The Glass Hammer (1985) and Death Arms (1987 UK). Philip K. DICK read Dr Adder in manuscript and for yearsadvocated it; and it is clear why. Though the novel clearly prefigures the under-soil airlessness of the best urban CYBERPUNK, it even more clearly serves as a bridge between the defiant reality-testing PARANOIA of Dick's characters and the doomed realpolitiking of the surrendered souls who dwell in post-1984 urban sprawls. In each of these convoluted tales, set in a devastated Somme-like NEAR FUTURE USA, KWJ's characters seem to vacillate between the sf traditions of resistance and cyberpunk quietism. In worlds like these, the intermittent flashes of sf imagery or contentare unlasting consolations.Although sometimes technically sf, KWJ's later novels have altogether abandoned the consolations of sf. Dark Seeker (1987) is a horror novel about DRUGS which invokes Charles Manson.Infernal Devices: A Mad Victorian Fantasy (1987) is another steampunk tale, quite hilarious at points, but not reassuring in its use of sf devices that its protagonist signally misunderstands. Mantis (1987) is again horror, as are In the Land of the Dead (1989 UK), The Night Man (1990) and Wolf Flow (1992). Only Madlands (1991), set in a parodic,ENTROPY-choked Disneyland-like Los Angeles, and Farewell Horizontal (1989), set in the FAR FUTURE, are sf, and their technical adventurousness does not dispel the sense that KWJ is making a slow farewell to the genre.

   JC

   Other works: Alien Nation \#2: Dark Horizon * (1993); Star Trek: Deep Space Nine \#3: Bloodletter * (1993).

   About the author: A Checklist of K.W. Jeter (1991 chap) by Tom Joyce and Christopher P. STEPHENS.

   See also: CRIME AND PUNISHMENT; FANTASY; GOTHIC SF; MEDICINE; PSYCHOLOGY.