JONES, D(ennis) F(eltham)

(1917-1981)

   UK writer who served as an officer in the Royal Navy in WWII and was variously employed afterwards. He began publishing sf with the first - and best - volume of his Colossus trilogy, Colossus (1966), effectively filmed as COLOSSUS, THE FORBIN PROJECT (1969). In both book and film, Charles Forbin has helped to create a master COMPUTER designed to coordinate all the defences of the Western World; however, the Soviets have been building a similar computer, Guardian. In an impressive scene, the two computers exchange information. Soon Colossus gains consciousness and takes over the world. The sequels, The Fall of Colossus (1974 US) and Colossus and the Crab (1977 US), expand from the first volume (in theprocess diluting its admonitory impact) by introducing complicated plots, religious sects that worship Colossus, and irritated Martians; ultimately everything comes to a transcendental stop. Some of DFJ's other novels are of interest. In Implosion (1967) most women have become sterile, those who remain fertile being tied to a grimly DYSTOPIAN regime. Denver is Missing (1971 US; vt Don't Pick the Flowers 1971 UK) subjects the city togeological devastation. Earth Has Been Found (1979 US; vt Xeno 1979 UK) burdens an unsuspecting Earth with an alien INVASION. All these later novels succumb with excessive ease to a slick gloominess, caught in which his characters show little scope for action or development, and by the end of his career his work had lost most of its initial glum panache.

   JC

   Other works: The Floating Zombie (1975); Bound in Time (1981).

   See also: DISASTER.