KADREY, Richard

(1957-)

   US writer, rock musician and illustrator; he did the cover for INTERZONE \#9 and the vigorous though somewhat derivative collage illustrations for Dream Protocols (coll 1992 chap) by sf poet Lee Ballentine (1954-); he has also contributed articles to SCIENCE FICTIONEYE and Whole Earth Review. His first published sf was "The Fire Catcher" (Interzone 1985; Omni 1986). Not wholly assimilated influences like CYBERPUNK and J.G. BALLARD give an element of pastiche to his early work, including his novel Metrophage (1988), but the latter transcends it in a vigorous and inventive tale of a mean-streetwise drug pusher's problems in a NEAR FUTURE Los Angeles that is being eaten alive by urban decay, police corruption and corporate cynicism. It reads like a supercharged arcade game that appals even its creator.Covert Culture Sourcebook: A Guide to Fringe Culture (1993) surveys similar territory from a non-fiction pointof view.

   PN