KAHN, James

(1947-)

   US physician and writer who began publishing sf with "Mobius Trip" in 1971, but who has been most active as a novelist, usually of film adaptations. His New World trilogy - World Enough, and Time (1980), Time's Dark Laughter (1982) and Timefall (1987) - initially depicts afantasy-like FAR-FUTURE Earth in which GENETIC ENGINEERING on the part of the self-destructing human race has generated vampires, centaurs, semi-sentient cats, ANDROIDS and other creatures, all of which roam through a transfigured California. The first volume floridly introduces the cast, with some Grand Guignol episodes. The second, perhaps the most interestingly baroque, carries its human protagonist through a love affair, the begetting of a goddesslike child who wantonly transfigures the world in her death-throes, and his return (with the child's mother) through time to Eden. The third volume, set in Colombia, fails to bring the complex structure of the sequence into clear focus, though the power of the JK's imagery remains vivid in the reader's mind. The Echo Vector (1988) is a medical thriller that verges on sf. JK's novelizations arecompetent.

   JC

   Film novelizations: Poltergeist * (1982) and its sequel, Poltergeist II: The Other Side * (1986); Star Wars: Return of the Jedi * (1983), novelizing RETURN OF THE JEDI (1983); Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom * (1984); The Goonies * (1985).

   See also: MESSIAHS.