LANG, Simon

   Pseudonym of US screenwriter and author Darlene Hartman (1934-). SL's SPACE OPERAS - All the Gods of Eisernon (1973) and continuing with The Elluvon Gift (1975) - constitute a loose series, both featuring the Terran starship Skipjack and both set in the same galactic venue. The first novel is the more ambitious, presenting in the planet Eisernon an idyllic picture of an ALIEN race ecologically integrated with Nature. More formally, as Voyages of the Skipjack, the sequence continues with The Trumpets of Tagan (1992), Timeslide (1993) and Hopeship (1994). Aliens,friendly and otherwise, are frequently met; and in general the Skipjack books do sometimes suffer from some resemblance to STAR TREK, for which SL had written.

   JC