MACE, David

(1951-)

   UK writer whose first novel, Demon-4 (1984), describes with a quite chilling quasilyrical remoteness a post- HOLOCAUST suicide mission undertaken by the eponymous CYBORG probe to dismantle a doomsday device. Most of his later novels, like Nightrider (1985), Fire Lance (1986), TheHighest Ground (1988),Shadow Hunters (1991) and Chasing the Sun (1992), rework his territory, which might be defined as the NEAR FUTURE seen in terms of military DISASTERS, threatened or consummated; but Frankenstein's Children (1990), set in what remains of the Amazonian rain forest, gathersthis material into a metaphorically rich whole, envisioning the entire diseased enterprise of exploitation and "development" as a collective surrender to the overstepping venture of Victor Frankenstein himself. The MONSTER, in this book, is the torn and galvanized world itself.

   JC