MASON, Douglas R(ankine)

(1918-)

   UK junior-school headmaster and prolific writer after 1964, both under his own name and as John Rankine; he has been silent since about 1980. His first story was "Two's Company", as by Rankine, in JohnCARNELL's NEW WRITINGS IN SF 1 (1964), and he was soon publishing 2-3 books a year, generally routine SPACE OPERAS and other adventures as Rankine. Occasionally, under his own name - as with From Carthage then ICame (1966 US; vt Eight Against Utopia 1967) and Matrix (1970 US) - he would attempt more ambitious novels containing some social comment. Generally speaking, however, he was content to produce rather low-pressurework.The Dag Fletcher series of space operas, as by Rankine, was initiated in his first book, The Blockage of Sinitron: Four Adventures of Dag Fletcher (coll of linked stories 1966), and continued with InterstellarTwo-Five (1966), One is One (1968), The Plantos Affair (1971), The Ring of Garamas (1972) and The Bromius Phenomenon (1973 US). The series is set in a galactic environment shared by other Rankine titles including The Fingalnan Conspiracy (1973) and The Thorburn Enterprise (1977).

   JC

   Other works: As John Rankine: The Space Corporation series, comprising Never the Same Door (1968) and Moons of Triopus (1968); Binary Z (1969); The WeismanExperiment (1969); Operation Umanaq (1973 US); 4 novelizations of episodes from the tv series SPACE 1999, being \#2: Moon Odyssey * (1975), \#6: Astral Quest * (1975), \#8: Android Planet * (1976) and \#10: Phoenix of Megaron *(1976 US); The Vort Programme (1978); The Star of Hesiock (1980); Last Shuttle to Planet Earth (1980).As DRM: Landfall is a State of Mind (1968); Ring of Violence (1968); The Tower of Rizwan (1968); The Janus Syndrome (1969); Dilation Effect (1971 US); Horizon Alpha (1971 US); Satellite 54-Zero (1971 US); The Resurrection of Roger Diment (1972 US); The End Bringers (1973 US); The Phaeton Condition (1973 US); Pitman's Progress (1976); The Omega Worm (1976); Euphor Unfree (1977); Mission to Pactolus R (1978); The Typhon Intervention (1981).

   See also: CITIES; MATHEMATICS; NEW WRITINGS IN SF.