MASON, Robert C(averly)

(1942-)

   US writer who became known for Chickenhawk (1983), a memoir of his stint as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam. Weapon (1989), ostensibly a TECHNOTHRILLER, avoids the more restrictive implications of that term byconcentrating on an AI; Solo, the ROBOT referred to in the title, learns more about being human than about being a superior killing machine. The sequel, Solo (1992), sees the sensitive robot forced to fight off an even more dangerous successor robot. The generic closeness of these novels to the films The TERMINATOR (1984) and TERMINATOR 2 (1991) was noted in reviews, but there is certainly little resemblance between either film and Weapon.

   JC