MIESEL, Sandra (Louise)

(1941-)

   US critic and writer, with degrees in chemistry and medieval history. Her involvement in sf was initially as a fan; since 1967 she has published over 75 pieces in FANZINES. As a critic she became active in the 1970s, her first book being Myth, Symbol, and Religion in The Lord of theRings (1973 chap) on J.R.R. TOLKIEN. Her next book, Against Time's Arrow: The High Crusade of Poul Anderson (1979 chap), was her first significant assessment of either Poul ANDERSON or Gordon R. DICKSON, the two figures to whom she has devoted most attention, and of whose work and philosophies she has become a noted advocate. This advocacy, especially perhaps in the case of Dickson's Dorsai sequence, has perhaps assumed too readily that the claims for thematic import made for it by its author have been fully realized in the texts as read. Sometimes uncredited, she ed in the mid-1980s several collections assembling short work by these writers, usually selected from early in their careers: Anderson's Dialogue with Darkness (coll 1985) uncredited and Dickson's Survival! (coll 1984)uncredited, Forward! (coll 1985), Invaders! (coll 1985), The Last Dream (coll 1986) uncredited, and Mindspan (coll 1986). With David A. DRAKE sheed A Separate Star (anth 1989) and Heads to the Storm (anth 1989).As an author of fiction, SM has concentrated mainly on fantasy. Dreamrider (1982; rev vt Shaman 1989), however, mixes genres with some competence,carrying its female protagonist from a NEAR FUTURE Earth to an ALTERNATE WORLD in which mental control (PSI POWERS) over subatomic processes isexercised by shamans; the protagonist soon becomes one.

   JC