O'DONNELL, Kevin Jr

(1950-)

   US author with a BA in Chinese Studies who has spent several years in the Far East. His first published sf was "The Hand is Quicker" (1973 ASF), and over 50 short stories have followed. His first novel,Bander Snatch (1979), curiously blends pulp cliche and real inventiveness in its tale of a ghetto mobster who has telepathic powers and learns to use them responsibly. Mayflies (1979), which shows a real advance in narrative skill, is a GENERATION-STARSHIP story where ephemeral human lives flit past the hero, an (immortal) human brain embedded in the ship's COMPUTER and fighting for control. KO is perhaps best known for theamusing series The Journeys of McGill Feighan, which consists to date of The Journeys of McGill Feighan: Book I: Caverns (1981), Book II: Reefs(1981), Book III: Lava (1982) and Book IV: Cliffs (1986). Feighan is a flinger (he can teleport people and things) who, though based on Earth, solves problems on various planets; his quest is for the godlike Far Being who has interfered with his life since birth. Like most of KO's fiction, these are interesting, light-hearted books, casual in their tone of voice, like a hybrid of Ron GOULART and Jack VANCE. ORA:CLE (1984), complexly plotted, has an expert on Asian history, brain-linked with a computer, in a future where people live indoors because the air is bad outside and aliens hunt you there. Fire on the Border (1990), a SPACE OPERA with interstellar warfare and a Japanese general, is crammed with almost too much incident. It would be interesting to see what KO could do if his novels proceeded less breathlessly.

   PN

   Other works: War of Omission (1982); The Shelter (1987) with Mary Kittredge, horror; The Electronic Money Machine (1984), written with the Haven Group, nonfiction about personal computers.

   See also: CYBORGS; SPACESHIPS.