BAXTER, John

(1939-)

   Australian writer, who has also lived and worked in the UK and USA. He began publishing sf with "Vendetta's End" for Science Fiction Adventures in 1962, and for the next four years appeared primarily in New Worlds; he wrote some stories with Ron Smith (1936-) under the joint pseudonym Martin Loran. His sf novel, The Off-Worlders (1966 dos US; vt The God Killers 1968 Aus) portrays the superstition-ridden ex-colony planet of Merryland and a search for the lost knowledge it contains. The Hermes Fall (1978 US) depicts with some vigour the DISASTER created when an asteroid strikes the Earth. Increasingly, JB has concentrated on writing on the cinema, his work in this genre including the informative, though not always accurate, Science Fiction in the Cinema (1970), and 11 titles unconnected with sf. The Fire Came By (1976), written with Thomas A. Atkins, a science-fact book containing some almost-sf speculations, tells of the great Siberian explosion of 1908. As editor JB produced The Pacific Book of Australian Science Fiction (anth 1968; vt Australian Science Fiction 1 1969) and The Second Pacific Book of Australian Science Fiction (anth 1971; vt Australian Science Fiction 2 1971).

   JC/PN

   Other works: The Black Yacht (1982 US); Torched (1986) with John BROSNAN, both writing as James Blackstone, a horror novel about spontaneous combustion.

   See also: CINEMA.