ROTSLER, William

(1926-)

   US writer and artist who received a 1975 HUGO for his fan art; his cartoons may be remembered as much as his fiction. He began publishing sf with "Ship Me Tomorrow" for Gal in 1970 and, although he initially kept his own name for autonomous work - using the pseudonym John Ryder Hall and the BALLANTINE house name William ARROW for novelizations - all his novels since about 1980 have been TIES of one sort or another. His first novel, Patron of the Arts (1974), remains his best received; incorporating hisbest known and most praised short story, "Patron of the Arts" (1972), it describes in Wagnerian terms an all-encompassing artform, using holograms and other sf devices (ARTS), but vitiates some of its speculative interest through a contrived action plot. WR's second novel, To the Land of the Electric Angel (1976), shares a similar setting - what seems to be an extrapolation of modern southern California - in a tale involving CRYONICS, the reawakening of the hero in a DYSTOPIAN future, gladiatorialcontests and much more. The Zandra series - Zandra (1978) and The Hidden Worlds of Zandra (1983) - shares the same background, while The FarFrontier (1980) is set in nearby space. These later books are significantly less accomplished than their predecessors, and their large casts of routinely differentiated characters generate the impression that their author was attempting to work in a bestseller idiom dangerous to the creative mind. With Gregory BENFORD (whom see for details) WR contributed Shiva Descending (1980) to the the asteroid- DISASTER subgenre.

   JC

   Other works: Iron Man: And Call my Killer . . . Modok * (1979); Dr Strange: Nightmare * (1979); 2 Mr Merlin tv ties, Mr Merlin, Episode 1 * (1981) andMr Merlin, Episode 2 * (1981); Star Trek II: Short Stories * (coll 1982); Blackhawk * (1982); Star Trek II: Biographies * (coll 1983); Star Trek II: Distress Call * (1983); Star Trek III: The Vulcan Treasure * (1984); Star Trek III Short Stories * (coll 1984); Goonies: Cavern of Horror * (1985), a film tie.As John Ryder Hall: Futureworld * (1976); Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger * (1977).As William Arrow: \#1 and \#3 of the Return to the Planet of the Apes books, based not on the films but on the later animated tv series: Visions from Nowhere * (1976) and Man, the Hunted Animal * (1976).