SCHENCK, Hilbert

(1926-)

   US engineer, university lecturer and writer who published his first sf story, "Tomorrow's Weather" for FSF in 1953, long before he became seriously involved in fiction; much of his nonfiction of the 1950s and 1960s dealt lovingly with the ocean and with oceanological research and exploration technologies. His first two novels, At the Eye of the Ocean (1980) and A ROSE FOR ARMAGEDDON (1982), both set in the wave-girtCape Cod region of New England, followed suit; they share a similar plot structure, circling in upon a central instant of space/time at which transcendence may be possible. The protagonist of the first book has an intuitive capacity to understand the inner shape of the ocean, which unveils to him a mystical enlightenment; the love-affair that drives the action of the second comes to fruition at the morphological heart of a timeslip in the centre of an ISLAND in the midst of the waters, leading to a form of liberation from the NEAR FUTURE slide of the world into chaos. Chronosequence (1988) similarly presents its protagonist with a mysteryfrom previous centuries whose solution involves the ocean, geography, time-slippage, and the potential redemption of the world. Though the range of HS's concerns is clearly narrow, there is nothing forced or lame in his presentation of these stories; their intensities are fluent, grounded and scientifically competent. The title story of Steam Bird (coll 1988), a somewhat heavy-handed comic tale, recounts the pioneering flight of an enormously slow steam-driven nuclear bomber. Other stories are assembled in Wave Rider (coll 1980); the best are set along the coasts of New England. But the world for which HS speaks is central; his work is neverregional in its final effect.

   JC

   See also: ECOLOGY; END OF THE WORLD; GOTHIC SF; PASTORAL; SCIENTISTS; SOCIOLOGY; TIME PARADOXES; TIMESCAPE BOOKS; TRANSPORTATION; UNDER THE SEA.