SHAW, Bob

   Working name of Northern Irish writer Robert Shaw (1931-), in mainland UK from 1973. He worked in structural engineering until the age of 27, then aircraft design, then industrial public relations and journalism, becoming a full-time author in 1975. BS was early involved in sf, initially as a fan, his first book being, with Walt Willis (1919-), The Enchanted Duplicator (1954 chap), an allegory of fan and FANZINEactivities; he received HUGOS in 1979 and 1980 for his fan writing. He published his first story, "Aspect", with Nebula Science Fiction in 1954, and during the mid-1950s contributed several more stories to that magazine and one to Authentic before ceasing to write for some years. After a "come-back" story - ". . . And Isles Where Good Men Lie" (1965) - hepublished "Light of Other Days" (1966 ASF), which gained a NEBULA nomination and established his reputation as a writer of remarkable ingenuity. Built around the intriguing concept of "slow glass", through which light can take years to travel - thus allowing people to view scenes from the past - this story remains BS's best known. He would later incorporate it, together with two sequels, into the novel Other Days, Other Eyes (fixup 1972; expurgated 1974).His first novel was Night Walk(1967 US), a fast-moving chase story. A man who has been blinded and condemned to a penal colony on a far planet invents a device that enables him to see through other people's (and animals') eyes and thus manages to escape. The Two-Timers (1968 US), a well written tale of PARALLEL WORLDS, doppelgangers and murder, demonstrates BS's ability to handle characterization and, in particular, his talent for realistic dialogue. In The Palace of Eternity (1969 US) he still more impressively controls awide canvas featuring interstellar warfare, the environmental degradation of an Edenic planet, and human transcendence; the final section of the novel, where the hero finds himself reincarnated as an "Egon", or soul-like entity, displeased some critics, though it is in fact an effective handling of a traditional sf displacement of ideas from METAPHYSICS or RELIGION. This intelligent reworking of well worn sf theseswas from the first BS's forte, as was demonstrated in his next novel, One Million Tomorrows (1970 US), an IMMORTALITY tale whose twist lies in thefact that the option of eternal youth entails sexual impotence.All BS's early books - which include also Shadow of Heaven (1969 US; cut 1970 UK; rev vt The Shadow of Heaven 1991 UK) and Ground Zero Man (1971 US; rev vt The Peace Machine 1985 UK) - were published first (and sometimes solely)in the USA; and their efficient anonymity of venue may result from an attempt to appeal to a transatlantic audience. Only slowly did BS come to write tales whose venue and protagonists were distinctly UK in feel; and it could be argued that his best work is his most general. Orbitsville (1975) - along with its rather less effective sequels, OrbitsvilleDeparture (1983) and Orbitsville Judgement (1990)-must stand, after Other Days, Other Eyes, as his finest early inspiration. Like Larry NIVEN's RINGWORLD (1970) and Arthur C. CLARKE's RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA (1973), the Orbitsville books centre on the discovery of - and later developments within - a vast alien artefact in space (a BIG DUMB OBJECT, in fact), in this case a DYSON SPHERE. Within the living-space provided by the inner surface of this artificial shell - billions of times the surface area of the Earth - BS spins an exciting story of political intrigue and exploration, which in later volumes develops, perhaps rather impatiently, into a heavily plotted move into another universe entirely. Orbitsville gained a 1976 BRITISH SCIENCE FICTION AWARD.A Wreath of Stars (1976) may be BS's most original, and perhaps his finest, singleton. A rogue star, composed entirely of antineutrinos, approaches the Earth. It passes nearby with no immediately discernible effect. However, it is soon discovered that an antineutrino "Earth" exists within our planet, and its orbit has been seriously disturbed by the passage of the star. This is an ingenious, almost a poetic, idea, to which the plot only just fails to do full justice. Other books followed quickly: the overcomplicated Medusa's Children (1977); Who Goes Here? (1977), and its sequel, Warren Peace(1993), jeux d'esprit akin to Harry HARRISON's Bill, the Galactic Hero (1965); Ship of Strangers (fixup 1978), in which the crew of the Stellar Survey Ship Sarafand, after some routine adventures, confront a cosmological issue; Vertigo (1978; with "Dark Icarus" added as prologue, exp vt Terminal Velocity 1991), an effective policier set in a world transformed by ANTIGRAVITY devices; and Dagger of the Mind (1979) and The Ceres Solution (1981), in both of which BS's ingenuity declined, for aperiod, into something close to jumble. He had meanwhile been writing short stories - his collections include Tomorrow Lies in Ambush (coll 1973; with 2 stories added, rev 1973 US), Cosmic Kaleidoscope (coll 1976;with 1 story omitted and 2 added, rev 1977 US), A Better Mantrap (coll 1982), Between Two Worlds (coll 1986 dos US) and Dark Night in Toyland(coll 1989) - which again demonstrate his professional skills but tend to lack a sense of personal involvement.However, with the Ragged Astronauts sequence - THE RAGGED ASTRONAUTS (1986), The Wooden Spaceships (1988) and The Fugitive Worlds (1989) - BS returned to his very best and mostinventive form, describing with joyful exactness the sensation of emigrating, via hot-air BALLOON, up the hourglass funnel of atmosphere that connects two planets which orbit each other. Later volumes lost some of the freshness and elation of the first, but the series as a whole emphasizes BS's genuine stature in the genre as an entertainer who rarely fails to thrill the mind's eye with a new prospect. At his best, BS has been a lover of the worlds of sf.

DP/JC

   Other works: The Best of the Bushel (coll 1979 chap) and The Eastercon Speeches (coll 1979 chap), both humorous fan writing, and both assembled with additional material as A Load of Old BoSh (coll 1995 chap); Galactic Tours: Thomas Cook Out of ThisWorld Vacations (1981 US) with David HARDY; Courageous New Planet (1981 chap); Serious Scientific Talks (coll 1984 chap), humorous fan writing; Fire Pattern (1984); Messages Found in an Oxygen Bottle (coll 1986 dosUS); Killer Planet (1989), juvenile sf; How to Write Science Fiction (1993).

   About the author: Bob Shaw (anth 1981 chap) ed Paul Kincaid and Geoff Rippington; Bob Shaw, Artist at Ground Zero (last rev 1989 chap) by Gordon BENSON Jr, Chris Nelson and Phil STEPHENSEN-PAYNE.

   See also: ALTERNATE WORLDS; ARTS; ASTEROIDS; COMICS; CONCEPTUAL BREAKTHROUGH; COSMOLOGY; DISCOVERY AND INVENTION; ESCHATOLOGY; FANTASTIC VOYAGES; FASTER THAN LIGHT; GRAVITY; HUMOUR; IMAGINARY SCIENCE; MATTER TRANSMISSION; MOON; PARASITISM AND SYMBIOSIS; PERCEPTION; PHYSICS; SATIRE; SCIENTIFIC ERRORS; SCIENTISTS; SPACE FLIGHT; TIME PARADOXES; UNDER THE SEA.