SNODGRASS, Melinda M(arilyn)

(1951-)

   US lawyer and writer who has been associated with Star Trek since the publication of her first novel, Star Trek: The Tears of the Singers * (1984). She served as Executive Script Consultant for the first2 seasons of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION. Of ostensibly greater sf interest is her Circuit Trilogy - Circuit (1986), Circuit Breaker (1987) and Final Circuit (1988) - which takes a handsome lawyer and his extremely clever female sidekick into space, where they become involved in defending a batch of individualistic space stations and settlements against the hidebound bureaucracies of Earth. This point of view is not, of course, a fresh one, and a sense that MMS was not perhaps concentrating fully on the richer implications of her setting is strengthened by a plot structure which eventually relegates the tough female protagonist to the sidelines - in strict accordance with the Robert A. HEINLEIN guidelines on such matters-as soon as she becomes pregnant. Runespear (1987) with Victor MILAN is fantasy, as is Queen's Gambit Declined (1989).A Very Large Array:New Mexico Science Fiction and Fantasy (anth 1987) embodies MMS's theory that the urgent New Mexico landscape might serve to unify in some sense the work of writers there resident; in the event, though the theory still proves difficult to assess, the stories assembled are of admirable quality.

   JC

   Other works: MMS was assistant editor to George R.R. MARTIN, the editor, on 4 of the WILD CARDS series to date, these being \#6: Ace in the Hole: A Wild Cards Mosaic Novel * (anth 1990), \#7: Dead Man's Hand * (1990), written by Martin with John J. Miller, the 1st true novel in theseries, \#8: One-Eyed Jacks: A Wild Cards Mosaic Novel * (anth 1991) and \#9: Jokertown Shuffle: A Wild Cards Mosaic Novel * (anth 1991); the nexttitle, \#10: Double Solitaire * (1992) is another true novel, written by MMS solo.As Melinda McKenzie: Magic to Do: Paul's Story (1985); Of Earthand High Heaven (1985)

   See also: LIBERTARIAN SF.