STITH, John E(dward)

(1947-)

   US writer and software engineering manager who began to publish sf with "Early Winter" for Fantastic in 1979. His first novel, Scapescope (1984) - HARD SF like all his work-uses his work experience at the NORADCheyenne Mountain Complex to extrapolate conditions in that location two centuries hence. Memory Blank (1986) places a classic sf protagonist - the hero with amnesia - on an L-5 orbital colony (LAGRANGE POINT). Death Tolls (1987) is a detective mystery set on a terraformed MARS (see alsoTERRAFORMING), and Deep Quarry (1989), set on a planet far from the Solar System (to which JES had previously restricted himself), pits a private eye against various mysteries in a hard-boiled style. More impressive than any of these is Redshift Rendezvous (1990), set on a FASTER-THAN-LIGHT starship travelling through a version of HYPERSPACE in which the speed of light is so low (22mph [35kph]) that its passage is visible. Within this intriguingly presented environment, a murder mystery, a hijack and other events occur; but the appeal of the novel lies in the playing-out of the concept - or thought experiment - at its heart. Both Manhattan Transfer (1993), in which an alien force matter-transmits the island elsewhere forreasons unknown, and Reunion on Neverend (1994) continue to demonstrate a growing facility and storytelling energy.

   JC

   See also: IMAGINARY SCIENCE