WALTHER, Daniel

(1940-)

   French editor and writer who began publishing short stories in 1965, and proved an eclectic author and easy stylist who could switch from HARD SF to HEROIC FANTASY. Requiem pour demain ("Requiem for Tomorrow") (coll 1976) shows him at his most experimental, gathering work which reminded critics of Harlan ELLISON; Les Quatre Saisons de la Nuit ("The Four Seasons of the Night") (coll 1980) assembles dark fantasies. Maisl'espace . . . Mais le temps ("What about Space? What about Time?") (1972) is a long novella blending space technology and MAGIC. He ed Les soleils noirs d'Arcadie ("Black Suns of Arcadia") (anth 1975), a manifesto for the NEW WAVE. His first novel, L'Epouvante ("Dread") (1979) remainsuntranslated; "The Gunboat Dread", the story from which it was derived, appeared in Maxim JAKUBOWSKI's Travelling towards Epsilon (anth 1976). As the editor of the Club du Livre d'Anticipation he published US heroic fantasy in translation, including work by C.J. CHERRYH, who reciprocated by bringing the early vols of his FAR-FUTURE Swa sequence to the USA. Le Livre de Swa (1982; trans Cherryh as The Book of Shai 1984 US) and LeDestin de Swa (1982; trans Cherryh as Shai's Destiny 1985 US) are intricately composed post- HOLOCAUST dramas of some moral complexity in which young Swa (Shai) confronts and attempts to bring together the various raging factions of a balkanized world.

   MJ/JC

   See also: FRANCE.