WATKINS, William Jon

(1942-)

   US writer and academic, associate professor of English at Brookdale Community College. His first sf novels, with Gene SNYDER, were Ecodeath (1972), a POLLUTION story in which the leading characters are called Snyder and Watkins and the plot is fast and furious, and The Litany of Sh'reev (1976), in which a healer with precognitive powers becomes involved in a revolution. WJW's solo books are similarly - and at times haphazardly - venturesome. Clickwhistle (1973) deals in a relatively sober vein with human/dolphin COMMUNICATION, but The God Machine (1973), in which political dissidents shrink themselves with a "micronizer" to escape a mechanized future, is insecurely baroque. What Rough Beast (1980) pairs an altruistic ALIEN with a world-class computer net to save erring humanity. The LeGrange League sequence - The Centrifugal Rickshaw Dancer (1985) and Going to See the End of the Sky (1986) - is adventure sf whosesettings, and quality of writing, are negatively affected by helterskelter plotting. The Last Deathship off Antares (1989) is a tale of real intrinsic interest; despite the failings characteristic of all his work, the philosophical arguments underpinning a revolt of imprisoned humans aboard a prison ship are sharply couched, and WJW never allows the grimness of the conflict to slide into routine. He remains, however, a writer whose ideas are perhaps more interesting to describe than to read.

   JC/PN

   See also: ECOLOGY.