WILSON, F(rancis) Paul

(1946-)

   US physician and writer who began publishing sf with "The Cleaning Machine" for Startling Mystery Stories in 1971, and who has written some associational work as by Colin Andrews. His early career was much influenced by John W. CAMPBELL Jr, in whose ASF he published several of his best 1970s stories, including the early versions of tales which reached book form as the LaNague Federation series - Healer (1972 ASF as "Pard"; exp 1976), which was elected to the Prometheus Hall of Fame in1990; Wheels within Wheels: A Novel of the LaNague Federation (1971 ASF; exp 1978), which won the first Prometheus AWARD for LIBERTARIAN SF; and An Enemy of the State (1980), all 3 being assembled as The LaNague Chronicle(omni 1992). The sequence engagingly deployed FPW's knowledgeability, the deft clarity of his writing, and his unabashed and comfortable use of pulp concepts - like the protagonist Steven Dalt, an immortal psychiatric healer who repeatedly saves the Solar System from enemies internal and external - to express what might be called philosophical perspectives on the world: the influence of Albert Camus (1913-1960) upon the creation of Dalt has been adduced.In the 1980s, FPW began to concentrate on novelslike The Keep (1981), the first novel in the Adversary sequence, an impressive horror tale set in WWII in the Transylvanian Alps, where a Nazi garrison is being slowly destroyed by vampires indigenous to the eponymous lodging; it was filmed in 1983. The first sequel, Reborn (1990), is less assured, and demonstrates some lack of commercial facility during those moments when the buried Evil from the first book is unconvincingly shown to be living-dead; but Reprisal (1991; vt Reprisals 1991 UK) more successfully broadens the compass of the conflict between humans and a dark nemesis, a broadening which also marks Nightworld (1992 UK). Although Dydeetown World (fixup 1989) is an sf thriller reminiscent of his 1970swork, FPW had clearly evolved from the genre by this point, and in 1991 he stands as a potentially major HORROR writer, an estimate not materially affected by novels like The Select (1994), a medical sf thriller amply tinged with horror.

   JC

   Other works: The Tery (1973 Fiction 4 as "He Shall Be John"; exp 1979 chap dos; with stories added, further exp as coll 1990); The Tomb (1984); The Touch (1986); Black Wind (1988); Soft and Others (coll 1989); Ad Statum Perspicuum (coll 1990); Midnight Mass (1990 chap); Pelts (1990 chap); Sibs (1991; vt Sister Night 1993 UK); Buckets (1991 chap); The Barrens (1992); Freak Show (anth 1992).

   See also: PARASITISM AND SYMBIOSIS.