WOLVERTON, Dave

(1957-)

   US writer. He began entering literary contests in 1985, winning a few small competitions and then the Best of the Year award in the WRITERS OF THE FUTURE CONTEST for 1986, with "On My Way to Paradise",which appeared in L. Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future, Volume III (anth 1987). This novella was the basis for his first novel, On My Way toParadise (1989), a thoughtful but violent tale of a Latin-American mercenary force conscripted to fight for a conservative Japanese colony on another planet. It is packed with sociobiological speculation, and veers interestingly between HEINLEIN-esque and CYBERPUNK scenarios, and is not altogether accepting of the LIBERTARIAN ideas which in part it dramatizes; it was runner-up in 1990 for the PHILIP K. DICK AWARD. Serpent Catch (1991) - along with its sequel, Path of the Hero (1993) - confirmed him asbelonging to the central extrapolative tradition of sf. Big and almost over-packed like its predecessor, the first volume is set on a terraformed moon of a GAS GIANT, whose continents are separated by eco-barriers, part of an experiment in closed environments and reconstructed geological eras. Genetically engineered human scientists are driven from space by advancedaliens and forced down into this zoo they have created, where they interact complexly (the future meeting the past) with Neanderthals and other prehumans, dinosaurs, sea-serpents and so on, as the eco-barriers break down. The novel - which seems to require sequels - is conceptually ambitious and very idea-driven.His initial involvement with the Writers of the Future organization deepened with the partial retirement of A.J. BUDRYS in 1991; DW subsequently co-edited Writers of the Future \#8 (anth1992) with Budrys; and edited solo Writers of the Future \#9 (anth 1993) and Writers of the Future\#10 (anth 1994).

   PN

   Other works: Star Wars: The Courtship of Princess Leia *(1994); The Golden Queen (1994).