ZAHN, Timothy

(1951-)

   US writer with a master's degree in physics who came into sudden prominence in the sf field in the 1980s with the rapid release of several books. He had begun publishing sf with "Ernie" for Analog in 1979, and early proved himself an adept and productive creator of the problem-oriented HARD SF characteristic of that magazine. Some better examples of his work are assembled as Cascade Point (coll 1986), Time Bomb and Zahndry Others (coll 1988) and Distant Friends and Others (coll 1992); the title story (1983 ASF) of the 1st of these won a HUGO on its original release, and has also been published as Cascade Point (1988 chap dos). The title of the story, which fascinatingly reveals the outward-looking bent of this early work, refers to a point in space where ships flicker from one star system to the next; at the point of transition, ALTERNATE-WORLD versions of the humans on board ship manifest themselves hauntingly. An experiment designed to elicit more knowledge about humankind from this convergence of differing versions of lives turns out in the event most usefully to reveal methods for making the transition itself more efficient. In work like this, TZ proved himself an exemplary member of the ASF stable.But the rest of the sf world began to take more notice of himafter he began to publish novels in 1983 with the 1st vol of the Blackcollar sequence, The Blackcollar (1983), followed by Blackcollar: TheBacklash Mission (1986), both tales being set on an Earth dominated by ALIEN invaders and describing the eponymous guerrillas' supernormal feats of resistance against the enemy. The Cobra sequence - Cobra (1985), Cobra Strike (1986), assembled as Cobras Two (omni 1992), plus Cobra Bargain(1988) - located similar military/commando heroes in a galactic venue. A Coming of Age (1985), a singleton of much greater interest, is set on a colony planet where a mutation has given children telekinetic powers, until puberty yanks them back into normality; the plotting is complex and swift, and TZ showed creative awareness as well of the profound issues he was exposing to the light - for any novel in which puberty marks a passing of glory from the Earth is a novel about the human condition as well as, more prosaically, a novel about why children entering puberty begin to read sf. Other novels of interest are Spinneret (1985), Triplet (1987) and Deadman Switch (1988), another tale of considerable underlying complexity,set in a galactic civilization which exploits its retention of the death penalty by using the condemned as pilots to penetrate an area of space that only corpses can navigate. TZ's venues have been at times conventional, and even silly; but again and again he has transformed routine adventure-sf conventions into moral puzzles, without sacrificing a jot of momentum.After several years without any prospect of a new Star Wars movie, TZ was commissioned to write a Star Wars trilogy,comprisingHeir to the Empire * (1991), Dark Force Rising * (1992) and The Last Command* (1993); they carry on from RETURN OF THE JEDI (1983),starting 5 years after the end of that film.

   JC

   Other works: Warhorse (fixup 1990); the Conquerors trilogy, commencing with Conqueror's Pride (1994).

   See also: PSI POWERS; SHARED WORLDS; SOCIOLOGY; SUPERMAN.