ZEBROWSKI, George

(1945-)

   Austrian-born writer of Polish descent, in the USA from 1951, one of the first alumni of the CLARION SCIENCE FICTION WRITERS' WORKSHOP to achieve recognition in the sf world. He has lived with Pamela SARGENT for many years. GZ began publishing sf stories with "The Water Sculptor of Station 233" for Infinity One (anth 1970) ed Robert HOSKINS, and remainedactive as a short-story writer, releasing about 50 titles over the next 2 decades, some of the best being assembled as The Monadic Universe (coll 1977; exp 1985). From 1970 to winter 1974-5 he was editor of the SFWABULLETIN, and from 1983 to date has served as US editor. His first published novel was the 2nd instalment, in terms of internal chronology, of his Omega Point sequence - comprising Ashes and Stars (1977) and The Omega Point (1972), both revised and assembled along with a previouslyunpublished 3rd part as The Omega Point Trilogy (omni 1983). Within a SPACE-OPERA frame, a metaphysical drama is enacted, pitting the solesurvivors of a destroyed culture - created through GENETIC ENGINEERING, and whose rationale owes something to the theories of the evolutionary theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955)-against the inimical Earth Federation responsible for its elimination; after his father'sdeath, Gorgias finds the eponymous WEAPON, but Omega Point turns out to be fundamentally a focus of transcendental empathy. The Star Web (1975 Canada) is an unambitious space opera, but the 2 star-spanning forms ofTRANSPORTATION featured in the text are of interest; revised, the book became the first third of Stranger Suns (1991), a long novel written in the STAPLEDON-esque vein that marks GZ's most highly regarded single work, Macrolife (1979; rev 1990). Though otherwise unconnected, the 2 booksshare an elevated purposefulness about depicting humanity's future and a tendency to depend on insufficiently plausible lines of plot. Macrolife begins on Earth, but soon departs the home planet for self-sufficient star-travelling SPACE HABITATS, and carries onwards to the end of the Universe; Stranger Suns views with considerable bleakness theopportunities taken - and missed - by humanity when given the chance to use a complex stargate that gives access not only to the Universe as we know it but also to alternate universes (ALTERNATE WORLDS).GZ has been active since early in his career as an editor, producing Tomorrow Today (anth 1975), an original anthology, and co-editing Faster than Light (anth1976) with Jack DANN and Human-Machines (anth 1975) with Thomas N. SCORTIA, a collection of whose stories, The Best of Thomas N. Scortia (coll 1981), GZ also ed. In the 1980s he began the SYNERGY series of ORIGINAL ANTHOLOGIES: Synergy: New Science Fiction \#1 (anth 1987), \#2 (anth 1988), \#3 (dated 1988 but 1989) and \#4 (anth 1989). Beneath a Red Star: Studies in International Science Fiction (coll 1991) assembled essays on the sf of Eastern Europe.

   JC

   Other works: 3 short stories for juveniles, Adrift in Space (1974 in Adrift in Space and Other Stories, anth ed Roger ELWOOD; 1979 chap), A Silent Shout (1979 chap) and The Firebird (1979 chap); the Bernal One sequence of juveniles, Sunspacer(1984) and The Stars Will Speak (1985).As Editor: Creations: The Quest for Origins in Story and Science (anth 1983) with Isaac ASIMOV and Martin H. GREENBERG; Nebula Awards 20 (anth 1985); Nebula Awards 21 (anth 1987); Nebula Awards 22 (anth 1988).

   About the author: The Work of George Zebrowski (last rev 1990) by Jeffrey M. ELLIOT and Robert REGINALD.

   See also: ASTEROIDS; COSMOLOGY; CYBORGS; ESCHATOLOGY; GENERATION STARSHIPS; NEBULA; RELIGION; SOCIOLOGY.