November 27, 2012

Hawke, Simon

Tagged: Author

(1951-    ) US writer who first published under his birth name, Nicholas (Valentin) Yermakov, but has written as Hawke (now his legal name) since 1984. His career began with some sf adventure novels and the Boomerang series, all composed in a baroque idiom, but he soon settled into more settled pursuits, writing several unpretentious sf and fantasy series as Hawke and Military SF as by J D Masters and by S L Hunter. As Yermakov his most interesting work was probably in the Boomerang series – Last Communion (1981), Epiphany (1982) and Jehad (1984) – set on a planet inhabited by Aliens with a dangerously exploitable gift (exploited aliens have appeared more than once in Hawke's work): they are able to generate potent group-mind phenomena by absorbing the psyches of their own dead. Eventually this absorptive capacity upliftingly ensnares the intruding humans as well, and the sequence ends in Transcendence. In three singletons from this period – Journey from Flesh (1981), Fall into Darkness (1982) and Clique (1982) – slapdash execution tends to muffle the genuine sharpness of Hawke's mind. In collaboration with Glen A Larson he wrote two Battlestar Galactica Ties, The Living Legend (1981) and War of the Gods (1982). In 1984 he stopped writing as Yermakov.

From 1984, Hawke soon became a reliable and prolific author of adventure sf, best known for the Timewars sequence beginning with Timewars: The Ivanhoe Gambit (1984) and ending with Timewars #12: The Six-Gun Solution (1991), in which members of the Times Corps (> Time Police) make sorties into the past and into Alternate History in order to preserve the main timestream of the world from various Changewar assaults. Hawke still retains some of the muffling complexity of his earlier persona, but many of the individual Timewars tales are grippingly told. The Psychodrome sequence – Psychodrome (1987) and Psychodrome #2: The Shapechanger (1988) – is similarly crowded, but its Virtual-Reality idiom is relatively unfresh. Other series have been fantasy, like the Wizard of Fourth Street Alternate History sequence beginning with The Wizard of 4th Street (1987) and ending with The Last Wizard (1991), though the associated The 9 Lives of Catseye Gomez (1991 chap; exp 1992) posits a Post-Holocaust environment of some interest, featuring Magic-as-learnable-technology and an intelligent cat who models his behaviour on the works of Mickey Spillane. A later sf novel, The Whims of Creation (1995), which is also smoothly written, may be the first comic Generation Starship novel. The nonfantastic Shakespeare & Smythe historical mysteries, beginning with A Mystery of Errors (2000), feature William Shakespeare as detective. [JC]

see also: Eschatology; Parasitism and Symbiosis; Time Paradoxes; Time Travel.

Simon Hawke

born New York: 30 September 1951

died

works

untied series

Boomerang

  • Last Communion (New York: Signet/New American Library, 1981) as Nicholas Yermakov [Boomerang: pb/Jill Bauman]
  • Epiphany (New York: Signet/New American Library, 1982) as Nicholas Yermakov [Boomerang: pb/]
  • Jehad (New York: Signet/New American Library, 1984) as Nicholas Yermakov [Boomerang: pb/Paul Alexander]

TimeWars

Psychodrome

Wizard of 4th Street

Donovan Steele

  • Steele (New York: Charter Books, 1989) as by J D Masters [Donovan Steele: pb/Joe DeVito]
  • Cold Steele (New York: Charter Books, 1989) as by J D Masters [Donovan Steele: pb/Joe DeVito]
  • Killer Steele (New York: Charter Books, 1990) as by J D Masters [Donovan Steele: pb/Joe DeVito]
  • Jagged Steele (New York: Charter Books, 1990) as by J D Masters [Donovan Steele: pb/Joe DeVito]
  • Renegade Steele (New York: Charter Books, 1990) as by J D Masters [Donovan Steele: pb/]
  • Target Steele (New York: Charter Books, 1990) as by J D Masters [Donovan Steele: pb/]
  • Fugitive Steele (New York: Berkley Books, 1991) as by S L Hunter [Donovan Steele: pb/]

The Reluctant Sorcerer

tied series

Battlestar Galactica

  • The Living Legend (New York: Berkley Books, 1981) as Nicholas Yermakov, with Glen A Larson [tie: Battlestar Galactica: pb/David Schleinkofer]
  • War of the Godssfgateway.com (New York: Berkley Books, 1982) as Nicholas Yermakov, with Glen A Larson [tie: Battlestar Galactica: pb/Mark Bright]

Friday the Thirteenth

Predator

Batman

Star Trek: the Next Generation

Star Trek

Dark Sun

  • The Outcast (Lake Geneva, Wisconsin: TSR, 1993) [tie: Dark Sun: Tribe of One: pb/Brom]
  • The Seeker (Lake Geneva, Wisconsin: TSR, 1994) [tie: Dark Sun: Tribe of One: pb/Brom]
  • The Nomad (Lake Geneva, Wisconsin: TSR, 1994) [tie: Dark Sun: Tribe of One: pb/Brom]
  • The Broken Blade (Lake Geneva, Wisconsin: TSR, 1993) [tie: Dark Sun: Chronicles of Athas: pb/Brom]

Birthright

  • The Iron Throne (Lake Geneva, Wisconsin: TSR, 1995) [tie: Birthright: pb/Tony Szczudlo]
  • War (Lake Geneva, Wisconsin: TSR, 1996) [tie: Birthright: pb/Tony Szczudlo]

Shakespeare & Smythe

individual titles

links

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