Bowkett, Stephen

Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.

(1953-    ) UK author, primarily of Young Adult novels, mostly sf, though his first, Spellbinder (1985) in which a young player of magic tricks learns that his Magic is real, is Fantasy; as is Gameplayers (1986). Dualists (1987), whose young protagonists discover a substance able to copy anything (see Doppelgangers; Transmutation), is sf; as is the Wintering sequence comprising Ice (2001), Storm (2002) and Thaw (2002), set in what seems to be a Pocket Universe but is in fact an enclave (see Keep) whose inhabitants have enjoyed something like Utopia under the control of an AI. But it is now time for a young protagonist to open his eyes to reality (see Conceptual Breakthrough), and to break out into the harsher but more genuinely alive world beyond the portals.

Bowkett's Ties to Shared World enterprises like The Web or Dreamtime are as competent as demanded. There is some sense that despite his undoubted competence he has not found a way to respond fully to opportunities to test that skill. His novels as by Ben Leech, all of which involves Shapeshifting, edge close to sf; the first of these, The Community (1993), invokes for instance a Horror in SF portrait of a Hive-Mind race of Aliens who take on human form but perform as a single dread entity; similarly, the parasites featured in The Bidden (1994) congest together to shape themselves into a human face, which gazed upon is a Basilisk. [JC]

Philip Stephen Bowkett

born South Wales: 30 December 1953

works

series

The Web

• The Web: Dreamcastle (London: Orion Children's Books/Dolphin Paperbacks, 1997) [tie to the Shared World of The Web: The Web: hb/Leigh Jones]

Dreamtime

• Dreamcatcher (London: Orion Children's Books/Dolphin Paperbacks, 2000) [in the Dreamtime Shared World series: pb/Blacksheep]

The Wintering

• Ice (London: Orion Children's Books/Dolphin Paperbacks, 2001) [Wintering: pb/Stuart Williams]
• Storm (London: Orion Children's Books/Dolphin Paperbacks, 2002) [Wintering: pb/Stuart Williams]
• Thaw (London: Orion Children's Books/Dolphin Paperbacks, 2002) [Wintering: pb/Stuart Williams]

The Double Dare Gang

• The Frankenstein Steps and Other Adventures (Stafford, Staffordshire: Network Educational Press, 2001) [coll: Double Dare Gang: pb/]
• The Allotment Ghost and Other Stories (Stafford, Staffordshire: Network Educational Press, 2001) [coll: Double Dare Gang: pb/Jamie Egerton]

individual titles

• Spellbinder (London: Victor Gollancz, 1985) [hb/Fiona Pragoff]
• Gameplayers (London: Victor Gollancz, 1986) [hb/Fiona Pragoff]
• Dualists (London: Victor Gollancz, 1987) [hb/Fiona Pragoff]
• The Community (London: Pan Books, 1993) as by Ben Leech [pb/Glen Saville]
• The Bidden (London: Pan Books, 1994) as by Ben Leech [pb/Fred Gambino]
• A Rare Breed (London: Pan Books, 1996) as by Ben Leech [pb/Fred Gambino]
• Dinosaur Day (London: Heinemann, 1996) [chap: illus/pb/Ben Cord]
• The World's Smallest Werewolf (London: Macdonald's Young Books, 1996) [chap: illus/pb/Stephen Player]
• Panic Station (London: Henderson, 1996) [chap: illus/pb/Joanna Roberts]
• The Planet Machine (London: A and C Black, 2000) [chap: illus/hb/Liz McIntosh]

collections

• Catch and Other Stories (London: Victor Gollancz, 1988) [coll: hb/]
• Frontiersville High (London: Victor Gollancz, 1990) [coll of linked stories: hb/Angus McKie]
• Catch Minitales: Short Stories with a Sting! (London: NEP, 2003) [coll: chap: pb/]
• The Passenger and Other Adventures (London: NEP, 2003) [coll: chap: pb/]

links

• Steve Bowkett
• Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Picture Gallery

previous versions of this entry

• Internet Archive