Butler, William
Entry updated 21 October 2024. Tagged: Author.
(1929- ) US author best known for nonfantastic novels, some set in Japan. The Butterfly Revolution (1961), which is of sf interest, describes the almost instantaneous Dystopian tyranny created when a group of children "trapped" in a holiday camp take it over, a Satirical vision of an unhinged America which climaxes in the savage lynching of a Black camper (see Race in SF). The Butterfly Revolution was severely modified in the film version, Summer Camp Nightmare (1987). The House at Akiya (1963) is a ghost story; Mr Three (1964) is a Technothriller whose undercover agent protagonist uses advanced Weapons to combat his foes; the conspicuously Kafka-esque trial dramatized in Man in a Net (1971) implicates three "victims"; the vast Underground labyrinth at the heart of The Bone House (1972) opens, it may be, to Hell. [JC]
William Butler
born Portland, Oregon: 1929
works (selected)
- The Butterfly Revolution (London: Peter Owen, 1961) [hb/F Lambert]
- The House at Akiya (London: Peter Owen, 1963) [hb/F Lambert]
- Mr Three (London: Peter Owen, 1964) [hb/Keith Cunningham]
- Man in a Net (London: Peter Owen, 1971) [hb/]
- The Bone House (London: Peter Owen, 1972) [hb/Keith Cunningham]
links
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