Chilson, Rob
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
Working name of US author Robert Dean Chilson (1945- ). His first sf story was "The Mind Reader" in Analog for June 1968. Of his novels, which generally fail to step beyond the routine, As the Curtain Falls (1974) is a Far-Future adventure with some highly coloured moments, The Star-Crowned Kings (1975) is a Space Opera about a member of a subject race who has latent ESP powers; The Shores of Kansas (1976), perhaps (along with his first) Chilson's most interesting work, tells of a man with a natural, consciously controlled talent for Time Travel and his resulting psychological problems. Two later novels retain some interest: Men like Rats (1989) – rather like William Tenn's Of Men and Monsters (October 1963 Galaxy as "The Men in the Walls"; exp 1968) – is about humans living a Wainscot Society life in buildings occupied by giant Aliens; Rounded with Sleep (1990) confronts its hero with an Earth in the guise – and under the computerized control – of a fantasy Role Playing Game. [JC/PN]
Robert Dean Chilson
born Ringwood, Oklahoma: 19 May 1945
works
- As the Curtain Falls (New York: DAW Books, 1974) [pb/Hans Ulrich and Ute Osterwalder]
- The Star-Crowned Kings (New York: DAW Books, 1975) [pb/Kelly Freas]
- The Shores of Kansas (New York: Popular Library, 1976) [pb/Michael Mariano]
- Isaac Asimov's Robot City, Book 5: Refuge (New York: Ace Books, 1988) [tie: Isaac Asimov's Robot City: pb/Paul Rivoche]
- Men like Rats (New York: Popular Library, 1989) [pb/Barclay Shaw]
- Rounded with Sleep (New York: Popular Library, 1990) [pb/Tim Jacobus]
- Black as Blood (New York: Baen Books, 1998) [pb/Charles Keegan]
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