Kahn, James
Entry updated 6 February 2023. Tagged: Author.
(1947- ) US medical specialist and author who began publishing sf with "Mobius Trip" (1971 Gallery); his first professional sale was "The Box" (March 1971 Playboy). Kahn has been most active as a novelist, usually in later years of film adaptations; he was also active in the Star Trek universe, writing a teleplay for Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1992 and four for Star Trek: Voyager in 2000-2001, and working as executive producer of Star Trek: Voyager in 2000-2001. Of his work that is not Tied, the New World trilogy – World Enough, and Time (1980), Time's Dark Laughter (1982) and Timefall (1987) – interestingly depicts a fantasy-like Far-Future Earth in which Genetic Engineering on the part of the self-destructing human race has generated Vampires, centaurs, semi-sentient Cats, Androids and other creatures, all of whom roam through a transfigured California. The first volume floridly introduces the cast, with some Grand Guignol episodes. The second, perhaps the most interestingly baroque, carries its human protagonist through a love affair, the begetting of a goddess-like child who wantonly transfigures the world in her death throes, and his return (with the child's mother) by Time Travel to Eden. The third volume, set in Colombia, fails to bring the gimmicky structure of the sequence into clear focus, though the power of Kahn's imagery remains vivid in the reader's mind. The Echo Vector (1988), a medical thriller, verges on sf. Kahn's novelizations are competent. [JC]
see also: Messiahs.
James Kahn
born Chicago, Illinois: 30 December 1947
works
series
New World
- World Enough, and Time (New York: Ballantine Books/Del Rey, 1980) [New World: pb/Jill Alden Littlewood]
- Time's Dark Laughter (New York: Ballantine Books/Del Rey, 1982) [New World: pb/Lawrence Schwinger]
- Timefall (New York: St Martin's Press, 1987) [New World: hb/Ken Barr]
individual titles
- The Echo Vector (New York: St Martin's Press, 1988) [hb/Ken Barr]
ties
- Poltergeist (New York: Ballantine Books/Del Rey, 1982) [tie: Poltergeist: pb/]
- Poltergeist II: The Other Side (New York: Ballantine Books/Del Rey, 1986) [tie: Poltergeist: pb/]
- The Return of the Jedi (New York: Ballantine Books/Del Rey, 1983) [tie: novelizing Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983): pb/Lucasfilm]
- Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (New York: Ballantine Books/Del Rey, 1985) [tie: vt of the above: pb/]
- Classic Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (New York: Ballantine Books/Del Rey, 1994) [tie: vt of the above: pb/]
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (New York: Ballantine Books/Del Rey, 1984) [tie: novelizing Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull): pb/]
- The Goonies (New York: Warner Books, 1985) [tie: novelizing the film: pb/]
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