Kelley, Leo P
Entry updated 9 January 2023. Tagged: Author.
(1928-2002) US author, for some time also an advertising copywriter, whose early works were mostly sf, but who concentrated on Westerns from about 1980. He began publishing sf with "Dreamtown, U.S.A." for If in February 1955, and published occasionally in the magazines for some years. In general in his novels, he demonstrated a verve for sharp clear ideas, and some of his novels are genuine Satires with considerable bite; but he habitually descended into routine Genre SF plotting, so that his oddly affectless baroque style sometimes jars against the stories he tells, claiming an urgency it fails to convey. His reputation has faded.
Kelley's first novel, The Counterfeits: A Startling Science Fiction Novel (1967) as Leo F Kelley, typically jumbles several promising lines of thought as Shapeshifting Aliens, having destroyed their own planet, set about destroying Earth, perhaps inadvertently. Odyssey to Earthdeath (1968) is a Dystopia; The Accidental Earth (1968) features an inimical Counter-Earth in a plot whose highly coloured complexities approach Time Opera; The Coins of Murph (1971) is a Satire set in a Ruined Earth; Time: 110100 (1972; vt The Man from Maybe 1974) carries its protagonists into a Pocket Universe which is governed, it may be, as a Godgame; The Earth Tripper (1973) subjects an Alien to the cruel exigencies of life on Earth in terms reminiscent of Walter Tevis's The Man Who Fell to Earth (1963). Kelley rarely wrote a novel lacking interest; but never wrote one that entirely met readers' expectations.
He also wrote two series of sf adventures for younger readers, the Space Police tales and the Galaxy 5 tales, along with a few singletons. They are listed below. [JC]
Leo Patrick Kelley
born Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania: 10 September 1928
died Long Beach, New York: 17 November 2002
works
series
Space Police
- Prison Satellite (Belmont, California: Fearon Pitman Publishers/Pacemaker Bestsellers, 1979) [chap: Space Police: pb/Steve Hofheimer]
- Worlds Apart (Belmont, California: Fearon Pitman Publishers/Pacemaker Bestsellers, 1979) [chap: Space Police: pb/Steven Hofheimer]
- Earth Two (Belmont, California: Fearon Pitman Publishers/Pacemaker Bestsellers, 1979) [chap: Space Police: pb/Steven Hofheimer]
- Backward in Time (Belmont, California: Fearon Pitman Publishers/Pacemaker Bestsellers, 1979) [chap: Space Police: pb/Steven Hofheimer]
- Sunworld (Belmont, California: Fearon Pitman Publishers/Pacemaker Bestsellers, 1979) [chap: Space Police: pb/Steven Hofheimer]
- Death Sentence (Belmont, California: Fearon Pitman Publishers/Pacemaker Bestsellers, 1979) [chap: Space Police: pb/Steven Hofheimer]
Galaxy 5
- Good-bye to Earth (Belmont, California: Fearon Pitman Publishers/Pacemaker Bestsellers, 1979) [chap: Galaxy 5: pb/Rick Guidice]
- On the Red World (Belmont, California: Fearon Pitman Publishers/Pacemaker Bestsellers, 1979) [chap: Galaxy 5: pb/Rick Guidice]
- Vacation in Space (Belmont, California: Fearon Pitman Publishers/Pacemaker Bestsellers, 1979) [chap: Galaxy 5: pb/Rick Guidice]
- Dead Moon (Belmont, California: Fearon Pitman Publishers/Pacemaker Bestsellers, 1979) [chap: Galaxy 5: pb/Rick Guidice]
- Where No Sun Shines (Belmont, California: Fearon Pitman Publishers/Pacemaker Bestsellers, 1979) [chap: Galaxy 5: pb/Rick Guidice]
- King of the Stars (Belmont, California: Fearon Pitman Publishers/Pacemaker Bestsellers, 1979) [chap: Galaxy 5: pb/Rick Guidice]
individual titles
- The Counterfeits: A Startling Science Fiction Novel (New York: Belmont Books, 1967) as by Leo F Kelley [pb/Jack Gaughan]
- Odyssey to Earthdeath (New York: Belmont Books, 1968) [pb/uncredited]
- Time Rogue (New York: Lancer Books, 1970) [pb/uncredited]
- The Accidental Earth (New York: Belmont Books, 1970) [pb/uncredited]
- The Coins of Murph (New York: Berkley Medallion, 1971) [pb/uncredited]
- Brother John (New York: Avon Books, 1971) [tie to the film: pb/]
- Time: 110100 (New York: Walker, 1972) [hb/Enrico Scull]
- The Man from Maybe (London: Coronet, 1974) [vt of the above: pb/Colin Hay]
- Mindmix (Greenwich, Connecticut: Fawcett Gold Medal, 1972) [pb/uncredited]
- Mythmaster (New York: Dell, 1973) [pb/Robert Foster]
- The Earth Tripper (Greenwich, Connecticut: Fawcett Gold Medal, 1973) [pb/Larry Kresek]
- The Time Trap (Belmont, California: Fearon Pitman Publishers/Pacemaker Bestsellers, 1977) [chap: pb/David Grove]
- Star Gold (Belmont, California: Fearon Pitman Publishers/Pacemaker Bestsellers, 1979) [chap: pb/Cliff Spohn]
- Alien Gold (New York: Bantam Books, 1983) [chap: vt of the above: pb/]
- Night of Fire and Blood (Belmont, California: Fearon Pitman Publishers/Pacemaker Bestsellers, 1979) [chap: pb/Ed Diffenderfer]
works as editor
- Themes in Science Fiction: A Journey into Wonder (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972) [anth: pb/]
- Fantasy, the Literature of the Marvelous (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1973) [anth: pb/]
- The Supernatural in Fiction (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1973) [anth: pb/]
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