Rhys, Jack
Entry updated 15 September 2025. Tagged: Author.
Pseudonym of David Michael Heptonstall (1943- ), UK author of two sf novels for Robert Hale Limited, The Eternity Merchants (1981), a Space Opera, and The Five Doors (early version as by Michael Stall in New Writings in SF 23, anth 1973, ed Kenneth Bulmer; exp 1981), whose "doors" (the first of which appears on Earth) are a succession of Stargates to other planets which present successive difficulties before the next door can be reached. The first world is dangerously radioactive, the second frozen and airless, the third infested with a devouring Genetically Engineered "fungoid", and the fourth with insectile killer Machines; the fifth door seems to open into the heart of a Star, an illusion which is the final challenge before access to a habitable and humanoid-inhabited world where First Contact awaits, as seemingly intended by the never-encountered Builders of the doors.
The Michael Stall pseudonym, obviously derived from the author's real name, was used for four further mid-1970s short stories in Galileo, New Writings in SF (twice) and Other Times. [JC/DRL]
see also: Matter Transmission.
David Michael Heptonstall
born 1943
works
- The Eternity Merchants (London: Robert Hale, 1981) [hb/]
- The Five Doors (London: Robert Hale, 1981) [early version first appeared as by Michael Stall in New Writings in SF 23 (anth 1973) edited by Kenneth Bulmer: hb/]
links
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