EVANS, Christopher (D.)

(1951-)

   Welsh-born UK teacher and writer who has published sf and fantasy novels under his own name and as Christopher Carpenter, Nathan Elliott, Robert Knight and John Lyon, and some non-genre fiction as by Evan Christie and Alwyn Davies. His first publications, released more or less simultaneously, were the rather bad Plasmid * (1980) as by Robert Knight, a film tie to an untraceable (and perhaps unmade) movie, and the impressive Capella's Golden Eyes (1980), an extremely English version of a CONCEPTUAL-BREAKTHROUGH tale, set on a colony planet inhabited also by reclusive ALIENS - English because of the mundane detailing of life on Gaia, because the protagonist has no real access to the roots of power or change, and because any chances for conceptual breakthrough are in any case co-opted by a plot in which Gaia's first masters are simply replaced by a Chinese management team from Earth. The Insider (1981), set in a NEAR FUTURE UK, depicts the plight of an alien symbiont forced to transform its new human host into an "alienated" outcast from society. In Limbo (1985) further intensifies CE's characteristic insistence on the isolation of human beings in a world they can neither comprehend nor control, an insistence not significantly modified by the more intensive use of local colour and expansive plotting in Chimeras (coll of linked stories 1992), about an artist's complex and ambiguous relationship to the eponymous new art form (ARTS). Aztec Century (1993) It remains to be seen whether CE will be able to accommodate his desolate visions within GENRE SF, which is characteristically outward-thrusting, or whether - as seems may be the case - he will find it increasingly uncongenial.With Robert P. HOLDSTOCK, CE has edited OTHER EDENS, a strong anthology series comprising Other Edens (anth 1987), \#II (anth 1988) and \#III (anth 1989). He responded to the controversy surrounding the extensive presence of organizations linked to SCIENTOLOGY at the 1987 World Science Fiction Convention (held in Brighton, UK) by editing Conspiracy Theories (anth 1987 chap), in which a variety of views were expressed, most of them critical of that presence.

   JC

   Other works: As Christopher Carpenter: The Twilight Realm (1985).As Nathan Elliott: The Hood Army Trilogy, comprising Earth Invaded (1986), Slaveworld (1986) and The Liberators (1986), juvenile sf; the Star Pirates sequence, also juveniles, comprising Kidnap in Space (1987), Plague Moon (1987) and Treasure Planet (1987).As John Lyon: The Summoning (1985).Nonfiction: Science Fiction as Religion (1981 chap) with Stan Gooch (1932-); The Guide to Fantasy Art Techniques (1984) with Martyn Dean, a picture book; Lightship (1985), text to visuals by Jim BURNS; Writing Science Fiction (1988 chap US); Dream Makers: Six Fantasy Artists at Work (1988) with Martyn Dean, a picture book; Airshow (graph coll 1989), text to visuals by Philip Castle.

   See also: PARASITISM AND SYMBIOSIS.