MacAVOY, R(oberta) A(nn)

(1949-)

   US writer, primarily of FANTASY - which tends to be quirky, well written and scholarly about historical detail - and of one sf novel. Her first book, Tea with the Black Dragon (1983), is a witty contemporary fantasy about the friendship that grows between a middle-aged woman musician and an ageless Oriental who is probably the human incarnation of a dragon. The sequel was Twisting the Rope: Casadh an t'Sugain (1986). The Trio for Lute trilogy - Damiano (1983), Damiano's Lute (1984) and Raphael(1984), collected as A Trio for Lute (omni 1985) - is set in an ALTERNATE-WORLD Renaissance Italy, France and Moorish Spain where MAGIC works. The Book of Kells (1985) features time-travel from the present day to a god-frequented 10th-century Ireland. The Grey Horse (1987), also set in Ireland (Connemara in the late 19th century), is a finely told, complex romance about local resistance allied to the Land League, featuring a puca, or fairy-horse. RAM's sf novel is The Third Eagle (1989), an entertaining romance about a naive Native-American warrior's learning experiences on a variety of planetary and spacecraft venues; though promising, it is less focused than most of her fantasy. RAM returned to fantasy with theLens of the World trilogy, comprising Lens of the World (1990), and King of the Dead (1991) and Winter of the Wolf (1993; vt TheBelly of the Wolf 1994 US): more coming-of-age material, this time set in a marginally fantasticated baroque or renaissance alternate world. RAM has become an important fantasist, especially in the unfamiliarity of her material, which has enlivened a genre specializing all too often in retreads.

   PN

   See also: JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD; PHILIP K. DICK AWARD.