PIKE, Christopher

   Pseudonym - apparently based on a Star Trek character - of US writer Kevin McFadden (? -), whose career has been mostly devoted to novels for older children; some of these, like The Tachyon Web (1986), are sf adventures combining orthodox plots (in this case a group of teenagers "borrows" a spaceship in which they penetrate the eponymous barrier whichkeeps humans from outer space) with a modicum of contemporary relevance (the children in this book are sexually involved with one another). Otherjuveniles - including Chain Letter (1986), Last Act (1988), Remember Me (1989), Scavenger Hunt (1989), See You Later (1990), Witch (1990) and Fallinto Darkness (1990) - are horror or fantasy, the latter sometimes involving TIME TRAVEL. With Sati (1990), whose eponymous heroine may be God or may be a dippy channeller, CP moved into adult fiction. Whisper ofDeath (1991) is an sf tale for older children, and The Season of Passage (1992) is an adult horror novel.

   JC

   Other works: Monster (1992); Road to Nowhere (1993); The Eternal Enemy (1993); The Immortal (1993); The Wicked Heart (1993); The Listeners (1994); The Midnight Club (1994); The Last Vampire (1994).