ROBINETT, Stephen (Allen)

(1941-)

   US writer and lawyer who began publishing sf as Tak Hallus (apparently Persian for "pen name") with "Minitalent" for ASF in 1969. His first novel, Mindwipe! (1969 ASF as by Tak Hallus; 1976 Canada) as by Steve Hahn, is unexceptional, but Stargate (1974 ASF as by Tak Hallus;1976) intriguingly combines HARD SF and detective modes in the tale of two great corporations and their quarrel over the eponymous MATTER TRANSMITTER. Along with Frederik POHL's GATEWAY (1977), this novel wasimportant in establishing the commercial stargate (which can be variously defined as a matter-transmission aperture or as a discontinuity or as a wormhole extension of a singularity - so long as the phenomenon allows profitable and instantaneous contact to be made between one part of the Universe and another) as an essential instrument of modern sf. The ManResponsible (fixup 1978) again focuses on the relationship between crime and sf, the story dealing this time with a 21st-century world in which computer projections pass as human. SR's stories, in which a sharp wit is allowed free and satirical play, are assembled in Projections (coll 1979). It is a matter of serious regret that SR ceased publishing around 1980.

   JC