David G. Compton

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David Guy Compton (usually DG Compton ; born August 19, 1930 in London ) is a British science fiction writer who also published crime novels as Guy Compton and who used the pseudonym Frances Lynch for horror novels .

Life

Coming from a family of actors, Compton worked as an electrician, postman and carpenter. From 1969 he worked as editor of condensed books for Reader's Digest . He had his first modest successes with radio plays and detective novels before he turned to science fiction. He has lived in the USA since 1981. Due to the lack of success, he temporarily declared his withdrawal from literature; some of his more recent works found no publisher in the USA and appeared as German original editions. In 1991 he published with Ragnarok a novel written together with John Gribbin .

Most of his novels are set in the near future and deal with social conflicts in a fantastically alienated form:

  • In fear in the neck, for example, the problem of overpopulation is to be solved by an artificial epidemic to which all people with a negative Rh factor fall victim.
  • In The Bought Death , the - allegedly - last days of a woman are broadcast on television by means of a camera implanted in her companion in order to increase the audience.
  • In Mers , an infection has led to the fact that only girls and no boys have been born for forty years; as a researcher gets close to solving the problem, she is hindered and pressured because the new - female - establishment does not want a change in the status quo.

The novel The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe (German first edition as Schlaflose Augen ), first published in 1974, served as a template for the science fiction crime thriller Death Watch from 1980 with Romy Schneider and Harvey Keitel in the lead roles and directed by Bertrand Tavernier .

Awards

bibliography

Katherine Mortenhoe (novel series)
  • 1 The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe (1974; also: The Unsleeping Eye ; also: Death Watch , 1981)
    • German: sleepless eyes. Translated by Thomas Schlück. Goldmann Science Fiction The Chef Picks, 1975, ISBN 3-442-30306-0 . Also as: The bought death. Translated by Thomas Schlück. Goldmann Science Fiction # 23369, 1980, ISBN 3-442-23369-0 . Also as: death live. Translated by Thomas Schlück. Heyne SF&F # 8002, 1997, ISBN 3-453-11919-3 .
  • 2 Windows (1979)
    • German: With my eye. Translated by Inge Pesch-von der Ley. Bastei-Verlag Lübbe (Bastei Lübbe # 24024), Bergisch Gladbach 1981, ISBN 3-404-24024-3 .
Alec Duncan (series of novels)
  • 1 Justice City (1994)
  • 2 Back of Town Blues (1996)
Novels
  • Too Many Murderers (1962; as Guy Compton)
  • Dead On Cue (1964; as Guy Compton)
  • Disguise for a Dead Gentleman (1964; as Guy Compton)
  • High Tide for Hanging (1965; as Guy Compton)
  • The Quality of Mercy (1965)
    • German: fear in the neck. Translated by MF Arnemann. Joke-Action-Krimi # 36, Bern and Munich 1968, DNB 456289062 .
  • And Murder Came Too (1966; as Guy Compton)
  • Farewell, Earth's Bliss (1966)
    • German: Farewell, good earth. Translated by Hans Maeter. Heyne-Bücher # 3513, Munich 1976, ISBN 3-453-30379-2 .
  • The Silent Multitude (1966)
    • German: decay. Translated by Rosemarie Jeschke. Heyne Science Fiction # 3561, 1977, ISBN 3-453-30455-1 .
  • Synthajoy (1968)
    • German: Synthetic Delights. Translated by Walter Brumm. Heyne SF&F # 4184, 1985, ISBN 3-453-31163-9 .
  • The Palace (1969)
  • The Electric Crocodile (1970; also: The Steel Crocodile )
    • English: The electric crocodile. Translated by Walter Brumm. Heyne SF&F # 3347, 1973.
  • Chronocules (1970; also: Hot Wireless Sets, Aspirin Tablets, the Sandpaper Sides of Used Matchboxes, and Something That Might Have Been Castor Oil , 1971; also: Chronicules , 1976)
    • German: The time molecules. Translated by Bodo Baumann. Bastei Lübbe Science Fiction Paperback # 21038, 1973, ISBN 3-404-09903-6 .
  • The Missionaries (1972)
  • Twice Ten Thousand Miles (1974; as Frances Lynch)
  • The Fine and Handsome Captain (1975; as Frances Lynch)
  • Stranger at the Wedding (1976; as Frances Lynch)
  • A Usual Lunacy (1978)
    • German: The usual madness. Translated by Walter Brumm. Heyne SF&F # 3886, 1982, ISBN 3-453-30809-3 .
  • A Dangerous Magic (1978; as Frances Lynch)
  • Ascendancies (1980)
    • German: Narrenwelt. Translated by Barbara Heidkamp. Bastei Lübbe Science Fiction Special # 24033, 1982, ISBN 3-404-24033-2 .
  • The Unsleeping Eye (1980)
  • Deathwatch (1981)
  • Scudder's Game (1984)
    • English: Scudders game. Translated by Walter Brumm. Heyne SF&F # 4128, 1984, ISBN 3-453-31098-5 .
  • Ragnarok (1991; with John Gribbin)
    • German: Ragnarök. Translated by Biggy Winter. Heyne SF&F # 6328, 1999, ISBN 3-453-15667-6 .
  • Nomansland (1993)
    • German: MERS. Translated by Alfons Winkelmann. Heyne SF&F # 5984, 1999, ISBN 3-453-14884-3 .
  • The Masters of Talojz (1997)
    • German: The Lords of Talojz. Translated by Frank Borsch. Heyne SF&F # 5656, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-453-11920-7 .
Collections
  • Radio Plays (1988)
  • DG Compton SF Gateway Omnibus (2014, collective edition)
  • Silent Multitude / Synthajoy / Steel Crocodile (2014, collective edition)
Short stories

1965:

  • Sarah (1965, in: James Turner (Ed.): The Fourth Ghost Book )

1967:

  • It's Smart to Have an English Address (in: SF Impulse, February 1967 )
    • German: feelings on tape. Translated by Leni Sobez. In: Science-Fiction-Stories 35. Ullstein 2000 # 65 (3037), 1974, ISBN 3-548-03037-8 . Also as: The fine English way. Translated by Margret Krätzig. In: James E. Gunn (Ed.): From Ballard to Stableford. Heyne (Library of Science Fiction Literature # 101), 2001, ISBN 3-453-17953-6 .
  • The Eternal Amateur (1967, in: James Turner (Ed.): The Unlikely Ghosts )

1980:

  • Bender, Fenugreek, Slatterman and Mupp (1980, in: Ursula K. Le Guin and Virginia Kidd (Eds.): Interfaces )
    • German: Bender, Fenugreek, Slatterman and Mupp. Translated by Birgit Reß-Bohusch. In: Ursula K. Le Guin and Virginia Kidd (eds.): Grenzflächen. Heyne SF&F # 4175, 1985, ISBN 3-453-31140-X .

1988:

  • Time Exposure (1988, in: David G. Compton: Radio Plays )
  • A Turning Off the Minch Park Road (1988, in: David G. Compton: Radio Plays )

2001:

  • In Which Avu Giddy Tries to Stop Dancing (2001, in: Patrick Nielsen Hayden (Ed.): Starlight 3 )

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Compton, David G.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Compton, David Guy (full name); Compton, DG (alternative spelling); Compton, Guy (alternative spelling); Lynch, Frances (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British science fiction writer
DATE OF BIRTH August 19, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH London