HG Francis

HG Francis (born January 14, 1936 in Itzehoe ; † November 3, 2011 in Hamburg ; actually Hans Gerhard Franciskowsky ) was a German author of books and radio plays . He wrote under numerous pseudonyms science fiction - novels and youth radio plays. From 1971 to 2004 he was a permanent member of the Perry-Rhodan series.

Life

After graduating from high school , the amateur swimmer (youth champion in Schleswig-Holstein ) studied economics and social sciences in Hamburg . He then worked as a regional manager for a pharmaceutical company.

HG Francis has been interested in literature and science fiction since his youth. Inspired by the works of Isaac Asimov and Poul Anderson , he published his first novel The Five Oligos in 1962 . Shortly thereafter, his first volume appeared in the SF series Mark Powers , but under the publisher's pseudonym Ted Scott . There were other novels, in addition to Mark Powers he wrote several Utopia novels and the series Ren Dhark of Kurt Brand with. The author developed his own Rex Corda series in the mid-1960s . The series appeared from November 7, 1966 in the Bastei publishing house , but was discontinued on August 28, 1967 after 38 volumes.

From 1970 Francis became active in the Perry-Rhodan series, first in the sister series Atlan , then from 1971 also for the Perry-Rhodan series itself. His first volume was number 518 and was called Sturmlauf in den Tod . In the following thirty years he wrote more than 200 booklet novels for the series .

He gave up his work as area manager in 1972 and became a full-time writer .

In 1986 the author caused a sensation with his novel Die vom Fifth Hundert . It is the significantly expanded version of a novel published in 1970. In the story, Francis describes a future in which all people live in skyscrapers that are connected to one another by transmitters . Nobody knows the great outdoors anymore.

In addition to his work with Perry Rhodan , Francis is also known as the author of many radio plays. He wrote hundreds of radio plays for the Europa label under various pseudonyms . His best-known works include The Scary Series and Commander Perkins . He not only wrote original scripts for series such as Masters of the Universe , but also worked on numerous templates for radio plays, such as The Three ??? , TKKG and some episodes of the Five Friends . He wrote the first Jan Tenner episodes for Kiosk Verlag . In total, Francis wrote over 600 radio plays with a total circulation of 120 million. He received 120 gold records and six platinum records for his radio plays .

The work The Secret of the Bermuda Triangle , which he wrote under the pseudonym Peter Bars , contains actual events. The trilogy The Time Machine is about a team of scientists who undertook time travel to the cultures of the Maya and the Egyptians and an expedition to the sunken city of Tiahuanaco .

HG Francis was characterized by tremendous productivity and versatility. In addition to his work at Perry Rhodan , which he hired in 2005, he wrote a lot of animal books, horse stories (for example, Wendy books), non-fiction and historical novels. He described the scope of his activities: “As a writer, I would by no means be full and satisfied if I could only work in one genre [...] What is important to me is the diversity and the challenge of new topics. The spectrum of topics cannot be wide enough for me. "

In the summer of 2009, Francis suffered a severe stroke from which he did not recover. In 2011 he died of the long-term effects.

Pseudonyms

Franciskowsky wrote under the following pseudonyms:

• HG Francis
• Hans G. Francis
• HG Francisco
• Gunther Frank
• Peter Bars
• Cade C. Merrit
• RC Quoos-Raabe
• Frank Sky
• Hans G. Stelling
• Dick Farlow (with Jan Tenner)

and under the publishing pseudonym Ted Scott.

literature

• Hans Joachim Alpers and Thomas M. Loock: Interview with HG Francis. In: Reading book of German Science Fiction 1984 , edited by Hans Joachim Alpers and Thomas M. Loock (Edition Futurum Vol. 4), Corian Verlag, Meitingen 1983. ISBN 3-89048-204-X

Web links

• Literature by and about HG Francis in the catalog of the German National Library
• HG Francis in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (English)
• Works by and about HG Francis at Open Library
• HG Francis on the page of the Perry-Rhodan series
• HG Francis on the Perry Rhodan Action series
• HG Francis in the Perrypedia
• Obituary by Stefan Pannor on Spiegel Online .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ HG Francis has passed away ( Memento of the original from November 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the official website of the Perry-Rhodan series. 
2. ↑ Commander Francis . Report in the magazine HörBücher 06/2008.
3. ↑ HG Francis ( Memento of the original from July 16, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the page of the Perry-Rhodan series.