Michael Anthony Foster

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Michael Anthony Foster (as author MA Foster ; born July 2, 1939 in Greensboro , North Carolina ) is an American science fiction writer best known for the novel trilogies Ler and Morphodit .

Life

After attending Greensboro High School , Foster studied from 1957 at Syracuse University , at the University of Maryland at the US base in Karamürsel, Turkey, and at the University of Oregon , where he graduated in 1964 with a bachelor's degree in Slavic languages . In 1965 he married Judith Ann Forsythe, with whom he has two sons. He served in the United States Air Force from 1957 to 1962 as a linguist for Russian and after his studies at the University of Oregon again from 1965 to 1976, first in the intelligence service, from 1971 in a starting line for ICBMsand then with the air defense. Foster is also a semi-professional photographer with three exhibitions in Rapid City , South Dakota in 1972, 1973 and 1974.

plant

After two volumes of poetry that were published privately, Foster published the first volume of his Ler trilogy in 1975 . The Ler are a genetically modified race of super humans. In it he processes ideas from computer science, in particular Conway's game of life plays an important role. In the second novel, Die Zan-Spieler , a prequel of the first from the narrative , the game is called Zan , an allusion to Zen , and is played by the learners as a meditative exercise.

The second trilogy is also about genetic manipulation. The protagonist is a sexually ambivalent shapeshifter , who is followed by the narrative through several transformations in which, as a morphodite , he can change sex, at the same time rejuvenate himself, but also lose memories.

Since Foster published exclusively as MA Foster , his empathetic and authentic portrayal of female characters led one to suspect a female author. Foster has not published any science fiction since 1986, although he continues to write.

bibliography

Ler trilogy
  • The Warriors of Dawn (1975)
  • The Gameplayers of Zan (1977)
  • The Day of the Klesh (1979)
  • The Book of the Ler (2006, collective edition of the three volumes)
Transformer / Morphodite trilogy
  • The Morphodite (1981)
  • Transformer (1983)
  • Preserver (1985)
  • The Transformer Trilogy (2006, collective edition of the three volumes)
Single novels
  • Waves (1980)
Collections
  • Owl Time (1985)
Short stories
  • Entertainment (1981)
  • Dreams (1984)
  • Leanne (1985)
  • The Conversation (1985)
  • The Man Who Loved Owls (1985)
Poetry
  • Shards from Byzantium (1969)
  • The Vaseline Dreams of Hundifer Soames (1970)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Janice M. Bogstad: FOSTER, M (ichael) A (nthony) . In: Noelle Watson, Paul E. Schellinger: Twentieth-Century Science-Fiction Writers. St. James Press, Chicago 1991, ISBN 1-55862-111-3 , p. 290.
personal data
SURNAME Foster, Michael Anthony
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American science fiction writer
DATE OF BIRTH July 2, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Greensboro , North Carolina