Stuart Gordon (writer)

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Stuart Gordon (2007)

Stuart Gordon (actually Richard Alex Steuart Gordon ; born May 18, 1947 in Banff , Scotland ; died February 7, 2009 in Shanghai , China ) was a Scottish writer.

Life

Gordon published his first short story A Light in the Sky (1965) under the name Richard A. Gordon . He was then informed that this name was already used by Gordon Stanley Ostlere as a pseudonym for his well-known doctor novels. When Gordon then used his two first names Alex Stuart as the author's name, objections were raised by Violet Vivian Stuart, who used this name as a pseudonym for her historical novels. Gordon then moved to Alex R. Stuart and eventually to Stuart Gordon . This is the name under which his better-known works of fiction and encyclopedias appeared, and he wrote travel literature as Richard Gordon.

Time Story , Gordon's first novel, was published in 1972 and tells the story of a criminal's escape through time. It was followed in 1973 by One Eye , the first volume in the Mutant Trilogy, which is considered to be his major work. It is set in a distant, post-apocalyptic future, where humanity is struggling with genetic instability and children with obvious mutations are being killed. The one-eyed protagonist is spared this fate, however, as there is a prophecy according to which a one-eyed child will one day bring salvation.

Moves the mutant trilogy on the borderline of science fiction and fantasy , the 1975 published novel is Suaine and the Crow-God (German as The Crow God ) of the Heroic Fantasy attributable to a coherent representation of the Celtic world and the living conditions at the Scottish coast in the 1st century before the turn of the century. Here the young Suaine is training to be a druid and gets into the conflict between the crow god of the original inhabitants of the Scottish islands and Lugh , the god of the Celtic conquerors.

Finally, the novel Fire in the Abyss (1983, German fire in the depths ) is a very unusual time travel story. It reproduces the notes of Sir Humphrey Gilbert , an Elizabethan aristocrat who in the near future will be brought into the present by the American military along with many others and held prisoner in a camp there. Together with some companions from various other ages he manages to break out and as a result they experience various adventures while trying to make their way through a world that is completely strange to them.

In addition to his literary work, Gordon wrote several encyclopedias, hiking guides and, together with Jennie Smith, a non-fiction book on sewage treatment and environmental pollution.

In later years Gordon trained as a teacher of English for foreigners and in 2003 he settled in Shanghai where he taught at an international school. There he collapsed in 2009 on the Liánhuā station of the Shanghai Metro and died shortly afterwards in hospital of a heart attack.

bibliography

Unless otherwise noted, the titles appeared under the author's name of Stuart Gordon.

Eyes / Mutants Trilogy
  • 1 One-Eye (1973)
    • German: Messiah of the Mutants. Translated by Annette Charpentier. Bastei Lübbe # 20013, 1979, ISBN 3-404-01388-3 .
  • 2 Two-Eyes (1974)
    • German: Song of the Mutants. Translated by Annette von Charpentier. Bastei Lübbe # 20020, 1980, ISBN 3-404-20020-9 .
  • 3 Three-Eyes (1975)
    • German: Dream of the Mutants. Translated by Annette von Charpentier. Bastei Lübbe # 20022, 1980, ISBN 3-404-20022-5 .
  • The Eyes trilogy (1978, collective edition)
The Bikers series (as Alex R. Stuart)
  • The Bikers (1971)
  • The Last Trip (1972)
  • The Outlaws (1972)
  • The Bike from Hell (1973)
  • The Devil's Rider (1973)
Watchers series
  • 1 Archon! (1987, also as Richard Gordon)
  • 2 The Hidden World (1988)
  • 3 The Mask (1990)
Single novels
  • Time Story (1972)
  • Suaine and the Crow-God (1975)
  • Smile on the Void: The Mythhistory of Ralph M'Botu Kitaj (1981)
  • Fire in the Abyss (1983)
    • German: fire in the deep. Translated by Alfons Winkelmann. Heyne SF&F # 4918, 1992, ISBN 3-453-05840-2 -
Short stories
  • A Light in the Sky (1965, as Richard A. Gordon)
  • Time's Fool (1965, as Richard Gordon)
  • A Question of Culture (1965, as Richard A. Gordon)
  • The Ultimate Artist (1966, as Richard A. Gordon)
  • The Phoenix People (1970, as Richard A. Gordon)
  • All the World's a Stage (1970, as Richard A. Gordon)
Non-fiction
  • Down the Drain: Water, Pollution and Privatization (1989, with Jennie Smith)
  • The Paranormal: An Illustrated Encyclopedia (1992)
  • The complete Moray rambler: walks & history of the north-east (1992, as Richard Gordon)
  • The Encyclopedia of Myths and Legends (1993)
  • The Book of Miracles: From Lazarus to Lourdes (1995)
  • The Book of Hoaxes: An AZ of famous fakes, frauds and cons (1995)
  • The Book of Curses: True Tales of Voodoo, Hoodoo and Hex (1995)
  • Round Inverness, The Black Isle and Nairn: Walks and History (1998, as Richard Gordon)
  • Round Moray, Badenoch and Strathspey: Walks and History (1999, as Richard Gordon)
  • Round Aberdeen from Beeside to the Deveron (2000, as Richard Gordon)

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Gordon, Stuart
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gordon, Richard Alex Steuart (full name); Gordon, Richard (alternative spelling); Gordon, Richard A. (alternative spelling)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish writer
DATE OF BIRTH May 18, 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH Banff , Scotland
DATE OF DEATH February 7, 2009
Place of death Shanghai , China