Gordon R. Dickson (Gordon Rupert Dickson) Biography

American science fiction writer, born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, educated at the University of Minnesota. For many years he concentrated on space opera tales but from the publication of The Genetic General (1960; enlarged as Dorsai!, 1976), the first of the Childe Cycle of novels, he embarked upon a more ambitious project. The theme of the Cycle, whose further volumes include Necromancer (1962), The Final Encyclopedia (1984), and Other (1994), is that the evolution of humanity is dependent on an upward physical and spiritual expansion to the stars towards a kind of Godhead. Novels written outside the series include Time Storm (1977), The Far Call (1978), The Earth Lords (1989) and, notably, Wolf and Iron (1990), an epic set in post-collapse America.