Bob Shaw Biography

British science fictionwriter, born in Ulster. From his first novel, Night Walk (1967), he became renowned for the dexterity of his action-filled space opera tales; his early works, such as The Palace of Eternity (1969), featured protagonists of human warmth and complexity. Novels like Other Days, Other Eyes (1972) and Orbitsville (1975), which featured highly inventive scientific extrapolations, also demonstrated a growing humaneness. Later novels included Vertigo (1978), Fire Pattern (1984), and the three tales The Ragged Astronauts (1986), The Wooden Spaceships (1988), and The Fugitive Worlds (1989), set in an alternative universe whose physics permit an hour-glass-like air bridge between twin planets.