John T. Sladek (John Thomas Sladek) Biography

American novelist and short-story writer, born in Waverley, Iowa, educated at the University of Minnesota. Most of his work can be described as science fiction. After The Muller-Fokker Effect (1970), which features the deconstruction of a human personality into separate computer tapes, his science fiction novels Roderick (1980) and its continuation Roderick at Random (1983), Tik-Tok (1983), and Bugs (1989) all dealt with the conundrums and abysses of artificial intelligence often personified by robots. His short fiction, which is among the funniest ever written in the genre, was collected in The Steam-Driven Boy (1973), Keep the Giraffe Burning (1977), Alien Accounts (1982), and The Lunatics of Terra (1984). Other works include the detective novels Black Aura (1974) and Invisible Green (1977); The New Apocrypha (1973), which has been highly esteemed for its analysis of beliefs such as Scientology; and Arachne Rising (1977), a book-length spoof of astrology, which creates a thirteenth sign of the zodiac.