Baker, Will
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
Working name of US teacher, environmentalist and author William Edwin Baker (1935-2005), who began his publishing career with Syntax in English Poetry (1967) as William E Baker, his career as a writer of fiction with Chip (1979), one of several novels deeply involved in the world of the American West, and his short career as an sf writer with Shadow Hunter (1993), a post-Disaster tale in which, after a kind of last war has alarmed the powers-that-be, a hybrid species – the Pobla, who are human interbred with ape (see Apes as Human) – dramatizes various issues of significance, mostly Ecology. Baker was a milder, less charismatic prophet of worldwide environmental crisis than his near contemporary, Edward Abbey, and his novels perhaps lack a transcending fury. His second, weaker sf novel, Star Beast (1996), directly follows from the first: the Pobla turn out to carry a virus which may save us from ourselves; a Messiah half-breed will be soon be born, if we let this happen. [JC]
William Edwin Baker
born Nampa, Idaho: 10 May 1935
died Capay Valley, California: 27 August 2005
works
- Shadow Hunter (New York: Pocket Books, 1993) [hb/Kim Mak]
- Star Beast (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1996) [hb/Mike Van Houten]
- The Raven Bride (London: New English Library, 1998) [pb/Mick Posen]
links
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