Frost, Gregory
Entry updated 12 June 2023. Tagged: Author.
(1951- ) US author who has been heavily involved in writers' workshops including Clarion and who began publishing sf with "In the Sunken Museum" for Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone Magazine in 1981; most of his work for a decade was governed by its fantasy tone, including his first novel, Lyrec (1984), which does evoke Parallel Worlds but within a structure of story that does not permit an sf reading. His later sequence – the Crimson Spear tales, based on Celtic mythology and comprising Tain (1986) and Remscela (1988), both assembled as Crimson Spear: The Blood of Cú Chulainn (omni 1998) – is pure fantasy.
The Pure Cold Light (1993), on the other hand, is sf, though its plot does play on after-death experiences in a manner peculiarly stretching of the sf frame; overall, though, the book is a remarkably ingenious tale of government and corporation conspiracies involving possible Aliens, Cyberpunk riffs in the wastes of Near-Future Philadelphia, a female private investigator, and a Drug – Orbitol – whose reality-challenging effects are reminiscent of some passages in the work of Philip K Dick. Literary allusions abound, and wit, and excesses of narrative energy; but because the basic tale veers into the incredible and the camp, it seemed clear then – and continues to seem clear – that what Frost needs in future is a premise capable of taxing his inventiveness. [JC]
Gregory Dee Frost
born 13 May 1951
works
series
Crimson Spear
- Tain (New York: Ace Books, 1986) [Crimson Spear: pb/Phil Hale]
- Remscela (New York: Ace Books, 1988) [Crimson Spear: pb/]
- Crimson Spear: The Blood of Cú Chulainn (Bend, Oregon: Cascade Mountain Publishing, 1998) [omni of the above two: Crimson Spear: pb/Gregory Frost]
Shadowbridge
- Shadowbridge (New York: Ballantine Books/Del Rey, 2007) [Shadowbridge: pb/Thomas Thiemeyer]
- Lord Tophet (New York: Ballantine Books/Del Rey, 2008) [Shadowbridge: pb/Thomas Thiemeyer]
Rhymer
- Rhymer: One Man Battling Through Time (New York: Baen, 2023) [Rhymer: hb/]
individual titles
- Lyrec (New York: Ace Books, 1984) [pb/Romas Kukalis]
- The Pure Cold Light (New York: AvoNova, 1993) [pb/Gregory Frost]
- Fitcher's Brides (New York: Tor, 2002) [in the Fairy Tale series edited by Terri Windling: hb/Thomas Canty]
- Attack of the Jazz Giants and Other Stories (Urbana, Illinois: Golden Gryphon Press, 2005) [coll: hb/Jason Van Hollander]
nonfiction
- A Backward Glance (Merion Station, Pennsylvania: Magic Pen Press, 2005) with John Kessel [nonfiction: chap: a conversation between the two: pb/Jason Van Hollander]
links
previous versions of this entry