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Thompson, Kate

Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.

(1956-    ) UK-born author, daughter of E P Thompson, in Ireland from 1981, mostly of books for younger readers and the Young Adult market. Most of her work is fantasy (a selection only is listed below), but she is of sf interest for the Missing Link sequence comprising The Missing Link (2000; vt Fourth World 2005), Only Human (2001) and Origins (2004), a remarkably dark tale in view of its young targeted audience, with one of its protagonists seemingly saddled with developmental problems in a Near Future world beset by Ecological degradation. In the event, as the sequence progresses it becomes clear that he is a benevolently intended throwback (see Apes as Human; Devolution; Evolution) to an early and less destructive iteration of the evolutionary tree that Homo sapiens now dominates. Apparent fantasy elements, which include a talking bird, unpack in sf terms (the bird represents another experiment in Genetic Engineering). The research establishment which houses what prove to be dubious initiates is a Keep with secrets to hold; and in the final volume, which is set some centuries hence, after a great Disaster has transformed the world into a Ruined Earth, a clearly delicate rapport is finally established between modified species and the remnants of humanity, who are now known as Grunts. [JC]

Thompson's first adult novel, Down Among the Gods (1997), is a contemporary love story irradiated by myths and legends through being narrated by Hermes. Later adult titles are nonfantastic. [JC]

Kate Thompson

born Halifax, Yorkshire: 23 July 1956

works (selected)

series

Missing Link

  • The Missing Link (London: The Bodley Head, 2000) [Missing Link: hb/]
    • Fourth World (New York: Bloomsbury, 2005) [vt of the above: Missing Link: hb/James Fraser]
  • Only Human (London: The Bodley Head, 2001) [Missing Link: hb/]
  • Origins (London: The Bodley Head, 2004) [Missing Link: hb/James Fraser]

individual titles

links

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