Raphael, Rick
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1919-1994) US author and journalist who began publishing sf with "A Filbert is a Nut" for Astounding in November 1959 and established a considerable reputation in the field with a comparatively small output of about ten stories, most of them assembled in The Thirst Quenchers (coll 1965) and Code Three (fixup 1966). The first contains four good stories, the best of which is the title story about professionals in a future where Earth's water is carefully rationed, their job being its proper allocation (see also Weather Control). Code Three describes, in three long episodes, the way of life of the police who patrol the superhighways of the future in enormously complex vehicles made to cope with the huge speeds and corresponding irresponsibility on the roads (see Transportation); it is one of the first Genre SF tales to treat the burgeoning superhighway system in America as a subject worth focusing on. Raphael was at his best when describing, in positive terms, the life of those who must deal professionally with a technological world. The President Must Die (1981) is a Near Future thriller. The posthumously published The Thirst Quenchers and Three Other Science Fiction Tales (coll 2010), comprising four stories, has only its title story in common with the 1965 collection. [JC]
see also: Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award; Crime and Punishment.
Rick Raphael
born New York: 20 February 1919
died Golden Valley, Minnesota: 4 January 1994
works
- Code Three (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1966) [fixup: first appeared February-June 1962 Analog: plus other material: hb/]
- Code Three (no place given: Project Gutenberg, 2006) [novella: ebook: cut, comprising title portion only: first appeared February-June 1962 Analog: na/]
- The President Must Die (New York: W W Norton, 1981) [hb/]
collections and stories
- The Thirst Quenchers (London: Victor Gollancz, 1965) [coll: hb/nonpictorial]
- A Filbert Is a Nut (no place given: Project Gutenberg, 2007) [story: ebook: first appeared April 1960 Astounding/Analog: na/]
- Make Mine Homogenized (no place given: Project Gutenberg, 2008) [story: ebook: first appeared November 1959 Astounding: na/]
- The Thirst Quenchers (no place given: Project Gutenberg, 2009) [story: ebook: first appeared September 1963 Analog: na/]
- The Thirst Quenchers and Three Other Science Fiction Tales (no place given: World Library Classics, 2010) [coll: not a vt of the 1965 coll above: pb/]
links
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