By William F. Wu
Rob Chilson either was born, hatched, or floated to the surface in 1945, a year which was otherwise pretty good. His family was in Oklahoma at the time, but soon trekked off to California to make their fortune. Since most migrating Okies had already beaten them to the west coast by over a decade, however, this didn't work. They returned to the midwest to settle in Missouri.
The contrariness of moving from California to the midwest in order to homestead in undeveloped Show-Me country, in the cultural shadow of Robert A. Heinlein, resulted in Rob Chilson's becoming a hard-headed, science-fiction visionary. Some would consider this a contradiction in terms. For the visionary part, read his work. For the other part, whack him on the head some time and listen to the sound it makes.
In 1968, Rob became one of the last and youngest of science-fiction's published writers who were trained through the famous correspondence with John W. Campbell, then editor of Analog. His debut was made in Analog with "The Mind Reader," a story now characterized by his hope it will never be reprinted and his refusal to show it to me.
Rob's first eleven published short works appeared in Analog, through 1973. His first novel, As the Curtain Falls, appeared from DAW in 1974. The Star-Crowned Kings came out from DAW the following year and The Shores of Kansas appeared from Pocket Books in 1976. In the late 1970s, Rob's short fiction began appearing in a wider variety of publications, including the anthology Universe 7 and the magazines Galileo, Cosmos, and Galaxy, all three of which died out immediately thereafter.
From "Walk With Me" in 1982 to "Distant Tigers" in 1991, Rob had another long string of appearances in Analog, a magazine that refused to die under the onslaught. This string was punctuated with some of his best short work. Though most readers know his work from Analog, many of his best stories were not published there, unless of course he had a collaborator helping him.
For Evidence, see "The White Box" (Analog, December 1985) and "The White Hope" (Analog, November 1986), both done with Lynette Meserole.
Facts aside, consider a change of pace with his best short fiction, "Last of His Breed," collected in Bestiary!, edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois. "Written in Sand" can be found in both Asimov's of December 1979 and in Asimov's Fall-Winter 1980 anthology. Two of his best stories actually can be found in Analog, such as "Slowly, Slowly In the Wind" in April 1984 and "Brain in a Pocket," May 1986. "Gerda and the Wizard," a cover story in Asimov's in March 1990, will be reprinted in the Loch Moose Monster, forthcoming from Delacorte Press.
Rob had three more novels published in the last four years. Robot City #5: Refuge appeared from Ace in 1988. A year later, Questar brought out Men Like Rats: a statement of questionable accuracy. Rounded With Sleep also appeared from
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