Richard C. Meredith

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Richard C. Meredith bigraphy, stories - Science Fiction Author

Richard C. Meredith : biography

October 21, 1937 – March 8, 1979

Richard Carlton Meredith (October 21, 1937 – March 8, 1979),Richard C. Meredith, "An Autobiographical Sketch; August 6, 1975", Starship: The Magazine About Science Fiction, Summer 1979 (Vol. 16, No. 3. Whole No. 35) was an American writer, illustrator and graphic designer, best known as the author of science fiction short stories and novels including We All Died at Breakaway Station and The Timeliner Trilogy.Robert Thurston, "Meredith, Richard C(arlton)" in Twentieth Century Science Fiction Writers, ed. Curtis C. Smith, The Macmillan Press, London (1981) ISBN 0333319451

Published works

The Timeliner Trilogy

  • At the Narrow Passage (1973, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York; revised 1979, Playboy Press, Chicago)
  • No Brother, No Friend (1976, Doubleday & Company, New York; revised 1979, Playboy Press, Chicago)
  • Vestiges of Time (1978, Doubleday & Company, New York; revised 1979, Playboy Press, Chicago)
    • The Timeliner Trilogy (1987, Arrow Books, London, omnibus)

Other novels

  • The Sky is Filled with Ships (1969, Ballantine Books, New York)
  • We All Died at Breakaway Station (1969, Ballantine Books, New York; a shorter version had been serialized in Amazing Stories)
  • Run, Come See Jerusalem! (1976, Ballantine Books, New York)
  • The Awakening (1979, St. Martin’s Press, New York)

Novellas, novelettes and short stories

  • "The Renegades" (Sir Knight, April 1962, v.3, n.4)
  • "The Slugs" (Knight, November 1962, v.3, n.10)
  • "Choice of Weapons" (Worlds of Tomorrow, March 1966, v.3, n.6, #18)
  • "To the War is Gone" (Worlds of Tomorrow, November 1966, v.4, n.2, #21)
  • "The Fifth Columbiad" (Worlds of Tomorrow, February 1967, v.4, n.3, #22)
  • "The Longest Voyage" (Fantastic, September 1967, v.17, n.1)
  • "We All Died at Breakaway Station" (Amazing, January & March 1969, v.42, n.5 & 6, serial; an expanded version was subsequently published by Ballantine Books)
  • "Hired Man" (If, February 1970, v.20, n.2, #14)
  • "Earthcoming" (The Future Is Now, ed. William F. Nolan, 1970, Sherbourne Press, Los Angeles)
  • "Time of the Sending" (If, November–December 1971, v.21, n.2, #157)
  • "Cold the Stars are, Cold the Earth" (Amazing, August 1978, v.51, n.4)

Essays

  • "An Autobiographical Sketch; August 6, 1975" (Starship, Summer 1979, v.16, n.3, #35)

Themes

Meredith’s works take up familiar SF themes: A human Galactic empire and its struggle with a non-human rival (We All Died at Breakaway Station) or with independence-seeking human subjects (The Sky Is Filled with Ships); a theocratic dictatorship, nuclear and biological warfare, and the effort to change history by time travel (Run, Come See Jerusalem!); or the "sidewise" travel into alternate histories and the struggle for control over a multitude of divergent timelines (The Timeliner Trilogy).

Meredith’s protagonists tend to be highly motivated and devoted people, wholeheartedly taking up Earth- or Universe-shaking causes to which they give their all – and often discovering that they had been duped into serving an evil cause, or that an action taken with the best of intentions actually makes a bad situation worse. A reader opening a Meredith book can by no means count on a happy ending – indeed, some of the books can be classed as dystopias.

Biography

Early life

Meredith was born on October 21, 1937, in Alderson, West Virginia, USA, the first son of Joseph and LaVon Meredith. The family moved several times before eventually settling in St. Albans, West Virginia late in 1942 or early in 1943, where his father, a pipe-fitter by trade, found employment as a technician in a chemical plant involved in the development and production of synthetic rubber. The family remained there until 1956, during which time it was blessed with another new arrival – a daughter they named Sandra.