BARNES, Stephen Emory 1952-(Steven Barnes)

PERSONAL: Born March 1, 1952, in Los Angeles, CA; son of Emory Flake (an employment counselor) and Eva Mae (a real estate broker; maiden name, Reeves) Barnes; married Tananarive Due (an author); children: one daughter. Education: Attended Pepperdine University, 1970-74. Religion: Episcopalian.

ADDRESSES: Home—13215 Southeast Mill Plain Rd., No. C8-243, Vancouver, WA 98684. Agent—Eleanor Wood, Spectrum Agency, 320 Central Park W., Suite 1-D, New York, NY 10025.

CAREER: Writer. Columbia Broadcasting System, Hollywood, CA, tour guide, 1974-76; Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA, manager of audio-visual and multi-media department, 1978-80; creative consultant to Don Bluth Productions, 1981; University of California, Los Angeles, currently instructor in creative writing.

AWARDS, HONORS: Second place in National Korean Karate championships, 1972; Hugo Award nomination, 1980, for short story "The Locusts."

WRITINGS:

SCIENCE-FICTION NOVELS; UNDER NAME STEVEN BARNES

(With Larry Niven) Dream Park, Ace Books (New York, NY), 1981.

(With Larry Niven) The Descent of Anansi, Tor Books (New York, NY), 1982.

Streetlethal, Ace Books (New York, NY), 1982.

The Kundalini Equation, Tor Books (New York, NY), 1986.

(With Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle) The Legacy of Heorot, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1987.

Gorgon Child, Tor Books (New York, NY), 1989.

(With Larry Niven) The Barsoom Project, Ace Books (New York, NY), 1989.

(With Larry Niven) Achilles' Choice, Tor Books (New York, NY), 1991.

(With Larry Niven) Dream Park: The Voodoo Game, Pan Books (London, England) 1991, published as The California Voodoo Game, Ballantine (New York, NY), 1992.

Firedance, Tor Books (New York, NY), 1993.

(With Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle) Beowulf's Children, Tor Books (New York, NY), 1995.

Blood Brothers, Tor Books (New York, NY), 1996.

Iron Shadows, Tor Books (New York, NY), 1998.

(With Larry Niven) Saturn's Race, Tor Books (New York, NY), 2000.

Charisma, Tor Books (New York, NY), 2002.

Lion's Blood: A Novel of Slavery and Freedom in an Alternate America, Aspect/Warner Books (New York, NY), 2002.

Zulu Heart, Warner Books (New York, NY), 2003.

OTHER; UNDER NAME STEVEN BARNES

Ki: How to Generate the Dragon Spirit (nonfiction), Sen-do Publications, 1976.

The Secret of NIMH (animated cartoon), Don Bluth Productions, 1982.

Also author of screenplay The Soulstar Commission, 1987, and of television scripts, including Little Fuzzy (adaptation of the novel by H. Beam Piper), 1979; The Test (adaptation of the short story by Stanislaw Lem), 1982; and "Teacher's Aid" and "To See the Invisible Man" (adaptation of the short story by Robert Silverberg), both in The Twilight Zone series, 1985-86. Also author of scripts for Real Ghostbusters (television cartoon series), 1987, and The Wizard, 1987. Contributor of short stories to Analog and Isaac Asimov's Science-Fiction Magazine.

SIDELIGHTS: Steven Barnes is not only one of the more popular science-fiction authors on the current scene, he is also one of the few African-American writers to make his mark in the world of fantasy literature. Indeed, "the achievements of the versatile [Barnes] have remained virtually unnoticed both in African American literary circles and the broader academic community," maintained an essayist in Notable Black American Men.

A native of Los Angeles, Barnes turned to visual entertainment for his initial career, beginning as a tour guide at the CBS studios; eventually he went on to teach creative writing at the University of Southern California film school. Ultimately, the lure of fiction caught up with Barnes, who studied at Los Angeles area colleges but found fault with academia, feeling that college professors lacked the real-life advice a commercial writer needed to get established in the business. Abandoning college, Barnes chose instead to associate himself with successful writers, a strategy that paid off when he met award winning sci-fi novelist Larry Niven. The two exchanged manuscripts, then embarked on a collaboration that would last through several publications.

Barnes made the move to full-time writing in 1980, fulfilling a childhood ambition. "Before I wrote," he told a Players interviewer, "I told elaborate lies and decided that it would be more interesting to write them down than get the tar whaled out of me for lying. When I was 16, I decided I wanted to be a writer and I've been one ever since." In his science-fiction novels, Barnes usually pits "one talented and resourceful man against a decadent and/or evil social system," explained Don D'Ammassa in St. James Guide to Science-Fiction Writers. "Although the worlds he describes are bleak and repulsive, in each case the resolution of the story is hopeful, indicating that the indomitability of the human spirit will rise above temporary setbacks and persevere."

Barnes's novels Streetlethal, Gorgon Child, and Firedance all concern Aubry Knight, an assassin of the future who has harnessed his deadly talents into doing good in a ruined Los Angeles of the near future. In this ruined landscape, the result of a natural catastrophe, Knight battles the criminals who prey on the bedraggled citizenry. In Streetlethal he takes on drug dealers; in Gorgon Child he thwarts an evil religious cult; and in Firedance Knight leads a band called the Scavengers, who seek to rebuild the fallen city while being attacked by a dictator's hired killers. A critic for Kirkus Reviews described Firedance as ideal for "fans of futuristic martial-arts yarns," while a reviewer in Library Journal noted that Firedance contains "fastpaced action tinged with pseudomysticism." Barnes's interest in the martial arts is also reflected in The Kundalini Equation. In this 1986 novel Barnes tells of a martial arts practitioner whose mental training unleashes hidden mystical forces within, transforming the fighter into a potentially dangerous and inhuman creature.

Barnes's Lion's Blood: A Novel of Slavery and Freedom in an Alternate America is set in a fantasy version of the nineteenth century. In this book Barnes explores race relations—which he called "probably America's rawest unhealed wound" in a Publishers Weekly interview with M. M. Hall. In Lion's Blood, Irish Christian Aidan O'Dere and African Islamic Kai ibn Jalleleddin ibn Rashid create an uneasy alliance after the Africans have colonized the United States. O'Dere, kidnapped from his village, is sold into slavery, and is acquired by the wealthy and powerful Rashid. The lives of the two "connect on a battlefield both metaphorical and physical," as a Publishers Weekly critic put it. In the opinion of Zakia Carter inBlack Issues Book Review, the novel "is an ambitious undertaking, and Barnes ensures success through careful research, strong character development and detailed writing."

In addition to his solo novels, Barnes has also written a number of collaborations with fellow science-fiction writers Niven and Jerry Pournelle. The collaborative works with Niven include Dream Park and The Barsoom Project, both set in a futuristic theme park where reality is dangerously simulated.

Barnes once told CA: "My primary area of interest is human mental and physical development. To this end I research psychology, parapsychology, and kinesiology, practice and teach martial arts, and meditate and study comparative religious philosophy. My major viewpoint is that all human beings are perfect, but that we allow ourselves to dwell in our illusions of imperfection, creating fear, hate, and all negativity in human experience. At any moment we are capable of creating perfection in our lives merely by accepting our divinity. Virtually no Western discipline creates a proper balance between Body, Mind, and Spirit. To this end I have attempted to synthesize a belief system which enables me to grow without ceasing, love without reservation, and face life by accepting death. Life is too short to spend in sorrow or regret and too long to live without sober and informed evaluation.

"To say that 'all men are brothers' is to avoid the real point. We are all expressions of the same Life, call it God, Holy Spirit, Ki, ch'i, prana, kundalini, or anything else you please—these are merely words, symbols, and symbols are only shadows of the Truth. If I have any real goal in life it is to strip away the 'knowledge' I have learned and reenter the Void from which came all things and to which all things must inevitably return."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Notable Black American Men, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1998.

St. James Guide to Science-Fiction Writers, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1995.

PERIODICALS

Analog, August 17, 1981, p. 162; February, 1987, p. 181; October, 1991, p. 163; January, 1996, p. 273; December, 2000, Tom Easton, review of Saturn's Race, p. 132.

Black Issues Book Review, May-June, 2002, Zakia Carter, review of Lion's Blood: A Novel of Slavery and Freedom in an Alternate America, p. 42.

Booklist, November 15, 1993, p. 606; February 15, 1998, Eric Robbins, review of Iron Shadows, p. 990; July, 2000, Roland Green, review of Saturn's Race, p. 2015; January 1, 2002, Green, review of Lion's Blood, p. 824; June 1, 2002, Green, review of Charisma, p. 1659.

Fantasy Review, September, 1986, p. 20.

Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, March, 1981.

Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 1993, p. 1298.

Library Journal, November 15, 1993, p. 103; February 15, 1998, Jackie Cassada, review of Iron Shadows, p. 174.

Locus, January, 1990, p. 49; February, 1991, p. 55; February, 1994, pp. 35, 56.

Los Angeles Times, August 2, 1987, p. B11.

Publishers Weekly, May 29, 1987, p. 67; August 11, 1989, p. 452; December 6, 1993, p. 61; October 16, 1995, p. 46; June 26, 2000, review of Saturn's Race, p. 55; January 21, 2002, review of Lion's Blood, p. 69, M. M. Hall, "PW Talks with Steven Barnes," p. 70; June 3, 2002, review of Charisma, p. 70.

Science Fiction Review, February 1985, p. 41.

Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), July 12, 1987, p. 7.*