[brian s]

Posted on Tuesday 08 July 2008
Noted SF author Thomas M. Disch commits suicide

Acclaimed American science fiction author Thomas M. Disch committed suicide on July 4th in New York, aged 68.

Disch’s work covered a variety of fields, including the satirical On Wings of Song, a 1980 Hugo and Nebula Award finalist about a near-future where talented singers could use a device to transcend their bodies, and the children’s novella The Brave Little Toaster. He wrote a quartet of contemporary horror novels between 1984 and 1999, and had earlier written the definitive novel based on the TV series The Prisoner.

The writer received criticism for his definition of science fiction as a branch of children’s literature in the 1976 essay The Embarrassments of Science Fiction, and was renowned for his acerbic and demanding reviews. His most recent collection of essays On SF was published in 2005.

A new short novel and a new collection are all due to be published before the end of 2008.

[krish]

he also kept this LiveJournal account, and submitted his last entry on 2nd July
- http://tomsdisch.livejournal.com

RIP

[Drongo]

Very sad news.

I used to greatly enjoy his contributions to New Worlds.