Jolt Country

George Effinger, 55, science-fiction author



04/30/02

By Susan Larson
Book editor/The Times-Picayune

George Alec Effinger, a science-fiction writer who won top awards in his literary field, died Friday of undetermined causes at his New Orleans home. He was 55.

A Cleveland native who had lived most of the past 30 years in New Orleans, Mr. Effinger wrote hundreds of short stories and more than 20 books, including mysteries and crime novels in addition to science fiction. He also created several computer role-playing games.

He is perhaps best known for "Schrodinger's Kitten," the novelette that won both the Hugo in 1988 and the Nebula in 1989, science fiction's most prestigious awards. His other well-known works were a trilogy of futuristic stories, influenced by Raymond Chandler and based on the recurring character of detective Marid Audran: "When Gravity Fails," "A Fire in the Sun" and "The Exile Kiss," in which the French Quarter is transformed into a futuristic Arabic city called the Budayeen.

Other works include the novel "What Entropy Means to Me" and the award-winning short story "The Aliens Who Knew, I Mean, Everything." But Mr. Effinger's work, filled with fine characterization and dark humor, transcended genre.

Mr. Effinger originally intended to become a surgeon but dropped out of Yale University to live in New York. He returned to Yale, but soon it became clear that writing would be his chosen profession.

His first wife, whom he met while she was browsing in the
science-fiction section of the New York bookstore where he worked, introduced him to Damon Knight and Kate Wilhelm, two of the best-known science-fiction writers in the country, who became important mentors to Mr. Effinger.

He said that his writing career really began with a summer writing workshop in Pennsylvania in 1970: "I wrote my first story, sold my first novel, and I never looked back."

Mr. Effinger moved to New Orleans after attending a writing workshop at Tulane University in 1971, and, finding the city an inspiration, he entered his most productive writing period. In addition to writing, he taught a popular creative-writing class at the University of New Orleans Metropolitan College, and many of his students went on to become friends, meeting with Mr. Effinger in a monthly writing group. He was a frequent guest at science-fiction conventions throughout the country and a collector of Depression glass, which played an important part in his novel "Heroics."

His favorite word, he once said, was "terrific." "I have my characters say it under any possible circumstances. It means whatever it means at the moment, from tremendous praise to tremendous put-down."

When Mr. Effinger married his third wife, novelist Barbara Hambly, in 1998, he moved to Los Angeles. "We were co-guests of honor at a science-fiction convention, and it was love at first sight," Hambly said. "We were married in November of 1998."

Mr. Effinger returned to New Orleans in the spring of 2000 after he and Hambly divorced. "He had talent to burn, and he burned it," Hambly said. "One of the most frustrating things about him was seeing what he could have done. We were in touch daily. Since the divorce and since he moved back to New Orleans, we spoke daily. We were best friends."

Mr. Effinger's life was complicated by recurring illness and addictions to painkillers and alcohol, Hambly said. "In the last four years of his life, he went through rehab twice, he was in 12-step programs. The last five months of his life he was completely clean and sober. He was working again, he has two short stories in anthologies coming out in the next couple of months, and he had a good shot at getting his life back together and starting his career again. He put up a hell of a fight."

Mr. Effinger, long appreciated worldwide in science fiction circles, regretted not having a higher profile in his adopted hometown. "I'm to Japan what Jerry Lewis is to France. They love me over there," he once said.

Mr. Effinger is survived by Hambly, who is his literary executor.

A memorial may be planned later.