Mark S. Geston has received only scant attention in current histories of science fiction, though his four novels, written between 1967 and 1976, have been given brief favorable commentary in reviews. Geston is still in the early stages of his work as a writer, but the thematic evolution and the refining of literary technique, especially of characterization, that can be discerned between his first novel and his fourth reveal a rapid literary development.

Geston was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and wrote his first novel, Lords of the Starship (1967), while he was a student at Kenyon College. His second book, Out of the Mouth of the Dragon (1969), is a more ambitious but not completely successful work. Geston's first novels show a fascination with the apocalyptic--his worlds are dying and only death seems meaningful; human despair and the machinery of war dominate these works. They reflect, perhaps, the period in...