<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

Australian writer A. Bertram Chandler (March 28, 1912 – June 6, 1984) was the captain of a seagoing merchant ship during much of his writing career, so it is not surprising that his longest and best known series of books revolve around John Grimes, an innovative and adaptable spaceship captain who's career began as an Ensign in the Federation Survey Service and ended with his appointment as Astronautical Superintendant of Rim Runners, a merchant shipping line. Along the way he owned and operated several private vessels, served as master of a private yacht and even did a tour as a planetary governor. Grimes' career spans two distinct periods, that as an officer in the Survey Service and as an employee of Rim Runners. Like Chandler's personal history (serving in the merchant navy of England and then in the merchant navy of Australia and New Zealand) Grimes served two governments. The Rim includes the stars at the outer limits of human expansion and exploration, right at the edge of the galaxy. Several of his novels suggest that the laws of nature might work differently beyond that point, that gateways to parallel worlds might lie in the darkness beyond.

Chandler began writing SF in the 1940s and in fact "Giant Killer" (1945) is still his best known short story. He contributed a huge number of stories to the magazines (over 200) and appeared in nearly every popular title during the 40's, 50's and 60's. His first book, The Rim of Space, appeared in 1958. Most of his novels from the late 1960s forward featured Grimes. A few suggested a more diverse talent, e.g. Spartan Planet (1969, aka False Fatherland), a lost colony story, and Frontier of the Dark (1984), which suggests a very unexpected side effect of faster than light travel. The short lived space opera series that began with Empress of Outer Space (1965) is essentially John Grimes in drag with the Empress Irene filling the title role. His rather satirical The Alternate Martians (1965) is an amusing blend of H.G. Wells and Edgar Rice Burroughs.

His two most significant novels came comparatively late in his career. Kelly Country, originally published in 1976 but later expanded, is an alternate worlds story in which the course of Australian history is dramatically altered. Australia becomes independent shortly after the American Revolution and pursues its own course. John Grimes makes an appearance by way of time travel. The Bitter Pill (1974) is a dystopian novel with the inevitable rebellion, considerably darker in tone than Chandler's other fiction.

Chandler will almost certainly be remembered best for the Grimes books, which have been characterized as "Horatio Hornblower in space". The best of these are The Far Traveller (1977), To Keep the Ship (1978), and The Anarch Lords (1981). His noteworthy short stories include "Zoological Specimen" (1954) and "Cage" (1957).