People: Michael Kube-McDowell

MORE STAR WARS

Since the debut of George Lucas' Star Wars, the adventures of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo and intergalactic friends have become a seemingly inexhaustible industry. Two movies followed, both hits. In recent years, among several new sequels published by Bantam Spectra books, three were written by Michael Kube-McDowell, '76, a resident of the Lansing area since 1986. 'When Star Wars was originally released, I was only a year out of college, and still a year from my first professional fiction sale,' Kube-McDowell says. 'But I never imagined that 20 years later I'd be invited to step into that world as a historian, biographer, and storyteller.'

The author of eight previous science fiction novels, including 1991's Hugo Award nominee The Quiet Pools, Michael wrote the 'Black Fleet Crisis' trilogy in 13 months, from 1995-96. The first book, Before the Storm, made the top ten in bestseller lists. Within months came Shield of Lies, and later Tyrant's Test. 'I couldn't pass up this chance,' he says. 'Star Wars has transcended its origins as a piece of popular culture and become part of 20th Century cultural consciousness.'

A National Merit Scholar, Michael took advantage of MSU's Honors College. 'The eclectic program I put together turned out to be a terrific foundation,' he says, citing courses in journalism and fiction writing, metaphysics and ethics, psychology and sexuality, astronomy and ecology, world politics and intellectual history. 'That's what college ought to be--an adventure in learning, not the narrow pursuit of a saleable degree.' He remembers Lyman Bodman's 'boot-camp tutelage' and also playing viola in the MSU Orchestra under Dennis Burke.

His next work is Trigger, a collaboration with Arthur C. Clarke. 'It explores what might happen in the wake of a device that can disable firearms and explosives at a distance,' explains Michael, who is also a great MSU sports fan.

His web site http://www.sff.net/people/K-Mac includes a directory of MSU athletes in the professional ranks, besides lots of science fiction stuff.