Webb, Sharon

Sharon Webb, Georgia science fiction author, resides in Blairsville, Georgia.

Sharon Webb was born February 29, 1936, in Tampa, FL; daughter of William Wesley (a meteorologist) and Eunice (a teacher; maiden name, Tillman) Talbott. She married W. Bryan Webb (a tax consultant and writer), February 6, 1956 and had three children: Wendy Webb Nesheim, Jerri Webb Thompson, Tracey Webb Kolbinger. Webb attended Florida Southern College from 1953-56 and Miami-Dade Community College, A.D.N. in 1972. She is a member of the Authors Guild, the Science Fiction Writers of America (director of South/Central region; member of national board of directors, 1983-86), and the Horror Writers of America. In Sharon Webb's science fiction novel Earthchild, young people under the age of sixteen are given a special drug that makes them immortal. Adults are excluded from the experiment, and a segment of the population goes berserk with jealousy; they riot and attempt to kill the children. The government is eventually forced to protect the immortals by placing them in custody camps. The author complicates her fantasy tale by introducing the premise that this immortality kills human creativity. Earth Song is the sequel to Earthchild, taking place a century later. By this time immortality is considered the natural state - yet creativity continues to die in those who become immortal. Thus, before their sixteenth birthdays, gifted earth children must decide whether to pursue their artistic dreams during limited life spans or live forever. The author focuses particularly on the life of one fifteen-year-old boy, David Defour, following him to his hard-won decision to fulfill his musical calling. Creativity is also a factor in The Halflife, a medical thriller involving twenty-two year old Tim Monahan, who is invited to participate in a "scientific" study concerning the human mind. The Halflife's suspenseful plot eventually connects ongoing murders in Atlanta, Georgia, with Tim's memories of a boy's death at summer camp. The book also brings in medically-induced, artificial personality and psychic research, along with the CIA. Atlanta Journal/Constitution contributor Brad Linaweaver thinks that The Halflife "is finally a book about fear ... primarily arising from the idea that one might be the unconscious tool of someone else's designs. The mind is the final battlefield." Webb draws on her nursing background to create "a compelling, chilling tale from the darkest bowels of the subconscious, where madness and mysticism may be the only salvation from a Top Secret experiment gone terribly wrong," writes Elizabeth Shaw in the Flint Journal. Shaw continues, "It all adds up to a topnotch medical/spy thriller that is sure to keep readers turning pages to the final, chilling scene." Literature Resource Center. (http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=LitRC&u=uga) Retrieved 6/3/2009.

Robert Jordan enjoyed success in two areas of fantasy writing: as a writer of novels in the continuing saga of the popular sword-and-sorcery character Conan the Barbarian and as the creator of the "Wheel of Time" series, set in an elaborate fantasy world. Speaking of Jordan's work on the Conan books, Wendy Bradley wrote in the St. James Guide to Fantasy Writers that "his additions to the best-known of all sword-and-sorcery sagas are vigorous, lusty, and full of excellent scene setting." Of the "Wheel of Time" series, Bradley reported that "this saga is turning into a really impressive piece of work." Roland Green, writing in Booklist, called the series a "major fantasy epic." Literature Resource Center. (http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=LitRC&u=uga) Retrieved 6/8/2009.