Henri Richard Bessière (1923 – 22 December 2011) was a French

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

and

espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information ( intelligence). A person who commits espionage on a mission-specific contract is called an ...

novels. His œuvre, particularly abundant, was published primarily by publisher

Fleuve Noir The Fleuve is a breed of horse from Senegal, in West Africa. Its name is the French word for "big river"; it is named for the Senegal River (). It is one of four Senegalese horse breeds, the others being the Foutanké, the M'Bayar and the ...

. Bessière was one of the leading authors of publisher Fleuve Noir's popular imprints ''

Anticipation Anticipation is an emotion involving pleasure or anxiety in considering or awaiting an expected event. Anticipatory emotions include fear, anxiety, hope, and trust. When the anticipated event fails to occur, it results in disappointment (for ...

'' and ''Espionnage''. Bessière was born and died at

Béziers Béziers (; ) is a city in southern France. It is a Subprefectures in France, subprefecture of the Hérault Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region. Every August Béziers ho ...

- a year after his death, his home town announced that a street would be named in his honour. His first science fiction series (1951–54) featured the ''Conquérants de l’Univers'' onquerors Of The Universe a band of Earthmen led by professor Bénac, the inventor of a spaceship called ''Meteor'', who explore the

Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...

. Bessière's most popular series featured the adventures of American

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

Sydney Gordon, his ditzy wife Margaret, his catastrophe-prone son, Bud, and his scientist friends, Archie and Gloria Brent. The series began with serious tales of alien or extra-dimensional

invasions An invasion is a military offensive of combatants of one geopolitical entity, usually in large numbers, entering territory controlled by another similar entity, often involving acts of aggression. Generally, invasions have objectives of ...

, but eventually took a satirical turn. Bessière's other popular series involved the

hard-boiled Hardboiled (or hard-boiled) fiction is a literary genre that shares some of its characters and settings with crime fiction (especially detective fiction and noir fiction). The genre's typical protagonist is a detective who battles the violence o ...

adventures of Dan Seymour, a futuristic

James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

. Bessière also made his mark on

French science fiction French science fiction is a substantial genre of French literature. It remains an active and productive genre which has evolved in conjunction with anglophone science fiction and other French and international literature. History Proto science ...

through a number of non-connected novels that featured an original blend of horror and science fiction. Monstrous aliens threatening to take over mankind were featured in ''Escale chez les Vivants'' top-Over Among The Living(1960); evil entities from beyond human ken whose only weakness was sound invaded Earth in ''Les Maîtres du Silence'' he Masters Of Silence(1965); ''Cette Lueur Qui Venait Des Ténèbres'' hat Light Which Came From The Dark(1967) featured ghastly

body-snatching Body snatching is the illicit removal of corpses from graves, morgues, and other burial sites. Body snatching is distinct from the act of grave robbery as grave robbing does not explicitly involve the removal of the corpse, but rather theft from ...

parasites Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives (at least some of the time) on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The en ...

. The ultimately doomed reconquest of a post-cataclysmic Earth ruled by

mutant In biology, and especially in genetics, a mutant is an organism or a new genetic character arising or resulting from an instance of mutation, which is generally an alteration of the DNA sequence of the genome or chromosome of an organism. It i ...

s and deadly lifeforms, was the subject of ''Légion Alpha'' (1961), ''Les Sept Anneaux de Rhéa'' he Seven Rings Of Rhea(1962), in which Earth was described as seven concentric spheres with

Hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location or state in the afterlife in which souls are subjected to punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history sometimes depict hells as eternal destinations, such as Christianity and I ...

at its core, and ''Les Jardins de l’Apocalypse''

he Gardens Of The Apocalypse He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...

(1963). ''Les Marteaux de Vulcain'' he Hammers Of Vulcan(1969) described a nightmarish

planet A planet is a large, Hydrostatic equilibrium, rounded Astronomical object, astronomical body that is generally required to be in orbit around a star, stellar remnant, or brown dwarf, and is not one itself. The Solar System has eight planets b ...

where survival was all but impossible. Bessière also wrote almost a hundred spy

thrillers Thriller is a genre of fiction with numerous, often overlapping, subgenres, including crime, horror, and detective fiction. Thrillers are characterized and defined by the moods they elicit, giving their audiences heightened feelings of suspe ...

for the ''Espionnage'' imprint of Fleuve Noir under the pseudonym of F.-H. Ribes. Many of these starred a hero called Gérard Lecomte.

Translations

''Les Sept Anneaux de Rhéa'' and ''Les Jardins de l’Apocalypse'' have been translated by

Brian Stableford Brian Michael Stableford (25 July 1948 – 24 February 2024) was a British academic, critic and science fiction writer who published a hundred novels and over a hundred volumes of translations. His earlier books were published under the name Br ...

and published as ''The Gardens of the Apocalypse'' (2010)

References

Notes

Source: Some of the information contained in this article was taken from:
French Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and Pulp Fiction
by

Jean-Marc Lofficier Jean-Marc Lofficier (; born June 22, 1954) is a French author of books about films and television programs, as well as numerous comics and translations of a number of animation screenplays. He usually collaborates with his wife, Randy Lofficier ( ...

Randy Lofficier Jean-Marc Lofficier (; born June 22, 1954) is a French author of books about films and television programs, as well as numerous comics and translations of a number of animation screenplays. He usually collaborates with his wife, Randy Lofficier ( ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bessiere, Richard 1923 births 2011 deaths People from Béziers French science fiction writers 20th-century French novelists 20th-century French male writers 21st-century French novelists French male novelists 21st-century French male writers