Richard Bessière is a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

 of science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 and espionage

Espionage

Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...

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

Bessière was one of the leading authors of publisher Fleuve Noir's popular imprints Anticipation and Espionnage. Bessière's first science fiction series (1951-54) featured the Conquérants de l’Universe [Conquerors Of The Universe], a band of Earthmen led by professor Bénac, the inventor of a spaceship

Spaceship

Spaceship can refer to:* Another name for a spacecraft* An Unidentified flr5tyqertaerying object * "Spaceship", a song by Puddle of Mudd from their album Vol...

 called Meteor, who explore the Solar System

Solar System

The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...

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

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

 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

Extraterrestrial life

Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...

 or extra-dimensional

Parallel universe (fiction)

A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...

 invasions, but eventually took a satirical turn. Bessière's other popular series involved the hard-boiled adventures of Dan Seymour, a futuristic James Bond

James Bond

James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...

.

Bessière also made his mark on French science fiction

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....

 through a number of non-connected novels that featured an original blend of horror

Horror fiction

Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...

 and science fiction. Monstrous aliens threatening to take over mankind were featured in Escale chez les Vivants [Stop-Over Among The Living] (1960); evil entities from beyond human ken whose only weakness was sound invaded Earth in Les Maîtres du Silence [The Masters Of Silence] (1965); Cette Lueur Qui Venait Des Ténèbres [That Light Which Came From The Dark] (1967) featured ghastly body-snatching

Body-snatching

Body snatching is the secret disinterment of corpses from graveyards. A common purpose of body snatching is to sell the corpses for dissection or anatomy lectures in medical schools...

 parasites

Parasitism

Parasitism is a type of symbiotic relationship between organisms of different species where one organism, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the other, the host. Traditionally parasite referred to organisms with lifestages that needed more than one host . These are now called macroparasites...

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

Mutant

In biology and especially genetics, a mutant is an individual, organism, or new genetic character, arising or resulting from an instance of mutation, which is a base-pair sequence change within the DNA of a gene or chromosome of an organism resulting in the creation of a new character or trait not...

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

Hell

In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...

 at its core, and Les Jardins de l’Apocalypse [The Gardens Of The Apocalypse] (1963). Les Marteaux de Vulcain [The Hammers Of Vulcan] (1969) described a nightmarish planet

Planet

A planet is a celestial body orbiting a star or stellar remnant that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and has cleared its neighbouring region of planetesimals.The term planet is ancient, with ties to history, science,...

 where survival was all but impossible.

Bessière also wrote almost a hundred spy thrillers 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 Stableford

Brian Michael Stableford is a British science fiction writer who has published more than 70 novels. His earlier books were published as by Brian M. Stableford, but more recent ones have dropped the middle initial and appeared under the name Brian Stableford...

and published as The Gardens of the Apocalypse (2010) ISBN 978-1-935558-68-2