Leading American writer John Updike succumbed to cancer in a hospice on January 27. His mainstream fiction attracted the critics, and he also interested sf/fantasy fans for reasons Andrew Porter sums up:

Updike was the author of 61 books, including  The Coup (1978), set in an imaginary African country; The Witches of Eastwick (1984), made into a film starring Jack Nicholson, Cher, Susan Sarandon and Michelle Pfeiffer; Brazil (1994), a venture in magic realism; Toward the End of Time (1997), whose story occurs in 2020, following a war between the United States and China; and The Terrorist (2006), a fictional study of a convert to Islam who tries to blow up the Lincoln Tunnel. His last novel, The Widows of Eastwick, was published in October.