André Ruellan

Overview

Among the best authors published by the Angoisse horror imprint of Editions Fleuve Noir in the 1950s was André Ruellan, a physician who used the pseudonym of Kurt Steiner to pen 22 novels, mastering all the classic themes and creating some new ones as well. Perhaps because of Ruellan's medical background, the strength of his novels lied in their detailed, almost clinical, atmosphere of heavy, oppressive, bludgeoning horror, which anticipated the stronger, gorier, books of the next decades.

For the Anticipation science fiction imprint of Fleuve Noir, Ruellan also penned two heroic fantasy novels starring the futuristic knight, Dal Ortog Dal of Galankar. The world of Ortog is a futuristic Earth where sophisticated science cohabits with a pseudo-medieval society. In the first novel, Ortog is sent by its ruler, Karella, to find a cure for the slow death that is killing Earth and its inhabitants after a devastating interplanetary war. Ortog eventually returns with such a cure, but too late to save his love, Karella’s daughter, Kalla. In the sequel, Ortog, and his friend Zoltan, embark on an Orpheus-like quest through the dimensions of Death to find Kalla’s soul and bring her back to Earth. He eventually finds her, loses her again and returns to Earth, cursed with immortality.

Ruellan's science fiction novels are equally remarkable. Le 32 Juillet [32 July] (1959) describes how a man finds himself in another dimension and explores the vast insides of a giant organism. Les Enfants de l'Histoire [The Children Of History] (1969) is a thinly-disguised allegory of the political events of May 1968 recast in future guise. Le Disque Rayé [The Scratched Record] (1970) involves a complex time loop. Brebis Galeuses [Black Sheep] (1974) is a clever medical dystopia.

André Ruellan has written a number of screenplays for film director Alain Jessua. His novel Le Seuil du Vide was adapted into an eponymous 1971 film.