Just getting my blog up scratch. My XP PC (10 years old) chugs manfully on Wix blogging but keeps faulting. While I figure things out here's some recent stuff:
Raymond Chandler and Science Fiction
It's tempting to stick things straight out on-line. Write it, publish it, sell it. About two years back I decided to hold things back a little so I could get them properly finished. I'm an impatient kind of guy so that calls for a lot of restraint on my part. The value is this: wait until I'm ready to read it over then finish it off. That's not to say I'm at professional editor standard; if I could afford and editor I'd hire one. This is born of necessity; I go to a lot of writing groups most groups aren't keen to look at projects from the outside - needs mist.
The Human Hunters: The xenophids were discovered by accident on an eco-green-friendly colony. For some reason they enjoy hunting people - maybe it's because we're soft and squishy - perhaps they find screams soothing - or maybe they just ran out of other races to prey on. Destination Earth with a vengeance. Novella book 23k words (2015)
The Last Library: Do angels have gender? Is God Good? Can WelteMenn be trusted? Novella book - 21k words (2017)
Dragon Shard: What's in the interstellar void? Dark matter? (it's invisible). The first human mission finds more than it bargained for. Their fate lies with a denizen of that void. Novella book 18k words (2015)
Elf War: The stone that binds humans together as one species has been found. The guardian has been killed. All that's required is to recite the spell of unbinding and the human race will split asunder. A ten year old Tuvan girl stands between the forces of ignorant curiosity and disaster. Novella book 25k words (2016)
drawings courtesy of the Slothmeister
What about shorter stories? Of the 50 or so knocking about, I would note:
• Tales of the Khaif: (2017) a series of interlinked tales on: djinn, the floating people, night frights, a royal child on the run...
• Tidal (2017): Tinker with the Moon at your peril
• The Oversphere: (2017) a bookish aristocrat, an inheritance, and an otherworldly pact
• Amibanu (2016): A long dead Mughal princess is reincarnated
• I Am Zhargh (2015): Role reversal on classic 1930s 'pulp' monster
• The Epheleri (2012): Never seen an alien? Log onto 'Night of Life'
A couple of months back, Naomi Alderman in the Guardian made the case for Mary Shelley and Margaret Atwood to be considered Science Fiction writers in Dystopian dreams: how feminist science fiction predicted the future.
Would Mary Shelley have recognised Science Fiction? Some in the genre (eg Aldiss) have made the case for appropriating her Frankenstein. Margaret Atwood has made clear she doesn’t consider herself a Science Fiction writer; she’s appropriated some of the garb, that’s all. Obsessions with sex plus nihilism and added miserablism really are tedious fare. Doris Lessing made a far better job of appropriation but then her Canopus in Argos had added Sufi influence.
For a long time there weren’t enough women writing in the genre. My collection includes a good deal by Andre Norton —not a feminist, for baggage she brought her American Indian heritage to bear; and CJ Cherryh —also not a feminist, she just did loads of good SF. Both were prolific and covered the genre from different angles.
I’ve collected everything I can by Ursula Le Guin and still have a high regard for her creations. Elements of Katherine Kurtz’s Deryni cycle prefigure Game of Thrones (just don’t go looking for gratuitous sex & violence).
There’s too little by Zenna Henderson (sadly overlooked). Perhaps Joanna Russ had a lot to say but I found her shouty. I enjoyed Evangeline Walton’s reworking of the Mabingonion (The Children of Llyr, The Island of the Mighty, The Song of Rhiannon, Prince of Annwn).
Going back a little, Leigh Brackett struck me as a slightly superior Edgar Rice Burroughs. The problem with ERB was he reworked old material (if he’s the original formulaic fiction writer, he’s got a lot to answer for). My Leigh Brackett collection is mostly Ace books from the 60s. It includes
That’s missing out many others including Jane Gaskell, Marion Campbell (I was mesmerised by her Dark Twin) James Tiptree Jr, Cecilia Dart-Thornton, Louise Cooper, Leigh Eddings (who cowrote with David Eddings), Mary Gentle (savage and bleak), Tanith Lee. Anne McCaffrey…
There’s a tendency for publishers to typecast their authors which is a real shame. New Wave Science Fiction should have sorted that out but it seems the accountants have taken control (I’m an accountant and mostly what I see is writers treated like machines – but that’s a different tale).
Feminism has a point but it isn’t all. Science Fiction is (it's sparkle and fizz and more). If I say 'time to scan paperback covers and doll this post up', is that a trigger for abuse? Sex and gender was one of the points of New Wave.
Afterthoughts.
Writing isn’t just about the final form, or offering a well machined product that delivers precise dollops of enjoyment; it’s also about exploration and change. Agitprop (or agitpop) can suffer from the energy of the participants which makes it hard to see the art.
Rarely, some authors sublimate themselves and their work to the up and coming authors. Andre Norton achieved this by abandoning her space creations to develop Witch World, a series that ran to many books. In the very first volume of Tales of the Witch World, authors such as: Robert Bloch, Elizabeth Scarborough, A. C. Crispin, Ardath Mayhar and Robert E. Vardeman
contributed to the world. Andre Norton was never highly regarded by the critics which pushes her contribution — an American Indian world view, a reflection of her heritage — under the radar. A pity.
