by Lyn McConchie.
William R. Burkett was born in 1943, has written three genre books and has also written several non-fiction/technical works. He’s been a State Representative, U.S. Attorney, District Judge, and Presiding Judge of the Oklahoma Temporary Court of Appeals. His first, and by far the best, of his three genre books, THE SLEEPING PLANET, was published when he was only twenty.
He then became a journalist, left journalism in 1978 for public relations, and moved on again to return to writing as well as his other legal interests. I am unfamiliar with his two linked novels, Bloodsport and Bloodlines, but I am told that in order to appreciate them they MUST be read in that order, and that even so, they have plot gaps, and too many characters that are never fully explained.
But it is for his first book that I have included him in this series. The Sleeping Planet is quite simply a wild SF military romp. Earth is going about its usual business when almost everyone falls asleep and stays that way. Orange-skinned invaders have used the fumes of an alien plant to render Terrans incapable of fighting back but here and there are The Unaffected who remain awake and fight the invaders with all their abilities – and utilizing some very vivid imaginations.
The plot was novel, and the writing so good that at the time I found this book and first read it – in the early 1970s – I wondered if it was not by Eric Frank Russell under another name. The style is similar to his, as was the ability to handle words, and the type of character and as well, there were nuances that continually reminded me of one of Russell’s works. The book ended up on my bookshelves and for some years I kept an eye out for more work by this author.
It was not until I obtained a computer in the late 1990s and while casually chasing up something else on-line one day checked that, that I discovered this author was definitely not Eric Frank Russell under another name. However about that time while rereading both authors I tracked down why his work had reminded me of Russell, and found that the work of which this book reminded me so strongly came out quite some time before Sleeping Planet.
That work was Eric Frank Russell’s brilliant Next of Kin. It originally appeared in Astounding in 1956 as a story entitled PLUS X. It appeared two years later as one half of an Ace double entitled, The Space Willies, and finally from Mayflower in 1962 as Next of Kin. So why did Sleeping Planet remind me of Next of Kin so strongly? Because the central theme is similar in each. In both works a human in the hands of hostile aliens convinces them that invisible ghosts/spirits will take revenge on the aliens- who are superstitious. And the humor, the smart comments and the wisecracks of human to alien also ring the same note.
I am not saying there was plagiarism, but I do think it possible that Burkett as a boy had read one of the incarnations of Next of Kin and was unconsciously influenced. If so it only improved the work. I see from the reviews of Burkett’s two more recent genre works, that he should have continued in that style. The Sleeping Planet was and is a terrific “military space opera” book. And I recommend it to those who enjoy good quality ‘space opera’ of the wild adventures type of tale.
Bibliography
The Sleeping Planet - assortment of publishers and times of publication. Originally published in sections in Analog in 1964 when Burkett was twenty, in hardcover from Doubleday in 1965, the copy I have is a hardcover from the UK SFBC 1966. The book is also available in a free Torrent download.
Bloodsport 1997 Eos
Bloodlines 1998 Eos
Showing posts with label Lyn McConchie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lyn McConchie. Show all posts
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
HAVE YOU OVERLOOKED – H. BEAM PIPER?
Piper wrote over an eighteen year period with his first short story published in Astounding in 1947, and works written in his lifetime but still coming to light being published into 1984 with continuing reprints in this century. He was a self-educated man, the son of a minister, and at 18 he went to work for the Pennsylvania Railroad. Hence he was already in his 40s when his first work appeared.
Piper is best known for his two series, the Terran-Human Future History, and the (shorter) "Paratime" alternate history tales. He also produced a one-off mystery, based on his own gun collection and his extensive knowledge of guns – Murder in the Gunroom, (available on the Abandoned Towers website. As a mystery enthusiast I can say that the work is solidly written, not brilliant, but very competent, and of considerable interest to anyone who is knowledgeable about guns.)
But it is his Terran-Human Future history that produced his best work. Books such as Four Day Planet/Lone Star Planet, Uller Uprising, Space Viking, and Cosmic Computer, along with the three ‘Fuzzy’ books that catch a reader. Most of his books are post-conflict, or inter-conflict in some way. In the first book of the duo, the conflict is civil, in the second it is political based on a potential star-wide conflict that may arise with another race. In Uller Uprising there’s potential about it. The entire book is Terrans hauled bodily into a war with the natives on a planet whose resources humanity has been utilizing.(this book was based loosely on the Sepoy Mutiny.)
Space Viking and Cosmic Computer are stories from periods when another star-systems war has swept through leaving ravaged planets in its wake and abandoning whole populations to manage as best they can. But it is the “Fuzzy” books that were the most popular of their time (the early 1960s). Little Fuzzy tells how Jack Holloway, a sunstone prospector on Zarathrustra discovers a small humanoid in his shower. He makes friends with the creature, names him Little Fuzzy, passes on his belief to a friend that the creature is sentient and then the excrement hits the rotary device.
Zarathrustra is owned by the Company – as an uninhabited class IV planet. But if Little Fuzzy is sentient, then the planet isn’t uninhabited, become class III and the Company will lose the lot. The physical, mental, and political shenanigans after that are vividly plausible. However the series fell on its face after the first two books, which are wonderful reads. Piper wrote a third ms which, while it was known to have existed, was lost for some twenty years. In the meantime William Tuning wrote an Ace sequel – Fuzzy Bones. This gave a plausible reason for the existence on the Fuzzies on Zarathrustra but did make something of an abrupt upward jump in their apparent maturity levels that didn’t show in Piper’s books.
Then the lost third book was found and published and the reader could see that Piper had always intended the Fuzzies to be basically an innocent childlike race that never would mature. Both books have their failings, Piper’s Fuzzies and Other People having the one of its time – that tended to think of all too many native races as “childlike and innocent”. While Tuning – Fuzzy Bones - was writing slightly against type in that he was taking Piper’s innocently childlike race and making them the degenerated remnants of something far greater. With all that however, I find that I prefer Tuning’s sequel.
In the Paratime series, most works are shorter or longer stories, but the one book, Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen is brilliant. (Originally published in several lengths and formats as Gunpowder God.) Self-educated H. Beam Piper may have been, but he had a grasp on possible histories, both in our possible future, and in alternative histories, that is second to none.
Calvin Morrison is the son of a minister (an unpleasant-sounding man with quite a bit in the book about how unhappy Calvin was with him - perhaps a touch of the biographicals there) and is currently a member of the Pennsylvania police force. He is one of several policemen closing in on a vicious criminal when a Paratime transporter accidentally picks him up and drops him several time lines away.
He lands in the middle of a small country that is about to be attacked. He is offered shelter and a meal by a local family, they are attacked, Calvin ex-army, current cop, and armed, fights back, leads the family and others in a counter-attack, and is shot by mistake by Rylla, daughter of the local ruler. This book has a whole series of threads that will catch a reader. There’s the military stuff, knowledgeable and well-written, there’s the alternate history, very plausible, the Paratime overview – a nice adhesive for this and the other short works, and then there’s Calvin whom you simply like.
Like Tom Godwin, the first author listed in this series, most of H. Beam Piper’s work fell into public availability when copyrights were not renewed and Project Gutenberg has most available as free downloads.
About the author there are several conflicting accounts. He was a very private man, there still seems to be some confusion about his first name, I have seen it listed both as Horace and as Henry although I believe he is listed as Henry on his tombstone. There is also confusion about the date of his death – although none at all about how he died.
Somewhere around the weekend of November 6th (possible dates of his death range from the 6th to the 11th) 1964 he closed off all utilities in his Williamsport apartment in Pennsylvania, carefully draped painter’s drop-cloths over the walls and floor and committed suicide with a handgun from his collection. He left a suicide note that read, “I don’t like to leave messes when I go away, but if I could have cleaned up any of this mess, I wouldn’t be going away.”
Two major reasons have been given for his suicide, one is said to be that he believed his career as a writer was over – (his agent had died without informing Piper of a whole string of recent sales) and Piper, a man who loathed charity, was deep in debt. The other reason rumored was that he had recently endured a very bitter divorce, had a large life insurance held by the ex-wife he despised, and his blatant suicide invalidated that, leaving her penniless.
It is a great pity that Piper could not have held on a few months more. He would have learned of the sales made, would have several editors clamoring for new work, and perhaps fans would have had a chance to make it clear to him just how many of us out there liked what he was writing. I certainly did, I am missing only two of his genre books listed, and all those I have were purchased close to original time of publication.
And it is sometimes saddening to consider, he did very good work. What other books and stories would he have written in his series had he not killed himself? Of how much wonderful work did he deprive us readers when he succumbed to the lure of a loaded handgun?
Recommended: (in no particular order) ULLER UPRISING, THE COSMIC COMPUTER, SPACE VIKING, FOUR DAY PLANET/LONE STAR PLANET, LITTLE FUZZY, FUZZY SAPIENS, LORD KALVAN OF OTHERWHEN, PARATIME. Also William Tuning’s FUZZIES AND OTHER PEOPLE, and the excellent John Carr/Roland Green sequel to Lord Kalvan, GREAT KING’S WAR.
(There is a sequel again to that, ( KALVAN KINGMAKER) but as I have never managed to obtain a copy I am unable to recommend it. However John Carr is a fine writer, so I’d expect it to be another good follow up to Lord Kalvan.)
by Lyn McConchie
Piper is best known for his two series, the Terran-Human Future History, and the (shorter) "Paratime" alternate history tales. He also produced a one-off mystery, based on his own gun collection and his extensive knowledge of guns – Murder in the Gunroom, (available on the Abandoned Towers website. As a mystery enthusiast I can say that the work is solidly written, not brilliant, but very competent, and of considerable interest to anyone who is knowledgeable about guns.)
But it is his Terran-Human Future history that produced his best work. Books such as Four Day Planet/Lone Star Planet, Uller Uprising, Space Viking, and Cosmic Computer, along with the three ‘Fuzzy’ books that catch a reader. Most of his books are post-conflict, or inter-conflict in some way. In the first book of the duo, the conflict is civil, in the second it is political based on a potential star-wide conflict that may arise with another race. In Uller Uprising there’s potential about it. The entire book is Terrans hauled bodily into a war with the natives on a planet whose resources humanity has been utilizing.(this book was based loosely on the Sepoy Mutiny.)
Space Viking and Cosmic Computer are stories from periods when another star-systems war has swept through leaving ravaged planets in its wake and abandoning whole populations to manage as best they can. But it is the “Fuzzy” books that were the most popular of their time (the early 1960s). Little Fuzzy tells how Jack Holloway, a sunstone prospector on Zarathrustra discovers a small humanoid in his shower. He makes friends with the creature, names him Little Fuzzy, passes on his belief to a friend that the creature is sentient and then the excrement hits the rotary device.
Zarathrustra is owned by the Company – as an uninhabited class IV planet. But if Little Fuzzy is sentient, then the planet isn’t uninhabited, become class III and the Company will lose the lot. The physical, mental, and political shenanigans after that are vividly plausible. However the series fell on its face after the first two books, which are wonderful reads. Piper wrote a third ms which, while it was known to have existed, was lost for some twenty years. In the meantime William Tuning wrote an Ace sequel – Fuzzy Bones. This gave a plausible reason for the existence on the Fuzzies on Zarathrustra but did make something of an abrupt upward jump in their apparent maturity levels that didn’t show in Piper’s books.
Then the lost third book was found and published and the reader could see that Piper had always intended the Fuzzies to be basically an innocent childlike race that never would mature. Both books have their failings, Piper’s Fuzzies and Other People having the one of its time – that tended to think of all too many native races as “childlike and innocent”. While Tuning – Fuzzy Bones - was writing slightly against type in that he was taking Piper’s innocently childlike race and making them the degenerated remnants of something far greater. With all that however, I find that I prefer Tuning’s sequel.
In the Paratime series, most works are shorter or longer stories, but the one book, Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen is brilliant. (Originally published in several lengths and formats as Gunpowder God.) Self-educated H. Beam Piper may have been, but he had a grasp on possible histories, both in our possible future, and in alternative histories, that is second to none.
Calvin Morrison is the son of a minister (an unpleasant-sounding man with quite a bit in the book about how unhappy Calvin was with him - perhaps a touch of the biographicals there) and is currently a member of the Pennsylvania police force. He is one of several policemen closing in on a vicious criminal when a Paratime transporter accidentally picks him up and drops him several time lines away.
He lands in the middle of a small country that is about to be attacked. He is offered shelter and a meal by a local family, they are attacked, Calvin ex-army, current cop, and armed, fights back, leads the family and others in a counter-attack, and is shot by mistake by Rylla, daughter of the local ruler. This book has a whole series of threads that will catch a reader. There’s the military stuff, knowledgeable and well-written, there’s the alternate history, very plausible, the Paratime overview – a nice adhesive for this and the other short works, and then there’s Calvin whom you simply like.
Like Tom Godwin, the first author listed in this series, most of H. Beam Piper’s work fell into public availability when copyrights were not renewed and Project Gutenberg has most available as free downloads.
About the author there are several conflicting accounts. He was a very private man, there still seems to be some confusion about his first name, I have seen it listed both as Horace and as Henry although I believe he is listed as Henry on his tombstone. There is also confusion about the date of his death – although none at all about how he died.
Somewhere around the weekend of November 6th (possible dates of his death range from the 6th to the 11th) 1964 he closed off all utilities in his Williamsport apartment in Pennsylvania, carefully draped painter’s drop-cloths over the walls and floor and committed suicide with a handgun from his collection. He left a suicide note that read, “I don’t like to leave messes when I go away, but if I could have cleaned up any of this mess, I wouldn’t be going away.”
Two major reasons have been given for his suicide, one is said to be that he believed his career as a writer was over – (his agent had died without informing Piper of a whole string of recent sales) and Piper, a man who loathed charity, was deep in debt. The other reason rumored was that he had recently endured a very bitter divorce, had a large life insurance held by the ex-wife he despised, and his blatant suicide invalidated that, leaving her penniless.
It is a great pity that Piper could not have held on a few months more. He would have learned of the sales made, would have several editors clamoring for new work, and perhaps fans would have had a chance to make it clear to him just how many of us out there liked what he was writing. I certainly did, I am missing only two of his genre books listed, and all those I have were purchased close to original time of publication.
And it is sometimes saddening to consider, he did very good work. What other books and stories would he have written in his series had he not killed himself? Of how much wonderful work did he deprive us readers when he succumbed to the lure of a loaded handgun?
Recommended: (in no particular order) ULLER UPRISING, THE COSMIC COMPUTER, SPACE VIKING, FOUR DAY PLANET/LONE STAR PLANET, LITTLE FUZZY, FUZZY SAPIENS, LORD KALVAN OF OTHERWHEN, PARATIME. Also William Tuning’s FUZZIES AND OTHER PEOPLE, and the excellent John Carr/Roland Green sequel to Lord Kalvan, GREAT KING’S WAR.
(There is a sequel again to that, ( KALVAN KINGMAKER) but as I have never managed to obtain a copy I am unable to recommend it. However John Carr is a fine writer, so I’d expect it to be another good follow up to Lord Kalvan.)
by Lyn McConchie
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Overlooked Author - Gael Baudino
HAVE YOU OVERLOOKED – GAEL BAUDINO?
By Lyn McConchie, science fiction and fantasy author.
Gael Baudino born in 1955, started selling in the 1980s. Most of her work is solid but not outstanding. Always competent and sometimes compelling, it appeals more to women than men, is primarily fantasy from a semi-real background, and is a worthy read-once. However, here and there she has produced work that is outstanding. Her standalone fantasy, Gossamer Axe, published in 1990 is that one book that seizes a reader. (Happily here and there copies can still be found. If you are female/a heavy metal music lover, then see if you can find it, G.A. appeals in particular to women and/or heavy metal music lovers.)
It’s the story of a girl who became a harper in ancient Ireland, and who through folly and bravado ended up with her lover taken into Faerie, and who, even after so long, is still determined to get her back. She raises a heavy metal band because heavy metal is so far away from the dreamy harp song that prevails where they were. And with the band on a night of magic and conflict she comes to tear down the walls between Faerie and the human world.
Yes, it’s an odd theme, unusual musical background, and yet it works. Since the book first appeared there’s been considerable comparison between it and Emma Bull’s War For the Oaks. I think the comparers are wrong, both books have their own strengths, and I don’t think that Gael drew from Oaks at all, despite the fact that Oaks appeared three years earlier. In some ways, this is considerably the better book. The main female character is a more interesting personality, and has considerably more of a backbone. But the book is very female-centered, I doubt many men would enjoy it, however for women it hits home very powerfully, particularly in the song that is used and reused throughout the book. That too is likely to strike a chord with almost any woman reader.
And while Baudino’s short stories also mostly fit my book description, predominantly fantasy, competent but not hugely outstanding, there’s one short story that is stunning and I recommend it to Military SF readers of any persuasion. That’s “Bitterroot”, in Sisters in Fantasy II edited by Susan Swartz 1996. It’s set during a war, and it’s savagely, brutally, and cruelly real. And I suspect that any combat pilot – or those knowledgeable on the subject - will read it and nod recognition.
I met Gael in 1995 at a convention in Wales (Bangor) she reminded me of one of her characters, a fine harpist, tall, slender and blonde, and with a mesmerizing intensity when she talked of her work. I’d read Axe by then (twice) and congratulated her on the power of the writing, noting that while I can’t sing (I have a voice like a crow with laryngitis) the book made me ache that I lacked the ability to sing and grieve all over again that I don’t each time that I read it. Gael nodded, then said that there are other ways of singing. Something I have since realized and accepted – and used in my own books, usually by writing songs in them as an alternative. Which has led to others writing the music and singing them for me, a fairly good substitute.
A fair amount of Baudino’s work IS brutal, her fantasy is not sweet, and on a bell curve it falls to the realistic and savage side, the Strands series in particular which begins with a woman escaping from witch-finders and includes graphic descriptions of what’s been done to her in the prison. And it’s all readable, Gossamer Axe and Bitterroot in particular. The lady seems to have either stopped being bought, or stopped writing in the late 1990s, either is rather a pity, if her work had continued to appear we might have seen more work along the lines of the two items I strongly recommend.
Bibliography
Dragonsword Trilogy
Dragonsword (1988) ISBN 1558020039
Duel of Dragons (1991) ISBN 0451450973
Dragon Death (1992) ISBN 0451451473
The Strands Series
Strands of Starlight (1989) ISBN 0451163710 [5]
Maze of Moonlight (1993) ISBN 0451452305
Shroud of Shadow (1993) ISBN 0451452941
Strands of Sunlight (1994) ISBN 0451454081
Spires of Spirit (1997) ISBN 0451455681 - A collection of six short stories set in the "Strands" universe..
The Water! series
O Greenest Branch! (1995) ISBN 0451454499
The Dove Looked In (1996) ISBN 0451454979
Branch and Crown (1996) ISBN 0451455533
Standalone
Gossamer Axe (1990) ISBN 0451450256
This book won the 1990 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Science Fiction & Fantasy.
Short stories
"Lady of the Forest End" - Amazons II edited by Jessica Amanda Salmonson (1982) ISBN 0879977361
"The Shadow of the Starlight" - published in: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (April 1985) An edited/updated version published in 1997 in Spires of Spirit.
"The Persistence of Memory" - published in: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (November 1985)
The Year's Best Fantasy 12 edited by Arthur W. Saha (1986) ISBN 0886771633
The Bank Street Book of Fantasy edited by Howard Zimmerman (1989)
"Tidings of Comfort and Joy" edited by Dennis L. McKiernan - The Magic of Christmas (1992) ISBN 0451451902
"Before" - Lammas Night edited by Mercedes Lackey (1996) ISBN 0671877135
"Bitterfoot" - Sisters in Fantasy 2 edited by Susan Schwartz (1996) ISBN 0451455037
"Charity" - in Spires of Spirit.
"Lady of Light" - in Spires of Spirit.
"A Touch of Distant Hands" -in 1997 in Spires of Spirit.
"Elvenhome" - in Spires of Spirit.
"Please Come to Denver (in the Spring)" - in Spires of Spirit.
By lyn Conche
By Lyn McConchie, science fiction and fantasy author.
Gael Baudino born in 1955, started selling in the 1980s. Most of her work is solid but not outstanding. Always competent and sometimes compelling, it appeals more to women than men, is primarily fantasy from a semi-real background, and is a worthy read-once. However, here and there she has produced work that is outstanding. Her standalone fantasy, Gossamer Axe, published in 1990 is that one book that seizes a reader. (Happily here and there copies can still be found. If you are female/a heavy metal music lover, then see if you can find it, G.A. appeals in particular to women and/or heavy metal music lovers.)
It’s the story of a girl who became a harper in ancient Ireland, and who through folly and bravado ended up with her lover taken into Faerie, and who, even after so long, is still determined to get her back. She raises a heavy metal band because heavy metal is so far away from the dreamy harp song that prevails where they were. And with the band on a night of magic and conflict she comes to tear down the walls between Faerie and the human world.
Yes, it’s an odd theme, unusual musical background, and yet it works. Since the book first appeared there’s been considerable comparison between it and Emma Bull’s War For the Oaks. I think the comparers are wrong, both books have their own strengths, and I don’t think that Gael drew from Oaks at all, despite the fact that Oaks appeared three years earlier. In some ways, this is considerably the better book. The main female character is a more interesting personality, and has considerably more of a backbone. But the book is very female-centered, I doubt many men would enjoy it, however for women it hits home very powerfully, particularly in the song that is used and reused throughout the book. That too is likely to strike a chord with almost any woman reader.
And while Baudino’s short stories also mostly fit my book description, predominantly fantasy, competent but not hugely outstanding, there’s one short story that is stunning and I recommend it to Military SF readers of any persuasion. That’s “Bitterroot”, in Sisters in Fantasy II edited by Susan Swartz 1996. It’s set during a war, and it’s savagely, brutally, and cruelly real. And I suspect that any combat pilot – or those knowledgeable on the subject - will read it and nod recognition.
I met Gael in 1995 at a convention in Wales (Bangor) she reminded me of one of her characters, a fine harpist, tall, slender and blonde, and with a mesmerizing intensity when she talked of her work. I’d read Axe by then (twice) and congratulated her on the power of the writing, noting that while I can’t sing (I have a voice like a crow with laryngitis) the book made me ache that I lacked the ability to sing and grieve all over again that I don’t each time that I read it. Gael nodded, then said that there are other ways of singing. Something I have since realized and accepted – and used in my own books, usually by writing songs in them as an alternative. Which has led to others writing the music and singing them for me, a fairly good substitute.
A fair amount of Baudino’s work IS brutal, her fantasy is not sweet, and on a bell curve it falls to the realistic and savage side, the Strands series in particular which begins with a woman escaping from witch-finders and includes graphic descriptions of what’s been done to her in the prison. And it’s all readable, Gossamer Axe and Bitterroot in particular. The lady seems to have either stopped being bought, or stopped writing in the late 1990s, either is rather a pity, if her work had continued to appear we might have seen more work along the lines of the two items I strongly recommend.
Bibliography
Dragonsword Trilogy
Dragonsword (1988) ISBN 1558020039
Duel of Dragons (1991) ISBN 0451450973
Dragon Death (1992) ISBN 0451451473
The Strands Series
Strands of Starlight (1989) ISBN 0451163710 [5]
Maze of Moonlight (1993) ISBN 0451452305
Shroud of Shadow (1993) ISBN 0451452941
Strands of Sunlight (1994) ISBN 0451454081
Spires of Spirit (1997) ISBN 0451455681 - A collection of six short stories set in the "Strands" universe..
The Water! series
O Greenest Branch! (1995) ISBN 0451454499
The Dove Looked In (1996) ISBN 0451454979
Branch and Crown (1996) ISBN 0451455533
Standalone
Gossamer Axe (1990) ISBN 0451450256
This book won the 1990 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Science Fiction & Fantasy.
Short stories
"Lady of the Forest End" - Amazons II edited by Jessica Amanda Salmonson (1982) ISBN 0879977361
"The Shadow of the Starlight" - published in: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (April 1985) An edited/updated version published in 1997 in Spires of Spirit.
"The Persistence of Memory" - published in: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (November 1985)
The Year's Best Fantasy 12 edited by Arthur W. Saha (1986) ISBN 0886771633
The Bank Street Book of Fantasy edited by Howard Zimmerman (1989)
"Tidings of Comfort and Joy" edited by Dennis L. McKiernan - The Magic of Christmas (1992) ISBN 0451451902
"Before" - Lammas Night edited by Mercedes Lackey (1996) ISBN 0671877135
"Bitterfoot" - Sisters in Fantasy 2 edited by Susan Schwartz (1996) ISBN 0451455037
"Charity" - in Spires of Spirit.
"Lady of Light" - in Spires of Spirit.
"A Touch of Distant Hands" -in 1997 in Spires of Spirit.
"Elvenhome" - in Spires of Spirit.
"Please Come to Denver (in the Spring)" - in Spires of Spirit.
By lyn Conche
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Overlooked Authors Series
HAVE YOU OVERLOOKED – TOM GODWIN?
By Lyn McConchie, science fiction and fantasy author.
Tom Godwin was born January 1st 1915, and died on the same date in 1980. In his career he wrote three books and 27 short stories, most of which have very justifiably vanished into the dustbin of history.
Little is known of Godwin who lived for many years in a number of small towns around the Mojave Desert. During this period, he tried to earn a living in widely differing fields — as a prospector and a science fiction writer. He published 27 short stories and three novels in the course of the latter career, and perhaps because he knew the Mohave, his themes often concentrated on human survival in extremely harsh environments.
Godwin is best known and remembered for one short story entitled “The Cold Equations.” This story explains that equations have no mercy, show no pity, and cannot be appealed to by humans. They simply are, and you live or die as a result. The story is heart wrenching. The film, unfortunately, attempted to show a happier ending and blew it. That’s the whole drive of the story: that there can be no happy ending.
Cold Equations first appeared in Astounding, August 1954. The interesting gossip about this story is that when Godwin submitted it, it did have a “happier” ending but Astounding’s editor of the time – John W. Campbell - asked Godwin to rewrite it several times before the author finally produced the cold, brutal tale that has such impact on any reader.
What is often missed is that of the three books that Godwin wrote, one of those is also very good. It was initially published by Gnome Press in 1958 as The Survivors, and then by Pyramid Books two years later as Space Prison.
This book could be described as Military SF with some cause. Earth is at war with the Gern Empire. Earth’s rulers have known this was coming and the spaceship “Constellation” has been running fast and silent for seven weeks in the hope of reaching a new planet, Athena, where settlers can put down roots, and, unknown to the Gern, begin assisting Earth.
However, the Gern have found the Constellation and disabled it, and the settlers are informed that they will be divided into two groups – The Accceptables and the Rejects. The Acceptables will be taken on to Athena to serve the Gern, the rejects will be dumped on an “earth type planet.” They will be graciously permitted to take one small carry bag each before they disembark.
But the “earth type planet” turns out to be Ragnarok, a hell world of 1.5 gravity, terrible beasts, killing weather, and decimating fevers. Onto this world, the Gern’s have dropped two thousand people, a pitiful heap of food and supplies, little useful clothing, and few weapons. Two hundred people die that first night. By morning, the Rejects know what they have to live for - revenge. If they had nothing to use but crushing gravity and deadly beasts, then they would take what they had and use them.
And so they do.
The story of how they survive generations, desperately trying not to loose all knowledge, gradually building back their numbers from a low point of a third of the original rejects, and how they decide that they can call in and use the Gerns to begin a fight for freedom, is inspirational and stunning.
The sequel to this book -- The Space Barbarians, Pyramid Books 1964 --, is adequate. It’s as if someone pointed out to Godwin that the Rejects would have trouble integrating and a book dealing with this would be good. So he wrote it. It slides by, IF you liked the original book a lot and wondered yourself about the Ragnarakians. If you come to it cold, then it’s unlikely you’ll appreciate it.
For those who’d like to read Space Prison, Project Gutenberg has it available on free download as it is apparently out of copyright, and Baen published a compilation of some of Godwin's work in April 2003 under the title of The Cold Equations and Other Stories. This contained the whole of Space Prison, the Cold Equations, and seven other short stories. However, I feel that they'd have done better to publish two volumes, one of all 30 of the short stories, and the other of the two novels - with perhaps the third stand alone novel as volume three.
Most readers of SF aren’t familiar with Tom Godwin’s work. The amount he produced was so small, with much of it mediocre, that he isn’t well remembered today. I think that’s a pity, The Cold Equations, and Space Prison equal many other fine books and stories that are well remembered. I suggest that you see if you can find and read them. Both works will repay your attention.
Godwin managed to have a very long writing career. His first story appeared in Astounding in October 1953, while his last story was published in Fantasy and Science Fiction in March 1980 – almost three months after his death. Twenty-seven years isn’t a bad career length.
Bibliography – Books The Survivors (Gnome Press, 1958) a.k.a. Space Prison (Pyramid Books, 1960)
The Space Barbarians (Pyramid Books, 1964)
Beyond Another Sun (Curtis, 1971)
Short Stories -
1. "The Gulf Between" Astounding, October 1953
2. "Mother of Invention" Astounding, December 1953
3. "The Greater Thing" Astounding, February 1954
4. "The Cold Equations" Astounding, August 1954
5. "No Species Alone" Universe, November 1954
6. "You Created Us" Fantastic Universe, October 1955
7. "The Barbarians" If, December 1955
8. "Operation Opera" Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1956
9. "Brain Teaser" If, October 1956
10. "Too Soon to Die" (basis for his novel The Survivors) Venture, July 1957
11. "The Harvest" Venture, July 1957
12. "The Last Victory" If, August 1957
13. "The Nothing Equation" Amazing, December 1957
14. "The Wild Ones" Science Fiction Stories, January 1958
15. "My Brother" The Ape" Amazing, January 1958
16. "Cry From a Far Planet" Amazing, September 1958
17. "A Place Beyond the Stars" Super Science Fiction, February 1959
18. "Empathy" Fantastic, October 1959
19. "The Helpful Hand of God” Analog, December 1961
20. "...and Devious the Line of Duty" Analog, December 1962
21. "Desert Execution" The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Magazine, July 1967
22. "The Gentle Captive" the original story anthology Signs and Wonders (1972)
23. "We'll Walk Again the Moonlight" the anthology Crisis (1974)
24. "Backfire" Ed McBaines 87th Precinct Mystery Magazine, April 1975
25. "The Steel Guardian" Antaeus, Spring/Summer 1977
26. "Social Blunder" Amazing, July 1977
27. "Before Willows Ever Walked" Fantasy and Science Fiction, March 1980
By Lyn McConchie, science fiction and fantasy author.
Tom Godwin was born January 1st 1915, and died on the same date in 1980. In his career he wrote three books and 27 short stories, most of which have very justifiably vanished into the dustbin of history.
Little is known of Godwin who lived for many years in a number of small towns around the Mojave Desert. During this period, he tried to earn a living in widely differing fields — as a prospector and a science fiction writer. He published 27 short stories and three novels in the course of the latter career, and perhaps because he knew the Mohave, his themes often concentrated on human survival in extremely harsh environments.
Godwin is best known and remembered for one short story entitled “The Cold Equations.” This story explains that equations have no mercy, show no pity, and cannot be appealed to by humans. They simply are, and you live or die as a result. The story is heart wrenching. The film, unfortunately, attempted to show a happier ending and blew it. That’s the whole drive of the story: that there can be no happy ending.
Cold Equations first appeared in Astounding, August 1954. The interesting gossip about this story is that when Godwin submitted it, it did have a “happier” ending but Astounding’s editor of the time – John W. Campbell - asked Godwin to rewrite it several times before the author finally produced the cold, brutal tale that has such impact on any reader.
What is often missed is that of the three books that Godwin wrote, one of those is also very good. It was initially published by Gnome Press in 1958 as The Survivors, and then by Pyramid Books two years later as Space Prison.
This book could be described as Military SF with some cause. Earth is at war with the Gern Empire. Earth’s rulers have known this was coming and the spaceship “Constellation” has been running fast and silent for seven weeks in the hope of reaching a new planet, Athena, where settlers can put down roots, and, unknown to the Gern, begin assisting Earth.
However, the Gern have found the Constellation and disabled it, and the settlers are informed that they will be divided into two groups – The Accceptables and the Rejects. The Acceptables will be taken on to Athena to serve the Gern, the rejects will be dumped on an “earth type planet.” They will be graciously permitted to take one small carry bag each before they disembark.
But the “earth type planet” turns out to be Ragnarok, a hell world of 1.5 gravity, terrible beasts, killing weather, and decimating fevers. Onto this world, the Gern’s have dropped two thousand people, a pitiful heap of food and supplies, little useful clothing, and few weapons. Two hundred people die that first night. By morning, the Rejects know what they have to live for - revenge. If they had nothing to use but crushing gravity and deadly beasts, then they would take what they had and use them.
And so they do.
The story of how they survive generations, desperately trying not to loose all knowledge, gradually building back their numbers from a low point of a third of the original rejects, and how they decide that they can call in and use the Gerns to begin a fight for freedom, is inspirational and stunning.
The sequel to this book -- The Space Barbarians, Pyramid Books 1964 --, is adequate. It’s as if someone pointed out to Godwin that the Rejects would have trouble integrating and a book dealing with this would be good. So he wrote it. It slides by, IF you liked the original book a lot and wondered yourself about the Ragnarakians. If you come to it cold, then it’s unlikely you’ll appreciate it.
For those who’d like to read Space Prison, Project Gutenberg has it available on free download as it is apparently out of copyright, and Baen published a compilation of some of Godwin's work in April 2003 under the title of The Cold Equations and Other Stories. This contained the whole of Space Prison, the Cold Equations, and seven other short stories. However, I feel that they'd have done better to publish two volumes, one of all 30 of the short stories, and the other of the two novels - with perhaps the third stand alone novel as volume three.
Most readers of SF aren’t familiar with Tom Godwin’s work. The amount he produced was so small, with much of it mediocre, that he isn’t well remembered today. I think that’s a pity, The Cold Equations, and Space Prison equal many other fine books and stories that are well remembered. I suggest that you see if you can find and read them. Both works will repay your attention.
Godwin managed to have a very long writing career. His first story appeared in Astounding in October 1953, while his last story was published in Fantasy and Science Fiction in March 1980 – almost three months after his death. Twenty-seven years isn’t a bad career length.
Bibliography – Books The Survivors (Gnome Press, 1958) a.k.a. Space Prison (Pyramid Books, 1960)
The Space Barbarians (Pyramid Books, 1964)
Beyond Another Sun (Curtis, 1971)
Short Stories -
1. "The Gulf Between" Astounding, October 1953
2. "Mother of Invention" Astounding, December 1953
3. "The Greater Thing" Astounding, February 1954
4. "The Cold Equations" Astounding, August 1954
5. "No Species Alone" Universe, November 1954
6. "You Created Us" Fantastic Universe, October 1955
7. "The Barbarians" If, December 1955
8. "Operation Opera" Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1956
9. "Brain Teaser" If, October 1956
10. "Too Soon to Die" (basis for his novel The Survivors) Venture, July 1957
11. "The Harvest" Venture, July 1957
12. "The Last Victory" If, August 1957
13. "The Nothing Equation" Amazing, December 1957
14. "The Wild Ones" Science Fiction Stories, January 1958
15. "My Brother" The Ape" Amazing, January 1958
16. "Cry From a Far Planet" Amazing, September 1958
17. "A Place Beyond the Stars" Super Science Fiction, February 1959
18. "Empathy" Fantastic, October 1959
19. "The Helpful Hand of God” Analog, December 1961
20. "...and Devious the Line of Duty" Analog, December 1962
21. "Desert Execution" The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Magazine, July 1967
22. "The Gentle Captive" the original story anthology Signs and Wonders (1972)
23. "We'll Walk Again the Moonlight" the anthology Crisis (1974)
24. "Backfire" Ed McBaines 87th Precinct Mystery Magazine, April 1975
25. "The Steel Guardian" Antaeus, Spring/Summer 1977
26. "Social Blunder" Amazing, July 1977
27. "Before Willows Ever Walked" Fantasy and Science Fiction, March 1980
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)