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September 15, 2006
Oh, Valinda!
This story is by Michael G. Coney (1932-2005), author of more than a dozen novels, a short story collection (which does not include this story), and the Song of Earth series. He was nominated for the Nebula award for "Tea and Hamsters" (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (January 1995)) and won the British Science Fiction Award in 1977. He was also nominated for the Aurora Award 5 times. He is best remembered for his novel Hello Summer, Goodbye (US title: Rax) and its sequel I Remember Pallahaxi.
He published his first novel in 1972, so this short story is a very early work of his. It is one of those tales whose setting is SF but whose plot and dialogue come from another genre: this is a story about vendetta, prejudice, personal hatred, a kind of cut-throat espionage. The SF setting is original: I cant think of many SF works that start from arctic marine biology. The story also has an interesting take on 'space madness' - how humans may adapt to being alone in large, empty, isolated environments. I recommend it, even though I like my aliens more alien and prefer my SF to permeate more than a pieces setting.
An Interview with Coney: http://www.lib.rochester.edu/Camelot/intrvws/coney.htm
An Appreciation by John Clute: http://tinyurl.com/zyzw2
A Remembrance by The Lonely Cry: http://www.lonelycry.ca/mconey.html
Next time: a short story by Frederik Pohl.
-LV
Posted by lisav at September 15, 2006 10:54 PM