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| Science fiction and fantasy: the wonderful wizards of Oz | Science fiction and fantasy: the wonderful wizards of Oz |
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| If your experience of Australian science fiction and fantasy is limited to Nevil Shute's On the Beach and the Mad Max films, it's time to take another look as the wizards of Oz launch themselves on the rest of the world. | If your experience of Australian science fiction and fantasy is limited to Nevil Shute's On the Beach and the Mad Max films, it's time to take another look as the wizards of Oz launch themselves on the rest of the world. |
| Earlier this year, two major Australian author acquisitions were announced by Macmillan's UK speculative fiction imprint Tor. Sydney-born Ben Peek's Children trilogy was signed in a six-figure world-rights deal after an auction, and the day after it was announced that Tor had also bought two novels by Rjurik Davidson, from Melbourne, in a pre-emptive deal. | Earlier this year, two major Australian author acquisitions were announced by Macmillan's UK speculative fiction imprint Tor. Sydney-born Ben Peek's Children trilogy was signed in a six-figure world-rights deal after an auction, and the day after it was announced that Tor had also bought two novels by Rjurik Davidson, from Melbourne, in a pre-emptive deal. |
| Peek's novels – Immolation, Innocence and Incarnation – are set "15,000 years after the War of the Gods. The bodies of the gods now lie across the world, slowly dying as men and women awake with strange powers." The series by Davidson, an associate editor at Overland magazine, is set in "Caeli-Amur: a city torn by contradiction. A city of languorous philosopher-assassins and magnificent creatures from ancient myth: minotaurs and sirens." | Peek's novels – Immolation, Innocence and Incarnation – are set "15,000 years after the War of the Gods. The bodies of the gods now lie across the world, slowly dying as men and women awake with strange powers." The series by Davidson, an associate editor at Overland magazine, is set in "Caeli-Amur: a city torn by contradiction. A city of languorous philosopher-assassins and magnificent creatures from ancient myth: minotaurs and sirens." |
| Peek and Davidson join a host of names who readers of speculative fiction all over the English-reading world will recognise: Garth Nix, Trudi Canavan, Margo Lanagan, Sara Douglass, Damien Broderick, Cecila Dart-Thornton, Greg Egan, Alison Goodman, Sean McMullen, Glenda Larke, Sean Williams and Justine Larbalestier. Australia has a thriving SF/fantasy scene and two major genre awards – the Ditmars and the Aurealis. Cheryl Morgan is a Hugo award-winning British science fiction critic and publisher who lived in Melbourne for two years. She says: "Back in the 20th century it was hard for [Australian writers] to get noticed due to the tyranny of distance, though A Bertram Chandler and George Turner made names for themselves in the wider world. All that changed in the late 1990s when the internet made it possible for Australian writers to email manuscripts to publishers around the world." | |
| Is there a particular "Australian voice" in the country's speculative literature, though? Jonathan Strahan, from Perth, runs the Coode Street podcast, which has appeared online weekly to discuss SF/fantasy matters, since 2010. He says: "It's certainly easy to point to the impact of Australia's colonial experience, especially in the work of Chandler and the late George Turner (see his classic The Sea and Summer). And it's equally clear that Terry Dowling's far-future Rynosseros cycle is heavily influenced by the geography of the continent, with its sweeping horizons and sun-bleached vistas. | Is there a particular "Australian voice" in the country's speculative literature, though? Jonathan Strahan, from Perth, runs the Coode Street podcast, which has appeared online weekly to discuss SF/fantasy matters, since 2010. He says: "It's certainly easy to point to the impact of Australia's colonial experience, especially in the work of Chandler and the late George Turner (see his classic The Sea and Summer). And it's equally clear that Terry Dowling's far-future Rynosseros cycle is heavily influenced by the geography of the continent, with its sweeping horizons and sun-bleached vistas. |
| "However, if I were to try to pinpoint the real impact of being Australian in a science fiction/fantasy sense I would say that it is to be cast in the role of outsider. Again and again in the science fiction of Greg Egan, Sean McMullen, Damien Broderick and in the fantasy of Lanagan, Douglass, and others, characters are alienated from landscapes – they see themselves and the places they come from as being outside the mainstream of events. It can be a subtle thing, or it can be quite plain, as in Egan's early novel Quarantine, but it's there. Australia may be a large country, but it's a small nation, often outside the sweep of international events. As a culture, it's also one of the most urbanised, with 23 million or so people mostly living perched on the edge of a parched wilderness. The impact of those two things is what really shapes the Australian voice in SF/f." | "However, if I were to try to pinpoint the real impact of being Australian in a science fiction/fantasy sense I would say that it is to be cast in the role of outsider. Again and again in the science fiction of Greg Egan, Sean McMullen, Damien Broderick and in the fantasy of Lanagan, Douglass, and others, characters are alienated from landscapes – they see themselves and the places they come from as being outside the mainstream of events. It can be a subtle thing, or it can be quite plain, as in Egan's early novel Quarantine, but it's there. Australia may be a large country, but it's a small nation, often outside the sweep of international events. As a culture, it's also one of the most urbanised, with 23 million or so people mostly living perched on the edge of a parched wilderness. The impact of those two things is what really shapes the Australian voice in SF/f." |
| Despite the healthy homegrown scene, success for writers depends on getting on the global stage. Ben Peek says: "There's a solid indie press lot, but if you want to reach an audience, the best choice is actually to get out of the country. | Despite the healthy homegrown scene, success for writers depends on getting on the global stage. Ben Peek says: "There's a solid indie press lot, but if you want to reach an audience, the best choice is actually to get out of the country. |
| "Part of it, from what I understand, is the distribution scheme. Once you're published by, say, HarperCollins in Australia, the UK division will be reluctant to take you on because you've already been part of their 'market'. In addition, for a first book the print runs by a mainstream press are about three to five thousand – roughly what a good indie press out of the States will do." | "Part of it, from what I understand, is the distribution scheme. Once you're published by, say, HarperCollins in Australia, the UK division will be reluctant to take you on because you've already been part of their 'market'. In addition, for a first book the print runs by a mainstream press are about three to five thousand – roughly what a good indie press out of the States will do." |
| Rjurik Davidson adds: "I do think the SF scene is relatively healthy, particularly with its indie presses. There are quite a few really fine writers – Angela Slatter, Kaaron Warren, Kirstyn McDermott, etc – published by them here. Having said that, the aim of every SF writer is to be published in the UK or the US, as the size of the market here is just too small." | Rjurik Davidson adds: "I do think the SF scene is relatively healthy, particularly with its indie presses. There are quite a few really fine writers – Angela Slatter, Kaaron Warren, Kirstyn McDermott, etc – published by them here. Having said that, the aim of every SF writer is to be published in the UK or the US, as the size of the market here is just too small." |
| Cheryl Morgan agrees. "Many of the big multinationals have SF&f imprints, and there are some very interesting small presses, most notably Alisa Krasnostein's Twelfth Planet Press. However, to make a living as a science fiction writer, you probably need international sales." | Cheryl Morgan agrees. "Many of the big multinationals have SF&f imprints, and there are some very interesting small presses, most notably Alisa Krasnostein's Twelfth Planet Press. However, to make a living as a science fiction writer, you probably need international sales." |
| The Australian scene also seems notable for the number of successful women authors it turns out. According to Morgan, "This year's Ditmar awards went almost entirely to women, with writers Margo Lanagan, Kaaron Warren, Thoraiya Dyer and Tansy Rayner Roberts, plus artist Kathleen Jennings all picking up major awards." Margo Lanagan, Kaaron Warren, Kirstyn McDermott and other women writers also made an appearance on the Aurealis winners' roster, with Lanagan picking up four gongs. Warren and fellow Aussie Jo Anderton are published in the UK by Angry Robot; Orbit publishes Trent Jamieson and Solaris publishes Rowena Cory Daniells. | The Australian scene also seems notable for the number of successful women authors it turns out. According to Morgan, "This year's Ditmar awards went almost entirely to women, with writers Margo Lanagan, Kaaron Warren, Thoraiya Dyer and Tansy Rayner Roberts, plus artist Kathleen Jennings all picking up major awards." Margo Lanagan, Kaaron Warren, Kirstyn McDermott and other women writers also made an appearance on the Aurealis winners' roster, with Lanagan picking up four gongs. Warren and fellow Aussie Jo Anderton are published in the UK by Angry Robot; Orbit publishes Trent Jamieson and Solaris publishes Rowena Cory Daniells. |
| Morgan says, "Kirstyn McDermott won best novel for The Shadows. Compare that to this year's all-male Clarke award shortlist, and all-male winners of the BSFA awards. | Morgan says, "Kirstyn McDermott won best novel for The Shadows. Compare that to this year's all-male Clarke award shortlist, and all-male winners of the BSFA awards. |
| "It was surprising to me that the two Australian authors that Tor paid big money for are both men. I know Ben Peek's work and he's very good, and I'm sure Rjurik Davidson is too. But, as many people have noted, major UK SF&f publishers appear reluctant to sign women, no matter how successful they are elsewhere. This appears to be further evidence of that." | "It was surprising to me that the two Australian authors that Tor paid big money for are both men. I know Ben Peek's work and he's very good, and I'm sure Rjurik Davidson is too. But, as many people have noted, major UK SF&f publishers appear reluctant to sign women, no matter how successful they are elsewhere. This appears to be further evidence of that." |