foreword by editor Gerrand concisely and intelligently outlines the remit of this volume: to present "the cream of Australian science fiction from the past 50 years." Gerrand's mission statement is immediately followed by a fascinating and knowledgeable history of SF Down Under, titled "Australian Science Fiction: A Feast of Wonder," by Russell Blackford. Then we dive immediately into the massive pool of 30 stories. They are arranged chronologically, and we find more selections from some decades than others, so we'll have to report selectively.
From the 1950s, we get three tales. Frank Bryning's "Infant Prodigy" recounts the startling discoveries of an ESP researcher and his young subject. In "The Cage," by A. Bertram Chandler, we witness humans abducted by aliens who consider them mere animals fit for a zoo, and learn how the humans convince their captors otherwise. And in Norma Hemming's "Debt of Lassor," interstellar conquerors who have ruled Earth for 1,000 years experience a change of heart and try to undo their legacy.
The 1960s are represented by seven tales. Wynne Whiteford's "The Doorway" follows the fate of an inquisitive chap who discovers that his beautiful next-door neighbor is operating a matter transmitter from her bedroom. Chandler pops up again with "All Laced Up," about a time traveler with a yen for the interior decorating motifs of the 20th century. And under the pen name Martin Loran, John Baxter and Ron Smith offer "The Perjured Planet," in which a fellow visiting a colony world in the guise of a roaming Librarian proves a veritable 007.
Another seven stories bulk out the 1970s section. "Re-Deem the Time," by David Lake, presents a man fleeing our era with a time machine, heading into the future, only to ultimately find himself in what inexplicably seems to be the past. The social and cultural rift between Earth dwellers and the orbiting citizens who work supplying them with clean power is explored in George Turner's "In a Petri Dish Upstairs." And Peter Carey's "The Chance" introduces aliens known as the Fastalogians who offer mankind a dubious body-swapping service by way of a lottery.
As we enter the 1980s, we find only two stories making the grade. In "The Government in Exile," Paul Collins depicts a future Australia run by "the Official Body of the Unemployed" celebrating its deadly "Revolution Day." And "The Total Devotion Machine" by Rosaleen Love shows us an ultraefficient cyber-babysitter.
Eight stories are collected from the 1990s. The most famous is surely Greg Egan's "The Caress," in which a madman sculpts humans like clay. Sean Williams gives us "The Soap Bubble," a self-reflective space opera. Two slices of ancient history reimagined fantastically occur in Russell Blackford's "The Sword of War" and Stephen Dedman's "A Walk-On Part in the War." And psychonauts make daring forays into the "revemonde" in "He Tried to Catch the Light," by Terry Dowling.
Lastly, the young 21st century is accounted for by three items. "The Boy Who Didn't Yearn," by Margo Lanagan, features a wild-talent adolescent girl and the object of her crush. Jack Dann's "The Diamond Pit" is a campy, retrostyle adventure. And Sean McMullen's "Tower of Wings" is a medieval tale of the first attempts at flight.
Science fiction's third estate
English-language science fiction has famously developed in Great Britain and the United States in a kind of transatlantic dialogue over the last 100 years. But it is foolish to omit Australia, the third great partner, from that interchange. And this collection proves that the Aussies have kept pace with their cousins quite well, for all their geographic distance and unfortunate neglect by readers elsewhere.
Decade by decade, the discerning reader of this fascinating collection will see the similarities between the developments Down Under and those in the United States and Great Britain. The stories from the 1950s show a literature just coming out from under the sway of Campbellian SF. Norma Hemming's story is equivalent to many an Algis Budrys tale of that era. The 1960s stories show the influence of the New Wave and other fresh literary paradigms. For instance, Jack Wodhams's "There Is a Crooked Man," with its broad, pop-art characters and absurdist action, might have come from the pen of Michael Moorcock, despite having first appeared in Analog. As we move into the 1970s, a story like Michael Wilding's "The Man of Slow Feelings" reaches out toward the work of J.G. Ballard, while other stories, such as "Inhabiting the Interspaces" by Phillipa Maddern, recall classic Thomas Disch.
As the '90s break, Greg Egan appears as the closest thing to cyberpunk, while humanist tales like "Angel Thing" by Petrina Smith might have issued from the pen of Connie Willis or John Kessel. And the great space-opera revival still underway finds an exponent in Sean Williams. Finally, the 21st century shows writers with a broad palette of narrative options condensed from the whole historical past, all the way from Jack Dann's postmodern boys'-tale romp to McMullen's secret history of flight.
So this anthology eminently fulfills its mandate in the most entertaining of fashions, showing us heretofore-benighted readers that our brethren in the antipodes have assimilated all the waves and movements of the past 50 years and churned up any number of very talented writers to embody the hard-won victories of SF and move the field further on.
But one thing this book curiously doesn't do is to provide much of a picture of the vast continent. I counted exactly four stories that employ local color. Only one, Carey's "The Chance," really speaks to any history of imperialism and the effects it had on a virgin land. The authors here have adopted a cosmopolitan citizen-of-the-galaxy voice and POV so well, they've lost or hidden their roots. Ironically, one gets more of a feel for the distinctive Aussie culture—rightly or wrongly—by reading the work of an outsider, Cordwainer Smith, in his famous Norstrilia (1975).
