Michael Greatrex Coney (28 September 1932 - 4 November 2005) was a British
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
writer, best known for his novel ''Hello Summer, Goodbye.''
Life
Coney was born in
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
, England, on 28 September 1932. As an adult, he worked as an accountant, hotel manager, author and forest ranger. He was manager of the Jabberwock Hotel in
Antigua in the
West Indies
The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...
from 1969-1972, and was resident there when his first professional story ("Sixth Sense") was published in the first issue of the short-lived science fiction magazine ''Vision of Tomorrow'' in 1969. He relocated to
Sidney,
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
in 1972, spending the latter half of his life in Canada. He worked as a forest ranger for the British Columbia Forest Service from 1973 to 1989, when he retired. He died at the age 73 of
pleural mesothelioma
Mesothelioma is a type of cancer that develops from the thin layer of tissue that covers many of the internal organs (known as the mesothelium). The most common area affected is the lining of the lungs and chest wall. Less commonly the lining ...
, a cancer of the lining of the lungs, on 4 November 2005, at the Saanich Peninsula Hospital palliative care unit.
Works
A common element in Coney's work is that of ordinary people buffeted by forces beyond their strength, and mostly not much concerned with them. Most SF gives superior power to the main characters or has them acquire it during the course of the tale. Coney satirised it in ''The Hero of Downways''.
The stories also relate to the cultural concerns of the time. His first novel, ''Mirror Image'' (1972), intensified the American genre's Cold War emphasis on impostors and secret invaders; in this case, the "amorphs", who are indistinguishable from terrestrials, are themselves convinced that they are human.
[Clute and Nicholls 1995, p. 257.]
After a first group of dystopian tales, Coney began to change his themes. His later works ''The Celestial Steam Locomotive'' and ''Gods of the Greataway'' could almost be set on a transfigured Vancouver Island.
Obituary at www.multiverse.org
by John Clute
Another of Coney's themes concerns small isolated communities, as in ''The Hero of Downways'', ''Winter's Children'' and ''Fang, the Gnome''. In ''Syzygy'' the inhabitants of a small town, a fairly recent settlement on an alien planet, struggle to survive the hidden dangers of the planet's ecosystem; in ''Brontomek!'' the same characters a few years later face a wholly human threat.
A different perspective is seen in his ''Hello Summer, Goodbye'', an adventure/mystery among people who are not quite human, on a planet rather like Earth, but with significant differences. It is generally agreed to be his best novel.[ ''I Remember Pallahaxi'', a previously unpublished sequel to ''Hello Summer, Goodbye'', was published posthumously in 2007.
''Brontomek!'' received the ]British Science Fiction Association award
The BSFA Awards are literary awards presented annually since 1970 by the British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) to honour works in the genre of science fiction. Nominees and winners are chosen based on a vote of BSFA members. More recently, m ...
for best novel of 1976. He was nominated for a Nebula Award in 1995 for his novelette "Tea and Hamsters".
Fiction
Novels
* '' Mirror Image'' (1972)
* '' Syzygy'' (1973)
*'' Friends Come in Boxes'' (1973)
*'' The Hero of Downways'' (1973)
* '' Winter's Children'' (1974)
* ''Monitor Found in Orbit
Monitor or monitor may refer to:
Places
* Monitor, Alberta
* Monitor, Indiana, town in the United States
* Monitor, Kentucky
* Monitor, Oregon, unincorporated community in the United States
* Monitor, Washington
* Monitor, Logan County, West ...
'' (1974) (Short story collection)
* '' The Jaws that Bite, the Claws that Catch'' (1974; UK title ''The Girl with a Symphony in her Fingers'')
* '' Hello Summer, Goodbye'' (UK title, also known as'' Rax'' in USA, and '' Pallahaxi Tide'' in Canada; 1975)
* ''Charisma
Charisma () is a personal quality of presence or charm that compels its subjects.
Scholars in sociology, political science, psychology, and management reserve the term for a type of leadership seen as extraordinary; in these fields, the term "ch ...
'' (1975)
* '' Brontomek!'' (1976)
* '' The Ultimate Jungle'' (1979)
* '' Neptune's Cauldron'' (1981)
* '' Cat Karina'' (1982)
* '' The Celestial Steam Locomotive'' (1983)
* '' Gods of the Greataway'' (1984)
* '' Fang, the Gnome'' (1988)
* '' King of the Scepter'd Isle'' (1989)
* '' A Tomcat Called Sabrina'' (1992)
*'' No Place for a Sealion'' (1992
* '' I Remember Pallahaxi'' (2007; sequel to'' Hello Summer, Goodbye'' — published posthumously)
* '' Flower of Goronwy'' (2014; published posthumously)
''The Celestial Steam Locomotive'' and ''Gods of the Greataway'' are two parts of a single tale, ''Cat Karina'', ''Fang, the Gnome'' and ''King of the Scepter'd Isle'' are independent stories set in the same universe. ''Brontomek!'' is set on the same world as ''Syzygy'' (and has many of the same characters) and is also associated somewhat with ''Mirror Image'' and ''Charisma''.
Non-Fiction
* ''Forest Ranger, Ahoy!'' Porthole Press, Sidney BC, 1983.
* ''Forest Adventure: a guide to the British Columbia Forest Museum''. By Gray Campbell and Michael Coney. Porthole Press, Sidney BC, 1985.
Awards and nominations
* British Science Fiction Association Award
The BSFA Awards are literary awards presented annually since 1970 by the British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) to honour works in the genre of science fiction. Nominees and winners are chosen based on a vote of BSFA members. More recently, m ...
1977 for ''Brontomek!''
* Best Novelette Nebula Award 1995 nomination - ''Tea and Hamsters''
* 5 Prix Aurora Award
The Aurora Awards (french: Prix Aurora-Boréal) are a set of primarily literary awards given annually for the best Canadian science fiction or fantasy professional and fan works and achievements from the previous year."Literary glow of Auroras lur ...
nominations
References
Sources
* Clute, John and Peter Nicholls. ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' (SFE) is an English language reference work on science fiction, first published in 1979. It has won the Hugo, Locus and British SF Awards. Two print editions appeared in 1979 and 1993. A third, continu ...
''. New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 1993 (2nd edition 1995). .
External links
A bibliography
in PDF
*
in the Victoria ''Times Colonist''.
in The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
Obituary
by John Clute
An interview
given near the end of his life
at ''Lonely Cry''
a short story by Michael G. Coney, reproduced with permission o
Cordula's Web
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coney, Michael G.
1932 births
2005 deaths
English science fiction writers
Canadian science fiction writers
Deaths from mesothelioma
People from Birmingham, West Midlands
Writers from British Columbia
Deaths from cancer in British Columbia
20th-century British novelists
English male novelists
20th-century English male writers