Michael G. Coney

Michael G. Coney
Born	28 September 1932 Birmingham, England
Died	4 November 2005(2005-11-04) (aged 73) Saanichton, British Columbia
Occupation	Accountant, Management consultant, Hotel manager, Forest Ranger, Novelist
Genres	Science fiction
members.shaw.ca/mconey/

Michael Greatrex Coney (September 28, 1932 - November 4, 2005) was a British science fiction writer who spent the later half of his life in Canada. Born in Birmingham, England on September 28, 1932, he moved to Victoria, British Columbia in 1972. He died at the age 73 of pleural mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs, on November 4, 2005 at the Saanich Peninsula Hospital palliative care unit.

Assessment

Settings and themes of Coney's books vary between the different novels. A common element is that you follow rather ordinary people who are buffeted by forces beyond their strength, and mostly not much concerned with them. Most SF gives the superior powers to the leading characters, or has them acquire it during the course of the tale. Coney avoided this, and cleverly satirised it in The Hero of Downways.

The stories do also tie in with the cultural concerns of the time:

His first novel, Mirror Image (1972), neatly intensified the American genre's Cold War focus on impostors and secret invaders; in this case the "amorphs", who are indistinguishable from us, are themselves convinced that they are human.^[1]

After a first rush of dystopian tales, however, Coney began to shift his ground... his most successful later work - The Celestial Steam Locomotive and Gods of the Greataway - could almost be set on a transfigured Vancouver Island. ^[2]

Another of Coney's themes is small isolated communities - 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 from a multicorporate. A different perspective is seen in ‘‘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^[1] and a particularly fine example of the coming-of-age genre. I Remember Pallahaxi, a previously unpublished sequel to Hello Summer Goodbye, appeared posthumously in 2007.

Brontomek! received the British Science Fiction Association award for best novel of 1976. He was nominated for a Nebula Award in 1995 for his novelette, Tea and Hamsters.

An interesting feature of his work is how few of his female characters are unsympathetic : even the intimidating Mrs. Earnshaw, one of the dominating characters in Syzygy and Brontomek!, is essentially likeable.

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, 1974
• The Jaws that Bite, the Claws that Catch, 1974. (UK title, The Girl with a Symphony in her Fingers)
• Hello Summer, Goodbye in UK, aka. Rax in USA, aka Pallahaxi Tide in Canada 1975
• Charisma, 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 Pallaxahi, 2007 (sequel to Hello Summer, Goodbye — 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 framework. Brontomek! is set on the same world as Syzygy (and has many of the same characters) and is also loosely linked to Mirror Image and Charisma.

Short stories

• The Angel of Marsh End, (nv) Amazing Winter 1995
• Bartholomew & Son (and the Fish-Girl) [Joe Sagar], (nv) New Writings in SF 27, ed. Kenneth Bulmer, London: Sidgwick & Jackson 1975
• Belinda's Mother, (ss) Tesseracts 5, ed. Robert Runte & Yves Meynard, Edmonton: Tesseract Books 1996
• Beneath Still Waters, (nv) If January 1971
• The Bridge of the Scraw [Donald Lackland], (ss) F&SF July 1973
• The Bucca, (ss) TransVersions, Autumn 1994] [Number 1]
• Bulldog Drummond and the Grim Reaper, (nv) F&SF January 1996
• The Byrds, (ss) Changes, ed. Michael Bishop & Ian Watson, Ace 1983
• The Care and Killing of Your Doozle, (nv) Unpublished
• Catapult to the Stars [Joe Sagar], (nv) F&SF April 1977
• Catnap, (ss) Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine May 1997
• A Chimp of Few Words [Foss Creek], (nv) Scheduled to appear in Spectrum SF
• The Cinderella Machine [Joe Sagar], (nv) F&SF August 1976
• Crossing Pendhu Bridge, (nv) Unpublished
• Die, Lorelei [Joe Sagar], (nv) F&SF May 1993
• Discover a Latent Moses [from Winter's Children Gollancz, 1974], (nv) Galaxy April 1970
• Dorothy Past and Present, (ss) Crime Through Time II, ed. Miriam Grace Monfredo and Sharan Newman 1998
• An Entry in the Galactic Wildlife Encyclopedia, Copyright 2046, (vi) Drabble II: Double Century, ed. Rob Meades & David B. Wake, Beccon Publications 1990
• Esmeralda, (ss) Galaxy January 1972
• The Gateway to Now, (ss) F&SF July 1974
• The Girl With a Symphony in Her Fingers, (nv) Galaxy January 1974
• The Hand of Fair Lysette, (ss) Tales of the Round Table, ed. Mike Ashley, Past Times 1997
• Hold My Hand, My Love!, (nv) Worlds of Tomorrow Spring 1971
• The Hollow Where, (ss) New Writings in Horror and the Supernatural #1, ed. David A. Sutton, London: Sphere 1971
• The Hook, the Eye and the Whip [Joe Sagar], (nv) Galaxy March 1974
• In Search of Professor Greatrex, (ss) Pulsar #1, ed. George Hay, Penguin 1978
• A Judge of Men, (ss) Vision of Tomorrow December 1969
• Just an Old-Fashioned War Story, (ss) Ascents of Wonder, ed. David Gerrold, Popular Library 1977
• Lady Flamingo and the Shapecast Jennies, (ss) Unpublished
• The Manya [Donald Lackland], (ss) F&SF March 1973
• Mehitabel's Memories [Peninsula], (nv) Spectrum SF July 2001 [Number 6]
• Memories of Gwynneth, (as Jennifer Black) (ss) F&SF February 1986
• The Mind Prison, New Writings in SF 19, ed. John Carnell, London: Dobson 1971
• Monitor Found in Orbit, (ss) New Worlds Quarterly 2, ed. Michael Moorcock, London: Sphere 1971
• The Most Ancient Battle, (nv) Phantoms of the Night, ed. Richard Gilliam & Martin H. Greenberg, DAW 1996
• The Never Girl [fix-up Friends Come in Boxes Gollancz, 1975], (nv) If February 1973
• Oh, Valinda!, (nv) New Writings in SF 20, ed. John Carnell, London: Dobson 1972
• Penny on a Skyhorse, (ss) Galileo Double Issue 1979] [Number 11 & 12]
• Poppy Day [Joe Sagar], (nv) Spectrum SF February 2001 [Number 5]
• The Porcupine, (ss) Unpublished
• R26/5/PSY and I, (ss) New Writings in SF 16, ed. John Carnell, London: Dobson 1969
• The Sharks of Pentreath, (ss) Galaxy February 1971
• Shout of the Storm Riders, (ss) TransVersions, Winter 1996] [Number 6]
• Sixth Sense, (ss) Vision of Tomorrow August 1969
• The Small Penance of Lady Disdain, (nv) Hotel Andromeda, ed. Jack L. Chalker, Ace 1994
• Snow Princess [inc. in Winter's Children Gollancz, 1974], (nv) Galaxy January 1971
• Sophie's Spyglass, (ss) F&SF February 1993 the USS. monitor was used in the battle of the boston tea party
• Sparklebugs, Holly and Love, (ss) F&SF December 1977
• Starthinker 9, (ss) Andromeda 1, ed. Peter Weston, London: Futura 1976
• The Summer Sweet, the Winter Wild, (ss) Interfaces, ed. Ursula K. Le Guin & Virginia Kidd, Ace 1980
• Susanna, Susanna! [inc. in Charisma], (ss) F&SF November 1972
• Suspicion, (ss) Crime Through Time III, ed. Sharan Newman and Anne Perry 2000
• Suzy is Something Special, (nv) The Last Dangerous Visions, ed. Harlon Ellison] [Unpublished]
• Symbiote, (ss) New Writings in SF 15, ed. John Carnell, London: Dobson 1969
• Tea and Hamsters [Foss Creek], (nv) F&SF January 1995
• The Tertiary Justification, (nv) New Writings in SF 21, ed. John Carnell, London: Sidgwick & Jackson 1972
• Thank You for the Music, (ar) Foundation #32 1984
• Those Good Old Days of Liquid Fuel [Joe Sagar], (nv) F&SF January 1976
• Trading Post, (ss) SF Digest 1976] [Number 1]
• The Trees of Terpsichore Three, (with Eric Brown)(nv) Spectrum SF May 2002
• Troubleshooter, (ss) If May 1970
• The True Worth of Ruth Villiers, (ss) New Writings in SF 17, ed. John Carnell, London: Dobson 1970
• Ultimatumbra, (ss) Vector Spring 1969 [Number 52]
• The Unsavory Episode of Mrs. Hector Powell-Challenger, (ss) Monitor Found in Orbit, (co) DAW 1974
• Werewolves in Sheep's Clothing [Foss Creek], (nv) F&SF September 1996
• What Are Little Girls Made Of?, (ss) TransVersions, Spring 1998] [Number 8/9]
• Whatever Became of the McGowans?, (ss) Galaxy May 1970
• A Woman and Her Friend [inc. in Friends Come in Boxes], (nv) If March 1973

Awards and nominations

• British Science Fiction Association Award 1977 for Brontomek!
• Best Novelette Nebula Award 1995 nomination - Tea and Hamsters
• 5 Aurora Award nominations

References

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} Clute and Nicholls 1995, p. 257.
2. ^ Obituary at www.multiverse.org by John Clute

Bibliography

• Clute, John and Peter Nicholls. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 1993 (2nd edition 1995). ISBN 0-312-13486-X.

External links

• A bibliography, in PDF
• Another bibliography, with cover illustrations.
• A page devoted to Michael Coney Includes some unpublished work.
• Michael G. Coney at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Obituary in the Victoria Times Colonist.
• Obituary in The Guardian
• Obituary by John Clute
• An interview given near the end of his life
• A tribute at Lonely Cry
• The True Worth of Ruth Villiers, a short story by Michael G. Coney, reproduced with permission on Cordula's Web

Persondata
Name	Coney, Michael G.
Alternative names	Michael Coney, Michael Greatrex Coney, Mike Coney, Jennifer Black
Short description
Date of birth	28 September 1932
Place of birth	Birmingham, England
Date of death	4 November 2005
Place of death	Saanichton, British Columbia