Subject: PURSUIT OF MIRACLES by George Turner

From: [email-masked] (Evelyn C. Leeper)
Date: 12 Dec 90 14:00:59 GMT

A PURSUIT OF MIRACLES by George Turner
		 Aphelion, 1990, ISBN 1-875346-00-7, A$12.95.
		      A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
		       Copyright 1990 Evelyn C. Leeper

     Question: What country has as many English speakers as Canada, has
hosted two World Science Fiction Conventions, has produced one of the
definitive reference works on science fiction, and *still* gets forgotten
when people talk about science fiction authors?  Answer: Australia.  So as
you might expect, George Turner, an Australian science fiction author, is
virtually unknown in the United States.  If this collection of eight
stories, published by a small press in Adelaide, is any indication, someone
should do something about this.

     The title story, "A Pursuit of Miracles," is set in a future mixing two
classic science fiction ideas: "non-legals" (artificial humans) and
telempathy.  This is probably the best-known story as well, as it was
commissioned by Terry Carr for one of the UNIVERSE anthologies.  "Not in
Front of the Children" looks at the old adage that "death [and age] is the
only obscenity" through a science fictional approach by postulating a future
society in which this is true.  "Feedback" is a marvelous exercise in
solipsism, as covoluted as any labyrinth.  "Shut the Door When You Go Out"
is sort of Thomas Wolfe ("You can never go home again") meets Gaia, but a
bit short and insubstantial.  (Turner says it was done in a single night.
As someone else told him, it reads like it, but there's a place in the world
for pieces like this as well.)

     "On the Nursery Floor" looks at supermen.  The influence of such works
as Olaf Stapledon's ODD JOHN and Philip Wylie's GLADIATOR seems obvious, and
though Turner's story is well-written, it doesn't add anything new to this
genre.

     "In a Petri Dish Upstairs" is a typical space station rebellion story,
but also a carefully drawn picture of the sort of insulated (and insular)
society that could develop in an orbital colony.  I find it interesting to
speculate on how much Australia's own history, isolated from much of the
rest of the world for so long, was drawn upon for this story.  Certainly
part of what makes Turner's stories attractive is their different
perspective.

     "Generation Gap" (as Turner says) has been workshopped by two different
groups who couldn't agree on what it was or what to do with it.  I agree
with them--there may be some valid observations on art and artists here, but
they're buried.

     "The Fittest" is the "germ story" of Turner's novel THE SEA AND SUMMER,
though he claims the novel is not nearly as depressing as the book.
(Undoubtedly the novel is also published only in Australia, so I can't say.)
It is technically the most ambitious of the stories in this volume, with
multiple points of view, and Turner handles them well.  It is also, I think,
uniquely Australian in its treatment of evolution, isolation, and the
connectedness of the two.

     On the whole this is a rewarding collection.  While perhaps not every
Australian author writes differently from American or British authors,
Turner does, and vive la difference!

     Whether this book is available in the United States is not clear.
LOCUS reviewed it, so I suspect some specialty stores would have it, though
you're more likely to find it on the West Coast than the East (for obvious
geographic reasons).  In any case, you can write the publisher: Aphelion
Publications, P. O. Box 619, North Adelaide, S. A. 5006, AUSTRALIA.
Unfortunately, they don't take credit cards, so send either a check in
Australian pounds or do what I did and send cash (A$12.95 is about US$10).
(They say their bank can also handle checks in United States dollars, but
over a certain amount there is a service charge.  Personally, in the many
years that my family has been sending mail, we've never had a letter lost--
and this includes thrice weekly letters to various other countries.  So I'm
perfectly willing to put a $10 bill in an envelope with a letter and hope
for the best.)

(Follow-ups directed to rec.arts.sf-lovers.)

Evelyn C. Leeper   |   +1 908-957-2070   |   att!mtgzy!ecl or [email-masked]