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Michael G. Coney

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Michael G. Coney
BornMichael Greatrex Coney
28 September 1932
Birmingham,England
Died4 November 2005(2005-11-04)(aged 73)
Saanichton,British Columbia
OccupationAccountant, Management consultant, Hotel manager, BC Forest Services, Novelist
GenreScience fiction
Website
sf-encyclopedia.com/Entry/coney_michael_g

Michael Greatrex Coney(28 September 1932 - 4 November 2005) was a Britishscience fictionwriter, best known for his novelHello Summer, Goodbye.

Life[edit]

Coney was born inBirmingham,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 inAntiguain theWest Indiesfrom 1969 to 1972, and was resident there when his first professional story ( "Sixth Sense" ) was published in the first issue of the short-lived science fiction magazineVision of Tomorrowin 1969. He relocated toSidney,British Columbiain 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 ofpleuralmesothelioma,a cancer of the lining of the lungs, on 4 November 2005, at the Saanich Peninsula Hospital palliative care unit.

Works[edit]

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 inThe 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.[1]

After a first group of dystopian tales, Coney began to change his themes. His later worksThe Celestial Steam LocomotiveandGods of the Greatawaycould almost be set on a transfigured Vancouver Island.[2]

Another of Coney's themes concerns small isolated communities, as inThe Hero of Downways,Winter's ChildrenandFang, the Gnome.InSyzygythe inhabitants of a small town, a fairly recent settlement on an alien planet, struggle to survive the hidden dangers of the planet's ecosystem; inBrontomek!the same characters a few years later face a wholly human threat.

A different perspective is seen in hisHello 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]I Remember Pallahaxi,a previously unpublished sequel toHello Summer, Goodbye,was published posthumously in 2007.

Brontomek!received theBritish Science Fiction Association awardfor best novel of 1976. He was nominated for aNebula Awardin 1995 for his novelette "Tea and Hamsters".

Fiction[edit]

Novels[edit]

The Celestial Steam LocomotiveandGods of the Greatawayare two parts of a single tale,Cat Karina,Fang, the GnomeandKing of the Scepter'd Isleare independent stories set in the same universe.Brontomek!is set on the same world asSyzygy(and has many of the same characters) and is also associated somewhat withMirror ImageandCharisma.

Non-Fiction[edit]

  • 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[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^abClute and Nicholls 1995, p. 257.
  2. ^Obituary at www.multiverse.orgArchived2007-09-27 at theWayback MachinebyJohn Clute

Sources[edit]

  • Clute, JohnandPeter Nicholls.The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 1993 (2nd edition 1995).ISBN0-312-13486-X.

External links[edit]

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