The Science Fiction Of Phyllis Gotlieb

Gotlieb is a writer central to the Canadian science fiction canon. Though she has been called the queen of Canadian SF by Robert J. Sawyer, and though David Ketterer has suggested that she is Canadian SF, Gotlieb has been largely overlooked by SF studies. This book delves deeply into her body of work and traces her career in detail. Offering close readings of Gotlieb's novels, short stories (including ones not reprinted since their initial appearances), and SF-related poetry, this study explores Gotlieb's development as a writer and her characteristic themes. The book also references her manuscripts when the differences between them and the published stories provide insights into her working methods. The book enumerates and analyzes Gotlieb's innovative explorations of common SF tropes such as the superhuman, human-alien interaction, and the galactic empire, her prevalent thematic concerns (e.g., reproduction, colonization, the mind-body relationship, the essence of "humanity") as well as her stylistically dense and literary approach to the genre.

In the hideous aftermath of the atomic sunburst, the people of Sorrel Park had been written off. Now they were nothing but a kind of human garbage, festering and hopeless. In the center of town lived the worst of them -- and by far the most dangerous. A new breed of children, possessed of terrifying supernormal powers. A race of monsters bred out of the sunburst. And if they ever broke loose, they could destroy the world...

On a dark planet, the men have developed a limited ability to teleport, while the women's function centres on their wombs. When their planet is invaded the fragile environment is in peril. Will this planet's residents get help from the Galactic Federation?

A mature alien woman judge sees an amphibious human woman, obviously a slave, displayed in a tank in front of a sex palace. And so an interstellar plot of murderous proportions involving many races and planets, galactic corporations, exploitive sex and horrible slavery is revealed. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

How can you stop a conspiracy of telepaths? The alien Lyhhrt are powerful enough to read the human mind; if they find you know too much, they can erase your memory, or simply stop your heart. The normally peaceful Lyhhrt society has been splintered by technological change, the bitter legacy of their exploitation by the Zamos crime family. Now a few renegade Lyhhrt, driven mad by isolation from their group mind, seem to be planning terrible crimes--or are they again being used as deadly tools in someone else's scheme? When the illicit corporation created by Zamos collapsed, it disrupted the lives of heroes as well as villains. With gambling dens shut down, gladiator Ned Gaddes has nowhere to fight. Beautiful Lorrice had hoped to sell her ESP talents to Zamos, but was forced to sell her body instead. And on the planet Khagodis, scholarly Hasso will be forced to leave his archives and unravel the shadowy web that has entangled their fate with the Lyhhrt's. The struggle that ensues provides the ultimate test of their resources - Ned's savvy toughness, Lorrice's psychic insight, and the fact that even a gentle Khagodi like Hasso could go head-to-head with a dinosaur. Like the best science fiction, Mindworlds is simultaneously exciting and thought provoking. Gotlieb offers a satisfyingly complex look at the ambiguous consequences of toppling even the most evil of empires, and the sacrifices that ordinary people must make to prevent the vacuum of power from being filled by equally corrupt forces. Ursula K. Le Guin found Gotlieb's earlier novel Flesh and Gold "dazzling," lit up by "sex, violence, intricate plotting, light-speed pacing, an amazing variety of aliens, touches of Philip K. Dick's sardonic humor and Cordwainer Smith's obstinate idealism." Its sequel, Violent Stars, was described in Maclean's as "above all a poet's novel.... Gotlieb's language lifts her book from exotic thriller to literary achievement." Mindworlds offers a resounding climax to the story that began in these celebrated novels. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

A collection of 8 stories and 2 poems.

From the title piece, "Blue Apes" - a story of discovery, loss and betrayal on a distant planet - to "Sunday's Child"- an account of an alien born to human colonists - Phyllis Gotlieb's short fiction explores issues and passions that are deeply human, even when her characters are not. Gotlieb writes in the American SF tradition from a decidedly Canadian perspective.