George Turner (1) (1916–1997)

This collection is from 1990; seven of the eight stories are reprints with original publication dates between 1978 and 1986. The stories have not aged well, and have a feel of even older stories. They paint an image of Turner as a bigot, a person with significant class prejudice, and a willingness to use racial slurs as parts of casual conversation. The way women are treated, the casual eugenics, and any number of other details made my skin crawl. And yet, despite it being 25 years since I've read this collection, I recognised one of them instantly, and some of the others as 'oh, yeah, that was a thing' (there are some themes that were very of their time)

Each story has a short intro by the author, which give some useful context, as well as the strong indication that short fiction was not Turner's strength.

The last story, "The Fittest", starts in 2023, where the climate crisis has wreaked more havoc than we see today, but is still a chilling forcast as to what might happen (the forecasting of 60m of sea level rise, which has not yet happened, but which I think appears in the novel derived from this -- The Drowning Towers--being higher than the more recent forecasts I've seen).

Overall: Turner's writing is good, the plots are mediocre, the world building is good, and the characters are all horrible people.… (altro)

Las gigantescas torres ruinosas y abandonadas que se elevan hacia el cielo en los aledaños de la Melbourne de un futuro lejano son el último testimonio de una civilización que se autodestruyó a mediados del siglo XXI. Un brillante hombre de teatro pretende reconstruir lo que pudo ser la vida humana en aquellos ya lejanos años de convulsiones sociales, trastornos climáticos, superpoblación, carestía e irremediables crisis. Al hacerlo descubrirá nuestro mundo y el de nuestros hijos, el mismo que los habitantes de estas primeras décadas del siglo XXI estamos destruyendo con una extraña mezcla de saña, codicia y estupidez. El círculo vicioso está hoy a punto de cerrarse: faltan sólo unos años.… (altro)

review of
George Turner's Brain Child
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - November 2, 2011

I'm always looking for SF writers that I'm not familiar w/ who might be producing work outside of the series-w/-hero formula that many SF writers resort to, presumably for financial reasons. This one seemed promising - esp given that I'm also usually interested in titles that reference brains. &, indeed, I quite liked it - even though I only gave it a 3 star rating.

It took me awhile to realize that Turner's an Australian writer but his use of the words "gaol" & "ratbag" (a personal favorite) were dead giveaways - as was mention of previous parts of the bk having appeared in the Strange Attractors anthology edited by Australian Damien Broderick (you can see an interview w/ him conducted by myself & Ghanesh here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhiGt9eJ9bw).

Brain Child's a coming-of-age story of sorts - one that's potentially lurid enuf to appeal to 'reality' tv talk show couch potatoes but rendered far, FAR more interesting by its basic premise:

The protagonist grows up in an orphanage & as he 'comes of age' is informed that he's the secret child of one of a group of genetically engineered people. Once this is revealed to him he becomes ensnared in a plethora of manipulative schemes all geared around uncovering a hidden history & potential fruits thereof.

Turner's telling of the story is fairly straightforward as far as writing goes. I've read that he was a "late-bloomer" as an SF writer - having not started writing SF until he was in his 60s. As such, Brain Child is the work of a 'mature' writer - he wd've been around 75 when it was published. In this case, I don't think the 'maturity' contributed any particular writing skill - instead there's a sortof 'world-weariness' that seems to be a main subtext here. The bk explores various types of corruption & naivité that I think are reasonably accurately presented here.

All in all, Brain Child is of the ilk of SF that I often seek out: critical observations of the present tense amplified thru an interesting possible future.… (altro)

The first of Turner's Ethical Culture trilogy, thoughI read this after the second. While Vaneglory is very much a sequel, there's enough change in characters that only the nature of Gangoil was a mystery in the second book. Both books are interesting and ambitious arguments about the design of culture and governance, free will, power, and such, with solid SFnal trappings. The negatives are a tendency to preach (more so in Vaneglory) and pontificate (both books), and, in this book, an unconvincing attempt to make a philosophical debates a motivating force for political and even mob action. The other big weakness in both books is that it's pretty much all white males and testosterone. There are just two women. One, Alice, is mostly a pawn in both books, and the other, the Lady, is a caricature of decadent immortality.

Recommended if you can look past the weaknesses.… (altro)