George Reginald Turner | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1916-10-08)8 October 1916 Melbourne, Australia |
| Died | 8 June 1997(1997-06-08) (aged 80) |
| Occupation | Writer and critic |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Genre | Science fiction |
George Reginald Turner (8 October 1916 – 8 June 1997) was an Australian writer and critic, best known for thescience fiction novels written in the later part of his career. His first science fiction story and novel appeared in 1978, when he was in his early sixties. By this point, however, he had already achieved success as a mainstream novelist, including aMiles Franklin Award, and as a literary critic.
Turner was born inKalgoorlie,Western Australia, and educated inMelbourne. He served in the Australian Imperial Forces during theSecond World War. Subsequently, he worked in a variety of fields, including as an employment officer, as a technician in the textile industry, and was a reviewer of science fiction for the Melbourne NewspaperThe Age.[1] Prior to writing science fiction, he had a well-established reputation as a mainstream literary fiction writer, his most productive period being from 1959 to 1967, during which he published five novels. Two of these were award-winning,The Cupboard Under the Stairs (1962), being awarded theMiles Franklin Award, Australia's highest literary honour, andThe Lame Dog Man (1967) being awarded aCommonwealth Literary Fund fellowship.[2]
During the 1970s, he gained considerable reputation for his reviews and criticism of science fiction, among his first critical publications in the field being inAustralian Science Fiction Review, edited byJohn Bangsund, who at that time worked for Turner's publisher, Cassell Australia, and in SF fan magazineSF Commentary, edited byBruce Gillespie. In 1977 he editedThe View from the Edge, an anthology of tales produced by participants in a Melbourne writers' workshop, which he ran with science fiction authorsVonda McIntyre andChristopher Priest. Over a decade after his previous publication of a full-length work of fiction, he publishedBeloved Son (1978), his first science fiction novel. An extract from the novel had previously been published as "The Lindley Mentascripts" inScience Fiction: A Review of Speculative Literature 1 in June 1977. Before his death, he published six more science fiction novels.[3]
Turner's science fiction narratives contain detailedextrapolation and their invariably earnest approach to moral and social issues. In such novels asThe sea and Summer/Drowning Towers andGenetic Soldier he displayed a gloomy vision ofglobal warming's future ramifications. The former novel won anArthur C. Clarke Award. Much of his work has a strongly "Australian" feel, and it sometimes incorporates references to the Aboriginal peoples of his country.
Turner's first science fiction novel,Beloved Son (1978), was followed by two related works,Vaneglory (1981) andYesterday's Men (1983), comprising theEthical Culture series. While they did not form a coherent trilogy, they were set in the same future, plagued by the problems of both anuclear holocaust and the ravages of ill-advised experimentation with genetic food crops and epidemics caused by mutated viruses.[4]Vaneglory introduced perhaps his most memorable creation, the Children of Time, a secret society of mutant human beings who are virtually immortal and have certain advanced mental skills. Unlike similar fictional creations however they do not control human destiny- although they intermittently dabble in human politics, their cynical and self-absorbed personalities make it difficult for them to care much about humanity or to cooperate in planning its future.
His next published novelThe Sea and Summer (1987; published in the United States asDrowning Towers in 1988), was his most successful, being shortlisted for theNebula Award and winning theArthur C. Clarke Award in 1988. It was based on a short story "The Fittest" published in 1985 inUrban Fantasies edited byRussell Blackford and David King. A work of science fiction realism, it concerned a future historian, writing a historical novel about a near future Melbourne, beset by the problems of climate change, unemployment caused by excessive automation, the collapse of the monetary system and the division of society into elite communities segregated from impoverished masses.[5] Turner concluded the novel with a personal reflection on the urgency of giving serious consideration to social and environmental issues highlighted by the narrative .[6]
His next two novels were both political thrillers set in the near future.Brainchild (1991) andThe Destiny Makers (1993).Brainchild focused on a journalist commissioned to investigate a genetic experiment that had led to varieties of humans beings with superior intelligence.[4] Part of the novel was formed from the short story "On the Nursery Floor" (1985).[7]
Genetic Soldier (1994) shared the timeline ofThe Destiny Makers. Subsequent to the events of that novel, the crew of a starship sent to explore for habitable planets, return to find themselves at odds with the inhabitants of the Earth, who have evolved in a more ecologically harmonious direction in their absence, and ostracise them for their incompatibility with a society determined by rigid genetic specialisation. The novel drew some inspiration from Turner's short story "Shut The Door When You Go Out" which dealt with a similar scenario .[8]
George Turner was named as a Guest of Honor forAussiecon Three, the 1999World Science Fiction Convention held in Melbourne, but died before the event. In 2013 hisThe Sea and Summer became the first Australian novel to be included in Gollancz'sSF Masterworks list.
Biography"George Turner: A Life" by Judith Raphael Buckrich, Melbourne University Press, 1999.
