CANADIAN
SCIENCE
FICTION
and Fandom
Fourth Edition
Edited by Robert Runté
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The NCF Guideto CANADIAN SCIENCE FICTION and Fandom
Fourth Edition
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Edward Llewellyn is the pseudonym of a Toronto physician who has conceived a fascinating future history in which to set his tales of adventure. After a cataclysmic sterility reduces the world's population by nine-tenths in the early 21st century (a contraceptive drug turns out to render female children born of mothers who used it sterile for their whole lives), the Age of Affluence dies, Chaos follows, and then civilization slowly rebuilds using the technology left over from the Age of Affluence.
Llewellyn's first novel, The Douglas convolution is set in 2070, about one hundred years after the remnants of civilization had reorganized themselves. The Bright Companion) is set in 2061, during the beginning of the reconstruction. In each book a strong man and equally tough woman follow a kind of quest towards both self-discovery and fuller awareness of just what their worlds are like. There are many intriguing twists of plot in both books (including time travel of a sort in the first). But what's best about them is better than average characterization and richly inhabited, widely varied social contexts. Llewellyn makes his characters, and us, really understand how society would have fragmented into so many different groupings. He also does a fairly creditable job of providing non-sexist heroines. All in all, these are very good examples of futuristic adventure tales.
[reprinted from New Canadian Fandom]
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This page last updated: June 21, 2000 Colophon Credits and copyright information. . |
