Voices in the Light (Aphelion, 1994) (novel)
Mirrorsun Rising (Aphelion, 1995) (novel)
The Miocene Arrow (forthcoming) (novel)
Bibliography - fiction
Bibliography - non-fiction
Call to the Edge (Aphelion, 1992) (collection)
Voices in the Light (Aphelion, 1994) (novel)
Mirrorsun Rising (Aphelion, 1995) (novel)
The Miocene Arrow (forthcoming) (novel)
Bibliography - fiction
Bibliography - non-fiction
Sean McMullen is a science fiction author living in Melbourne. He has won the Australian Science Fiction Award 4 times -- twice for short fiction and twice for criticism. He also won the writing prize at the 43rd World Science Fiction Convention in 1985, and was nominated for America's Readercon Award in 1993. He has had three books and two dozen stories published in Australia, Britain and the USA, and jointly writes a twice-yearly column on Australian SF with Terry Dowling for the American trade magazine Locus. His articles on science and technology have appeared in such magazines as Australian Discovery and Directions in Government.
Sean writes of how he got into science fiction: My first exposure
to SF was via films, and the first written work that I encountered was
the Classics comic version of The War of the Worlds. While
a teenager I read a pretty large number of the better known novels and
bought Analog every month. I think that its hard-SF
approach influenced me fairly heavily, so you can imagine how pleased I
was when I sold my first story to Analog,
An Empty Wheelhouse, in 1991. When I
entered university I got side-tracked into rock and folk music -- and
even opera -- for several years, and it's only recently that my total
earnings as an author exceeded what I got as a part-time singer and
musician. In 1979, while doing a post-graduate diploma in computer
science, I suffered a particularly vivid nightmare involving assembly
language programming. I wrote it up as a short story and the following
year it was published in an amateur student magazine.
Over the next five years Sean won a number of competitions and small awards, but when he won the World SF Convention's writing competition in 1985 he decided to take writing more seriously. His first professional publication was in the following year. Sean's collection, Call to the Edge (Aphelion, 1992), was his first book, and is an excellent compendium of his early short SF. It includes all the stories already mentioned, as well as stories that are the basis of his later novels. It includes his first internationally published work, The Colours of the Masters, which was widely acclaimed and even reached the Nebula Awards Preliminary Ballot.
His first novel, Voices in the Light (Aphelion, 1994), is set in Australia nearly 2000 years in the future, and features a rich and exotic society and landscape as its background. There is a continent-wide system of wind trains and signalling towers, a human-powered computer, government by librarians, and the mysterious Call that lures people away to their doom in a mindless trance. Voices in the Light was runner-up in the Australian Science Fiction (Ditmar) Awards for 1995, and received widespread and enthusiastic praise from reviewers. John Clute named it one of the Notable Works for 1994 in his Illustrated Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. The sequel, Mirrorsun Rising (Aphelion, 1995), continues the story begun in Voices in the Light, in fact the two books should really be read as a single large novel. It features space weapons without electronics, pedal powered battle trains, fanatical train spotters, and a massive invasion from the inland nations led by a renegade librarian. The third of the Greatwinter novels, The Miocene Arrow (forthcoming), is due out in 1996, but part of its story is out already in a novella of the same name.
Sean works in the Systems Planning Subsection at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, is a graduate of Melbourne University with Bachelors and Masters degrees, and has a Diploma of Computer Science from Latrobe University. In addition to writing he gives talks on science, technology and science fiction. He has appeared on Radio National's Ockham's Razor, the Faster than Light Show in Perth, Zero G in Melbourne and Science Fiction Review in Adelaide, and has also spoken to the United Nations Youth Conference, the National Book Council, and the Australian Space Association, and he was keynote speaker at the re-opening of the Adelaide Writers Centre in 1994. He has given several dozen talks to science fiction seminars and conferences, including the keynote speech at the 1992 National Science Fiction Convention in Sydney.
This collection is Sean's first book, and it contains his best short fiction from the first six years of his professional career. The book features two winners of the Australian Science Fiction (Ditmar) Award and two more Ditmar nominees, and a nominee for the Readercon Small Press Award. The book itself was also a Ditmar nominee. See photo.
The Colours of the Masters is the opening story, and is historical science fiction based on the idea that a machine was invented in the 1820s that could record sound without being able to play it back. The inventor places her faith in technology that is yet to be invented when she uses the machine to begin a posthumous musical career.
The Eyes of the Green Lancer and Destroyer of Illusions form part of Sean's first novel, introducing several of the main characters and detailing some of his vision of Australia 2000 years in the future. The former story was shortlisted for the American Readercon Small Press Award in 1993.
The Deciad and Pax Romana are part of a novel about a Roman time traveller and his human powered time machine, and this work is currently under submission with a publisher. The former story won the writing competition at the World Science Fiction Convention in 1985, and was Sean's first big break as an author.
While the Gate is Open is the story of a man who can feel the future, even though the rest of his senses stay in the present. His doctor realises that he might be able to describe the feelings that follow death, and he then has to wrestle with the temptation to murder his unique patient in order to reach into the afterlife. This story won Sean his first Australian Science Fiction (Ditmar) Award in 1991. Alone in His Chariot also won the Australian Science Fiction Award (in 1992 - see photo), and deals with a drug-induced virtual reality which a prisoner uses to escape from jail (and is to be made available on Eidolon magazine's site on the World Wide Web). Back in 1986
The Devils of Langenhagen became his first story to be accepted in the USA, but the anthology concerned was never published, and so this story is published here for the first time. As the Third Reich is crumbling in the spring of 1945, a strange and elegant group of voyeurs arrive at a German airfield, bringing their own aircraft to fly alongside the Me262 interceptors against British and American bombers and fighters. The collection ends with The Dominant Style, in which the Art Deco style becomes the basis of a sustainable and balanced society in the very distant future.
See also Bibliograph entry: CALL TO THE EDGE
THE AUSTRALIAN, 30-31 May 1992 (Terry Dowling):
'This is intriguing storytelling, full of wit and fascinating scientific detail, marked by a sureness of touch and a sense of wonder.'
VOICEWORKS, SU 1993/94 (Aidan Doyle):
'... stylish and elegant ... Australian science fiction at its best ...'
LOCUS, June 1992 (Faren Miller):
'... a fine first collection by a writer who has begun to make his way into the American market and deserves further attention.'
AUREALIS 8, June 1992 (Dirk Strasser):
'Sean McMullen is one of the shining lights of Australian science fiction.'
INTERZONE, December 1992: (John Clute):
'...computers iconographically similar to but of an eccentricity far more intriguing than the Difference Engine embedded into the Gibson/Sterling novel of the same name ...'
'... he can sound like Keith Roberts with a world to make.'
THE AUSTRALIAN, 12-13 Dec. 1992: (Best of the Year list, Terry Dowling):
'... one of our finest writers of hard SF.'
EIDOLON 11, Summer 1993: (Jonathan Strahan):
'... nothing short of an eye-opener ... showed the breadth and variety of work of which this talented writer is capable, and identified him as potentially one of the best and most consistently interesting writers of science fiction in this country ...'
SF COMMENTARY, 73/74/75, Oct.. 1993: (Paul Voermans):
'His exposition of scientific ideas is methodical and clear, he does his homework ...'
'Here is a man concerned about the nature of science and our attitude to progress, as well as the future of Truth and Beauty.'
Voices in the Light took a long time to get into print. Its original version was written in 1986 and spent many years either languishing in publishers' slush piles or undergoing rewrites at the request of prevaricating editors. Late in 1990 Sean decided to test the content of the novel by breaking four sections out of the text and selling them as independent short stories. The Eyes of the Green Lancer was shortlisted for the Readercon Small Press Awards, Souls in the Great Machine was published in Universe 2 and was reviewed in Locus as one of the highlights of the anthology, The Glasken Chronicles was placed on Eidolon's Recommended Reading list, and the human-powered computer in Destroyer of Illusions led to the coining of the term 'medieval cyberpunk.' (Note that The Glasken Chronicles is to be made available on Eidolon magazine's World Wide Web site). This rather suggested that the problem might be with the editors and publishers rather than the novel, so Sean reassembled the stories back into a book length work and sent it to Aphelion Publications, where it was accepted immediately. See photo.
The novel has subsequently sold well, been runner-up in the 1995 Australian Science Fiction Awards, and been extremely well reviewed. Interestingly, representatives of two Australian publishing companies that had previously rejected the novel have told Sean something to the effect of "What a pity that you didn't show it to us first ..." Perhaps it is the human condition not to recognise new and promising work for what it is. Confronted with Robert Fulton's proposal for steamships, Napoleon is reputed to have replied "You propose to sail a ship against the wind by lighting a fire under her decks? Away man. I have a campaign to plan." That campaign included the invasion of Britain in the face of the unpredictable winds of the English Channel.
The setting is Australia 2000 years in the future, in a huge library that houses books dating back to the pre-Greatwinter civilization. Although electrical circuitry can no longer be used, the head librarian builds a viable computer by means of 2,000 slaves locked in a hall with abacus sets. She uses this both to expand her own power base and to prepare for the possible return of Greatwinter. As it turns out, an pilot nanotech factory was set up on the moon just before the collapse of the old civilization, with the aim of fabricating an orbital solar shield as an anti-greenhouse measure. The automated lunar facility was meant to be the first of hundreds that were never built, but it has nevertheless been slowly and faithfully building the shield by itself for two millennia. The shield finally becomes operational even though it is no longer wanted.
Sean writes "I remember that while I was doing some postgraduate studies I had a job in the State Library of Victoria. I was about halfway through Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast on the day that I started work, and it was almost like walking into the great house of Gormenghast itself. The combination of studying computer science in a rambling Gothic maze like that must have lodged in my mind for years, finally emerging as Voices in the Light. The human computer would work, although slowly: I modelled its characteristics using a real computer back in the mid-80s. The library service dominated by charismatic, dynamic women has some basis in history. A thousand years ago, in real-life medieval Europe, such women could either marry a powerful man or join a convent if they wanted to gain power themselves, so some very interesting power struggles -- and even pitched battles -- raged among the convents and spilled over into the national politics of the time."
See also Bibliography entry: VOICES IN THE LIGHT
AUSTRALIAN REALMS, July/August 1994 (Graham Holman):
'I was wiped out ...'McMullen has exquisitely crafted a world into which the reader falls ...'
THE AUSTRALIAN, 4 June 1994 (Terry Dowling):
'... medieval cyberpunk, scientifically stimulating, unforgettably exotic, written with flair and wit.'
THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF SCIENCE FICTION #73, September 1994 (David A. Smith):
' ... vivid imagery ... creations both terrifying and mundane, both bizarre and believable.'
'His world of Greatwinter is both tangibly present and beautifully imagined.'
LOCUS, November 1994 (Russell Letson ):
'... completely satisfying ... a complex and appealing world.'
'... squarely and ingeniously science fictional ...'
'McMullen joins my short list of writers who can write all the multivolume cycles they like as long as they can keep delivering that density, texture and wit that makes their worlds a pleasure to revisit.'
AUSTRALIAN BOOK REVIEW, June 1994 (Judy Smallman):
'... a world rich in imagery and invention.'
INTERZONE 90, December 1994 (John Clute ):
'McMullen has made his humans very strange indeed, but it is the strangeness of genuine otherness; the triumph of the book ... lies in its sense that the cast inhabit a culture whose profound and shaping experiences are radically different from anything we might easily imagine ...'
'... (the Greatwinter series) will be one of the shapers of our sense of how to keep on living after the orrery splits.'
THE AUSTRALIAN, 10-11 Dec. 1994: (Best of the Year list), Terry Dowling):
'An exotic future Australia of wind-trains, warring federations and human-powered computers. Impressive first volume in the Greatwinter series by one of our best genre writers.'
EIDOLON 16, February 1995: Introduction to Recommended Reading list:
'... a fascinating and enjoyable novel of Australia in the far future ... a unique and powerfully told tale which will captivate readers from beginning to end.'
FOUNDATION #65, Spring 1995: (Paul J. McAuley):
'This is a powerful beginning to what promises to be a splendid, and splendidly imaginative series.'
'...its intricate, many-stranded plot is told in a taut, sparse prose and peopled with convincing, and convincingly different characters.'
'It is a measure of McMullen's ambition that Voices in the Light does not shrink from the difficult task of depicting the complex historical and social evolution of a civilization as distant from us as we are from the Romans.'
'McMullen depicts with non-judgemental clarity a complex, internally consistent civilization that, with an economic and social infrastructure based on vaguely libertarian precepts, including duels to the death to settle legal disputes, is a good deal crueler than our own.'
'Voices in the Light gives a new moral dimension to the old sf theme of power and knowledge and the power that can be gained by those with secret knowledge of the working of the world.'
Voices in the Light was originally planned as a work of about twice the length. Mirrorsun Rising completes the story begun in the first of the Greatwinter books. The problem of electrical devices being zapped by ancient ElectroMagnetic Pulse battlestations in space is solved when Zarvora uses museum-piece solid fuel rockets to provoke an orbital battle in which the Mirrorsun orbital shield destroys the battlestations. Shortly thereafter an invasion from the centre of the continent almost overwhelms the nations under Zarvora's control. It is a war fought as much with infrastructure as with armies, yet individual heroism and self-sacrifice are what ultimately repel the invasion. At the end of the novel, Zarvora has broken society out of a very restrictive mould by restoring the use of electrical devices. The first radio signals are heard from overseas in 2,000 years, and the huge, cumbersome human-powered computers are decommissioned in favour of electrical relay models.
Again Sean writes "I have encountered some criticism for allowing my characters to change so much in the five years leading up to Mirrorsun Rising, yet the SF television series Babylon 5 is praised for the way that its characters evolve and develop. The truth is that real people do change. I have seen dumpy dorks transformed into dynamic managers, dynamic student revolutionaries transformed into mousey academics, incorrigible lechers become moralistic parents, and loyal friends become scheming betrayers. Mirrorsun Rising is a novel written in eight months, and without any external influences pulling it in all sorts of conflicting directions. It has been said to be a much better read than Voices in the Light, and a far smoother story. Aspiring authors take note of this before embarking on a major rewrite on the advice of an editor who is liable to be out of a job before you get a chance to resubmit the manuscript to that company." See photo of research for novel.
See also Bibliography entry: MIRRORSUN RISING
THE AUSTRALIAN December 16-17, 1995: Terry Dowling:
"Action-packed sequel to Voices in the Light. More medieval cyberpunk as human-powered computers and competing armies strive to bring order to a technology-starves 40th-century Australia."
THE ADELAIDE ADVERTISER, 25 March 1995: (Tim Lloyd):
'A large-scale and ingenious vision of civilization in the Australian hinterland in the year AD4000 ...'
LOCUS, February 1996: Recommended Reading: (Russell Letson):
'Next on my list of antipodean favourites is Sean McMullen, whose Mirrorsun Rising: Book Two of Greatwinter offers something like A Canticle for Leibowitz rewritten for Australia and with the religion removed.'
Zero G, Radio RRR: Robert Jan, August 1995
'... one of the finest SF novels ever published. (The Greatwinter series is) the epic saga of Australian science fiction.'
THE AUSTRALIAN, 13 May 1995:(Terry Dowling):
'... when Zarvora and Glasken turn their salvaged museum rockets on the Mirrorsun itself, McMullen gets to do what he does best, equalling Niven, Benford and Bear in achieving a confident and committed vision of how science may save us from its own misuse.'
EIDOLON 17/18, July 1995 (WI): (Sean Williams):
'... an engrossing vision not only of a future Australia, but of a future Earth.'
For those who hate multivolume works in general and trilogies in particular, take heart. The third of the Greatwinter novels is also a standalone work. It is set twenty years after the end of Mirrorsun Rising, and several characters from the first two novels are still present -- including Zarvora, Theresla, Denkar and (the Greatwinter series would not be the same without him) John Glasken. The setting is the Rocky Mountains of North America, and this was chosen partly because in a world where the oceans are off-limits to humanity, North America is effectively as remote to Australia as another planet. When Australians begin to parachute out of the sky, they are just like aliens from another world.
Back in 1996, a steep rise in the price of paper has affected publishing schedules all over the world and so The Miocene Arrow is currently not scheduled until late in the year, or even early 1997. If you cannot wait, the story of the Call's origins in the early 21st Century is in the novella The Miocene Arrow (Alien Shores, ed. McNamara and Winch, 1994)
THE EXAMINER (Launceston), 30 July 1994 (Dorea Richards reviewing ALIEN SHORES)
'... the thinking man's Jurassic Park ... explores the ethics of whether a creature from the prehistoric past should be revived.'
AUREALIS 14, February 1995: (Graham Holman reviewing ALIEN SHORES):
'My favourites include "The Miocene Arrow" by Sean McMullen ... excellent short story ... craftsmanship which never fails to envelop me in (his) story magic.'
(Fantasy & Science Fiction, March 1988) short story
One of the most popular of Sean's early works, this was also his first overseas sale. It was conceived as a radio play full of creative sound effects and recordings to simulate the playing of several Nineteenth Century master musicians. The radio play was rejected as not having enough conflict and dramatic tension. Does this mean that people have to be horrible to each other before a radio play is fit for broadcasting? The first of a great number of Sean's brilliant but eccentric characters are introduced here, as a woman hits upon a use for a recording device whose disks cannot be played back. It has been reprinted three times, and is to be made available in Eidolon magazine's World Wide Web home page.
See also Bibliographical entry: The Colours of the Masters
LOCUS, Feb 1994 (Faren Miller reviewing MORTAL FIRE):
'Sean McMullen's "The Colours of the Masters" manages to match its fascinating "discovery" of a 19th-Century technological wonder with human warmth, marvelling at the artistry of a past we thought we had lost.'
THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF SCIENCE FICTION, May 1994 (Paul Levinson reviewing MORTAL FIRE):
'Sean McMullen's "The Colours of the Masters" (first published in the American The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction) provides a tastefully Georgian/early Victorian rendition of the invention of the phonograph some 50 years before Edison -- far more scientifically convincing and stylistically appropriate than Gibson and Sterling's THE DIFFERENCE ENGINE (1991) ...'
EIDOLON 14, Autumn 1994 (Martin Livings reviewing MORTAL FIRE):
'Sean McMullen's oft-reprinted "The Colours of the Masters" is a near-perfect example of idea-driven SF -- a combination of technology and humanity which science fiction has always striven for.'
(Universe 2, ed. Haber and Silverberg, 1994) novelette
This was the first of the stories set in the world of the Greatwinter series to be published, and it introduced the Calculor machine, the brilliant and charismatic chief librarian Zarvora, and even her future husband -- the component-slave FUNCTION 9. How does one debug a computer made up of human components when the inauguration date is fast approaching and your boss is thinking about outsourcing? Zarvora's technique is drastic, but it works. This story was rejected as unpublishable without extensive rewriting by an Australian editor, but it sold unaltered to the Haber and Silverberg anthology on its next submission.
LOCUS, November 1991: Locus Looks at Books - Reviews by Faren Miller (UNIVERSE 2, Robert Silverberg and Karen Haber, eds)
'Some highlights... "Souls in the Great Machine" by Sean McMullen, an elegant variant on traditional sf theme, here transformed into a baroque post-industrial vision resembling "steampunk" but even more bizarre.'
(Analog, January, 1992) novelette
This meticulously researched story is about an ecological niche opened up by the development of modern communications. The animals that discover and exploit this niche are, of course, electrosensitive and intelligent, yet like all newly rich and powerful, they decide to fill in their newly acquired spare time with some research into genealogy and family history. It was reprinted in the anthology Metaworlds in 1994.
See also Bibliographical entry: An Empty Wheelhouse"
THE WEST AUSTRALIAN, June 18th, 1994 (Vic Crossland reviewing METAWORLDS):
'brilliantly conceived ...'
LOCUS, August 1994 (Gary K. Wolfe reviewing METAWORLDS):
'In one of the book's most original conceptions, Sean McMullen combines history and evolutionary biology in a strange but hypnotic tale ...'Return to start of page
Sean's first eight stories were published in amateur magazines from 1980 to 1984. The first of these stories was KILLER (Yggdrasil v11/2, July 1980), and was about a computer maintenance program that decided to solve an over-quote file problem on the disks by deleting the students that created the files. During this period Sean also won several writing competitions. His professionally published fiction is listed here in chronological order:
THE PHARAOH'S AIRSHIP (Omega, July/August 1986 novelette
- Equal 1st, readers' poll
THE DECIAD (Omega Science Digest, Nov/Dec 1986) novelette
- Winner, 1985 Worldcon short story competition
- Carr's Recommended Reading list, Best SF of the Year, 1986
- Republished: Call to the Edge (Aphelion, 1992)
THE COLOURS OF THE MASTERS (Fantasy & Science Fiction, March 1988) short story
- Locus Recommended Reading List, 1989
- Nominee, Australian SF Award (Ditmar) 1989
- Nebula Awards Preliminary Ballot, 1989
- Republished: Glass Reptile Breakout, ed. Van Ikin (CSAL, 1990)
- Republished: Call to the Edge (Aphelion, 1992)
- Republished: Mortal Fire, ed Ikin and Dowling(Hodder and Stoughton,1993)
WHILE THE GATE IS OPEN (Fantasy & Science Fiction, February 1990) novelette
- Winner, Australian SF Award (Ditmar) 1991
- Recommended reading list, Eidolon magazine, 1990
- Republished: Call to the Edge (Aphelion, 1992)
A RICH FANTASY LIFE (Inter Alia, ed. Macphail, CUL 1990) short story
AT THE FOCUS (with Paul Collins, Eidolon 3, 1990) short story
- Republished: The Government in Exile by Paul Collins (Sumeria, 1994)
ALONE IN HIS CHARIOT (Eidolon 4, March 1991) novelette
- Winner, Australian SF Award (Ditmar) 1992
- Republished: Call to the Edge (Aphelion, 1992)
THE DOMINANT STYLE (Aurealis 4, Jun 1991) short story
- Nominee, Australian SF Award (Ditmar) 1992
- Republished: Call to the Edge (Aphelion, 1992)
AN EMPTY WHEELHOUSE (Analog, Jan 1992) novelette
- Eidolon Recommended Reading List
- Dozois' Recommended Reading List, Year's Best Science Fiction 10, 1993
- Republished: Metaworlds (Penguin, 1994)
SOULS IN THE GREAT MACHINE (Universe 2, Haber/Silverberg, 1992) novelette
CALL TO THE EDGE (Aphelion, 1992) collection
- Launched by George Turner, March 1992
- The Australian newspaper's Best of the Year list, 1992
- Locus Recommended Reading List
- Eidolon Recommended Reading List
- Nominee, Australian Science Fiction Award 1993
- Debuts for 1992: Science Fiction: The Illustrated Encyclopedia, by John Clute (1995)
- THE COLOURS OF THE MASTERS (Republication.)
- THE EYES OF THE GREEN LANCER novelette
- Eidolon Recommended Reading List
- Nominee, READERCON Small Press Awards 1993
- DESTROYER OF ILLUSIONS novelette
- Eidolon Recommended Reading List
- WHILE THE GATE IS OPEN (Republication)
- THE DECIAD (Republication)
- PAX ROMANA novelette
- ALONE IN HIS CHARIOT (Republication)
- THE DEVILS OF LANGENHAGEN novelette
- THE DOMINANT STYLE (Republication)
PACING THE NIGHTMARE (Interzone, Spring 1992) short story
- Voted equal 14th out of 55, Interzone readers poll
- Dozois' Recommended Reading List, Year's Best Science Fiction 10, 1993
THE GLASKEN CHRONICLES (Eidolon 8, April 1992) short story
THE PORPHYRIC PLAGUE (Intimate Armageddons, ed.Congreve, Five Islands, 1992)
short story
A GREATER VISION (Analog, October 1992) short story
- Eidolon Recommended Reading List
THE WAY TO GREECE (Eidolon 13, August 1993) novelette
- Dozois' Recommended Reading List, Year's Best Science Fiction 11, 1994
CHARON'S ANCHOR (Aurealis, December 1993) short story
- Dozois' Recommended Reading List, Year's Best Science Fiction 11, 1994
VOICES IN THE LIGHT (Aphelion, March 1994) novel
- Launched by William Gibson and Peter Nicholls, April 1994
- The Australian newspaper's Best of the Year list, 1994
- Locus Recommended Reading List, February 1995
- Eidolon Recommended Reading list, February 1995
- Nominee and runner-up, Australian SF Award 1995
- Notable Works for 1994: Clute's Science Fiction: The Illustrated Encyclopedia
THE BLONDEFIRE GENOME (The Lottery ed. Sussex, Omnibus, 1994) short story
- Republished, Queensland Dept of Education: Open Access Support, 1996
THE MIOCENE ARROW (Alien Shores ed. McNamara and Winch, Aphelion, 1994))
novelette
- Eidolon Recommended Reading list, February 1995
- Dozois' Recommended Reading List, Year's Best Science Fiction 12, 1995
A RING OF GREEN FIRE : (Interzone 89, November 1994) short story
- Accepted for republication in forthcoming Interzone anthology
MIRRORSUN RISING (Aphelion, 1995) novel
- Locus New and Recommended list for April 1995
- The Australian's Best of the Year list, 1995
- Nominee, Aurealis Award 1995
- Locus Recommended Reading List, February 1996
ARTICLES ON SF: Note that this list is not comprehensive and does not include about 20 minor articles. I HEREBY SUBMIT (The Notional, April 1986) DON'T QUIT YOUR JOB (Thyme June 86) YOU OUGHT TO TRY GOING PROFESSIONAL ( Science Fiction 28, 1988) FIRST FLIGHTS OR KANGAROO HOPS? (Science Fiction 29, 1989) FORMULA FOR DISASTER ( The Body Dabbler, v2/4, issue 13, 24 August 1990) BEYOND OUR SHORES (Australian Content Eidolon 2, August 1990) THE HIGH BRICK WALL (Australian Content Eidolon 3, December 1990) CHANDLER ON THE SCOREBOARD (Australian Content Eidolon 4, March 1991) NOT IN PRINT BUT WORTH MILLIONS (Australian Content Eidolon 5, July 1991) -- with Nick Stathopoulos A. BERTRAM CHANDLER: A SURVEY (Science Fiction #31, v11/1, 1991) SCIENCE FICTION MAGAZINES IN AUSTRALIA (Australian and New Zealand Journal of Serials Librarianship, Vol 2(1) 1991. -- with Graham Stone and Van Ikin. GOING COMMERCIAL AND BECOMING PROFESSIONAL (Australian Content Eidolon 6, Spring 1991) - Winner, William Atheling Award for SF Criticism 1992. AUSTRALIAN SF IN PRINT 1980-1991 ( Festival of the Imagination Handbook, January 1992 AUSTRALIAN SF ART TURNS FIFTY - (Australian Content, Eidolon 7, January 1992) - Winner, William Atheling Award for SF Criticism 1993. BIG PARTIES AND LITTLE ROUTINES ( Australian SF Writers' News March 1992) FAR FROM VOID: A History of Australian SF Magazines (Aurealis 7, March 1992) SKIRTING THE FRONTIER: (Space Exploration Eidolon 8) INTRODUCTORY SPEAKER AND JOINT CHAIR, National Book Council Seminar on writing science fiction, 21/3/92. Text published in The Australian SF Writer's News 2, June 1992 KEYNOTE SPEAKER, Syncon 92 (Australian National SF Convention). Text of speech published in Syncon 92 handbook as THE ART OF SCIENCE FICTION - AT A DISTANCE SHOWCASE OR LEADING EDGE: AUSTRALIAN SF ANTHOLOGIES 1968-1990 (Aurealis 9, October 1992) FROM SCIENCE FANTASY TO GALILEO: (Australian Content Eidolon 10, Spring 1992) - Nominee, William Atheling Award for SF Criticism1993 THE STATE OF QUARANTINE: (Australian Content Eidolon 11, Summer 1993) SUFFERING FOR OTHER PEOPLE'S ART: (Australian Content Eidolon 12, Autumn 1993) CARTER BROWN'S UNSCIENTIFIC THRILLERS: (Sirius 2, June 1993) - Republished Paperback Parade (USA)) PROTECTION, LIBERATION AND THE COLD, DANGEROUS UNIVERSE: (Aurealis 11, July 1993) NO SCIENCE FICTION PLEASE, WE'RE AUSTRALIAN: (Australian Content Eidolon 13, Aug. 1993) THE QUEST FOR AUSTRALIAN FANTASY: (with Steve Paulsen) (Aurealis 13, April 1994) A LATERAL LEADING EDGE: AUSTRALIAN SF AND CYBERPUNK: (Australian Content Eidolon 14, April 1994) with Terry Dowling THE GREAT TRANSITION: ( Australian Content Eidolon 15, July 1994) - Text of the keynote speech presented at the opening of the new Adelaide Writers Centre, 12 July 1994. )UNTITLED) ARTICLE ON CENSORSHIP in Focus on the Mind column, PC Games Plus, V3#1, 1994(5?) THE HUNT FOR AUSTRALIAN HORROR: (with Steve Paulsen) (Aurealis 14, February 1995) RECOGNITION, AUSTRALIAN STYLE: (Australian Content Eidolon 16, February 1995) EIDOLON GUEST EDITORIAL: Records, Achievements and Damn Statistics! (Eidolon 17/18, July (Winter) 1995)I asked Sean for material for a web page in January 1996, and he responded with the magnificiently detailed article above. Modified to html by Eric Lindsay, and all conversion errors are mine.