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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Two men, one of them a policeman, are investigating a death involving a large international genetic engineering corporation. They become bothersome to the corporate owners and are taken out of action – not by being killed, but by being put to sleep for hundreds of years. But this may be a fate worse than death.
'They awaken to a distant future in which contemporary industrial civilization has been “cleansed” from the earth and what humanity survives is learning to live a very low-technology lifestyle, being bred eugenically to this life. This cleaning was done on purpose, an international plot by the rich and powerful who in fact rule the world – and who, in this distant future, are dying off.
'This is a complex and morally tortuous vision, and Turner’s characters find it nearly impossible to adapt without killing someone, perhaps even themselves.'
Source: Publisher's blurb (Orion ed.).
Notes
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Dedication: This one is for Leanne Frahm, onetime pupil and excellent writer
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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The Shield of Distance : Apocalypse in Australian Literature After 1945
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Apocalypse in Australian Fiction and Film : A Critical Study 2011; (p. 54-82) '...One of the major themes of the Australian apocalyptic discourse is the nation's vulnerability to outside influence. In a sense, Australia's position on the edge of the globe not only excludes it from the world and its advantages but also shields the country from crises as a kind of utopian space free from harm, whereby the end of 'the world' can occur even if Australia still exists.
In the case studies in this chapter, the nation initially appears to be relatively utopian setting while war has destroyed the rest of the world, and the country's remote location seem to have protected it from the disaster elsewhere; yet this proves to be a false hope. Australia cannot escape catastrophe, and the authors suggest social and political complacency and indifference as the main reasons for collapse. In this way the novels function as warnings, using crisis to reveal dystopian futures. The associations these case studies make between disaster and Australia ultimately work to reinforce the concept that the nation is an apocalyptic space.' (54)
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Scanners
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: SF Commentary : The Independent Magazine About Science Fiction , August no. 80 2010; (p. 71)
— Review of Down There in Darkness 1999 single work novel ; Centaurus : The Best of Australian Science Fiction 1999 anthology short story
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Scanners
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: SF Commentary : The Independent Magazine About Science Fiction , August no. 80 2010; (p. 71)
— Review of Down There in Darkness 1999 single work novel ; Centaurus : The Best of Australian Science Fiction 1999 anthology short story -
The Shield of Distance : Apocalypse in Australian Literature After 1945
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Apocalypse in Australian Fiction and Film : A Critical Study 2011; (p. 54-82) '...One of the major themes of the Australian apocalyptic discourse is the nation's vulnerability to outside influence. In a sense, Australia's position on the edge of the globe not only excludes it from the world and its advantages but also shields the country from crises as a kind of utopian space free from harm, whereby the end of 'the world' can occur even if Australia still exists.
In the case studies in this chapter, the nation initially appears to be relatively utopian setting while war has destroyed the rest of the world, and the country's remote location seem to have protected it from the disaster elsewhere; yet this proves to be a false hope. Australia cannot escape catastrophe, and the authors suggest social and political complacency and indifference as the main reasons for collapse. In this way the novels function as warnings, using crisis to reveal dystopian futures. The associations these case studies make between disaster and Australia ultimately work to reinforce the concept that the nation is an apocalyptic space.' (54)
Last amended 2 Jun 2020 10:12:03
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