Steven Utley

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Steven Utley (1973)

Steven Utley (born November 10, 1948 in Fort Knox , Kentucky ; died January 12, 2013 in Smyrna , Tennessee ) an American poet and writer , best known as the writer of science fiction short stories, particularly the Silurian Tales series .

Life

Utley grew up as the child of a professional soldier in Great Britain and Okinawa, among other places .

He published his first short story The Unkindest Cut of All in 1972 in the US edition of the Perry Rhodan series. Over a period of four decades, Utley wrote over 140 short stories that appeared in various SF magazines, 36 of which belong to the Silurian Times series, in which scientists travel through a time portal into the geological age of the Silurian . The Silurian Tales were published in 2012 and 2013, collected as The 400 Million Year Itch and Invisible Kingdoms . Brian Stableford called the series the "best elaborated account of a bygone era in contemporary speculative literature."

Utley wrote mainly short stories, novels, and miniatures. His short story Custer's Last Jump (1976), which he wrote with Howard Waldrop , with whom he worked several times, was nominated for the Nebula Award . The title alludes to Custer's Last Stand , George Armstrong Custer's famous last battle on Little Big Horn . The story, which is presented as a historical text, is about exactly this battle, except that in this alternative story the Sioux do not ride Mustangs , but attack in monoplane . The story belongs together with Black as the Pit, from Pole to Pole (1977, also with Howard Waldrop, German as Schwarz wie der Abgrund, von Pol zu Pol ) to the forerunners of steampunk .

He also collaborated several times with Lisa Tuttle - like Waldrop from Texas. Both writers were part of Utley's co-founded Texas' Turkey City Writers group , a group of SF writers based in Austin . Together with Geo. W. Proctor he published in 1976 the anthology Lone Star Universe with stories by SF writers in Texas, in which the first publication by Bruce Sterling appeared.

Utley ironically described himself as “an internationally unknown author” and Dietmar Dath wrote about him: “His honest opposition to everything closed, systematic and monumental has saved [Utley] from the kind of career leaps that are called 'breakthroughs' in the cultural world.” And John Clute said: "Almost from behind, partly because he did not publish any novels, it came about that Utley was perceived as an important author."

In addition to science fiction, Utley also wrote poems, drew and wrote comics , his comic work mainly fell in a phase in the 1980s in which he had turned away from SF with disappointment. His comic book The Huggybunnies was published in 1982, and he also wrote several scripts for DC comics. As a lyricist, Japanese senryu were a formal model for him .

In 2013 Utley died at the age of 64. A good dozen of his short stories have appeared in German translation, scattered in various anthologies.

bibliography

Silurian Tales (short story series)
  • There and Then (1993)
  • The Age of Mud and Slime (1996)
  • A Silurian Tale (1996)
  • The Wind Over the World (1996)
    • German: Wind over the world. In: Friedel Wahren (Ed.): Asimovs Science Fiction 50th episode. Heyne (Heyne Science Fiction & Fantasy # 5921), 1997, ISBN 3-453-13305-6 .
  • The Real World (2000)
  • Chain of Life (2000)
  • The Despoblado (2000)
  • Cloud by Van Gogh (2000)
  • Half a Loaf (2001)
  • Five Miles from Pavement (2001)
  • The World Without (2001)
  • Walking in Circles (2002)
  • Foodstuff (2002)
  • Treading the Maze (2002)
  • Beyond the Sea (2002)
  • Exile (2003)
  • Chaos and the Gods (2003)
  • Invisible Kingdoms (2004)
  • Babel (2004)
  • "Another Continuum Heard From!" (2004)
  • A Paleozoic Palimpsest (2004)
  • The Wave-Function Collapse (2005)
  • Promised Land (2005)
  • Silv'ry Moon (2005)
  • Diluvium (2006)
  • All of Creation (2008)
  • The World Within the World (2008)
  • The 400-Million-Year Itch (2008)
  • The Woman Under the World (2008)
  • Slug Hell (2008)
  • Variant (2008)
  • Lost Places of the Earth (2009)
  • The Tortoise Grows Elate (2012)
  • The End in Eden (2012)
  • The Gift Horse (2012)
  • Sidestep (2013)

Collections

  • 1 The 400-Million-Year Itch (2012)
  • 2 Invisible Kingdoms (2013)
Collections
  • Ghost Seas (1997)
  • This Impatient Ape (1998)
  • Career Moves of the Gods (2000)
  • The Beasts of Love (2005)
  • Where or When (2006)
Short stories
  • The Unkindest Cut of All (1972)
  • Crash Cameron and the Slime Beast (1973, as S. Dale)
  • Parrot Phrase (1973)
  • The Queen & I (1973, also as Ants )
  • The Reason Why (1973, also as Mysterious Ways )
  • Deeper Than Death (1974)
  • Act of Mercy (1974)
    • German: act of grace. In: HJ Alpers (ed.): Countdown. Droemer Knaur (Knaur Science Fiction & Fantasy # 5711), 1979, ISBN 3-426-05711-5 .
  • Hung Like an Elephant (1974, with Joseph F. Pumilia, as Joe Stevens)
    • German: The elephant thing. In: Michael Kubiak (Ed.): Höhenflug. Bastei Lübbe (Bastei Lübbe Science Fiction Bestseller # 22044), 1982, ISBN 3-404-22044-7 .
  • Womb, with a View (1974, also as Joe Stevens)
    • German: Lap with a view. In: HJ Alpers (Ed.): Kopernikus 3. Moewig (Moewig Science Fiction # 3523), 1981.
  • Big Black Whole (1974)
  • Time and Variance (1974, with Jake Saunders and Howard Waldrop )
  • Ember Eyes (1974)
  • Outlaw Glory (1975)
  • Pan-Galactic Swingers (1975, also as Personal Column )
  • Pretty Meat (1975)
  • The Great Red Spot (1975, with Joseph F. Pumilia)
  • Dear Mom, I Don't Like It Up Here (1975)
  • Flies By Night (1975, with Lisa Tuttle )
  • Caring for Your Edaphosaurus (1975)
  • The Other Half (1975)
  • Custer's Last Jump (1976, with Howard Waldrop)
  • Ghost Seas (1976)
  • The Voyeur (1976, also as Someone is Watching )
  • Getting Away (1976)
  • Sic Transit ...? A Shaggy Hairless-Dog Story (1976, with Howard Waldrop, also as Willow Beeman )
  • Deviation from a Theme (1976)
  • Larval Stage (1976)
  • Ocean (1976)
  • Predators (1976)
    • German: Predators. 1992.
  • The Man at the Bottom of the Sea (1976)
    • English: The man on the seabed. 1990.
  • Black as the Pit, from Pole to Pole (1977, with Howard Waldrop)
    • German: Black as the abyss, from pole to pole. In: Wolfgang Jeschke (Ed.): Science Fiction Story Reader 19. Heyne (Heyne Science Fiction & Fantasy # 3944), 1983, ISBN 3-453-30872-7 .
  • Night Life (1977)
  • Our Vanishing Triceratops (1977, with Joseph F. Pumilia)
  • Sidhe (1977)
    • German: Sidhe. In: Michel Parry (ed.): Ten devil's kisses. Pabel (Vampire Paperback # 68), 1978.
  • The Thirteenth Labor (1977, also as And For Ourselves, False Powers )
  • To 1966 (1977)
  • Losing Streak (1977)
  • In Brightest Day, in Darkest Night (1977, also as In Brightest Day, in Blackest Night )
  • Never Mind Now (1977)
  • Upstart (1977)
  • Passport for a Phoenix (1977)
    • English: Phoenix from the ashes. In: Michael Nagula (Ed.): Science-Fiction-Stories 85. Ullstein (Ullstein Science Fiction & Fantasy # 31021), 1980, ISBN 3-548-31021-4 .
  • Spectator Sport (1977)
    • German: Schausport. In: Hans-Jürgen Frederichs, Walter A. Fuchs (Eds.): SF Perry Rhodan Magazin, April 1981. Pabel, 1981.
  • The Maw (1977)
  • Time and Hagakure (1977)
    • English: The Commandments of Hagakure. In: HJ Alpers (Hrsg.): Kopernikus 2. Moewig (Moewig Science Fiction # 3514), 1981, ISBN 3-8118-3514-9 .
  • Good-Bye to All of That (1977, as S. Dale)
  • Mr. Wyatt in Darkest Africa (1977, as Bruce Holt)
  • Tom Sawyer's Sub-Orbital Escapade (1977, with Lisa Tuttle)
    • English: Tom Sawyer's suborbital pranks. In: Ernst Fuchs (I), Hans Joachim Alpers (Hrsg.): New science fiction stories. Tosa, 1982, ISBN 3-85001-097-X .
  • Uncoiling (1978, with Lisa Tuttle)
  • Abaddon (1979)
  • The Mouse Ran Up the Clock (1979)
    • German: No time to die. In: HJ Alpers (Ed.): Beasts for Norn. Droemer Knaur (Knaur Science Fiction & Fantasy # 5722), 1980, ISBN 3-426-05722-0 .
  • Leaves (1979)
  • Genocide Man (1979)
  • In the Shubbi Arms (1980, with Howard Waldrop)
  • Slices of Sylvia (1980)
  • The Beasts of Love (1981)
  • Dog in the Manger (1982)
  • The Huggybunnies at the Seashore (1983, as S. Dale)
  • Creatures of Habit (1985)
  • My Wife (1989)
  • The Tall Grass (1989)
  • Where or When (1991)
  • The Glowing Cloud (1992)
  • Look Away (1992)
  • The Dinosaur Season (1992)
  • Haiti (1992)
    • German: Haiti. In: Friedel Wahren (Ed.): Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine 43rd episode. Heyne (Heyne Science Fiction & Fantasy # 5141), 1994, ISBN 3-453-07762-8 .
  • Revenge (1992)
  • Now That We Have Each Other (1992)
  • Little Whalers (1993)
  • The Country Doctor (1993)
  • Michael Bates Michael Bates Michael Bates Michael (1994)
  • Edge of the Wind (1994)
  • Two Women of the Prairie (1994)
  • One Kansas Night (1994)
  • Living It (1994)
  • Race Relations (1996)
  • Once More, With Feeling (1997)
  • The Electricity of Heaven (1997)
  • The Here and Now (1998)
  • Ask Athena (2004)
  • A Daughter of the Cause (2005)
  • A Rejection File (2005)
  • The Goods (2005)
  • Crab (2006, with Howard Waldrop)
  • Life's Work (2006)
  • Staying in Storyville (2006)
  • In the Hole (2007, with Lisa Tuttle)
  • Sleepless Years (2008)
  • Perfect Everything (2008)
  • The Point (2009)
  • The City Quiet as Death (2009, with Michael Bishop)
  • Crime and Punishment (2012)
  • Test (2012)
  • Zip (2012)
  • Shattering (2012)
  • The Boy Who Drank From Lovely Women (2013)
  • All the Layers of the World (2015, with Camille Alexa)
  • The Cicadas (2015, with Jessica Reisman)
  • Girlie (2016, with Camille Alexa as Alex C. Renwick)
Poetry
  • This Impatient Ape (1998)
  • Career Moves of the Gods (2000)
Anthologies

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "The most elaborate reconstruction of a past era in recent speculative fiction is the image of the palaeozoic contained in a long sequence of stories by Steven Utley." Brian M. Stableford: Science Fact and Science Fiction: An Encyclopedia. Routledge 2006, ISBN 0-415-97460-7 , p. 349.
  2. ↑ Dietmar Dath: Uhrmacher der Gegenenzeit , obituary in the FAZ, January 16, 2013, accessed on October 11, 2018.
  3. ^ "Almost by stealth, partly because he did not publish novels, Utley came to be perceived as a writer of weight." John Clute: Utley, Steve. In: The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction . 3rd edition (online edition), version dated August 12, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Utley, Steven
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Utley, Steve (alternative spelling); Utley, Stephen (alternative spelling); Dale, S. (pseudonym); Holt, Bruce (pen name); Stevens, Joe (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American writer
DATE OF BIRTH November 10, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH Fort Knox , Kentucky
DATE OF DEATH January 12, 2013
Place of death Smyrna , Tennessee