Michael G. Coney (1932–2005)

The late Eric Brown, a friend of many years, was a big fan of Coney’s fiction, but for some reason Coney was one of those authors I never seemed to pick up. The first, I think, was Hello Summer, Goodbye (1975, UK) about fifteen years ago, and I thought it quite good. I’ve read more in the last few years, and found his Amorph trilogy of Mirror Image (1972, UK), Syzygy (1973, UK) and Brontomek! (1976, UK) good examples of a type of expatriate English science fiction of the 1970s which I show more find strangely appealing.

Cat Karina (1982, UK) is not that. It’s set in the far distant future, the Greataway, on an Earth populated by many races that have been genetically melded with assorted animals, and in which technology is anathema - in fact, even fire is banned. The novel is explicitly framed as the telling of a legend, so much so it inserts commentary on later distortions and interpretations of the story. And alternative timelines, happentracks, predicated on decisions made by Karina and others which might affect the future, or Ifalong.

There’s a prophecy, but it’s really a millennia-long plan to bring about the birth of someone who can free Starquin, “the greatest person the Earth has ever known”, and it involves the title character, who is a Specialist, a human with animal genes, and a felina, meaning the animal genes are from jaguars. Karina lives in a village on the sailway line, a wooden monorail with wind-powered sailcars. One section of the track is too steep for wind-power, so the sailcars must be hauled up to the summit. By teams of felinos. The chief cargo on the sailway is tortugas, a highly-prized fruit grown in the mountains on heavily-guarded farms.

A handmaiden of the Dedo, a part of the Starquin’s body “in human form”, tries to manipulate Karina so she follows the plan, but Karina has a mind of her own… but eventually ends up making the right decisions. The main story follows the preparations for an annual sailcar race to deliver the season’s first tortugas to the coast, and the plan to use a sailcar built using forbidden technology - ie, metal - but this will mean there will no longer be a need for gangs of felinos. Which results in a revolution, with the Specialists overthrowing the True Humans.

There is little, to be honest, all that original about the plot of Cat Karina - it runs on rails as well-greased as the sailway. And, it must be said, the novel does a great deal of heavy-lifting when it comes to filling in the back-history of the universe (there is a later trilogy set in the same universe), but it does so with some really quite smart neologisms and an impressive economy. I don't think Cat Karina privileges world-building over story, a common fault is science fiction and fantasy, but its world-building is certainly more original and accomplished than its story. Karina is an engaging hero and well-characterised, and it never feels like she’s being pushed and prodded by the plot, even though the narrative often details other happentracks. There’s some nice invention in places, the secret of the tortugas, for example, which is an important plot-point, unlike the secret of the tumps (huge torpid meat animals), which is not.

Cat Karina is a well-crafted novel, and a good example of its particular type, To be honest, I much prefer Coney’s near-future sf, but for fans of sf set so far in the future it might as well be fantasy, Cat Karina, and, I expect, the trilogy which followed it, are good reads. show less

A sexist science fiction story that was written in the 70s. As another reviewer commented, I think the author meant "Chimera," instead of Charisma.

This author never thought that women would like to not be treated like sex objects in the future, I guess. This takes place in a town on the coast of England, near Cornwall, where a scientist in a science institute had discovered a way to access parallel worlds. The protagonist is a hotel manager who sells house yachts on the side. He treats show more every woman like they exist for his personal pleasure or displeasure, depending on their looks. The protagonist instantly falls in love with a "girl" (as the author calls young women who are good-looking) from a parallel Earth. She, naturally, instantly falls in love with him, too, on her meeting up with him when she visits his Earth. They immediately consummate their friendship before she is killed by lightning on her way back to her world. The rest of the book is spent with him chasing the live version of her on different worlds.

This is the second book I've read by this author and they've both been sexist, so I'm starting to get disappointed. show less

What an intriguing book! Coney has a deft touch with setting and character. I was hoodwinked into wondering if he had gone suddenly sexist until I figured out that it was the viewpoint character who was incapable of seeing women as human beings, but always as reflections of his own desires and prejudices. Questions of ethics and human rights mix here with strange science and daring young men in their gliding machines. An odd and fun and ultimately subtle fiction.

I was not expecting to like this book as much as I did--all the T&A and prurient innuendo on the cover saw to that. But I have greatly enjoyed some of Coney's writing, so I gave it a go.

Immediately, his writing caught me. He had a deft hand and a good mind. Yes, there is sexuality in the book, but there is much more.

For a while I was a bit thrown off by the viewpoint that would pull out of the immediacy of the characters' lives into a much longer, more cosmic view, but in time I relaxed into show more it and let the story be what it was--and it is good.

Some books start strong and peter out as their authors flounder for a resolution. Cat Karina gets stronger as it progresses. It will doubtless remain one of my favourite Coney books.

He was a quirky and inventive writer unlike any other. It is lovely to get to be in his company again. show less