Author | Colin Greenland |
---|---|
Cover artist | Steve Crisp |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Series | Plenty series |
Genre | Science fiction |
Publisher | Unwin Hyman |
Publication date | 1990 |
Media type | Print (Paperback) |
Pages | 359 |
ISBN | 978-0-04-440265-7 |
Followed by | Seasons of Plenty |
Take Back Plenty (1990), is a novel by British writer Colin Greenland, which won both major British science fiction awards, the 1990 British SF Association award and the 1991 Arthur C. Clarke Award, [1] as well as being a nominee for the 1992 Philip K. Dick Award for the best original paperback published that year in the United States.
The Plenty series starts with Take Back Plenty and continues with Seasons of Plenty (1995), the collection The Plenty Principle (1997), containing a prequel to the series "In the Garden: The Secret Origin of the Zodiac Twins". [1] and Mother of Plenty (1998)
While it is a time of festivity on Mars, freighter captain Tabitha Jute isn't interested in the celebration. She is trying to elude planetary law enforcement agencies, almost bankrupt and about to lose her sole asset and her best friend, her starship "Alice Liddell". Unexpectedly, millionaire entertainer and entrepreneur Marco Metz arrives at her hideout and promises remuneration if she takes him to the distant giant spaceship Plenty, as well as his band. However, Metz is not what he seems. He is actually the estranged father of two of the other band members, who appear to be in an incestuous relationship and has also engaged Jute under false pretenses, intending to steal the Frasque, an alien artefact. En route, they become entangled with the Capellans, an advanced alien species who have confined humanity to the Solar System and prohibited interstellar travel . [2]
Both Michael Moorcock and Brian Aldiss praised the novel. Moorcock stated that the novel was "intelligent, literate space opera" in the tradition of The Stars My Destination , The Paradox Men by Charles L. Harness and Nova . [3]
Michael John Moorcock is an English–American writer, particularly of science fiction and fantasy, who has published a number of well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic novels and non-fiction. He has worked as an editor and is also a successful musician. He is best known for his novels about the character Elric of Melniboné, which were a seminal influence on the field of fantasy in the 1960s and 1970s.
The New Wave was a science fiction (SF) style of the 1960s and 1970s, characterized by a great degree of experimentation with the form and content of stories, greater imitation of the styles of non-science fiction literature, and an emphasis on the psychological and social sciences as opposed to the physical sciences. New Wave authors often considered themselves as part of the modernist tradition of fiction, and the New Wave was conceived as a deliberate change from the traditions of the science fiction characteristic of pulp magazines, which many of the writers involved considered irrelevant or unambitious.
Sword and sorcery (S&S) or heroic fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy characterized by sword-wielding heroes engaged in exciting and violent adventures. Elements of romance, magic, and the supernatural are also often present. Unlike works of high fantasy, the tales, though dramatic, focus on personal battles rather than world-endangering matters. Sword and sorcery commonly overlaps with heroic fantasy. The genre originated from the early-1930s works of Robert E. Howard. The term "sword and sorcery" was coined by Fritz Leiber In the May 1961 issue of the fantasy fanzine Amra, to describe Howard and the stories that were influenced by his works. In parallel with "sword and sorcery", the term "heroic fantasy" is used, although it is a more loosely defined genre.
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Science Fantasy, which also appeared under the titles Impulse and SF Impulse, was a British fantasy and science fiction magazine, launched in 1950 by Nova Publications as a companion to Nova's New Worlds. Walter Gillings was editor for the first two issues, and was then replaced by John Carnell, the editor of New Worlds, as a cost-saving measure. Carnell edited both magazines until Nova went out of business in early 1964. The titles were acquired by Roberts & Vinter, who hired Kyril Bonfiglioli to edit Science Fantasy; Bonfiglioli changed the title to Impulse in early 1966, but the new title led to confusion with the distributors and sales fell, though the magazine remained profitable. The title was changed again to SF Impulse for the last few issues. Science Fantasy ceased publication the following year, when Roberts & Vinter came under financial pressure after their printer went bankrupt.
Patricia Anne McKillip was an American author of fantasy and science fiction. She wrote predominantly standalone fantasy novels and has been called "one of the most accomplished prose stylists in the fantasy genre". Her work won many awards, including the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2008.
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Suzy McKee Charnas was an American novelist and short story writer, writing primarily in the genres of science fiction and fantasy. She won several awards for her fiction, including the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award and the James Tiptree Jr. Award. A selection of her short fiction was collected in Stagestruck Vampires and Other Phantasms in 2004. The Holdfast Chronicles, a four-volume story written over the course of almost thirty years was considered to be her major accomplishment in writing. The series addressed the topics of feminist dystopia, separatist societies, war, and reintegration. Another of her major works, The Vampire Tapestry, has been adapted into a play called "Vampire Dreams".
Colin Greenland is a British science fiction writer, whose first story won the second prize in a 1982 Faber & Faber competition. His best-known novel is Take Back Plenty (1990), winner of both major British science fiction awards, the 1990 British SF Association award and the 1991 Arthur C. Clarke Award, as well as being a nominee for the 1992 Philip K. Dick Award for the best original paperback published that year in the United States.
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Lisa Gracia Tuttle is an American-born science fiction, fantasy, and horror author. She has published more than a dozen novels, seven short story collections, and several non-fiction titles, including a reference book on feminism, Encyclopedia of Feminism (1986). She has also edited several anthologies and reviewed books for various publications. She has been living in the United Kingdom since 1981.
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