Post by RENECUS7 on Jun 4, 2005 7:15:45 GMT -6
East Meets West in Radiant
Canadian SF author James Alan Gardner, whose novel Radiant has been nominated for Canada's Prix Aurora Award, told SCI FI Wire he decided to write a book with a clearly Buddhist slant. He didn't want characters from the West, "so I decided to do something different," Gardner said in an interview. The main character is a Buddhist woman named Youn Suu who helps investigate what's happening on a remote planetary colony. Gardner admits that's a common-enough plot, "but seeing everything through 'non-Western' eyes made familiar tropes fresh again. Indeed, the differences of East versus West became a crucial element as the book developed. The heroine's life follows a trajectory that just wouldn't work if she were 'Western.' She's not modeled on anyone specific, but she's very much in the mold of the classical Buddhist seeker who goes through many ordeals to achieve enlightenment. Of course, in her case, the enlightenment may be complete delusion, caused by an alien parasite who's eating her, but hey, this science fiction."
Apparently, this worked, since Gardner received an Aurora nod. He previously won for two short stories, "Muffin Explains Teleology to the World at Large" in 1991 and "Three Hearings on the Existence of Snakes in the Human Bloodstream" in 1998. Gardner said this nomination means more to him than the two wins."Short stories don't take long to write: a week or two at most," he said. "A novel takes the better part of a year. Getting nominated for Radiant is like readers telling me that the year I spent was worthwhile. I certainly don't want to devalue short stories, but I like saying 'I had a good year' better than 'I had a good week.'"
Next up for Gardner is a fantasy trilogy (he called it "my usual smart-ass action/adventure/comedy mystery stuff") that takes place on a large university campus over the course of one 12-hour period. Each book in the trilogy covers four hours, ending at sunrise. Gardner said the books are tentatively called Necessary Evils (which he has completed and sent to his editor), Necessary Cruelties (which he is working on now) and Necessary Sacrifices.
The Prix Aurora Awards were created by the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association in 1980 to honor outstanding SF and fantasy works by Canadian authors in both French and English. They will be handed out during Westercon 58, July 1-4, in Calgary, Canada.