Phillip Mann was born in the UK but has been resident in New Zealand since 1969. Between 1982 and 1996, he wrote nine well-regarded science fiction novels. He’s had nothing published since, although Wikipedia claims he is working on a new novel. I hope so.
His first, fourth and fifth novels. The Clute and Nicholls Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
calls The Eye of the Queen
, Mann’s debut novel, “an accomplished novel of First Contact”. I remember picking up a paperback copy of it in Birmingham in the mid-1980s. First edition hardback copies of it are hard to find, and correspondingly expensive. Fortunately, I recently found one being sold on eBay for a reasonable price. Pioneers
, “his best novel to date” according to the Encyclopedia, is about a team of two genetically-engineered humans exploring the galaxy who return to a much-changed Earth. Wulfsyarn
tells the story of the captain of the Nightgale, a starship in the Mercy fleet which vanished on its maiden voyage, and returned a year later with only its captain aboard.
Mann’s second and third novels were the diptych, The Story of the Gardener: Master of Paxwax
and The Fall of the Families
. It’s a space opera, of sorts. There are no giant spaceships, or huge space battles, but it’s set in a galaxy populated by a multitude of alien races, all of which are dominated by humanity. And just waiting to rebel…
His last four books were the alternate history quartet, A Land Fit for Heroes: Escape to the Wild Wood
, Stand Alone Stan
, The Dragon Wakes
and The Burning Forest
. In these, the Roman Empire remained in Britain, there were no Saxon invaders, and the British Isles now consists of Roman garrison towns scattered across a countryside of primordial forests containing communities of Celts. I reviewed the first two books for Vector, the critical journal of the British Science Fiction Association, and thought they were excellent.
Damn. Now I want to reread all his books…
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I’ve read Pioneers and very much enjoyed it and would thoroughly recommend it.
I also have Stand Alone Stan at home, but have never gotten around to reading it as it was the middle of a series. I never got round to picking up any of the others.
[...] I’ve liked and enjoyed Phillip Mann’s fiction for a number of years – I even reviewed two of his books for Vector back in the early 1990s. And I posted photos of my collection of his books on my blog here. [...]
[...] been a big fan of Mann’s fiction for decades (oof, that makes me feel old) – see here – so I’ll buying this one in hardback the moment it is released. It will be [...]