Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Canterbury 2100 Goes Digital

Yep. You can catch Canterbury 2100 for the Kindle now:

http://www.amazon.com/Canterbury-2100-pilgrimages-world-ebook/dp/B00C65J3XM/


Those of you who have been around for a while may recall this:



It's an anthology I put together a few years back. Bunch of really good Australian SF writers, extremely unusual idea and format. Essentially, the idea was to examine a future history by looking at the fiction of the society created by that future history. Something like, say, trying to figure out the 20th century by watching a bunch of TV episodes from the 1990s... if you see what I mean. Except that here, the stories are meant to be told by a bunch of pilgrims on train to Canterbury in 2108 or so; a train delayed by fierce storms and other things.

It was a real challenge, and it worked out pretty well in the end. There are some individually excellent stories, and by situating them in a larger context, the stories gain an added significance. I was delighted by the concept when I first tried to get it all together, and years down the track, I haven't changed my opinion in the slightest. In fact, for me the biggest problem with this anthology is that I put it together, so I don't get to read it "cold". I will never have the fun that everybody else gets from trying to piece it all into a single tapestry, to guess at the future that might yet be.

Anyway. It's on Kindle now. If you missed it the first time through, now's your chance to pick up a cheap digital copy, and take a look at that rare thing: a truly original piece of SF work.

3 comments:

  1. So I just purchased this and I get an introduction and an afterword but no story from you?

    Mind you for only $4.99 that still good value, and it might even be less with the current exchange rate.

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  2. Mister B: when you're wondering where my story is, I suggest you examine the framing narrative that holds the entire collection together!

    Seriously: at first, I thought it would be a doddle. Boccaccio and Chaucer basically tossed a few characters together on a thin excuse, and got straight to the stories. Unfortunately, I realised a bit late that I couldn't do that. Boccaccio and Chaucer were showcasing their own stories, you see. They weren't too concerned about the quality of the framing.

    I, on the other hand, had to bring together a bunch of different stories by different writers, and I had to do it in a way that wouldn't insult the work put in by the writers themselves. It was a bit of a fearsome enterprise in the end; the most difficult part of putting the whole thing together.

    I'd like to think the framing narrative is reasonably successful in its own right...

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  3. meh!
    Bought this in its original format when you released it :)

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