image of person or book cover 4634362910439585614.jpg
This image has been sourced from online.
y separately published work icon Down There in Darkness single work   novel   science fiction  
Issue Details: First known date: 1999... 1999 Down There in Darkness
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Two men, one of them a policeman, are investigating a death involving a large international genetic engineering corporation. They become bothersome to the corporate owners and are taken out of action – not by being killed, but by being put to sleep for hundreds of years. But this may be a fate worse than death.

'They awaken to a distant future in which contemporary industrial civilization has been “cleansed” from the earth and what humanity survives is learning to live a very low-technology lifestyle, being bred eugenically to this life. This cleaning was done on purpose, an international plot by the rich and powerful who in fact rule the world – and who, in this distant future, are dying off.

'This is a complex and morally tortuous vision, and Turner’s characters find it nearly impossible to adapt without killing someone, perhaps even themselves.'

Source: Publisher's blurb (Orion ed.).

Notes

  • Dedication: This one is for Leanne Frahm, onetime pupil and excellent writer

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Tor ,
      1999 .
      image of person or book cover 4634362910439585614.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 352p.
      Edition info: 1st ed.
      Note/s:
      • 'A Tom Doherty Associates book'.
      ISBN: 0312868294
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Orion ,
      2018 .
      image of person or book cover 1088593574762648499.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Alternative title: Down There in the Darkness
      Extent: 1v.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 20 November 2018.
      ISBN: 9781473225060
      Series: y separately published work icon Gateway London : Orion , 2011- 19458199 2011 series - publisher novel science fiction

      Inaugurated by Orion in 2011, Gateway originally republished significant works of science fiction. By 2015, it had a catalogue of nearly three thousand titles, by over two hundred authors. Latterly, it has extended its catalogue to classic works of fantasy, horror, and crime, as well as science fiction.

      It is a companion series to SF Masterworks.

      Only works on the list by Australian authors are included on AustLit.

      Sources include https://www.thebookseller.com/news/more-hachette-authors-join-gateway.

Works about this Work

The Shield of Distance : Apocalypse in Australian Literature After 1945 Roslyn Weaver , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Apocalypse in Australian Fiction and Film : A Critical Study 2011; (p. 54-82)
'...One of the major themes of the Australian apocalyptic discourse is the nation's vulnerability to outside influence. In a sense, Australia's position on the edge of the globe not only excludes it from the world and its advantages but also shields the country from crises as a kind of utopian space free from harm, whereby the end of 'the world' can occur even if Australia still exists.

In the case studies in this chapter, the nation initially appears to be relatively utopian setting while war has destroyed the rest of the world, and the country's remote location seem to have protected it from the disaster elsewhere; yet this proves to be a false hope. Australia cannot escape catastrophe, and the authors suggest social and political complacency and indifference as the main reasons for collapse. In this way the novels function as warnings, using crisis to reveal dystopian futures. The associations these case studies make between disaster and Australia ultimately work to reinforce the concept that the nation is an apocalyptic space.' (54)
Scanners Bruce Gillespie , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: SF Commentary : The Independent Magazine About Science Fiction , August no. 80 2010; (p. 71)

— Review of Down There in Darkness George Turner , 1999 single work novel ; Centaurus : The Best of Australian Science Fiction 1999 anthology short story
Scanners Bruce Gillespie , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: SF Commentary : The Independent Magazine About Science Fiction , August no. 80 2010; (p. 71)

— Review of Down There in Darkness George Turner , 1999 single work novel ; Centaurus : The Best of Australian Science Fiction 1999 anthology short story
The Shield of Distance : Apocalypse in Australian Literature After 1945 Roslyn Weaver , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Apocalypse in Australian Fiction and Film : A Critical Study 2011; (p. 54-82)
'...One of the major themes of the Australian apocalyptic discourse is the nation's vulnerability to outside influence. In a sense, Australia's position on the edge of the globe not only excludes it from the world and its advantages but also shields the country from crises as a kind of utopian space free from harm, whereby the end of 'the world' can occur even if Australia still exists.

In the case studies in this chapter, the nation initially appears to be relatively utopian setting while war has destroyed the rest of the world, and the country's remote location seem to have protected it from the disaster elsewhere; yet this proves to be a false hope. Australia cannot escape catastrophe, and the authors suggest social and political complacency and indifference as the main reasons for collapse. In this way the novels function as warnings, using crisis to reveal dystopian futures. The associations these case studies make between disaster and Australia ultimately work to reinforce the concept that the nation is an apocalyptic space.' (54)
Last amended 2 Jun 2020 10:12:03
X