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| Edmund Cooper 1926 - 1982 |
This (All Fools Day) has to be my most favourite of Edmund Cooper novels and he has written a few good ones. We are once again in a post-apocalyptic Britain. This is often Edmund Cooper's type of brave new world. Each apocalypse is a different type of thing in most of his stories. Perhaps he desired to destroy the real world and invent many types of the new one - hence his regular sci/fi formula of after the disaster. In this, some sunspots cause mass suicide and only the more mentally unstable and unbalanced characters seem to have survived. They struggle to invent some semblance of a new order. The stories are simplistic pulp science fiction, and this is one of Edmund Cooper's best in my view. I really enjoyed this story.
Edmund Cooper was born in Cheshire in 1926 and died in 1982 just short of his 56th birthday. He began writing short stories at an early age and got his first novel published in the late fifties. He reviewed science fiction for the Sunday Times from 1967 until his passing in 1982.
He seems to have become a little obscure as one of Britain's science fiction writers, but I believe his time will come again. Two of his novels involve a female-dominated society after the need for men begins to diminish. They are rather controversial but do ask some excellent questions from a male perspective. These titles are Five to Twelve and Who Needs Men. I think he must have had a floored view of women's liberation. A view that perhaps ladies wanted it all their own way, and maybe, such a notion could not work. They (the two novels) certainly caused some heated debate at times.
1 comment:
Excellent writer! Thank you for your very interesting article. I recall my teenage mind being 'blown' (as they say) by Edmund Cooper's novel The Overman Culture. I seem to remember it was a bit like a creepy version of The Truman show,but with aliens and on a global scale! His best books were full of interesting ideas. Seahorse in the Sky and Transit are almost like pre-echoes of the tv series Lost;but more engaging than that show. (Which,sadly,went rapidly down hill! Some say the name was apt!) I was shocked to discover,years later,that Cooper's books were out of print,and his legacy mired in controversy. Apparently,largely due to his attitude towards women! I'm not going to defend his personal views;but there allot of authors I can think of who have,or had,unpleasant views. Yet,they remain in print! (As to some of the derogatory reviews I've seen of his fiction online. Well,people like different things. Maybe,I'd think some of the stuff they like isn't much cop?! And it's so easy to attack someone when they're critical reputation is at a low ebb!) I think an author should be judged on the quality of his best work.Hopefully,as time progresses,Edmund Cooper's work will get the reappraisal it deserves,and his best titles will be returned to print?!
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