Irontown Blues de John Varley

[Egan.Varley]

Enfin ! Dieu que je l'attendais celui-là !
John Varley annonce aux personnes abonnées à sa mailing list qu'il a fini d'écrire le dernier volume de sa trilogie Métal.
Le premier volume (Gens de la Lune ou "Steel Beach" en anglais) était sorti en 1992 tandis que le second volume (Le système Valentine ou "The Golden Globe" en anglais) était sorti en 1998.
Il a donc fallu attendre presque 20 ans pour que soit enfin terminé le dernier roman intitulé "Irontown Blues".

Reste maintenant à prier très très fort pour qu'une traduction soit entreprise par un éditeur. Sans doute Denoël puisque le second volume est paru en collection Lunes d'encre.

Je colle le mail reçu par les abonnés :

I am pleased to announce that on April 30th at 3 PM I submitted the final draft of my novel IRONTOWN BLUES, a full six hours ahead of the deadline!

IRONTOWN BLUES is the third, and final, installment of what I call my “Metal Trilogy.” This began with STEEL BEACH in 1992, the story of Hildy Johnson, a reporter in my Eight Worlds universe. It continued in 1998 with THE GOLDEN GLOBE, which followed the adventures of an actor named “Sparky” Valentine. Now, almost twenty years later, IRONTOWN BLUES wraps up the cycle with Christopher Bach and his faithful dog Sherlock, private detectives. So the game is afoot!

If things go as planned the book might see publication this September. However, since my editor is so far behind on her job that it will be another three weeks, at least, until she can even read it, I would not be surprised if that date was pushed back. Check the website for further news.

Peace/Shalom/Salaam

John

[Hoêl]

Sans doute Denoël puisque le second volume est paru en collection Lunes d'encre.

Gens de la lune aussi avait été publié par Denoël, en fait, à part Le canal Ophite, je pense qu'ils ont publié tout le reste de Varley.

Très bonne nouvelle ! et de quoi donner des idées au nouveau dircteur de Lunes d'Encre !

[jerome]

Un article sur John Varley sur l'excellent blog de Tor : How to Make a Near-Utopia Interesting: John Varley’s Eight World Stories

Between 1974 and 1980, John Varley wrote thirteen stories and one novel in the classic Eight Worlds setting. These worlds do not include Earth, which has been seized by aliens. Humans on the Moon and Mars survived and prospered. Humans have spread across the Solar System (with the exception of alien-owned Jupiter and Earth). The human past has been marked by a calamitous discontinuity (the Invasion and the struggle to survive the aftermath), but their present is, for the most part, technologically sophisticated, peaceful, stable, and prosperous.

Peace and prosperity sound like they’re good things, but perhaps not for authors. What kind of plots can be imagined if the standard plot drivers are off the table? How does one tell stories in a setting that, while not a utopia, can see utopia at a distance ? The premise seems unpromising, but thirteen stories and a novel argue that one can write absorbing narratives in just such a setting. So how did Varley square this particular circle ?