Fiction_L Archives Africa in science fiction Dates: 12/27/00,2:29 PM  through  12/28/00,12:55 PM  (5 postings) Search for: Select one or more indexes to search: 2011-current     2009-2010     2004-2008    1995-2003    (Matches from each index will be displayed separately in the results page.) Return to December 2000 thread menu   |   Fiction_L Archives Menu

FROM: Alicia Graybill <[removed]@rand.lcl.lib.ne.us>
REC'D: 12/27/00, 2:29 PM

Hello:
I thought this question had been dealt with by the L before but I can't
find an answer in the archives. Patron wants a book that involves people
from Africa leaving the earth in a spaceship then returning many many
years later. She says we used to own the book and I vaguely remember
doing the search for her but the title no longer comes up so we may have
pulled it. It's definitely not a new title.
Sorry for being so vague.:)
Thanks in advance.
_____________________________________________________________
[ Alicia Graybill* ]
[ Curator/Librarian ]
[ Jane Pope Geske Heritage Room of Nebraska Authors ]
[ [removed]@rand.lcl.lib.ne.us ]
[ "A book is still the most exciting thing to me." ]
[ --Jane Pope Geske ]
[ *All opinions are strictly my own.* ]
-------------------------------------------------------------

FROM: Dennis Lien <[removed]@tc.umn.edu>
REC'D: 12/27/00, 9:11 PM

At 02:01 PM 12/27/00 -0600, you wrote:
>Hello:
>I thought this question had been dealt with by the L before but I can't
>find an answer in the archives. Patron wants a book that involves people
>from Africa leaving the earth in a spaceship then returning many many
>years later. She says we used to own the book and I vaguely remember
>doing the search for her but the title no longer comes up so we may have
>pulled it. It's definitely not a new title.
>Sorry for being so vague.:)
>Thanks in advance.
>_____________________________________________________________
>[ Alicia Graybill* ]
>[ Curator/Librarian ]
>[ Jane Pope Geske Heritage Room of Nebraska Authors ]
>[ [removed]@rand.lcl.lib.ne.us ]
>[ "A book is still the most exciting thing to me." ]
>[ --Jane Pope Geske ]
>[ *All opinions are strictly my own.* ]
>-------------------------------------------------------------


I don't recognize the book from this description, but the sf author who
writes most frequently about Africa and Africans is Mike Resnick. His
best-known Africa/sf title is KIRINYAGA, a novelized series of short
stories centering around the attempt to maintain a traditional African
existence in an artificial (L5 satellite, I think) existence. If the
community returns to earth at the end (I don't think they do, but I've
not read the book, only one or two of the stories), I suppose this
*might* be a slightly misremembered description of that book. If it
is not that book, it still might be another Resnick. (Not, I think
from descriptions, IVORY or PARADISE, but I haven't read those either.
The amount of sf of the last couple decades that I ought to have read
but have not is staggering.) Resnick also co-edited an sf anthology
called FUTURE EARTHS: UNDER AFRICAN SKIES.

The only other sf author who comes to mind as often writing of Africans
is the late Mack Reynolds, who had a trilogy (BLACK MAN'S BURDEN;
BORDER BREED NOR BIRTH; THE BEST YE BREED) in the 1960s/70s, but
these were earthbound tales of intrigue and revolution and are
clearly not it.

One stock explanation for the presence of humanoid races on other
planets for such sf stories as involve such is alien kidnappers who
took early humans (usually though not necessarily from Africa) off
earth and used them to seed other planets for one reason or another.
No particular titles come to mind, though.

For what little it's worth--

Dennis Lien / U of Minnesota Libraries // [removed]@tc.umn.edu

FROM: [removed]@aol.com
REC'D: 12/28/00, 2:25 AM

In a message dated 12/27/2000 10:09:22 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[removed]@tc.umn.edu writes:

<<
I don't recognize the book from this description, but the sf author who
writes most frequently about Africa and Africans is Mike Resnick. His
best-known Africa/sf title is KIRINYAGA, a novelized series of short
stories centering around the attempt to maintain a traditional African
existence in an artificial (L5 satellite, I think) existence. If the
community returns to earth at the end (I don't think they do, but I've
not read the book, only one or two of the stories), I suppose this
*might* be a slightly misremembered description of that book. If it
is not that book, it still might be another Resnick. (Not, I think
from descriptions, IVORY or PARADISE, but I haven't read those either.
The amount of sf of the last couple decades that I ought to have read
but have not is staggering.) Resnick also co-edited an sf anthology
called FUTURE EARTHS: UNDER AFRICAN SKIES.
>>

Just FYI - in Dennis response, above, he notes that "it still might be
another Resnick." Well, there is another Resnick - Mike's daughter, Laura,
who writes under her own name (In Legend Born), as well as under Laura Leone
(romance).

Binnie Syril Braunstein
romance novelist/former librarian

FROM: "Brad Scott" <[removed]@ci.allen.tx.us>
REC'D: 12/28/00, 10:34 AM

Didn't Ray Bradbury write a short piece similar to this? My recollection tells me that it might have been a chapter in the Martian Chronicles, but unfortunately I don't have a copy to check against right now. Also, I don't recall whether his black "emigres" ever returned.

Bradley A. Scott
Allen (Texas) Public Library
---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: Dennis Lien <[removed]@tc.umn.edu>
Reply-To: "Fiction_L" <[removed]@maillist.webrary.org>
Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2000 21:02:32 -0800

>At 02:01 PM 12/27/00 -0600, you wrote:
>>Hello:
>>I thought this question had been dealt with by the L before but I can't
>>find an answer in the archives. Patron wants a book that involves people
>>from Africa leaving the earth in a spaceship then returning many many
>>years later. She says we used to own the book and I vaguely remember
>>doing the search for her but the title no longer comes up so we may have
>>pulled it. It's definitely not a new title.
>>Sorry for being so vague.:)
>>Thanks in advance.
>>_____________________________________________________________
>>[ Alicia Graybill* ]
>>[ Curator/Librarian ]
>>[ Jane Pope Geske Heritage Room of Nebraska Authors ]
>>[ [removed]@rand.lcl.lib.ne.us ]
>>[ "A book is still the most exciting thing to me." ]
>>[ --Jane Pope Geske ]
>>[ *All opinions are strictly my own.* ]
>>-------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>I don't recognize the book from this description, but the sf author who
>writes most frequently about Africa and Africans is Mike Resnick. His
>best-known Africa/sf title is KIRINYAGA, a novelized series of short
>stories centering around the attempt to maintain a traditional African
>existence in an artificial (L5 satellite, I think) existence. If the
>community returns to earth at the end (I don't think they do, but I've
>not read the book, only one or two of the stories), I suppose this
>*might* be a slightly misremembered description of that book. If it
>is not that book, it still might be another Resnick. (Not, I think
>from descriptions, IVORY or PARADISE, but I haven't read those either.
>The amount of sf of the last couple decades that I ought to have read
>but have not is staggering.) Resnick also co-edited an sf anthology
>called FUTURE EARTHS: UNDER AFRICAN SKIES.
>
>The only other sf author who comes to mind as often writing of Africans
>is the late Mack Reynolds, who had a trilogy (BLACK MAN'S BURDEN;
>BORDER BREED NOR BIRTH; THE BEST YE BREED) in the 1960s/70s, but
>these were earthbound tales of intrigue and revolution and are
>clearly not it.
>
>One stock explanation for the presence of humanoid races on other
>planets for such sf stories as involve such is alien kidnappers who
>took early humans (usually though not necessarily from Africa) off
>earth and used them to seed other planets for one reason or another.
>No particular titles come to mind, though.
>
>For what little it's worth--
>
>Dennis Lien / U of Minnesota Libraries // [removed]@tc.umn.edu
>
>
>
>......................................................................
>Need to subscribe, unsubscribe, search the archives?
>Everything Fiction_L: http://www.webrary.org/rs/flmenu.html
>

FROM: Dennis Lien <[removed]@tc.umn.edu>
REC'D: 12/28/00, 12:55 PM

At 10:20 AM 12/28/00 -0600, you wrote:
>Didn't Ray Bradbury write a short piece similar to this? My recollection
tells me that it might have been a chapter in the Martian Chronicles, but
unfortunately I don't have a copy to check against right now. Also, I
don't recall whether his black "emigres" ever returned.
>
>Bradley A. Scott
>Allen (Texas) Public Library
>

You're thinking of "Way in the Middle of the Air," which is in MARTIAN
CHRONICLES (and has a sort of sequel, "The Other Foot," in THE ILLUSTRATED
MAN). But those are African-Americans, not Africans, and no, there is
no indication in either story that they'll ever return from Mars.

Dennis Lien / U of Minnesota Libraries // [removed]@tc.umn.edu

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