Brian Michael Stableford (1948 – 2024)
Jeff Harris’ talk at Critical Mass will be an overview of Stableford’s oeuvre.
We will be meeting at 7:30pm November 20th, at the Minor Works Building, 22 Stamford Court, Adelaide.
(If you are coming via Sturt St, there’s a walkway between the cafés at 50 and 52 Sturt Street)
Zoom details:
November 20th: 7:30pm Adelaide, 8pm Melbourne, 5pm Perth
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87224309964?pwd=pTIhAuiceNiJRIEKbikVJSAKmNQa1j.1
Meeting ID: 872 2430 9964
Passcode: 356300
A. There will be a focus on the following works:
Sherlock Holmes and the Vampires of Eternity (Black Coat Press January 2009) ISBN 978-1-934543-06-1;
book version of the following linked novellas:
Stableford’s prefered title was The Gateway of Eternity. This novel has a complicated publication history.
The Realms of Tartarus (1976) – a three decker novel:
The Face of Heaven (1976)
A Vision of Hell (1977)
A Glimpse of Infinity (1977)
The Walking Shadow (1979)
The Walking Shadow: A Promethean Scientific Romance (Rockville, Maryland: Wildside Press/The Borgo Press, 2013) [vt of the above: pb/]
The Walking Shadow (London: Fontana, 1979) [pb/Terry Oakes]
Alien Abduction: The Wiltshire Revelations (2009)
Alien Abduction: The Wiltshire Revelations (San Bernardino, California: The Borgo Press/Rockville, Maryland: Wildside Press, 2009) [pb/]
(A terrible title for the novel. A better and more accurate title would be The Wiltshire Revelations: A Comedy of Sex and Alien Abduction)
The David Lydyard trilogy or The Werewolves trilogy (as suggested by Dave Langford)
- The Werewolves of London (Simon & Schuster UK July 1990)
- The Carnival of Destruction (Pocket UK October 1994)
- The Angel of Pain (Simon & Schuster UK August 1991)
The Asgard three-decker. Enjoyable space adventure with interesting concepts concealed within.
- Asgard’s Secret (Five Star October 2004); revised and expanded from 2 earlier versions:
- Journey to the Center (DAW 1982)
- Journey to the Centre (NEL October 1989)
- Asgard’s Conquerors (Five Star December 2004); revised and expanded from an earlier version:
- Invaders from the Centre (NEL January 1990)
- Asgard’s Heart (Five Star February 2005); revised and expanded from an earlier version:
- The Centre Cannot Hold (NEL June 1990)
B. The usual works of Stableford considered by those who comment on his fiction.
Listed here as worth reading. They will be mentioned briefly.
Grainger/Hooded Swan
- The Halcyon Drift (DAW November 1972 / J. M. Dent 1974); also available as an ebook, listed at 58,069 words
- Rhapsody in Black (DAW June 1973 / J. M. Dent 1975); also available as an ebook, listed at 51,279 words
- Promised Land (DAW February 1974 / J. M. Dent September 1975); also available as an ebook, listed at 49,848 words
- The Paradise Game (DAW June 1974 / J. M. Dent 1976); also available as an ebook, listed at 50,303 words
- The Fenris Device (DAW December 1974 / Pan 1978); also available as an ebook, listed at 49,782 words
- Swan Song (DAW May 1975 / Pan 1978)
All 6 novels are also available in a special omnibus volume: Swan Songs (Big Engine April 2002 / SFBC April 2003)
Daedalus Mission
- The Florians (DAW September 1976 / Hamlyn 1978)
- Critical Threshold (DAW February 1977 / Hamlyn 1979)
- Wildeblood’s Empire (DAW October 1977 / Hamlyn 1979)
- The City of the Sun (DAW May 1978 / Hamlyn 1980)
- Balance of Power (DAW January 1979 / Hamlyn 1984)
- The Paradox of the Sets (DAW October 1979)
The Daedalus Mission books are good biological puzzle stories.
The Empire of Fear (London: Simon and Schuster, 1988) [hb/Brian Salmon]
Emortality
- The Cassandra Complex (Tor March 2001); revised and expanded from:
- “The Magic Bullet” (nv), Interzone #29 1989
- Inherit the Earth (Tor September 1998); revised and expanded from:
- “Inherit the Earth” (na), Analog July 1995
- Dark Ararat (Tor March 2002)
- Architects of Emortality (Tor September 1999); revised and expanded from:
- Les Fleurs du Mal (na) Asimov’s October 1994;
- The Fountains of Youth (Tor May 2000); revised and expanded from:
- “Mortimer Gray’s History of Death” (na), Asimov’s April 1995
- The Omega Expedition (Tor December 2002); revised and expanded from:
- “And He Not Busy Being Born…” (ss) Interzone #16 Summer 1986
The correct order for the Emortality hexateuch is: —
| Emortality 1 | The Cassandra Complex (2001) |
| Emortality 2 | Inherit the Earth (1998) |
| Emortality 3 | Dark Ararat (2002) |
| Emortality 4 | Architects of Emortality (1999) |
| Emortality 5 | The Fountains of Youth (2000) |
| Emortality 6 | The Omega Expedition (2002) |
C. An abbreviated list of Stableford’s critical non-fiction.
Scientific Romance in Britain, 1890–1950 (Fourth Estate September 1985 / St. Martin’s Press November 1985)
New Atlantis
A huge expansion and recasting of Scientific Romance in Britain 1890-1950 (1985):
New Atlantis: A Narrative History of Scientific Romance, Vol. 1: The Origins of Scientific Romance (Borgo Press February 2016)
New Atlantis: A Narrative History of Scientific Romance, Vol. 2: The Emergence of Scientific Romance (Borgo Press February 2016)
New Atlantis: A Narrative History of Scientific Romance, Vol. 3: The Resurgence of Scientific Romance (Borgo Press February 2016)
New Atlantis: A Narrative History of Scientific Romance, Vol. 4: The Decadence of Scientific Romance (Borgo Press February 2016)
The Plurality of Imaginary Worlds: The Evolution of French Roman Scientifique (Black Coat Press March 2016)
Science Fact and Science Fiction: An Encyclopedia (London: Routledge, 2006) [encyclopedia: hb/]
Heterocosms and Other Essays on Fantastic Literature (Borgo Press February 2007); also available as an ebook, listed at 89,003 words
Narrative Strategies in Science Fiction and Other Essays on Imaginative Fiction (Borgo Press December 2009)
D. Websites concerned with Brian Stableford:
https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/stableford_brian_m
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?556
http://www.philsp.com/stableford/
Interesting articles in Links. There are reviews here too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Stableford
Stableford produced so much that it is worth looking at the bibliographies at the above sites. The Wikipedia entry has links to interviews with BMS. Because they are done at different times you get sketches of the development of his career at different stages. It also has an excellent bibliography.
Because there is so much, yes, I am suggesting you can do your own research.
E. PUBLISHERS:
Places where Stableford’s books can be found. Mainly e-books, some are only available in print formats.
https://wildsidepress.com/authors-n-s/stableford-brian/?page=1
Wildside Press has many pages of his works.
https://www.kobo.com/au/en/search?query=brian+stableford&ac=1&acp=brian+stab&ac.author=brian+stableford&sort=PublicationDateDesc&fclanguages=enKobo also has many of his books, anthologies and translations. Dig deep.
Black Coat Press:
https://www.blackcoatpress.com/authors.html
Not the most easy access to find Stableford’s books. It’s a long way down to the letter ‘S’ and there are lots of other authors with names beginning with an ‘S’. This is where you can find Sherlock Holmes and the Vampires of Eternity (2009). Only available in paperback. But it’s worth it.
It also lists his anthologies and translations (which they call ‘adaptations’).
Snuggly Books:
Again you have to work down to S for Stableford. The only place for some of his last books. Plus anthologies and translations. A curiosity publisher. A title like Snuggly Tales of Femme Fatales feels simultaneously wrong and yet so perversely right.
F. A note about BMS:
Brian Stableford has been writing for fifty years. His fiction includes include eleven novels and seven short story collections in a series of “tales of the biotech revolution”; a series of metaphysical fantasies set in Paris in the 1840s, featuring Edgar Poe’s Auguste Dupin, most recently The Cthulhu Palimpsest; A Romance of Termination (2024); and a series of supernatural mysteries set in an artist’s colony, recently The Pool of Mnemosyne (2018). Recent novels independent of any series include Vampires of Atlantis (2016) and The Tangled Web of Time (2016). He also translates antique works from the French, with particular interests in the Symbolist and Decadent Movements, roman scientifique and the fantastique.
(Included to give a sense that Stableford was more than simply a science-fiction writer.)
G. Notes:
It is a quirk of my nature that give titles to talks like this; a way of putting things into one place conceptually. There are two jokes therein, well, sort of jokes. More like bits of irony. Another of my quirks.
The Adelaide Fan Review 
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