The Aleutian Trilogy

Author: Gwyneth Jones

Gwyneth Jones's first novel for adults, Divine Endurance, set in a richly imagined South East Asia, marked the arrival of a novelist intent on using science fiction to explore the effects of colonialism. Later novels, such as Kairos, showed her to be a writer of complex and challenging political fictions that demanded close attention yet paid rich rewards. These tendencies, vivid writing, political complexity, challenging ideas, achieved their greatest expression in what has become known as the Aleutian Trilogy. Colonialism has been a theme of science fiction at least since the work of H.G. Wells, but no-one has spelled out exactly what it means to be colonised the way that Gwyneth Jones does here. When Earth is colonised by the Aleutians, we are presented with all the problems associated with that. There are linguistic differences which make it difficult for coloniser and colonised to understand each other; there are problems with the fact that the Aleutians have a sort of immortality; and above all there is the new sense of inferiority that leads many humans to have themselves surgically altered so they look more like the aliens. Why it's on the list: The first volume, White Queen, which won the James Tiptree Award, was followed by North Wind and Phoenix CafÃƒÂ©, though there are also several stories set in the same milieu included in her collection The Universe of Things, and another novel, Spirit, or, The Princess of Bois Dormant, is set long after the Aleutians retreat from Earth. Together they form the central plank of one of the most significant careers in contemporary science fiction.