Fisher, Catherine
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1957- ) Welsh poet and author, active in the former capacity from the 1980s; her first novel, The Conjuror's Game (1990), was the first of many Young Adult fantasies, most of them set in Secondary Worlds [see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below]. She is of some sf interest for two series. The Incarceron sequence beginning with Incarceron (2007) is set in a distant future world whose late-medieval appurtenances are an artifact of its rulers, who command high Technologies to maintain the imposture (see Medieval Futurism); at the heart of this world is a vast Prison, governed by the eponymous sentience, and the site of Thought Experiments in the creation of Utopia. Two young protagonists escape Incarceron, and plunge expectedly into a larger world. The Chronoptika sequence beginning with The Obsidian Mirror (2012; vt Obsidian Mirror 2012), set in a seemingly Alternate History UK with a Steampunk colouring, focuses on the young protagonist's experiments, under the guidance of his scientist father, in the eponymous Mirror which, properly understood, works as a Portal into other eras and realms (see Time Travel; Dimensions) [for Mirror and Portal see again The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below]. The intricacy of the unfolding of the tale warrants its four-volume duration. [JC]
Catherine Fisher
born Newport, Gwent, Wales: 28 October 1957
works (highly selected)
series
Incarceron
- Incarceron (London: Hodder Children's Books, 2007) [Incarceron: pb/Sevostyanov]
- Sapphique (London: Hodder Children's Books, 2008) [Incarceron: pb/]
Chronoptika
- The Obsidian Mirror (London: Hodder Children's Books, 2012) [Chronoptika: pb/Rodrigo Adolfo]
- Obsidian Mirror (New York: Dial Books, 2012) [vt of the above: Chronoptika: hb/Rodrigo Adolfo]
- The Box of Red Brocade (London: Hodder Children's Books, 2013) [Chronoptika: pb/]
- The Slanted Worlds (New York: Dial Books, 2013) [vt of the above: Chronoptika: hb/]
- The Door in the Moon (London: Hodder Children's Books, 2015) [Chronoptika: pb/]
- The Speed of Darkness (London: Hodder Children's Books, 2016) [Chronoptika: pb/]
links
- Catherine Fisher
- Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- The Encyclopedia of Fantasy: Mirror; Portal; Secondary World.
- Picture Gallery
previous versions of this entry