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Carmody, Isobelle

Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.

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(1958-    ) Australian author of sf for adolescents. Her most successful work – the Obernewtyn Chronicles whose first four volumes are Obernewtyn (1987), The Farseekers (1990), Scatterlings (1991) and Ashling (1995) [see Checklist below] – is set in Post-Holocaust venues; the element of sf in these tales becomes steadily less apparent, as the sequence's young Mutant protagonists gradually develop Psi Powers that – as in much adolescent Fantasy – come in mystical fashion to young men and women in search of enablement, and which allow them to survive their exposure to unfeeling, dictatorial societies (Mutants are known as Misfits) when they are exiled to Obernewtyn, which proves to be not hellish at all, but instead the way towards a Pastoral and loving better world. Each story revolves around a Conceptual Breakthrough as the true nature of the world unfolds, sometimes through contemplation of material left from the Beforetimes World, that is, Earth before the enabling Disaster. Carmody writes vigorously and colourfully, but the sf ideas are all very familiar. The Legendsong Saga is pure fantasy. [PN/JC]

see also: Children's SF.

Isobelle Jane Carmody

born Wangaratta, Victoria: 16 June 1958

works

series

Obernewtyn Chronicles

  • Obernewtyn (Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin Australia, 1987) [Obernewtyn Chronicles: hb/Geoff Kelly]
  • The Farseekers (Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin Australia, 1990) [Obernewtyn Chronicles: hb/Connell Lee]
    • Obernewtyn & The Farseekers (New York: Science Fiction Book Club, 2000) [omni of the above two: Obernewtyn Chronicles: hb/Judy York]
    • The Seeker (New York: Random House Children's Books/Bluefire, 2011) [omni: vt of the above: Obernewtyn Chronicles: pb/]
  • Ashling (Ringwood, Victoria: Viking Australia, 1995) [Obernewtyn Chronicles: hb/]
  • The Keeping Place (Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin Books Australia, 2000) [Obernewtyn Chronicles: pb/Miles Lowry]
    • The Rebellion (New York: Random House Children's Books/Bluefire, 2011) [omni of the above two: Obernewtyn Chronicles: pb/]
  • The Stone Key (Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin Books Australia, 2008) [Obernewtyn Chronicles: pb/Les Petersen]
    • Wavesong (Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin Books Australia, 2000) [cut vt: containing first half of the above: Obernewtyn Chronicles: pb/]
    • The Stone Key (Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin Books Australia, 2000) [cut vt: containing second half of the above: Obernewtyn Chronicles: pb/]
  • The Sending (Ringwood, Victoria: Viking Australia, 2011) [Obernewtyn Chronicles: pb/Cathy Larsen]
  • The Red Queen (Ringwood, Victoria: Viking Australia, 2015) [Obernewtyn Chronicles: pb/Cathy Larsen, Laurence Mouton, Les Petersen, Karen Scott, Shutterstock]

Legendsong

Gateway Trilogy

Quentaris Chronicles

For details of this fantasy Shared World, see Paul Collins.

  • Angel Fever (Sydney, New South Wales: Hachette Livre Australia/Lothian Children's Books, 2004) [Quentaris Chronicles: pb/Mark McBride and Grant Gittus]
  • The Cat Dreamer (Sydney, New South Wales: Hachette Livre Australia/Lothian Children's Books, 2005) [Quentaris Chronicles: illus/pb/Mark McBride and Grant Gittus]

Little Fur

individual titles

  • Scatterlings (Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin Australia, 1991) [pb/Connell Lee and Ann Wojczuk]
  • The Gathering (Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin Australia, 1993) [pb/Anne Spudvilas/Ann Wojczuk/AusChromes]
  • Green Monkey Dreams (Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin Australia, 1996) [coll: pb/Miles Lowry]
  • Greylands (Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin Australia, 1997) [pb/]
  • Dreamwalker (Melbourne, Victoria: Lothian Books, 2001) [chap: hb/Steven Woolman]

works as editor

Tales from the Tower

links

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