Garfinkle, Richard
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1961- ) US author whose first novel, Celestial Matters (1996), is an Alternate Cosmos tale in which the Ptolemaic universe is real: celestial bodies are positioned in crystalline spheres around Earth, which is the centre of the universe; travel to the planets is via sailing ship. His second novel, All of an Instant (1999), posits a "location" outside of Time and space called the Instant, a fulcrum from which the universe can be profoundly altered, generating a long Changewar, which has created jagged chaos, and some sort of resolution is being meditated. Wayland's Principia (2009) plays with Homo sapiens's hopeless longing (see Exogamy) for the imagined allure of an Alien species due to arrive on Earth – at sublight speeds – many decades after their messages have aroused us. Exhalations (2009), Two by Two Souls Fly (2011 ebook) and Unknowable Death (2012 ebook) are fantasy. Garfinkle's novels are intellectually engaging, though slightly overplotted; his recent work remains strong.
Three Steps to the Universe: From the Sun to Black Holes to the Mystery of Dark Matter (2008) with David Garfinkle (Richard's brother) very competently surveys issues in contemporary Cosmology (see also Black Holes). [JC]
Richard Garfinkle
born New York: 1961
works
- Celestial Matters (New York: Tor, 1996) [hb/Bob Eggleton]
- All of an Instant (New York: Tor, 1999) [hb/Shelley Eshkar and Jan Urestsky]
- Wayland's Principia (Chicago, Illinois: Achronal Press, 2009) [pb/Alessandra Kelley]
- Exhalations (Chicago, Illinois: Achronal Press, 2009) [pb/Alessandra Kelley]
- Two by Two Souls Fly (Chicago, Illinois: Achronal Press, 2011) [ebook: na/]
- Unknowable Death (Chicago, Illinois: Achronal Press, 2012) [ebook: na/]
nonfiction
- Three Steps to the Universe: From the Sun to Black Holes to the Mystery of Dark Matter (Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, 2008) with David Garfinkle [nonfiction: pb/]
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