Godwin, Parke
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1929-2013) US author who began publishing work of genre interest with "Unsigned Original" for Brother Theodore's Chamber of Horrors (anth 1977) edited by Marvin Kaye "and Brother Theodore". Godwin was for some years more or less equally associated with fantasy and sf, though most of the stories assembled in The Fire when It Comes (coll 1984) are the former, the title novella winning a 1982 World Fantasy Award. As an sf writer, Godwin remains best known for the first two volumes of the Masters of Solitude sequence, both with Marvin Kaye: Masters of Solitude (1978) and Wintermind (1982); a projected third volume did not appear. Set in a Post-Holocaust USA, the first volume depicts a conflict between rural followers of a diseased mutant form of Christianity (see Religion) and a City in which a science-based worldview is encapsulated; in the second, a personal drama and an interesting half-breed protagonist intensify the grain of narrative, but peculiarly diminish the sense, given off by the earlier book, of a large sf occasion. Godwin's second sf sequence, written solo, the Snake Oil Wars series – Waiting for the Galactic Bus (1988), The Snake Oil Wars, or Scheherazade Ginsberg Strikes Again (1989) – is an erratically amusing but ultimately very dark-complected Satire on Religion and US society at large, refracted through the behaviour of the two Immortal Aliens who had long before been responsible for Uplifting Homo sapiens from its primate stock (see Apes as Human), and have now taken on the roles of God and Devil; the assault on Christian fundamentalism is explicit.
A Cold Blue Light (1983), also with Marvin Kaye (whom see for the sequel), is a ghost story which confusingly mixes sf and supernatural rationales. With the exception of Limbo Search (1995), whose protagonist's mission is to protect colony planets from interstellar corporations, Godwin's later work was mostly fantasy, much of it, like the loose Firelord sequence [see Checklist], dealing with the King Arthur and the Matter of Britain [see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below]. Though a writer whose flamboyance sometimes unhinged his plots, Godwin remains a figure whose relative obscurity is fully undeserved. [JC]
see also: Gods and Demons.
Parke Godwin
born New York: 28 January 1929
died Auburn, California: 19 June 2013
works
series
Masters of Solitude
- Masters of Solitude (Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1978) with Marvin Kaye [Masters of Solitude: hb/Emanuel Shongut]
- Wintermind (Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1982) with Marvin Kaye [Masters of Solitude: hb/Paul Bacon]
Snake Oil Wars
- Waiting for the Galactic Bus (Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Co, 1988) [Snake Oil Wars: hb/Chris Hopkins]
- The Snake Oil Wars, or Scheherazade Ginsberg Strikes Again (Garden City, New York: Doubleday Foundation, 1989) [a cited version of this title, «The Snake Oil Variations», may have been altered before publication: Snake Oil Wars: hb/Chris Consani]
Firelord
- Firelord (Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1980) [Firelord: hb/John Cayea]
- Beloved Exile (New York: Bantam Books, 1984) [Firelord: pb/Heidi Oberheidi]
- The Lovers: The Legend of Trystan & Yseult (New York: Avon Books, 1999) as by Kate Hawks [Firelord: pb/Marianne Stokes]
individual titles
- Darker Places (New York: Curtis Books, 1973) [pb/]
- Darker Places (New York: Playboy Paperbacks, 1980) [rev of the above: pb/]
- A Memory of Lions (New York: Popular Library, 1976) [pb/]
- A Memory of Lions (New York: Berkley Books, 1983) [rev of the above: pb/]
- A Cold Blue Light (New York: Charter Books, 1983) with Marvin Kaye [for further titles in this series, see its co-author: A Cold Blue Light: pb/]
- The Fire when It Comes (Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1984) [coll: hb/Cathy Canzani]
- The Last Rainbow (New York: Bantam Books, 1985) [standalone novel about Saint Patrick, often incorrectly cited as part of the Arthurian Firelord sequence above: pb/]
- A Truce with Time: A Love Story With Occasional Ghosts (New York: Bantam Spectra, 1988) [hb/William McLean]
- Sherwood (New York: William Morrow and Co, 1991) [hb/Chris Hopkins]
- Robin and the King (New York: William Morrow and Co, 1993) [hb/Robin Leister]
- The Tower of Beowulf (New York: William Morrow and Co, 1995) [hb/Don Clavette]
- Limbo Search (New York: AvoNova, 1995) [pb/Vincent Di Fate]
- Lord of Sunset (New York: Avon Books, 1998) [pb/Jeff Barson]
- Watch by Moonlight (New York: William Morrow and Co, 2001) [hb/]
- Prince of Nowhere (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2011) [chap: hb/James Hannah]
works as editor
- Invitation to Camelot: An Arthurian Anthology of Short Stories (New York: Ace Books, 1988) [anth: pb/Jill Carla Schwarts]
- Go Not Gently (Yulan, New York: Padwolf Publishing, 2006) with C J Henderson and Patrick Thomas [anth: pb/Rowena Morrill as Rowena]
links
previous versions of this entry