Lake, Jay
Entry updated 29 April 2024. Tagged: Author, Editor.
(1964-2014) Taiwan-born US marketing executive and author, raised in Taiwan and in West Africa (his father being in the American foreign service); he began publishing work of genre interest with "The Courtesy of Guests" in Bones of the World: Tales from Time's End (anth 2001) edited by Bruce Holland Rogers, and published short fiction prolifically throughout his career. He won the 2004 John W Campbell Award for best new writer in science fiction for his stories, no novels having yet appeared. Some of this production was hasty, and (like many prolific authors) he had a habit of writing long; but the adventurousness of his work amply repaid the cost of clearing one's way into it. This adventurousness typically expressed itself in a very contemporary fashion, through an exuberant and at times merciless jostling of genre conceits and narrative patterns. Some of his work is "faithful" to the SF Megatext; some is coolly experimental; most exhibits a sometimes slapdash Equipoise, charming, irritating, liberating. Stories have been assembled in Greetings from Lake Wu (coll 2003; exp 2006), Green Grow the Rushes-Oh (coll 2003 chap), American Sorrows (coll 2004), Dogs in the Moonlight (coll 2004), The River Knows its Own (coll 2007) and, most comprehensively, in The Sky That Wraps: Collected Short Fiction (coll 2010), Almost All the Way Home from the Stars (coll 2013) with Ruth Nestvold, assembling early collaborations, and Last Plane to Heaven: The Final Collection (coll 2014), which assembles mostly work subsequent to The Sky That Wraps.
Lake's first novel, Rocket Science (2005), is a superficially orthodox but in fact transgressive replay of the kind of Young Adult tale that Robert A Heinlein gave early mature form to, and which was influential for years: the kind of story whose initially constrictive world is shaken by a young protagonist who learns his (sometimes her) own potential through a process which ultimately honours his setting-off point, though sometimes he does not return. In Rocket Science, which is set just after World War Two, the young protagonist's discovery that there are corrupt forces in his home town segues into a distressing realization that the entire town is corrupt, which is to say that America is corrupt: the protagonist's discovery of an Alien Spaceship run by a ship-mind he cannot comprehend only deepens his alienation; and his escape from his home is redemptive only to him.
But Lake's inherent turn of mind is less savage than Rocket Science implies. His major work, the Mainspring Alternate Cosmos sequence, comprising Mainspring (2007), Escapement (2008) and Pinion (2010), slowly and fascinatedly uncovers the nature of a solar system constructed literally in terms of clockwork, rather like an orrery; the fascination with the gearing of this world, and its setting at the beginning of its alternate twentieth century, with Queen Victoria still semi-magically active, marks the series as a whole as being unmistakably Steampunk. The slow unveiling of the physical nature of Earth in such a universe – the planet turns on a vast cogwheel mounted along the rim of a miles-high equatorial wall – is vividly conveyed, in steampunk fashion, through the peregrinations (see Transportation) of various highly intelligent characters across the planet. There is some sense that the whole construct, and the stories that reveal it, comprise the moves of a vast Godgame or Thought Experiment, but the primary impact of the series comes from the unfolding revelations.
The Green sequence, comprising Green (2009), Endurance (2011) and Kalimpura (2013), initially describes the constricted youth and compromised maturity of its young protagonist on a planet possibly colonized by human aeons ago (see Colonization of Other Worlds), but is no more an orthodox Young Adult story than Gene Wolfe's "The Fifth Head of Cerberus" (in Orbit 10, anth 1972, ed Damon Knight), which it clearly resembles; the continuations of this strong tale carry Green into early adulthood, where she (see Women in SF) copes successfully with Politics and gods, and returns her to Kalimpura, the eponymous City where her destiny – it might be speculated – was to be unfolded in full. Lake's career burgeoned remarkably, and future instalments of that career were awaited with strong interest, but his activities were constricted through his last years (from 2008 until his death just short of his fiftieth birthday) by ultimately untreatable cancer, whose progress he documented unflinchingly; the sf world was therefore denied his expected further flowering, though further manuscripts await publication. Last Plane to Heaven: The Final Collection (coll 2014) won a posthumous Locus Award as best collection; again posthumously, Lake received a Special Committee Award (see Hugo) from the 2015 Worldcon. [JC]
Joseph Edward Lake Jr
born Taiwan: 6 June 1964
died Portland, Oregon: 1 June 2014
works
series
The City Imperishable
- Trial of Flowers: A Novel of the City Imperishable (San Francisco, California: Night Shade Books, 2006) [The City Imperishable: pb/Richard Pellegrino]
- Madness of Flowers: A Novel of the City Imperishable (San Francisco, California: Night Shade Books, 2009) [The City Imperishable: hb/David Palumbo]
Mainspring
- Mainspring (New York: Tor, 2007) [Mainspring: hb/Stephan Martinière]
- Escapement (New York: Tor, 2008) [Mainspring: hb/Stephan Martinière]
- Pinion (New York: Tor, 2010) [Mainspring: hb/Stephan Martinière]
Green
- Green (New York: Tor, 2009) [Green: hb/Daniel Dos Santos]
- Endurance (New York: Tor, 2011) [Green: hb/Daniel Dos Santos]
- Kalimpura (New York: Tor, 2013) [Green: hb/Daniel Dos Santos]
- Our Lady of the Islands (Seattle, Washington: Per Aspera Press, 2014) with Shannon Page [Green: hb/Mark J Ferrari]
individual titles
- Rocket Science (Auburn, Washington: Fairwood Press, 2005) [pb/Patrick Swenson]
- Death of a Starship (Austin, Texas: Monkey Brain Books, 2009) [novella: pb/Tony Shasteen]
- The Specific Gravity of Grief (Bonney Lake, Washington: Fairwood Press, 2010) [hb/Patrick Swenson]
collections and stories
- Greetings from Lake Wu (Wilsonville, Oregon: Wheatland Press, 2003) [coll: pb/Frank Wu]
- Greetings from Lake Wu (San Pedro, California: Traife Buffet, 2006) [coll: exp of the above: hb/Frank Wu]
- Green Grow the Rushes-Oh (Auburn, Washington: Fairwood Press, 2003) [coll: chap: pb/Keith Boulger]
- American Sorrows (Wilsonville, Oregon: Wheatland Press, 2004) [coll: pb/Aynjel Kaye]
- Dogs in the Moonlight (Holicong, Pennsylvania: Wildside Press/Prime Books, 2004) [coll: hb/Juha Lindroos]
- The River Knows its Own (Wilsonville, Oregon: Wheatland Press, 2007) [coll: pb/Joseph E Lake]
- The Baby Killers (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2010) [novella: chap: hb/Daniele Serra]
- The Sky That Wraps: Collected Short Fiction (Burton, Michigan: Subterranean Press, 2010) [coll: hb/Aurélian Police]
- The Starship Mechanic (New York: Tor, 2010) with Ken Scholes [story: ebook: first appeared January 2010 Tor.com: na/Stephan Martinière and Gregory Manchess]
- Two Stories (New York: Tor.com, 2011) with Ken Scholes [coll: ebook: two collaborative stories: na/Gregory Manchess and Stephen Martinière]
- Lost in the Time of Metal and Flesh (Rockville, Maryland: Prime Books, 2013) [novella: chap: hb/Sherin Nicole]
- Almost All the Way Home from the Stars (Scotts Valley, California: CreateSpace, 2013) with Ruth Nestvold [coll: pb/Isoga and Alex Mit]
- Last Plane to Heaven: The Final Collection (New York: Tor, 2014) [coll: hb/Peter Lutjen]
works as editor
series
- Polyphony 1 (Wilsonville, Oregon: Wheatland Press, 2002) with Deborah Layne [anth: Polyphony: pb/John Elliott]
- Polyphony 2 (Wilsonville, Oregon: Wheatland Press, 2003) with Deborah Layne [anth: Polyphony: pb/]
- Polyphony 3 (Wilsonville, Oregon: Wheatland Press, 2003) with Deborah Layne [anth: Polyphony: pb/Jay Lake]
- Polyphony 4 (Wilsonville, Oregon: Wheatland Press, 2004) with Deborah Layne [anth: Polyphony: pb/Jay Lake]
- Polyphony 5 (Wilsonville, Oregon: Wheatland Press, 2005) with Deborah Layne [anth: Polyphony: pb/Alexander Lamb]
- Polyphony 6 (Wilsonville, Oregon: Wheatland Press, 2006) with Deborah Layne [anth: Polyphony: pb/Alexander Lamb]
METAtropolis
An earlier Lake/Scholes anthology in the METAtropolis series appears to have been released only in audiobook form.
- METAtropolis: The Wings We Dare Aspire (Monument, Colorado: WordFire Press, 2014) with Ken Scholes [anth: METAtropolis: pb/Jess Sturgeon]
individual titles
- All-Star Zeppelin Adventure Stories (Wilsonville, Oregon: Wheatland Press/All-Star Stories, 2004) with David Moles [anth: Airships: pb/Lara Wells]
- TEL: Stories (Wilsonville, Oregon: Wheatland Press, 2005) [anth: pb/]
- Spicy Slipstream Stories (Maple Shade, New Jersey: Lethe Press, 2008) with Nick Mamatas [pb/Toby Johnson]
- The Exquisite Corpuscle (Bonney Lake, Washington: Fairwood Press, 2008) with Frank Wu [anth: pb/Matt Taggart]
- Other Earths (New York: DAW Books, 2009) with Nick Gevers [anth: pb/]
- Footprints (Overland Park, Kansas: Hadley Rille Books, 2009) with Eric T Reynolds [anth: hb/]
links
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