Larson, Rich
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1992- ) Nigerian author, currently in Canada, who began to publish work of genre interest with "Every So Often" (dated 2011 for untraced release; in Datafall: Collected Speculative Fiction coll 2012 ebook); Tomorrow Factory: Collected Fiction (coll 2018) carefully assembles a further instalment of his numerous stories. He is now perhaps best known for The Violet Wars sequence beginning with Annex (2018), in which a high-tech Alien civilization effortlessly invades Earth (see Invasion), incapacitates its adult population through Virtual Reality implants for purposes not soon disclosed, leaving anyone sixteen or younger "free" to explore their Young-Adult destinies in the seemingly liberated City where most of the initial action occurs, during which young Violet (human) enters a relationship with Gloom (not human). A second volume, «Cypher», was announced for 2019 publication which was delayed or cancelled.
Ymir (2022) is a standalone fantasia on Beowulf (written circa 900), set in a Space Opera galaxy in the moderately distant future [for Beowulf and Twice-Told see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below]; the protagonist, oddly named Yorick, is called back to his native planet Ymir to fight a deadly grendel. The action is grimly engaging, though connections with the original poem are slender, nor is it easy to relate Ymir the planet to a primordial Norse deity not mentioned in Beowulf. Some sources wrongly assign this novel to the Violet Wars series, apparently because it was issued with the announced ISBN of «Cypher» above.
Larson should not be confused with the Comics artist Rich Larson. [JC]
Richard William Larson
born Galmi, Niger: 1992
works
series
The Violet Wars
individual titles
- Ymir (New York: Orbit, 2022) [pb/]
collections and stories
- Datafall: Collected Speculative Fiction (no place given: for the author, 2012) [coll: ebook: na/]
- Dark Warm Heart (New York: Tor.com, 2017) [story: ebook: first appeared 2 April 2017 Tor.com: na/Samuel Araya]
- Our King and his Court (New York: Tor.com, 2018) [story: ebook: first appeared 21 March 2018 Tor.com: na/Jeffrey Alan Love]
- Meat and Salt and Sparks (New York: Tor.com, 2018) [story: ebook: first appeared 6 June 2018 Tor.com: na/Scott Bakal]
- Tomorrow Factory: Collected Fiction (New York: Talos Press, 2018) [coll: introduction by James Patrick Kelly: pb/Alejandro Colucci]
- Painless (New York: Tor.com, 2019) [story: ebook: first appeared 10 April 2019 Tor.com: na/El Minaya]
- How Quini the Squid Misplaced His Klobučar (New York: Tor.com, 2020) [story: ebook: first appeared 22 January 2020 Tor.com: na/John Anthony Di Giovanni]
links
- Rich Larson
- Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- The Encyclopedia of Fantasy: Beowulf; Twice-Told.
- Picture Gallery
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