Wagner, Erin K
Entry updated 22 May 2023. Tagged: Author.
(? - ) US academic and author who began to publish work of genre interest with "To See If It Is Possible" in Tales of the Talisman #10 for 17 December 2014. The Green and Growing (2019 chap), a densely constructed novella with Planetary Romance intonations, follows the life of the daughter of the ruler of a planet that has successfully defeated the people of an adjoining world. She is formally exchanged with an opposing figure, and finds that the planet she now inhabits is a sentient forest world (see Gaia; Living Worlds), which may be controlled by a covert AI. An Unnatural Life (2020) is set on a colony planet, though the expectable Space Opera background is almost entirely lacking. The story focuses on the trial of an Android, known here as robotnik, accused of murdering a human (see Crime and Punishment). Wagner has a style both concise and occasionally rich, which conveys a sense of embeddedness to her tales (some bylined E K Wagner): what is surprising in her work is not the worlds naturalistically depicted but the subtle dramas she explores within them. [JC]
Erin K Wagner
born Ohio
works
- The Green and Growing (Seattle, Washington: Aqueduct Press, 2019) [novella: chap: in the publisher's Conversation Pieces series: pb/]
- An Unnatural Life (New York: Tordotcom, 2020) [pb/Will Staehle]
collections
- When Home, No Need to Cry (Seattle, Washington: Aqueduct Press, 2023) [coll: in the publisher's Conversation Pieces series: pb/]
links
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