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Newman, Emma

(1976-    ) UK author who also writes as by E J Newman; much of her earlier work has been fantasy, as assembled in From Dark Places (coll 2011), though her first novel 20 Years Later (dated 2012 but 2011), which is sf, begins in a suddenly depopulated very Near Future London that is soon transforms into a Young Adult Dystopia featuring a Ruined Earth cityscape dominated by gangs; the young protagonists fight back. The Split Worlds sequence beginning with Between Two Thorns (2013) is a Crosshatch fantasy in which two versions of the city of Bath interact [for Crosshatch see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below]. Her second series, the Planetfall sequence comprising Planetfall (2015), After Atlas (2016) and Before Mars (2018), sets its cast on a new colonized planet (see Colonization of Other Worlds) where they are haunted by Transcendental visions, perhaps generated by autochthones (se First Contact), and by a Mysterious Stranger who forces revelations upon them; the second volume, set back on the Dystopian home planet, where "gov-corps" have privatized everything that might make life significant, including an almost totally invasive Media Landscape, and Slavery in all but name for the poor; the third volume shifts these various concerns to Mars. The Industrial Magic sequence, beginning with Brother's Ruin (2017), presents a smoothly Equipoisal vision of an 1850s Steampunk Britain, where Magic, once discovered, is assimilated into early modern capitalism, at which point the plot thickens. Newman is a sharply competent author, possibly at the verge of a large novel. She shared a 2017 Hugo for best fancast with her co-presenter Peter Newman. [JC]

Emma Newman

born Cornwall: 2 August 1976

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series

Split Worlds

Planetfall

Industrial Magic

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collections

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Entry from The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (2011-current) edited by John Clute and David Langford.
Accessed 18:53 pm on 28 March 2024.
<https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/newman_emma>