Swanwick, Michael

(US, 1950– )

Michael Swanwick is one of several authors who have moved steadily from traditional science fiction towards innovative forms of fantasy. His first novel, In the Drift (1984), is set in an alternate world in which the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant did in fact explode, leading to the familiar scenario of a radiation-blighted and quasi-feudal future United States. Stations of the Tide (1991) also has the recognizable scenario of a far planet on which advanced technologies are embargoed, but mixes this with suggestions of voodoo and Tantric sex. The Iron Dragon's Daughter (1993), by contrast, begins as a fantasy where changeling children are forced to slave in a fairyland munitions factory. The heroine escapes in a war dragon, to go through further rites of passage at high school and at university. The story can be seen as a satire or exposé of much contemporary wish-fulfilment fantasy.

George R. R. Martin, Tim Powers, Michael Shea. See FANTASY  TS