ARNASON, Eleanor (Atwood)

(1942-)

   US writer who began to publish sf with A Clear Day in the Motor City for New Worlds Quarterly 6 (anth 1973) ed Michael MOORCOCK and Charles PLATT. She has since published stories and poems with some regularity. Her first novel, The Sword Smith (1978), is a fantasy notable for the spare elegance of its narrative, which focuses with modest intensity upon its young protagonist's slow grasp of life's meaning. To the Resurrection Station (1986), which is sf with touches of GOTHIC imagery, brings a wide range of characters together in contexts which wittily embody FEMINIST readings of the world. Daughter of the Bear King (1987) is another fantasy. With A WOMAN OF THE IRON PEOPLE (1991; vt in 2 vols as In the Light of Sigma Draconis 1992 and Changing Women 1992) EA came suddenly to wider notice. The long tale is set on a complicated stage: on the planet of Sigma Draconis II, inhabited by an ALIEN race seemingly in thrall - as is frequently the case in 1980s sf - to the imperatives of a sexually coercive biology (SEX), a party of Terrans is attempting to come to some understanding of this species. The plot, in true PLANETARY-ROMANCE fashion, takes two humans and two aliens on a trek through the various domains and landscapes of the world, and lessons not unlike those taught in The Sword Smith - though far more complexly put - are shared by all about sexual dimorphism, the nature of violence and the intrinsic value of individual persons; and evidence is presented that Homo sapiens may have learned some wisdom from the DISASTERS which, prior to the novel's timespan, have almost destroyed Earth. Similar dilemmas are examined, even more sharply, in Ring of Swords (1993), where an interstellar war between humans and an alien race is at the point of being resolved in mutual understanding, or exploding calamitously. The chaotic ruthlessness of humanity, and the rigid gender separation of the alien hwarhath, are scrupulously exposed and judged in scenes of very considerable intellectual force; and the outcome - as perceived by some of the most complexly conceived characters in modern sf - is hopeful. Other work: Time Gum (anth 1988 chap) ed with Terry A.Garey, sf POETRY.