ROCHON, Esther

(1948-)

   Canadian writer who began publishing sf with "L'Initiateur et les etrangers" ("The Initiator and the Strangers") for Marie-Françoise in 1964, publishing stories frequently and cofounding the journal imagine . . (CANADA) in 1979. With her first novel, En Hommage aux araignees ("In Praise of Spiders") (1974; rev as a juvenile vt L'Etranger sous la ville("The Stranger under the City") 1986), she began the Vrenalik sequence of tales set in an ALTERNATE-WORLD archipelago, a venue of the sort used by many Quebecois writers to express the St Lawrence River's domination of the geography of Quebec, just as some English-speaking Canadian writers tend to set their tales on the shores of glaciated lakes. L'Epuisement du Soleil ("The Draining of the Sun") (1985), part of which first appeared asDer Traumer in der Zitadelle ("The Dreamer in the Citadel") (1977 Germany), most of the stories assembled in Le Traversier ("The Ferry") (coll 1987), L'Espace du diamant ("The Space of the Diamond") (1990) and most of the stories assembled in Le Piege a souvenirs ("The Trap of Memories") (coll 1991) are also set in this venue. Of her novels onlyCoquillage (1986; trans David Lobdell as The Shell 1990) is set outside the Vrenalik world, though it too is set on an ISLAND, where several human characters plunge into a profound sexual liaison with the eponymous ALIEN. Like most WOMEN SF WRITERS at work in Quebec today, ER often depictscharacters who have to encounter and deal with the Other on their own territory and without going into outer space, which has stimulated FEMINIST and political readings of her work. In 1986 and 1987 she receivedthe Grand Prix de la science-fiction et du fantastique quebecois.

   LP/JC