On This Day: Barrington J Bayley Died
Thanks (once again) to the wonders of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction‘s excellent On This Day function, we can tell you that Barrington J. Bayley passed away on this day in 2008.
It may be an overstatement to refer to Bayley as one of British SF’s ‘forgotten authors’ but certainly he’s not as prominent in the cultural memory as some of his New Worlds contemporaries. And yet, this is the man Michael Moorcock calls ‘The most original writer of his generation’, and who is praised by two of the founders of cyberpunk as:
‘Fluent, singular and wonderfully funny’
William Gibson‘Bayley writes science fiction with the natural fluency of a man who can’t help it. He has the ineffable, unfakeable genius of a true SF visionary’
Bruce Sterling
From the time-spanning space opera of The Fall of Chronopolis to the astonishingly inventive short stories collected in The Knights of the Limits, Barrington J. Bayley was one of British SF’s brightest and most original voices. We see it as our job to ensure that he doesn’t remain one of its most underestimated.
You could start with either of the books noted above, or you could could get both of them – and The Soul of the Robot – all in one neat bundle, in The Barrington Bayley SF Gateway Omnibus. Unless, of course, the word of Bruce Sterling, William Gibson and Michael Moorcock isn’t good enough for you . . .
You can read more about Barrington J. Bayley in his entry at The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and his books are available at his author page on the SF Gateway.
