Scholarly Analysis of the Sentients of Orion

The Sentients of Orion series has been the subject of scholarly interrogation on several occasions. Click the images to link to the essays and books.

Aliaga-Lavrijsen, J. Pregnancy, Childbirth and Nursing in Feminist Dystopia: Marianne de Pierres’s Transformation Space (2010). Humanities 20209, 58.

Boshoff, Dorothea, ‘Becoming Alien(ated): A case study examining intimacy and loneliness in selected works by Marianne de Pierres.’ (upcoming 2020)

Boshoff, Dorothea and Deidre Byrne. ‘He Said, She Said:
#Fake News and #MeToo in Marianne de Pierres’ Sentients of Orion.’ Messenger from the Stars Journal: On Science Fiction and Fantasy. No. 4 (2019): 88- 102. Guest Eds.: Danièle André & Cristophe Becker.

Boshoff, Dorothea. ‘Crafting Positions: Representations of Intimacy and Gender in The Sentients of Orion.’ PhD. University of South Africa, 2017

The Aliens of Orion

Some of you may remember that Dr Thea Boshoff wrote her PhD thesis about my Sentients of Orion series. Her thesis is entitled:

Crafting positions: representations of intimacy and gender in The Sentients of Orion.

Well, Thea just contacted me to say that she’ll be presenting a paper called *The Aliens of Orion* at a conference in Lisbon. The main theme of the conference is what it means to be human. Thea’s paper shows how the progression in my depiction of aliens reflects a progression in the nature of humanity.

Here is the poster from the conference. Giant lobsters. What is not to love?

Wish I could be there!

Interview with MARIANNE DE PIERRES

Civilian Reader interview!

Civilian Reader

dePierresM-AuthorPicLet’s start with an introduction: Who is Marianne de Pierres?

I’m an Aussie speculative fiction writer with about 17 published novels. A couple of my series have been released in the US, but mostly they are available in Australia and the Commonwealth countries. My websites tell more about me than I can coherently explain and not bore you to death, so go and check them out: main, Burn Bright and Tara Sharp Series. I tend to write across genres.

Your next novel, Mythmaker, will be published by Angry Robot. It’s the latest in your Peacemaker series: How would you introduce it to a potential new reader, and what can fans of the series expect?

It’s a real genre mashup. Think classic Western pulp fiction with a female protagonist, set in Australia, but paranormal! At heart it’s an old school Western adventure, a conservation novel, and a story about dislocated communities.

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Author Interview: Marianne de Pierres

I talk to MYLIFEMYBOOKMYESCAPE

MyLifeMyBooksMyEscape

Marianne-de-Pierres-300x300Today I am interviewing Marianne de Pierres , author of the new urban fantasy/SF Western novel, Mythmaker.

◊  ◊  ◊

DJ: Hey Marianne! Thanks for stopping by to do this interview!

Could you start things off by telling readers a little bit about Mythmaker?

Marianne de Pierres: Hi DJ! Great to meet you! MYTHMAKER is the sequel to PEACEMAKER, a story set in a future Australia about a park ranger and a US Marshall who have to work together to keep mythological creatures from overrunning the world. Their relationship is uneasy at best, and the series is action packed. I blend the Western genre with urban fantasy and a little SF.

DJ: Can you briefly tell us a little about your main character? Does she have any cool quirks or habits, or any reason why readers with sympathize with her?

Mythmaker-144dpi

MP: Her name is Virgin Jackson; an unusual…

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CliFi, et al. by Marianne de Pierres

On my PEACEMAKER blog tour, I talk to the Skiffy and Fanty show about CliFi – climate fiction.

The Skiffy and Fanty Show

Marianne de Pierres is the author of the popular PARRISH PLESSIS trilogy and the award-winning SENTIENTS OF ORION and PEACEMAKER series.

The PARRISH PLESSIS series has been translated into many languages and adapted into a role-playing game, while the PEACEMAKER series is being adapted into a novel adventure game. The sequel to PEACEMAKER, MYTHMAKER was just released by Angry Robot Books.

Fictional dystopias born from climate change are increasingly prevalent in fiction. Not that it’s a new concept … JG Ballard wrote The Wind from Nowhere, The Drowned World and The Burning World back in the ’60s, and they weren’t the first CliFi novels by any means. Jules Verne, I believe, wrote one in 1889. Recently though, the sub-genre has gained momentum as particularly seen in the success of Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl, and Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake trilogy.

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The Echo of Love in Cosmos

goetia_girls_alien_girl_ufo_abduction_lucid_dreamI’m delighted to say that my new Sentients of Orion short story The Echo of Love has been sold to Cosmos Magazine. I’m not sure which edition it will be in, but I’ll share details when I know.

As I mentioned in the previous post, the story was based on a dream. It’s the first time I’ve ever written a story in this way, but the fact that the memory of it stayed with me for several years before I wrote it, suggests there was something important I needed to explore.

It’s a story about the limitations of personal perception and is set on a space station.

It’s finished!

My new short story is finished and for the moment it’s called ‘The Echo of Love’. It still needs a bit of tweaking but I managed to successfully get most of my dream down on paper. It’s the first time I’ve ever done that – dream to story. It was a weird experience. The dream left me with a lingering sense of loss and disconnection which was impossibly hard to translate. And like most dreams it didn’t make sense. But I remembered it two years later and became obsessed with the idea that it should become part of the Sentients of Orion universe.

So please tell me, have you ever written a story based on a dream? I’d love to hear about it.

orion

New Sentients of Orion short story

So I’m writing a short story in the Sentients of Orion universe. It’s based a dream I had a long time ago, and I’m quite unsure if I can pull it off. As it is with dreams, the inner monologue of the characters/dream people is harder to capture once you commit their thoughts to page. The story’s main character is a humanesque psychologist by the name of Kyne who lives on a space station. It’s a love story of sorts. Wish me luck! About halfway through now, I’ll give you an update when I’m done.

space station

Review: Transformation Space (Sentients of Orion IV) (2010)

Trans Space review

humanitysdarkerside

Manta ray: Alexander Safonov;  Space crafts: Dale O'Dell/Alamy;  Cover design: www.blacksheep-uk.com Manta ray: Alexander Safonov;
Space crafts: Dale O’Dell/Alamy;
Cover design: http://www.blacksheep-uk.com

I haven’t really liked the other covers of the series that are like the one above. Nor have I liked the ones similar to the one below. But in the case of Transformation Space both covers have appealed to me. The bottom one is because of the eyes of the main model. In the above cover I love the details that reveal themselves as I review the picture along with the color combination.

Dum, da, rah, dum! The end is here.

 Like this … Nova projected a grave melancholia, a vast emptiness without end that made Mira want to weep.

<you know this? little one?>

We all know. Do you feel it too?

According to answers.com the definition of melancholia is:

Melancholia brings about a form of pessimism that sees the future as blocked and unchangeable…

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