Saturday, November 21, 2009

Zenna Henderson

I'm not sure how I arrived there -- I know I was looking at Wikipedia articles about Heinlein novels, though how I ended up doing that is a mystery, it's not like I haven't read them all, most several times over -- but I found myself reading about another of my favorite authors, Zenna Henderson.

Her stories of "The People," very human-looking aliens fleeing disaster who crash-landed in lifeboats scattered all over North America in the early part of the 20th Century, offer a nearly unique take on one of the genre's more uncommon ideas and her work outside that series is at least as strong. Widely enjoyed -- L. Neil Smith speaks highly of her and he is hardly alone -- her work is anything but conventional SF, despite straightforward narrative and a deft touch at setting scenes and establishing characters.

Somehow, she makes mindreading aliens as real and as homey as Aunt Bea. Well worth checking out if you never have; despite a lack of rayguns or futuristic appurtenances, Zenna Henderson's worlds are wonderful places to visit.

11 comments:

  1. Can you recommend a good starting point for someone who hasn't read her stuff? I hate reading something new, only to find I am reading out of sequence...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Delightfully enough, there's no "sequence;" the stories are not toghtly connected, but illuminate a coherent image of the shipwrecked survivors finding one another and putting their lost past together by way of vignettes. "The People: No Different Flesh" is one of the easier titles to find or remember.

    A bit over half of her published work -- nearly all short-story collections -- fits into The People series. The rest tend to be stand-alone yarns.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm in.

    Jim

    As for wikipedia... Here.

    ReplyDelete
  4. For all that there is to dislike about living in Martin Luther King County*, WA, the library system is pretty good. They have the New England Science Fiction Association Press edition of Ingathering : the complete people stories of Zenna Henderson.
    Oooh, look! His share of glory : the complete short science fiction of C. M. Kornbluth , too!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Added: ISBN for the Zenna Henderon is 0915368587; for the Cornbluth 0915368609.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I will have to see what IMCPL has of her writing. Never heard anything of her before.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi, Roberta;

    I've read everything by Zenna Henderson I could get my hands on, several times. I second your opinion.

    About Heinlein also. I just finished rereading Stranger in a Strange Land for probably the 20th time over the years.

    Some fiction is worth reading twice.

    -Popgun

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oo! Zenna Henderson. Yes. One of the greats, IMNSVHO. I have named several tool containers and one paint box "The Anything Box." (Serially, of course, not all at once.)

    My friend Jamie Voss writes in a voice that is reminiscent of ZH. I wish Jamie could get wider publication.

    M

    ReplyDelete
  9. I read all of her stuff when I was a kid; they're quite enjoyable and good at any age.

    ReplyDelete
  10. There was at least one collection of her stories. I had it at one time but it's since gotten lost amid the time since its purchase and amid moves and all.

    As I remember, she wrote short stories. I don't think there ever was a novel length "People" book, just a collection of the stories.

    Thanks for the remembrance, Roberta. I hadn't thought of her in a very long time.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hush! It's difficult enough to find her work as it is. Don't you go messing us up by sending a whole new generation out looking for her...

    ReplyDelete

Comment moderation is enabled. Your comment will not be visible until approved. Arguing or use of insulting or derogatory language will result in your comment going unpublished: no name-calling. Comments I deem excessively partisan will not be published.