Mother of Eden

Marc Notes: ; 8; Generations after the breakup of the human family of Eden, the Johnfolk emphasise knowledge and innovation, the Davidfolk tradition and cohesion. But both have built hierarchical societies sustained by violence and dominated by men - and both claim to be the favoured children of a long-dead woman from Earth that all Eden knows as Gela, the mother of them all.. Biographical Note: Chris Beckett is a university lecturer living in Cambridge, England. His short stories have appeared in such publications as "Interzone "and "Asimov's Science Fiction "and in numerous "year's best" anthologies. Review Quotes: Praise for Chris Beckett's "Dark Eden: " "Poetic... Beckett renders the terror of the darkness beyond the forests with a riveting deftness that evokes all primordial fears of the unknown... There's plenty here to intrigue and entrance."-"New York Times Book Review" "A linguistic and imaginative tour de force." --"The Guardian" (UK) "Captivating and haunting...human plight and alien planet are both superbly evoked." --"Daily Mail"(UK) "A stunning novel and a beautiful evocation of a truly alien world." --"Sunday Times" "Pure astonishment and pleasure, a storytelling ride full of brio and wonder." --"Locus" "Dazzlingly inventive... superbly well paced and well written... packed with ideas." --"Reader's Digest" "Brilliantly imaginative...a superb entertainment, a happy combination of speculative and literary fiction. Not to be missed." -"Booklist "(starred)" " "A fantastic novel... Beckett has created a bizarre world of astounding imaginative vision, grounded by fundamental human conflicts." -"Shelf Awareness" "Riveting...a keenly imagined vision of the interaction between human nature and a truly alien world." -"BookPage" Review Citations: Kirkus Reviews 03/01/2015 (EAN 9780804138703, Paperback) Publishers Weekly 03/30/2015 (EAN 9780804138703, Paperback) Library Journal 04/15/2015 pg. 63 (EAN 9780804138703, Paperback) Contributor Bio:  Beckett, Chris Chris Beckett qualified as a social worker in the 1980s, and worked in the field for 18 years, first as a social worker and then as a manager, latterly as the manager of a children and families social work team. Like most social workers who qualified at that time, he started out as a generic social worker, working with a range of service users including children and families, old people, and people with mental health problems and disabilities, but his predominant area of work was always with children and families. He moved into academic social work in 2000, working first at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge and then at the University of East Anglia in Norwich. In addition to his social work text books, he has published academic articles on a variety of topics including the use of military language in social work, the importance of realism as an ethical principle, and statistics from Sweden about child abuse, following the legal ban there on corporal punishment. His main research area has been decision-making in court proceedings about children, and decision-making about children more generally. Chris has a parallel career as a writer of literary science fiction, and has achieved some acclaim in this field. He won the Edge Hill Short Fiction prize for his story collection, The Turing Test, and the Arthur C. Clarke award for his novel Dark Eden. He now divides his time between his academic career and his fiction writing. More information about his fiction can be found at www.chris-beckett.com. His view is that academic and creative writing have more in common than might at first sight appear: in both cases the author begins with a jumble of ideas that seem to him to be in some way linked together, and attempts, in large part by a combination of intuition and trial and error, to impose some shape and structure. Chris has three adult children, and lives in Cambridge with his wife Maggie and sundry animals.