Park, Paul 1954–

(Paul Claiborne Park)

PERSONAL: Born October 1, 1954, in Williamstown, MA; son of David Allen (a physicist, professor, and writer) and Clara (a professor and writer) Park; married Deborah Brothers, 1994; children: Miranda, Lucius Lionel. Education: Hampshire College, A.B., 1975. Politics: "Left." Religion: Episcopalian.

ADDRESSES: Home—Berkshire County, MA. Agent—John Silbersack, Trident Media Group, LLC, 41 Madison Ave, 36th Fl., New York, NY 10010.

CAREER: Smith Greenland Advertising, New York, NY, copywriter and production assistant, 1977–78; Town Squash, Inc., New York, NY, manager, 1979–85; Potala Asian Imports, Pittsfield, MA, 1986–90. Visiting instructor in creative writing, Writers' Center, Bethesda, MD, 1988, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 1988–94, and Williams College, Williamstown, MA, 1989–. Also worked as a construction worker, political aide, and doorman, New York, NY, 1975–77. Has worked part-time for eZiba.com (online retailer; now defunct).

AWARDS, HONORS: New York Times notable book citation, for The Cult of Loving Kindness; Nebula Awards nomination for best novel, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, 1996, for Celestis; World Fantasy Award nomination for best short story, 1998, for "Get a Grip"; British Science Fiction Award nomination for best short story; World Fantasy Award nomination, 2006, for A Princess of Roumania.

WRITINGS:

Coelestis (novel), HarperCollins (London, England), 1993, published as Celestis, Tor (New York, NY), 1995.

The Gospel of Corax (novel), Soho Press (New York, NY), 1996.

Three Marys (novel), Cosmos Books (Canton, OH),2003.

If Lions Could Speak and Other Stories, Wildside Press (Rockville, MD), 2005.

Author of short stories. Also author of the chapbook No Traveller Returns, 2004; contributor to anthologies, including Future Primitive: The New Ecotopias, 1994; The Best of Interzone, 1997; and The Year's Best Science Fiction Fourteenth Annual Collection, 1997.

"STARBRIDGE CHRONICLES" SERIES

Soldiers of Paradise (also see below), Arbor House (New York, NY), 1987.

Sugar Rain (also see below), Morrow (New York, NY), 1989.

The Sugar Festival (omnibus; includes Soldiers of Paradise and Sugar Rain), Guild America Books (New York, NY), 1989.

The Cult of Loving Kindness, Morrow (New York, NY), 1991.

"A PRINCESS OF ROUMANIA" SERIES

A Princess of Roumania, Tor (New York, NY), 2005.

The Tourmaline, Tor (New York, NY), 2006.

The White Tyger, Tor (New York, NY), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS: Paul Park has been deemed "one of the finest authors on the 'humanist' wing of American science fiction," explained Infinity Plus Web site contributor Nick Gevers. Critics have praised Park's novels for using strange and grotesque material to reveal human warmth.

Park's "Starbridge Chronicles" trilogy is set on a planet on which the cycle of the seasons takes 80,000 days, much longer than the human lifespan. Most of the action takes place in Charn, a city-state ruled by a totalitarian society set on organizing for survival during a half-century of winter. This society is savage and contrasts sharply with a heretical cult of antinomials, who are reminiscent of twentieth-century hippies. A Twentieth-Century Science-Fiction Writers contributor praised Park's depiction of Charn "with its toppling buildings and mud streets, its derelict harbour where the hulks of warships lie tilted in the ooze, its slums, taverns, brothels, palaces, prisons, all clear and detailed in the light of other suns." The contributor went on to note that through Park's "matter-of-fact approach, we learn through what seems chance references that the carnivorous 'horses' have beaks, claws, horns, and wings; that gasoline is used as an explosive and gunpowder as a motor fuel, that the spring 'sugar rain' is laced with hydrocarbons, à la Velikowsky, so that Charn city burns every year, while the foresighted protect their valuables in asbestos bags." The Twentieth-Century Science-Fiction Writers contributor noted: "This meticulously prepared background supports Park's grander flights; the terrible and pathetic fate of the antinomials; the fall of theocracy; Charity Starbridge's wanderings in the labyrinth under Charn; Thanakar Starbridge's passage through the monstrous prison Mountain of Redemption, with its million tormented inmates."

In an interview with ElectricStory, Park discussed the creation of his "Starbridge Chronicles." "I worked a lot of stupid jobs after college, and taught squash for many years in Manhattan. I quit in 1983 to write a novel. With a notebook and a couple of shirts, I flew to New Delhi telling myself I couldn't come back until I had completed a manuscript," he explained. Soldiers of Paradise, Park's first novel and the first in the "Starbridge Chronicles," was written while Park traversed Sri Lanka, Nepal, Rajasthan, Burma, Thailand, Indonesia, and other parts of Asia over the course of two years.

A Publishers Weekly contributor observed that Park's Celestis "seems planted on firmer ground" than his trilogy, but added that "the oddly disengaging revolution through which the author's new characters wander tends to skew the fine-edged balance he is apparently trying to maintain between futility and passion." Celestis features Katharine Styreme, an alien whose man-made medication has given her human qualities. When Katharine is kidnapped by terrorists, she is deprived of her medication and her alien characteristics return. The Publishers Weekly reviewer commented: "Park produces some beautiful writing here as well as some compelling insight into the nature of 'the world outside our small blinkered range,'" but felt Park's "repeated emphasis on how sexual bonding promotes a false sense of communication detracts from an otherwise impressive treatise on the nature of mind, matter, and reality."

Park reinterprets the life of Christ in his controversial The Gospel of Corax, which features the title character as a slave with amazing abilities who runs away after his master's death. Along his travels from Palestine to the Himalayas, Corax rescues "Jeshua of Nazareth," a still-unknown Jesus, from a Jewish jail after he has been accused of treason. Booklist contributor Steve Schroeder remarked: "If it made the right people angry, this book could move a sizable Christian audience to the kind of passion that Satanic Verses inspired among the Muslims." Schroeder later clarified that the book "is not a 'gospel' in the technical sense" but is simply historical fiction. A Publishers Weekly contributor described the book as "a dark narrative, full of brutality and misery—so much, in fact, that at times the gruesomeness borders on the cartoonish." The same reviewer went on the write: "What's more likely to rub some readers raw" is the "novel's claim of Eastern influence of Jesus' teaching … and its implied favoring of Buddhism over biblical religion."

Park explores life after Jesus' death in Three Marys, which tells the story of the "three Marys": Mary of Magdala, Jesus' mother Mary, and Mary of Bethany. In an interview on the Infinity Plus Web site, Park remarked that, while he is proud of the novel, he sees its commercial difficulties. He described the book as a "retelling of the stories of the Gospels and the Book of Acts from the points of view of some of the women that surround Jesus, and to understand and appreciate how I have changed the stories in a thousand minute ways, some quite specific knowledge is essential." Infinity Plus contributor Gevers noted that Park's "powerful, densely written narratives of religious and existential crisis on worlds at once exotic and familiar have won him comparisons with Gene Wolfe and Brian Aldiss at their finest."

Park more recently embarked on a series titled "A Princess of Roumania." In the first book, also called A Princess of Roumania, Park writes about Massachusetts teenager Miranda Popescu, who actually comes from Roumania, which is part of an alternate magical world. Miranda is being hunted by the nefarious Baroness Ceaucescu, who eventually finds Miranda and takes her back to her world accompanied by her two teenage friends, Andromeda and Peter. While Roumania appears to be much like Earth, it is actually an alternate early twentieth-century world where England has been destroyed and the reigning but opposing powers are Roumania and Germany. Known as the "white tyger," the Roumanian Princess Miranda must now face her destiny. A Publishers Weekly contributor commented on the novel's "sharp characterization and an unusual historical backdrop." Carl Hays, writing in Booklist, added: "Park's enchanting and riveting tale deserves to win its way with fans of modern fantasy."

The next book in the series, The Tourmaline, finds Miranda still searching for a way to defeat her enemies. Miranda is soon joined by her friends, Peter, who becomes a noted Roumanian soldier, and Andromeda, who can change back and forth from human to dog. Carl Hays, once again writing in Booklist, noted the novel's "enchanting characters and compelling story line." A Publishers Weekly contributor praised the author for how he "fortifies his beautiful and baleful Roumanian milieu with deft characterizations."

Park is also author of If Lions Could Speak and Other Stories, a collection of thirteen stories primarily written by the author between 1992 and 2002. Writing in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, James Sallis commented that the author's voice "is that of the person who sidles up to you at the bar with something he just has to tell you." SF Site Web page contributor Rich Horton concluded: "This is certainly one of the landmark SF story collections of the year."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Twentieth-Century Science-Fiction Writers, 3rd edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1991, pp. 615-616.

PERIODICALS

Analog Science Fiction and Fact, October, 1995, review of Celestis, p. 162.

Atlantic Monthly, July, 1996, review of The Gospel of Corax, p. 109.

Booklist, July, 1996, Steve Schroeder, review of The Gospel of Corax, pp. 1804-1806; October 1, 1998, Ray Olsen, review of The Gospel of Corax, p. 293; July, 2005, Carl Hays, review of A Princess of Roumania, p. 1911; April 1, 2006, Carl Hays, review of The Tourmaline, p. 29.

Book World, September, 1991, review of The Cult of Loving Kindness, p. 8; October 13, 1996, review of The Gospel of Corax, p. 4.

Entertainment Weekly, August 5, 2005, Nisha Gopalan, review of A Princess of Roumania, p. 70.

Kirkus Reviews, June 1, 1991, review of The Cult of Loving Kindness, p. 700; April 15, 1995, review of Celestis, p. 515; April 1, 1996, review of The Gospel of Corax, p. 478; February 15, 2006, review of The Tourmaline, p. 165.

Library Journal, August, 1996, review of The Gospel of Corax, p. 113; May 15, 2005, Jackie Cassada, review of A Princess of Roumania, p. 112.

Locus, February, 1990, review of Soldiers of Paradise, p. 54; November, 1990, review of Sugar Rain, p. 60; June, 1991, review of The Cult of Loving Kindness, p. 15; August, 1991, review of The Cult of Loving Kindness, p. 51; September, 1993, review of Coelestis, p. 15; February, 1994, review of Coelestis, p. 36.

Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May, 2003, James Sallis, review of If Lions Could Speak and Other Stories, p. 36.

New York Times Book Review, October 7, 1990, review of Sugar Rain, p. 38; October 27, 1991, review of The Cult of Loving Kindness, p. 30; November 22, 1992, review of The Cult of Loving Kindness, p. 40; July, 9, 1995, review of Celestis, p. 18; July 14, 1996, review of The Gospel of Corax, p. 15; May 4, 1997, review of Celestis, p. 32.

Publishers Weekly, June 14, 1991, review of The Cult of Loving Kindness, p. 48; May 15, 1995, review of Celestis, pp. 59-61; April 8, 1996, review of The Gospel of Corax, p. 53; July 28, 1997, review of The Gospel of Corax, p. 72; May 16, 2005, review of A Princess of Roumania, p. 44; April 10, 2006, review of The Tourmaline, p. 49.

Science Fiction Chronicle, February, 1994, review of Coelestis, p. 28; March, 1994, review of Coelestis, p. 32.

Utne Reader, November, 1996, review of The Gospel of Corax, p. 88.

Virginia Quarterly Review, winter, 1997, review of The Gospel of Corax, p. 22.

ONLINE

ElectricStory, http://www.electricstory.com/ (November 22, 2002), interview with Paul Park.

Fantastic Fiction, http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/ (September 6, 2006), information on Paul Park's works.

Fantasybookspot, http://www.fantasybookspot.com/ (September 6, 2006), "On the Spot at Fantasybook-spot: Paul Park."

Infinity Plus Web site, http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/ (September 6, 2006), Nick Gevers, "Shadowy Figures, Infinitely Debatable."

Readercon, http://www.readercon.org/ (September 6, 2006), brief profile of Paul Park.

SF Site, http://www.sfsite.com/ (September 6, 2006), Rich Horton, review of If Lions Could Speak and Other Stories, and Greg L. Johnson, "A Conversation with Paul Park."

Strange Horizons, http://www.strangehorizons.com/ (September 6, 2006), Kat Jong, review of A Princess of Roumania.