A. Bertram Chandler
Arthur Bertram Chandler (
March 28,
1912 â€"
June 6,
1984) was an
Australian
science fiction author. He also wrote under the pseudonym George Whitley.
He was born in
Aldershot,
England. He was a merchant marine officer sailing the world in everything from tramp steamers to troopships. He emigrated to Australia in
1956, becoming an Australian citizen. He commanded various ships in the Australian and New Zealand
merchant navies, and was the last master of the Australian aircraft carrier
HMAS Melbourne as the law required it have an officer on board while it was laid up waiting to be towed to China to be broken up.
He wrote over 40 novels and 200 works of short fiction. He was most well-known for his
John Grimes novels and the
Rim World series, which have a distinctly naval flavour. He won
Ditmar Awards for the short story
The Bitter Pill (in 1971) and three novels
False Fatherland (in 1969),
The Bitter Pill (in 1975), and
The Big Black Mark (in 1976).
Chandler's descriptions of life aboard spaceships and the realtionships between members of the crew en route carry a feeling of realism rarely found in other writers, and obviously derive from his experience on board sea-going ships. Chandler's principal hero, Grimes, is an enthusiastic sailor who has occasional adventures on the oceans of various planets.
The less well-known
The Deep Reaches of Space (1964) has undisguised autobiographical elements in having as its protagonist a seaman turned science-fiction writer who travels to the future and uses his nautical experience to save a party of humans stranded on an alien planet.
Chandler's Australian background is manifested in his depiction of a future where Australia becomes a major world power on Earth and Australians take the lead in space exploration and the settlement of other planets. Drongo Kane, a piratical captain who is the villain in several books, comes from the planet Austral, and other books also mention the planet Australis in another part of the galaxy.
His story "The Mountain Movers" (part of John Grimes' early career) includes the song of future Australian space adventurers, sung to the tune of
Waltzing Matilda, with the first stanza running:
"When the jolly Jumbuk lifted from Port
Woomera/Out and away for Altair Three/Glad were we all to kiss the tired old Earth goodbye/Who'll come a-sailing in Jumbuk with me?"
The colonists who sing the song end up re-enacting the darker part of Australian history and dispossessing the natives of the planet Olgana - humanoids who resemble the Australian
Aborigines. As revealed at the climax of the story, the resemblance is not accidental.
Rim World series
The Rim of SpaceBeyond the Galactic RimThe Ship From OutsideRendezvous on a Lost World (vt
When the Dream Dies)
Bring Back YesterdayCatch the Star WindsJohn Grimes novels
The John Grimes story is divided into three parts - Early, Middle and Late.
*Early Grimes - These cover Grimes Survey' Service career, from Ensign to Commander.
*
The Road To The Rim*
To Prime The Pump*
The Hard Way Up*
The Broken Cycle*
Spartan Planet (vt
False Fatherland)
*
The Inheritors*
The Big Black Mark*Middle Grimes - All these deal with Grimes' life and hard times subsequent to his resignation from the Federation Survey Service and prior to his becoming a citizen of the Rim Worlds Confederacy.
*
The Far Traveller*
Star Courier*
To Keep The Ship*
Matilda's Stepchildren*
Star Loot*
The Anarch Lords*
The Last Amazon*
The Wild Ones*Late Grimes - Grimes, Rim World Commodore
*
Into The Alternate Universe*
Contraband From Other Space*
The Gateway to Never*
The Rim Gods*
Alternate Orbits (vt
The Commodore at Sea)
*
The Dark Dimensions*
The Way BackEmpress Irene series
Empress of Outer Space (
1965)
Space Mercenaries (
1965)
Nebula Alert (
1967)
Other novels
The Hamelin Plague (
1963)
The Deep Reaches of Space (
1964)
Glory Planet (
1964)
The Coils of Time (
1964)
The Alternate Martians (
1965)
The Sea Beasts (
1971)
The Bitter Pill (
1974)
Kelly Country (
1983)
Frontier of the Dark (
1984)
*
A Bertram Chandler 1912-1984
