Twilight Beach

Tom Rynosseros #3

by Terry Dowling

A Ship, a Star, a Woman's Face... All that Tom Rynosseros remembers from his time in the Madhouse. But who was he? Why did the powerful Ab'O tribes send him there? What do the three signs mean? From the haunted streets of Twilight Beach to the burning heart of this future Australia, from the eerie wind-river called the Soul to the dream-ridden shores of the Inland Sea, Tom searches desperately for whatever pieces of his life he can find.

Genres: Science Fiction

290 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1993

About the author

Terence William (Terry) Dowling -

“Who’s the writer who can produce horror as powerful and witty as the best of Peter Straub, SF as wondrously byzantine and baroque as anything by Gene Wolfe, near-mainstream subtly tinged with the fantastic like some tales by Powers or Lansdale? Why Terry Dowling, of course.” Locus (Nov 1999)

Born in Sydney in 1947, Terry Dowling is one of Australia’s most awarded, versatile and internationally acclaimed writers of science fiction, fantasy, dark fantasy and horror. He is author of Rynosseros (1990), Blue Tyson (1992), Twilight Beach (1993) and Rynemonn (2007) (the Ditmar award-winning Tom Rynosseros saga, which, in his 2002 Fantastic Fictions Symposium keynote speech, US Professor Brian Attebery called “not only intricate and engaging, but important as well”), Wormwood (1991), The Man Who Lost Red (1994), An Intimate Knowledge of the Night (1995), Antique Futures: The Best of Terry Dowling (1999), Blackwater Days (2000) and Basic Black: Tales of Appropriate Fear (2006) (which earned a starred review in Publishers’ Weekly in May 2006 and won the 2007 International Horror Guild Award for Best Collection). He is editor of the World Fantasy Award-winning The Essential Ellison (1987/ revised 2001), Mortal Fire: Best Australian SF (1993) and The Jack Vance Treasury (2007).

Dowling has outstanding publishing credentials. As well as appearances in The Year’s Best Science Fiction, The Year’s Best SF, The Mammoth Book of Best New SF, The Year’s Best Fantasy, The Best New Horror and The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror (a record eight times; he is the only author to have had two stories in the 2001 volume, one chosen by each editor), his work has appeared in such major anthologies as Centaurus: The Best of Australian Science Fiction, The Dark, Dreaming Down Under, Gathering the Bones and The Oxford Book of Australian Ghost Stories and in such diverse publications as the prestigious SciFiction, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Interzone, Oceans of the Mind, Ténèbres, Ikarie, Japan’s SF and Russia’s Game.Exe. His fiction has been translated into many languages and has been used in a course in forensic psychology in the US.

“Here is Jack Vance, Cordwainer Smith and Tiptree/Sheldon come again, reborn in one wonderful talent…you’ll purr and growl with delight.” – Harlan Ellison

Terry has also written and co-designed three best-selling computer adventures: Schizm: Mysterious Journey (2001) (aka US Mysterious Journey: Schizm) (www.schizm.com/schizm1/), Schizm II: Chameleon (2003) (aka US Mysterious Journey II: Chameleon) (www.schizm2.info) and Sentinel: Descendants in Time (2004) (aka Realms of Illusion) (www.dormeuse.info) (based on his 1996 short story, “The Ichneumon and the Dormeuse”), which have been published in many foreign language editions. He has reviewed for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Bulletin, and was the science fiction, fantasy and horror reviewer for The Weekend Australian for nineteen years under four different literary editors: Barry Oakley, James Hall, Murray Waldren and Deborah Hope.

Terry holds a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Western Australia (the first such degree to be granted and completed at that university), an MA (Hons) in English Literature and a BA (Hons) in English Literature, Archaeology and Ancient History, both from the University of Sydney. He has won many Ditmar and Aurealis Awards for his fiction, as well as the William Atheling Jr Award for his critical work. His first computer adventure won the Grand Prix at Utopiales in France in 2001 and he has been nominated for the World Fantasy Award twice.

Reviews

[Deb Omnivorous Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Man this is an amazing book!
So beautifully writing and such an amazing speculative fiction, alternative world type feel. Literary, poetic, mystic and lush it is a joy to read every time.

I rave more about how much I love this book over on Booktube, sorry, YouTube...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ifrm...

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Continuation of the theme developed above with more short stories. Having said this they are far more linked than the previous set and really have to be read as a novel as they continually refer back to events that have happened in the past stories. By the end Tyson realises that he is really a Clever Man, unique in that he is National rather than Ab’O and so the plot is set up for a whole new series of stories which I understand have been written. Just as hard work to read as the second book, with lots of literary illusions and hard words, many of which have obscure meanings. Also still very enjoyable and I must get the first book of the series to read. Is the sentient tree “Lone Star Stone” really a reference to Grant Stone in WA, I would like to think so! Highly recommended but you need to read them in order.

[Cameron · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing series and should be read by all Australians, at minimum. Strange as it may seem before I read these books I had little regards for our country and really did just look at it with wholly European eyes. I like to think it changed that, a little.

Besides all that, it's an awesome read. Worth it just for the great stories. It's also extremely hip.

Seriously - it's my favourite series.