Fine fantasy from N.Z. beginnings

Press, 13 December 1986, Page 27

Fine fantasy from N.Z. beginnings

A Princess of the Chameln, 275 pp. Yorath the Wolf, 178 pp. Second Nature, 254 pp. All by Cherry Wilder. Unwin Paperbacks, 1986. $13.95 each. (Reviewed by Rod Dew) The New Zealand-born fantasy and science fiction writer Cherry Wilder has deservedly gained considerable acclaim in some other parts of the world; she is practically unknown in her homeland. This is not really surprising, because it is more than 30 years since she lived in New Zealand and her books have been published overseas and aimed at other markets. The introduction of three of her books to the New Zealand market promises to alter this. She is an excellent writer with a vivid — and unusual — imagination. “Second Nature” is a fantasy novel, with a minor touch of science fiction, written in 1982. It is an enthralling tale of the descendants of the crew and passengers of a space ship who carve out an existence on a planet of land-locked seas and strange life forms. Several short stories about the society of Rhomary, the distant outpost where the ship crashed, have also been written.

The other books, “A Princess of the Chameln” and “Yorath the Wolf” are

traditional fantasy and the first two books in “The Rulers of Hylor” trilogy. The final volume will appear early in 1987. They had a distant beginning. The draft of "Yorath” began as far back as 1975, and the creation of the fantasy kingdoms of Hylor followed a request from Cherry Wilder’s German publisher. Cherry Wilder is actually a pen name. Her maiden name was Cherry Lockett, and she is now married to her second husband, Horst Grimm, and has lived in West Germany since 1976. She has two grown-up daughters. Wilder was chosen as her science fiction name, and she now uses it for

all her writings. Born in Auckland in 1930, Cherry Lockett attended 12 different primary schools and gained her secondary education at Nelson Girls’ College. She moved to Christchurch in 1948 and studied at Canterbury University College, graduating in 1952 with a B.A. She did a lot of theatre work at university, and had poems published in the New Zealand Poetry Year Book. After marrying her first husband, A. J. Anderson, a university lecturer from Sydney, she move to Australia in 1954 and it was there that her literary talents began to blossom. She wrote

plays and material for student reviews in Newcastle and in the sixties, after

moving to Sydney, she flourished as a short-story writer. She was always a keen reader of science fiction and fantasy stories. Her own first attempt in the field was “The Ark of James Carlyle,” published in the British anthology, New Writings in Science Fiction, No. 24. It was the first story by a woman to appear in this long-running series. The response to this story helped her decide to concentrate on science fiction and- fantasy writing. Her first novel, “The Luck of Brin’s Five,” won her the Ditmar Award as the best Australian science fiction novel of 1978. Although of Irish/Australian descent, Cherry Wilder can also claim relationship to the Maori chief, Hauraki, of the Ngapuhu tribe. She retains strong links with New Zealand and she and her husband are considering coming to New Zealand in a year or two .to spend “the autumn of our days.” This will not mean the end of her writing. She has already asked literary friends to keep a look out for a modest cottage suitable for “the keeping of a cat and the pounding of a typewriter.” Quite clearly, there is a great deal more first-class fantasy yet to tap its way out of Cherry Wilder’s typewriter. And that can only be applauded.