SILVIA MORENO-GARCIA TOYED WITH THE idea of doing a novel that riffed on HG Wells’s SF mad-scientist urtext The Island Of Dr Moreau for quite some time before her own book came into focus. The problem, she realised, was Wells’s setting: a remote island in the Pacific.
“When I figured that I could move the action to Mexico in the 19th century, that’s when everything made sense,” she says. “And that’s when I was able to move forward. I had a location and a time period, specificity that helped me be able to handle the material.”
The result is The Daughter Of Dr Moreau. It’s a novel that takes many of the familiar elements of Wells’s work, like Moreau’s creation of human-like hybrid beings, yet brings a different sensibility to the story. “It’s not a pastiche, it’s not intended to be a reproduction of Wells,” she says of a book that deals with class, colonialism, sexism and race.
Nevertheless, it’s most definitely an SF novel, something Moreno-Garcia is at pains to emphasise. She’s wary when SFX suggests there’s a Gothic element. “The trouble for me is that if I say Gothic, people sometimes expect certain things naturally – for example, ghosts,” she says. “I had this happen with Mexican Gothic, where some people told me they liked the novel but they were unhappy it had a science fiction element.” Such are the difficulties when navigating reader expectations and questions of genre.
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この記事は SFX UK の August 2022 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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この記事は SFX UK の August 2022 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
ANCER MAHAGEMENT
WITH A NEW TRILOGY IN SIGHT, WE SPEAK TO THE DIRECTOR OF 28 WEEKS LATER THE ORIGINAL CHILLING SEQUEL TO DANNY BOYLE'S SEMINAL SURVIVAL HORROR
WHO YA CONNA CALL?
BEHIND THE SCENES AT HALLOWEEN HORROR NIGHTS FOR GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE
SPEAK OF THE DEVIL
THE DEVIL'S HOUR STRIKES TWICE AS THE GENREDEFYING DRAMA RETURNS
SCARRY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK
FROM THE RETURN OF EC COMICS TO SCREAM!, THIS YEAR'S HALLOWEEN OFFERS UP HORROR COMICS FOR ALL THE AGES
UNDEADS REFLECTIONS
NEIL JORDAN ON BRINGING ANNE RICE'S MODERN VAMPIRE CLASSIC TO SCREEN, 30 YEARS ON
MUNSTER MASH!
PRODUCTION HELL, SHOCK RECASTING AND HOTLY CONTESTED AUTHORSHIP. AS THE MUNSTERS CELEBRATE THEIR 60TH ANNIVERSARY, WE UNCOVER HOW THE SPOOKY SITCOM WAS ALMOST DEAD ON ARRIVAL
COMING TO AMERICA
THE MOGWAI LIVE THE AMERICAN DREAM IN THEIR SECOND CHAPTER, GREMLINS: THE WILD BATCH
BEING HUMAN EVOLUTION
IT MAY HAVE BEEN AN INSTANT HIT, BUT BBC THREE'S DARKLY COMIC DRAMA ABOUT A HOUSE-SHARING VAMPIRE/WEREWOLF/GHOST TRIO HAD A STRANGE JOURNEY TO THE SCREEN, SERIES CREATOR TOBY WHITHOUSE TELLS SFX
THE MAINE EVENT
THE DARK IS RISING IN SALEM'S LOT AS STEPHEN KING'S DEATHLESS TALE RETURNS TO THE SCREEN
WHY DON'T YOU STAY FOR A BITE?
THE VAMPIRE COMES HOME AS DIRECTOR EUROS LYN WELCOMES SFX TO HIS NEW DARK COMEDY THE RADLEYS