F. M. Busby

Francis Marion Busby (March 11, 1921 - February 17, 2005) was a science fiction writer and science fiction fan. In 1960 he was a co-winner of the Hugo Award for Best Fanzine.

Biography

Francis Marion "Buz" Busby was born in the USA in Indianapolis, Indiana, the son of Francis Marion Busby and Clara Nye Busby. The family settled in Colfax, in the state of Washington during 1931 and Busby attended high school there. He subsequently attended Washington State College until he joined the National Guard. He was subsequently discharged and returned to college. He did not remain long, however, and enlisted in the US Army on July 23, 1943, at Spokane, Washington.

Busby served the war as part of the Alaska Communication System, assigned to the island of Amchitka. At the end of World War II he was discharged from the army and returned to college to graduate as an engineer. He subsequently returned to the Alaska Communication System to work in a civilian role based in Seattle, Washington.

During 1954 Busby married Elinor Doub. He had one daughter, Michele. Together with his wife and others he published a fan magazine named Cry of the Nameless which won the Hugo award in 1960.

Busby continued to work for the Alaska Communication System until 1971, when the organization was sold to private industry and renamed RCA Alascom and he took early retirement from the company.

From 1974 to 1976 Busby was Vice President of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. At the age of fifty he became a freelance science-fiction author. He wrote nineteen published novels and numerous short stories between 1973 and 1996.

Robert A. Heinlein in part dedicated his 1985 novel The Cat Who Walks Through Walls to Busby, and in part dedicated his 1982 novel Friday to Elinor.

Busby ceased writing fiction some time after 1996, claiming in an email:

No, I haven't been writing fiction for some time. Many if not most of us "midlist" writers have been frozen out like a third party on an Eskimo honeymoon. The IRS started it by getting the Thor Power Tools decision stretched to cover an inventory tax on books in publishers' warehouses (so they don't keep 'em in print no more), and the bookchains wrapped it up by setting one book's GROSS order on that writer's previous book's NET sales. 4-5 books under those rules, and you're road kill; a publisher can't be expected to buy a book the chains won't pay out on.

How real the influence of the Thor Power Tools decision was on Busby's writing career is uncertain, considering a great many of his novels were written and published after it.

During November 2004 Busby was diagnosed with severe intestinal problems. He went into the Swedish Medical Center/Ballard Campus for surgery and suffered complications. He underwent further surgery before being moved to Health and Rehabilitation of Seattle, where he died on Thursday afternoon, February 17, 2005.

Themes, styles and influences

In the Rissa Kerguelen and Bran Tregare series of Hulzein family novels, Busby's theme was one of human brutality on an institutional scale and how it inevitably affects the very people who will eventually fight against it. Additional themes included the worst extremes of corporate power, the oppression of minorities (particularly homosexuals), human rights in totalitarian regimes and the dehumanization of those who serve totalitarian states. Busby was also known for his strong female characters, so much so that many readers assumed that his initials indicated that he was a woman himself.

Although Busby's setting for the series initially lacked faster than light travel and substantial contact with aliens, the series clearly qualifies as "space opera" by the treatment of the characters involved - especially after the end of first trilogy, where both FTL and intelligent aliens were introduced.

Busby himself was a longtime science fiction fan and may have been influenced by many writers and artists, though it is difficult to identify any one influence in his writing. The Hulzein series of novels is essentially the story of an evil empire defied by a small number of heroic but all too human characters.

Bibliography

Series

Demu

• 1. Cage a Man (1973)
• "The Learning of Eeshta" (1973) - short story; also appeared in collection Getting Home (1987)
• 2. The Proud Enemy (1975)
• 3. End of the Line (1980) - not published separately, but only in The Demu Trilogy
• The Demu Trilogy (omnibus) (1980) - includes all four titles (including first appearance of End of the Line)

Rissa Kerguelen and Bran Tregare

Rissa Kerguelen

• Rissa Kerguelen (aka Young Rissa) (1976)
• Rissa and Tregare (1979)
• The Long View (1976)
• Zelde M'Tana (1980)

Hulzein

• The Star Rebel (1984)
• The Alien Debt (1984)
• Rebel's Quest (1984)
• Rebel's Seed (1986)
• The Rebel Dynasty - Volume I (omnibus) (1987) - Contains Star Rebel and Rebel's Quest
• The Rebel Dynasty - Volume II (omnibus) (1988) - Contains The Alien Debt and Rebel's Seed

Slow Freight

• Slow Freight (1991)
• Arrow from Earth (1995)
• The Triad Worlds (1996)

Non-series novels

• All These Earths (1978); book version of the following linked stories:
  • "Pearsall's Return," (nv) If July/Aug. 1973
  • "Search," (na) Amazing Dec. 1976
  • "Nobody Home," (na) Amazing July 1977
  • "Never So Lost…," (nv) Amazing Oct. 1977
• The Breeds of Man (1988)
• The Singularity Project (1993)
• Islands of Tomorrow (1994)

Short-Story Collection

• Getting Home (1987) (for some stories, year of first appearance anywhere noted)

"A Gun for Grandfather"

"Of Mice and Otis"

"The Puiss of Krrlik"

"The Absence of Tom Leone"

"Proof"

"The Real World"

"Tell Me All About Yourself" (1973)

"Once Upon a Unicorn" (1973)

"Road Map"

"If This Is Winnetka, You Must Be Judy" (1974)

"Three Tinks on the House"

"The Learning of Eeshta" - Part of the Demu series, and also included in The Demu Trilogy (1980)

"I'm Going to Get You" (1974)

"2000½: A Spaced Oddity"

"Time of Need"

"Retroflex"

"Misconception"

"The Signing of Tulip"

"Advantage"

"Getting Home"

Other short stories

Busby reportedly wrote over 40 short stories, thus leaving over 20 still uncollected, including:

• "First Person Plural" (1980)
• "Backup System" (October 1981) appeared in "Isaac Asimov Science Fiction Magazine"
• "Wrong Number" (December 1981) appeared in "Isaac Asimov Science Fiction Magazine"

Anthologies containing stories by Busby

His work appeared in the following anthologies:

• Clarion III (1973) — "Road Map"
• The Best Science Fiction of the Year 3 (1974) – "Tell Me All About Yourself"
• Universe 5 (1975) – "If This Is Winnetka, You Must Be Judy"
• 100 Great Science Fiction Short Short Stories (1978)
• The Best of New Dimensions (1979)
• Universe 10 (1980) – "First Person Plural"
• Heroic Visions (1983) – "Before the Seas Came"
• 100 Great Fantasy Short Short Stories (1984)

References

• The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, pages 179-180

External links

• F. M. Busby at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• F. M. Busby on the Spacelight science fiction author database
• F. M. Busby on Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America
• fmbusby.com
• F. M. Busby book-jacket art
• The F. M. Busby Papers (7.5 linear feet) housed at the Eaton Collection of Science Fiction and Fantasy of the University of California, Riverside Libraries.