En 1970, Kate Wilhelm imagine une époque où l'amour de la nature est synonyme de folie. Dans un monde surpeuplé, ravagé par la pollution et où les ressources s'épuisent, des expéditions scientifiques sont organisées pour trouver des territoires à exploiter, non pas dans des contrées lointaines mais à d'autres époques. Lorin et Jan, un couple de biologiste et bactériologiste, font partie d'une de ces expéditions et découvrent un futur vierge de traces humaines, où aucune espèce animale n'a survécu et où les séquoias géants ont remplacé les chênes, hêtres et bouleaux. Tandis que Jan est prise de panique face au silence qui règne dans la forêt et semble impatiente de retrouver son quotidien au 62e étage de sa tour, son compagnon Lorin y voit la promesse d'une vie paisible, reconnectée avec la nature et décide de tout mettre en place pour ne plus repartir... Cette nouvelle de 1970 révèle, à travers les visions dissonantes d'un couple pourtant uni, des préoccupations écologiques précoces.

Demain le silence

Riches propriétaires terriens, les Sumner, pressentant que la pollution et la guerre vont tout ravager autour d'eux, ont construit dans leur domaine de Virginie un centre de recherches scientifiques qui leur permet de survivre en économie fermée.Et quand, au lendemain du cataclysme, on s'aperçoit qu'hommes et femmes sont devenus stériles, la solution est là, toute prête : produire des bébés par cloning. Mais à mesure que les générations se succèdent, une question se pose, terrifiante : ces clones sont-ils encore des hommes ?Interrogation angoissée sur les capacités de survie de l'espèce humaine, ce roman d'une grande force dramatique offre une vision déchirante d'un avenir possible.-Prix Hugo, roman, 1977-Prix Locus, roman, 1977

Hier, les oiseaux

Kate Wilhelm has a reputation as one of the 20th century's finest SF writers. Winner of the Hugo Award for Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang, she has produced an impressive body of work in the fields of SF and crime, and - along with her late husband, Damon Knight - has had a profound influence beyond her writing, through the Milford and Clarion Science Fiction Writers' Workshops. This omnibus contains novels The Clewiston Test and Welcome, Chaos and story collection The Infinity Box.
THE CLEWISTON TEST: Anne Clewiston would soon be hailed as a miracle worker. She had almost perfected the formula for a drug which would banish all pain from the world. The Lab tests went on; the caged apes were thriving, all the results positive. The next step - humans. Then, one night, a chimpanzee went berserk...
THE INFINITY BOX: A man's eerie ability to enter - and control - the mind of a vulnerable young woman turns into a sexual nightmare...A hack writer with fading skills finds his soap operas foretelling the future...His retirement present, a watch, takes a man back into his own past...American soldiers attack the wrong country - their own!
WELCOME, CHAOS: Lyle is asked to spy on Saul Werther, who is thought to be a drug dealer. She finds him charming but realises she has been set up...Saul has developed a major breakthrough in the medical world which he is keeping secret, and Lyle has been sent there to uncover his secrets...

Kate Wilhelm SF Gateway Omnibus

Why is Lauren Steele being followed around by a mysterious red-haired ghost? Why is the Pentagon after her? And why doesn't anyone believe her?
As a psychologist at the Waycross Clinic in Seattle, she has enough problems. Her clients never seem to listen to anything she says, and her co-workers could use extensive counseling themselves. The last thing she needs is an obnoxious figment of her own imagination showing up at the least opportune moments.
But Daniel ("Corky") Corcoran is actually the victim of a fault experimental laser, having been accidentally "dispersed" when the device misfired during a demonstration. He has literally gathered his wits about him by focusing on the last person he saw - Lauren. The trouble is, Corky's attempts at communication only convince Lauren that she is going crazy.
Add to this one paranoid colonel from the Pentagon who is convinced that both Corky and Lauren are Soviet spies, and you have a mix of zany and colourful characters caught up in a plot that is quintessential Wilhelm.

Crazy Time

This book contains four striking novellas, and the author's own philosophy of fiction writing expressed in her speech as a guest of honour at the 38th World Science Fiction Convention.
"The Winter Beach" turns what might be a spy story into suspense of a far different order.
"Julian" begins when its youthful hero trains his telescope on nearby earth rather than the stars and sees a woman who rules the rest of his life.
"With Thimbles, with Forks and Hope" seems to be the dramatic story of a holiday fishing trip, but once on the ocean we are gripped by a different reality.
"Moongate", set in the mountains of the Northwest, takes its two men and one woman through many dimensions in time and space.
"The Uncertain Edge of Reality" casts a new light on Kate Wilhelm's many books and short stories. "This is my subject matter when I write," she says. "I am asking, What actually do we mean by reality, and are we stuck with the one we have? This is what I mean by reality fiction, and usually it is also called science fiction...We are more than simple animals using sophisticated tools in our search for food, security and mates. We are something new on the earth...We can change reality."
Kate Wilhelm's writing always has meaning on many levels. Listen, Listen provides a feasts for fans and new readers alike.

Listen, Listen

In dire need of a job, Todd Fielding accepts the offer to work at The Brindle Times-even if she has to move to the lackluster town of Brindle.

 As she settles into her new home, Todd is fully prepared to adapt to the boredom of small-town life, but her preconceptions of Brindle are completely shattered when a local girl disappears. Even more shocking to Todd is the town's sheer indifference to the incident. No one-not even the police-appears particularly concerned.

 When Todd looks deeper into the story, she discovers that five other girls have "run away" from Brindle under strange circumstances over the past twenty years. As she sets out to uncover the history of a town that has cloaked itself in secrecy for far too long, evidence of manipulation and cold-blooded murder begin to unravel. And Todd may be the next victim to pay the deadly price of silence.

The Price Of Silence

Juniper Time is a 1st-rate sf novel. Kate Wilhelm has done her usual excellent job of weaving an intricate plot & sympathetically portraying believable & complex characters in settings that are described with force & clarity. This '79 novel is set in the not-too-distant future, when a devastating drought in the American West & much of the rest of the world has caused economic & social collapse. The story alternates between the viewpoints of Cluny, a scientist dedicated to the construction & operation of a space station, & Jean, who was Cluny's childhood friend but has now gone her separate way & become a linguist, naturalist & photographer. Wilhelm's most powerful & engrossing writing, it seems to me, is in her descriptions of the natural world & of the vastly different ways that people relate to it. Jean's experiences on the Oregon coast are beautifully described, as is her life on the high desert of Oregon with the Wasco Indians. (Wilhelm & husband Damon Knight live in Bend) Jean gradually comes to understand the way of life of the Wasco people & her spiritual growth is described very effectively. Cluny & Jean are reunited when they become part of a project intended to discover if contact with an alien civilization has occurred. Their decision may determine whether a nuclear war between the USA & the USSR can be avoided. The climax of the novel is unexpected but believable. I recommend this book very highly.--Michael J. Keyes

Le temps des genévriers

Dans le petit village de Somerset, Janet participe à des expériences sur les rêves, où le passé s'empare des mémoires et réveille chez les habitants la pulsion de mort...
Tandis que le jeu cruel retransmis en direct à la télévision permet à Lottie et Butcher de transférer leurs instincts violents sur les protagonistes sans quitter leur fauteuil..
Quant aux deux magnifiques chiens qui escortent inlassablement Rose Ellen, ne sont-ils pas là pour lui rappeler son père ? En les éliminant, n'est-ce pas son oedipe qu'elle tente de tuer ? Huit nouvelles surréalistes, où l'insolite est purement psychologique.
Huit contes troublants, où le quotidien fait frémir, dans un climat envoûtant que Kate Wilhelm a déjà si bien sur créer dans Hier les Oiseaux et dans Le Village.

Quand Somerset rêvait

Primal Tears est un roman de puissance énorme. Passionné et érotique, parfois tendrement lyrique, il est confronté de front, sans tressaillement, politique environnementale et féministe brutale. Son protagoniste, Sage, est unique, magique et obsédant.

L'avenir. Voyage spatial ou cosmologie. Univers alternatifs. Voyage dans le temps. Robots. Inventions merveilleuses. Immortalité. Catastrophes. Extraterrestres. Superman. Autres dimensions. Espace intérieur, ou la psyché. Ce sont les idées qui sont essentielles à la science-fiction. Le phénomène change, les idées de base ne le font pas. Ces idées sont les mêmes concepts philosophiques qui ont intrigué l'humanité à travers l'histoire.

Il y a une conviction que partout où vos ancêtres ont pris forme des bâtons et des pierres qui les ont formés, c'est à la maison. Les ancêtres de la côte laissent leur marque, les ancêtres des montagnes, du désert, ils laissent tous leur marque sur les gènes. Lorsque vous rentrez chez vous, les gènes se réjouissent.

La métaphysique tente de découvrir la nature ultime de la réalité, et en ce sens, l'insective de la science-fiction est la fiction métaphysique.

Ses oeuvres

Ses derniers livres