Barnes, Rory

Entry updated 30 March 2026. Tagged: Author.

(1946-    ) London-born Australian author who began to publish work of genre interest with the playful sf novel Valencies (1983) with Damien Broderick, set in a Far Future (4004 CE) Galactic Empire whose quadrillions of worlds are linked by an ancient matter transmission network; libertarian anarchists including clones on one such planet, Victoria, are threatened with destruction for failure to conform with the precepts of Empire bureaucracy. Several further collaborations with Broderick followed. Barnes's solo Horsehead sequence opening with Horsehead Boy (1998) is comic Young Adult sf with strong Absurdist elements, whose protagonist Spud escapes from Mad Scientists' Brain in a Box confinement by stealing someone else's body; subsequent adventures are increasingly over-the-top, including years frozen (along with a horse) in liquid nitrogen (see Suspended Animation) and the Sleeper Awakes discovery that Spud and other characters are now exhibits in a Theme Park. Space Junk (2011) set on an extremely seedy and run-down future Earth whose variegated lowlife includes Aliens, also has a Comic Inferno flavour. [DRL]

Keith Rory Barnes

born London: 11 March 1946

works

series

Horsehead

• Horsehead Boy (Sydney, New South Wales: HarperCollins/Angus and Robertson, 1998) [pb/Fabio Nardo]
• Horsehead Man (Sydney, New South Wales: HarperCollins/Angus and Robertson, 1999) [pb/Fabio Nardo]
• Horsehead Soup (Sydney, New South Wales: HarperCollins/Angus and Robertson, 2000) [pb/Fabio Nardo]

individual titles

• Valencies (St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press, 1983) with Damien Broderick [pb/Karen Abbey]
• Zones (Sydney, New South Wales: HarperCollinsAustralia, 1998) with Damien Broderick [pb/]
• Stuck in Fast Forward (Sydney, New South Wales: HarperCollinsAustralia, 1999) with Damien Broderick [pb/Luke Causby]
• The Book of Revelation (Sydney, New South Wales: HarperCollinsAustralia, 1999) with Damien Broderick [pb/]
  • Dark Gray (Radford, Virginia: Wilder Publications/Fantastic Books, 2010) with Damien Broderick [vt of the above: pb/Ian Randal Strock]
• Night Vision (Sydney, New South Wales: ABC Books, 2006) [pb/]
• Human's Burden: A Science Fiction Novel (Rockville, Maryland: Wildside Press/San Bernardino, California: The Borgo Press, 2010) with Damien Broderick [pb/Ed Emshwiller]
• Space Junk (Rockville, Maryland: Wildside Press, 2011) [pb/]
• The Valley of the God of Our Choice, Inc. (Rockville, Maryland: Wildside Press, 2015) with Damien Broderick [pb/]

links

• Internet Speculative Fiction Database

previous versions of this entry

• Internet Archive