Berry, Jedediah
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1977- ) US editor and author who began to publish work of genre interest with "Inheritance" in The Fairy Tale Review for 2007, and although his work is not generally thought of as sf, his first novel, The Manual of Detection (2009), imparts very considerable Equipoisal energy to the story of Charles Unwin, a detective whose investigations into his predecessor's apparent triumphs gradually unpack a deeply insecure world. Beleaguered by colleagues in the detective agency that dominates the unnamed city whose limits define his world, Unwin has little more than the eponymous user's manual to guide him into the oneiric underworld where the mysteries he seeks to unravel clearly reside [for Arabian Nightmare and Urban Fantasy see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below]. Echoes of Jorge Luis Borges, Franz Kafka and of European Fantastika in general seem meant to tease the reader with their seeming relevance; as do the tale's resemblance to Steampunk and to noir fiction in general. [JC]
Jedediah Berry
born Randolph, Vermont: 1977
works
- The Manual of Detection (New York: The Penguin Press, 2009) [hb/Meighan Cavanaugh]
collections and stories
- A Window or a Small Box (New York: Tor.com, 2013) [novelette: ebook: na/Victo Ngai]
- The Family Arcana (Amherst, Massachusetts: Ninepins Press, 2015) [story: presented as a shufflable card deck: pb/Eben Kling]
links
- Jedediah Berry
- Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- The Encyclopedia of Fantasy: Arabian Nightmare; Urban Fantasy.
- Picture Gallery
previous versions of this entry