Haber, Karen
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author, Editor.
Working name of Karen Lee Haber Silverberg (1955- ), US author and anthologist, married to Robert Silverberg since 1987. She began publishing work of genre interest with "Madre de Dios" for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in May 1988, which was assembled with later stories as The Sweet Taste of Regret (coll 2014); she came to general notice with the Fire in Winter sequence, which traces the fortunes of a family of Psi-Powered mutants and their threatened subculture in a twenty-first-century USA: The Mutant Season (1989) with Robert Silverberg, The Mutant Prime (1990), Mutant Star (1992) and Mutant Legacy (1993). Her husband's influence was initially evident – the first volume was derived from his "The Mutant Season" (in Androids, Time Machines and Blue Giraffes, anth 1973, ed Robert Elwood and Vic Ghidalia) – but Haber soon established her own identity as a sharp, warm teller of tales, especially in work like the War Minstrels sequence comprising The War Minstrels (1995) and Sister Blood (1996), a brightly told Space Opera sequence set within a moderately undemanding galactic arena. Her first singleton, Thieves Carnival (1990 chap dos), is a prequel to Leigh Brackett's The Jewel of Bas (Spring 1944 Planet Stories; 1990 dos), with which it was paired as a Tor Books Double; of her later singletons, Crossing Infinity (2005), which engages Gender issues through its depiction of an Alien who changes sex under stress, is also of interest.
Carrying on from Terry Carr's original series, Haber co-edited a new sequence of Universe anthologies beginning with: Universe 1 (anth 1990) with Robert Silverberg. With her husband, and with Jonathan Strahan, she later edited two brief series of Best of the Year anthologies, beginning with Science Fiction: The Best of 2001 (anth 2002) with Robert Silverberg and Fantasy: The Best of 2001 (anth 2002) with Jonathan Strahan. Both series ended in 2005, at a point when several similar series began to compete, rather savagely, for the same turf. [JC]
Karen Lee Haber Silverberg
born Bronxville, New York: 7 January 1955
works
series
Fire in Winter
- The Mutant Season (New York: Doubleday Foundation, 1989) with Robert Silverberg [Fire in Winter: hb/Dean Motter]
- The Mutant Prime (New York: Doubleday Foundation, 1990) [Fire in Winter: hb/Jim Burns]
- Mutant Star (New York: Bantam Spectra, 1992) [Fire in Winter: pb/Jim Burns]
- Mutant Legacy (New York: Bantam Spectra, 1993) [Fire in Winter: pb/Jim Burns]
War Minstrels
- The War Minstrels (New York: DAW Books, 1995) [War Minstrels: pb/Romas Kukalis]
- Woman Without a Shadow (New York: DAW Books, 1996) [War Minstrels: pb/Romas Kukalis]
- Sister Blood (New York: DAW Books, 1996) [War Minstrels: pb/Romas Kukalis]
Star Trek
- Star Trek: Voyager: Bless the Beasts (New York: Pocket Books, 1996) [tie to Star Trek: Voyager: Star Trek: Voyager: pb/Luis Royo]
individual titles
- Thieves' Carnival (New York: Tor, 1990) [chap: dos: prequel to Leigh Brackett's "The Jewel of Bas" (Spring 1944 Planet Stories) in same volume: pb/Luis F Perez]
- Crossing Infinity (New York: iBooks, 2005) [hb/Dennis Calero]
collections
- The Sweet Taste of Regret (Golden, Colorado: ReAnimus Press, 2014) [coll: pb/Abigail Southworth]
nonfiction
- The Science of the X-Men (Pocket/Ibooks, 2000) with Linc Yaco [nonfiction: hb/Mike Rivilis]
works as editor
series
Universe
- Universe 1 (New York: Doubleday Foundation, 1990) with Robert Silverberg [anth: Universe: hb/Richard Kriegler]
- Universe 2 (New York: Bantam Books, 1992) with Robert Silverberg [anth: Universe: hb/Jean-François Podevin]
- Universe 3 (New York: Bantam Books, 1994) with Robert Silverberg [anth: Universe: pb/Michael David Ward]
Science Fiction: Best
- Science Fiction: The Best of 2001 (New York: Pocket Books, 2002) with Robert Silverberg [anth: Science Fiction: Best: pb/Scott Grimando]
- Science Fiction: The Best of 2002 (New York: Pocket Books, 2003) with Robert Silverberg [anth: Science Fiction: Best: pb/Scott Grimando]
- Science Fiction: The Best of 2003 (New York: iBooks, 2004) with Jonathan Strahan [anth: Science Fiction: Best: pb/Ciaran Devine]
- Science Fiction: The Best of 2004 (New York: iBooks, 2005) with Jonathan Strahan [anth: Science Fiction: Best: pb/Danny Cardle]
- Science Fiction: The Best of 2005 (New York: iBooks, 2006) with Jonathan Strahan [anth: Science Fiction: Best: pb/]
Fantasy: Best
- Fantasy: The Best of 2001 (New York: Pocket Books/iBooks, 2002) with Robert Silverberg [anth: Fantasy: Best: pb/Scott Grimando]
- Fantasy: The Best of 2002 (New York: iBooks, 2003) with Robert Silverberg [anth: Fantasy: Best: pb/Ciruelo]
- Fantasy: The Best of 2004 (New York: iBooks, 2005) with Jonathan Strahan [anth: Fantasy: Best: pb/Ryan Durney]
individual titles
- Meditations on Middle-Earth (New York: St Martin's Press, 2001) [nonfiction: anth: J R R Tolkien: hb/John Howe]
- Exploring the Matrix: Visions of the Cyber Present (New York: St Martin's Press, 2003) [nonfiction: anth: hb/Robert Zohrab]
- Exploring the Matrix: New Writings on The Matrix and the Cyber Present (London: iBooks UK, 2003) [nonfiction: anth: vt of the above: pb/]
- Kong Unbound (New York: Pocket Books, 2005) [nonfiction: anth: studies of the film King Kong: pb/]
- Masters of Science Fiction and Fantasy Art (Beverly, Massachusetts: Rockport Publishers, 2011) [nonfiction: graph: pb/John Picacio]
links
previous versions of this entry