The fourteen stories in this mind-blowing collection range from outrageous satire to evocative fantasy, revealing the future with an alarming intensity. In Super-Toys Last All Summer Long we meet a little boy who is questioning his realness; meanwhile, his father launches the first intelligent synthetic life forms, claiming that they are the answer to loneliness.
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'The rudderless 20th Century seen in fitful flashes of the Aldiss lamp, flickering distress signals' -- Punch
'Weird, solid tales treated with polish and intelligence' -- Sunday Express
'Weird, solid tales treated with polish and intelligence' -- Sunday Express
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By Glaucon
Format:Paperback
A strange book of stories, not all of which sit particularly easily under the term "science fiction". They are all quite historically grounded in the late 60s and early 70s with some of the stories set in a post colonial India which has gone to rack and ruin. There are certain interesting ideas which span more than one story, such as near immortality, although the format doesn't allow for much in depth exploration. I came away from the book feeling like Sam Tyler from Life on Mars; slightly disoriented after having gone back in time to circa 1974.
Format:Paperback
This is an impressive collection of short stories by Brian Aldiss. I find this one hard to classify, so I'm offering a shortened quote from one of my favourite stories instead to start with:
"I tried to plan out a science fiction story about a race of men who had only subconsciouses. their consciousnesses had been painlessly removed by surgery. They moved faster without their burdening consciousnesses, wearing lunatic smiles or lunatic frowns. Directly after their operations, scars still moist, they had restarted World War II, some assuming the roles of Nazis or Japanese or Yugoslav partisans or British Fighter pilots in kinky boots [...] When a concentration camp was set up, it was rapidly filled: people have a talent for suffering [...] few people were left alive. They voted themselves second-class citizens, mostly becoming Jewish Negroes or Vietnamese. There was birching between consenting adults. These good folk voted unanimously to have their subconsciousnesses removed, leaving only their ids."
Other than that, the story that stood out most was "Heresies of the Huge God", a brilliant exercise on faith, fear and sacrifice.
I can recommend this collection, though not all stories will appeal to everybody.
"I tried to plan out a science fiction story about a race of men who had only subconsciouses. their consciousnesses had been painlessly removed by surgery. They moved faster without their burdening consciousnesses, wearing lunatic smiles or lunatic frowns. Directly after their operations, scars still moist, they had restarted World War II, some assuming the roles of Nazis or Japanese or Yugoslav partisans or British Fighter pilots in kinky boots [...] When a concentration camp was set up, it was rapidly filled: people have a talent for suffering [...] few people were left alive. They voted themselves second-class citizens, mostly becoming Jewish Negroes or Vietnamese. There was birching between consenting adults. These good folk voted unanimously to have their subconsciousnesses removed, leaving only their ids."
Other than that, the story that stood out most was "Heresies of the Huge God", a brilliant exercise on faith, fear and sacrifice.
I can recommend this collection, though not all stories will appeal to everybody.
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