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Moment of Eclipse
In his new collection of stories - a genre in which he is a past master - Brian Aldiss is at his dazzling best. Set in the present, the near future, the distant future, in this country, abroad, Elsewhere, they are all entertaining and disturbing, resonating in the memory and the imagination.
In Barefoot in the Head and The Hand-Reared Boy Brian Aldiss has demonstrated his range and versatility. The Moment of Eclipse is proof - if proof were needed - that his command of what might perhaps be called his home territory is as sure and confident as ever.
In Barefoot in the Head and The Hand-Reared Boy Brian Aldiss has demonstrated his range and versatility. The Moment of Eclipse is proof - if proof were needed - that his command of what might perhaps be called his home territory is as sure and confident as ever.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1970
3 people are currently reading
230 people want to read
About the author
Brian W. Aldiss
831 books668 followersPseudonyms: Jael Cracken, Peter Pica, John Runciman, C.C. Shackleton, Arch Mendicant, & "Doc" Peristyle.
Brian Wilson Aldiss was one of the most important voices in science fiction writing today. He wrote his first novel while working as a bookseller in Oxford. Shortly afterwards he wrote his first work of science fiction and soon gained international recognition. Adored for his innovative literary techniques, evocative plots and irresistible characters, he became a Grand Master of Science Fiction in 1999.
Brian Aldiss died on August 19, 2017, just after celebrating his 92nd birthday with his family and closest friends.
Brian W. Aldiss Group on Good Reads
Brian Wilson Aldiss was one of the most important voices in science fiction writing today. He wrote his first novel while working as a bookseller in Oxford. Shortly afterwards he wrote his first work of science fiction and soon gained international recognition. Adored for his innovative literary techniques, evocative plots and irresistible characters, he became a Grand Master of Science Fiction in 1999.
Brian Aldiss died on August 19, 2017, just after celebrating his 92nd birthday with his family and closest friends.
Brian W. Aldiss Group on Good Reads
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
September 3, 2012
Brian Aldiss will probably be the next of my literary heroes to snuff it, he's 87 years old. People get old, sure enough. I hate to see that evening sun go down. Anyway, I haven't read enough of his stuff. Helliconia is supposed to be the business. Hothouse, though, that was great. Also Greybeard and Earthworks, and a string of knockout short stories. Of which only two great ones are included in this late sixties collection - Heresies of the Huge God, in which a continent-sized thing arrives from space and squats over America for a few decades before shifting around, naturally cities and countries are decimated, new religions spring up, and so on; and The Worm that Flies, which is a really strange far future mournful he-must-have-been-on-drugs story I particularly loved. Otherwise, at this point in his career, he was trying too hard to reupholster the science fiction short story and make it into some kind of crystalline art object which you can see in such titles as "The Day we Embarked for Cythera" and "That Uncomfortable Pause between Life and Art". When they asked Rock Hudson what art meant to him, he said "Art is a boy's name."
Note - science fiction writers are always terrified of the near future but elegantly elegiac about the far future.
Note - science fiction writers are always terrified of the near future but elegantly elegiac about the far future.
June 8, 2024
I really enjoyed this collection of SF short stories. It’s definitely in the high concept SF realm so don’t expect any space opera here.
Some (most?) of these stories are connected in often quite subtle ways, to the extent that the ones that blatantly aren’t connected stand out like sore thumbs. The book might actually have been improved by leaving the unconnected stories out, although some of the unconnected tales were my favourites, so I could be talking out of my hat…
What stops me giving this the full five stars is the fact that I personally found some of Aldiss’ attempts to be artistic/literary more than a little pretentious, but that’s a matter of personal taste. Also, there are some distinctly non-progressive attitudes on gender and ethnicity on display here but the author was born in the 1920s so what do you expect? At some point, we all end up being the embarrassing grandparent at the dinner table, I suppose (metaphorically speaking)…
Some (most?) of these stories are connected in often quite subtle ways, to the extent that the ones that blatantly aren’t connected stand out like sore thumbs. The book might actually have been improved by leaving the unconnected stories out, although some of the unconnected tales were my favourites, so I could be talking out of my hat…
What stops me giving this the full five stars is the fact that I personally found some of Aldiss’ attempts to be artistic/literary more than a little pretentious, but that’s a matter of personal taste. Also, there are some distinctly non-progressive attitudes on gender and ethnicity on display here but the author was born in the 1920s so what do you expect? At some point, we all end up being the embarrassing grandparent at the dinner table, I suppose (metaphorically speaking)…
June 4, 2013
ANG PRA A book that you have not read, but read so many reviews of that you feel you have read it.
CHAN KHENG KHENG Watching your maternal grandfather watch a Harry Potter movie.
HONG SOKH Continuing a flame war without remembering what it is about.
ING PRA A review consisting of a single line not in capital letters.
JHAN SAN BHAN A like given to a review which one has only partly read.
JHAN SAN JHAN A like given to a review by the reviewer's sockpuppet.
JHAN SAN KHENG A like given to a Harry Potter review written by one's maternal grandfather.
PAKH BHA Thanking the person who just accepted your friend request using the same form of words as you did last time.
PAKH THAKH A LOLcat you have not seen before.
QAD KHENG A typo in a review by your maternal grandfather.
THA KHENG BHAN Breaking up with one's girlfriend over a difference of opinions concerning Harry Potter.
ZHA ING JHAN A review, not by one's maternal grandfather, which you like without understanding its point.
CHAN KHENG KHENG Watching your maternal grandfather watch a Harry Potter movie.
HONG SOKH Continuing a flame war without remembering what it is about.
ING PRA A review consisting of a single line not in capital letters.
JHAN SAN BHAN A like given to a review which one has only partly read.
JHAN SAN JHAN A like given to a review by the reviewer's sockpuppet.
JHAN SAN KHENG A like given to a Harry Potter review written by one's maternal grandfather.
PAKH BHA Thanking the person who just accepted your friend request using the same form of words as you did last time.
PAKH THAKH A LOLcat you have not seen before.
QAD KHENG A typo in a review by your maternal grandfather.
THA KHENG BHAN Breaking up with one's girlfriend over a difference of opinions concerning Harry Potter.
ZHA ING JHAN A review, not by one's maternal grandfather, which you like without understanding its point.
February 6, 2009
An astounding short-story collection. Aldiss can be difficult sometimes: his prose is perfectly clear but dense. He packs a tremendous amount of action and thought into each paragraph. Everything moves with stately grace. But sometimes he can get so deep inside your head that he produces a strange sort of gloom, the same gloom that comes after a hike up into the mountains in late autumn. I don't know why this should be.
Some of the best stories in this volume include 'The Worm that Flies', 'The Circulation of the Blood', 'Working in the Spaceship Yards' and 'The Orgy of the Living and the Dying'... But even some of the lesser stories -- which aren't really lesser -- are affecting. For instance, I love 'The Day we Embarked for Cythera', even though I don't have a clue what it's about!
Some of the best stories in this volume include 'The Worm that Flies', 'The Circulation of the Blood', 'Working in the Spaceship Yards' and 'The Orgy of the Living and the Dying'... But even some of the lesser stories -- which aren't really lesser -- are affecting. For instance, I love 'The Day we Embarked for Cythera', even though I don't have a clue what it's about!
September 14, 2018
An intriguing collection of short stories some of which were brilliant amidst others which appeared more like ideas thought aloud rather than fully-fledged pieces. Those ideas are invariably intriguing, however, and all the pieces here have merit one way or the other. My favourite being Confluence - a story told through the translation of an alien dialect.
December 23, 2009
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2178701.html[return][return]This collection of short stories won the BSFA Award for 1970; I first read them as a teenager, and found them mindblowing then. I still find them mindblowing now - maybe it's just that Aldiss got to me at a vulnerable age, but there's something about his laconic yet cosmic vision that sucks me in, almost uncritically.[return][return]Not completely uncritically. The story "Supertoys Last All Summer Long", which was the basis for Spielberg's film A.I., is the weakest of the collection, and "Swastika!", about a documentary maker catching up with a disguised Hitler living in Ostend, was surely in poor taste then and worse now. And the stories about the crumbling veneer of civilisation in former British colonies are rather of their time. But beneath the surface detail, Aldiss's preoccupation with the future of humanity, explored through language, grabs me as viscerally as ever.
January 10, 2021
This first story is truly amazing. In a style that temptacles you into a slipstream of beautiful prose and constructive mischance. A film-making man obsessed by a Danish woman in fields beyond the fields they know, he being Danish, too, bending fate to follow her to West Africa, making his film after all, a film that he wouldn’t otherwise have made, entranced by her legends of love, love even with her underage son whom the film-maker also later meets, in fact still sporadically meeting her son by bored chance beyond the end of the story itself. It is a frightening story. She is a Munch madonna. Also a Thomas Hardy sonnet. She is not the SF they wanted him to film. This story is something far more rarefied, paradoxically far more real, too.
The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.
Above is one of its observations at the time of the review.
The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.
Above is one of its observations at the time of the review.
November 3, 2021
This book of short stories demonstrates the wide eclectic range of science fiction, and of the authorship of Aldiss who manages to encompass most possibilities in the genre.
If you are looking for space fights and alien battles stick to Star Wars; you will not find that here - these stories are speculative stories about people in unique circumstances, and stories that examine the consequences of change and new technologies. What good Sci Fi is.
If you are looking for space fights and alien battles stick to Star Wars; you will not find that here - these stories are speculative stories about people in unique circumstances, and stories that examine the consequences of change and new technologies. What good Sci Fi is.
December 6, 2024
Reseña N°108 del 2024
ANTOLOGÍA DE CIENCIA FICCIÓN SITUADO EN LA INDIA
Es la primera vez que leo historias situadas en otro pais, a pesar que el autor no sea de dicha nacionalidad, especialmente en un género que suele ser protagonista Estados Unidos.
Si bien no estaba en mi planes, es más, sin conocerlo, la sinopsis fue la que me atrapó (incluye el relato que inspiró a Steven Spielberg para su film "Inteligencia Artifical"). Quienes me conocen, saben que esta peli está en mi top 5 y, por el momento, no ha sido destronado.
Yendo a la lectura, este libro está compuesto por 14 relatos y un poema que es el que le da inicio.
Si desgloso cada historia, el relato homónimo (el primero) fue el que menos pinta de ciencia ficción tiene, o sea, es mas de ambiente científico. El de "A.I" es el cuarto y solo preserva la premisa inicial, manteniendo la esencia de la familia ensamblada entre humanos y robots. El octavo es básicamente un glosario de términos "extraterrestres". No hay historia. El 10 y el 11 se unen, compartiendo protagonista entre causa y consecuencia sobre la búsqueda de la inmortalidad y el peligro que se esparza a la humanidad si cae en manos equivocadas. El anteúltimo es un space-opera entre astillerxs y robots, abriendo un dilema no sobre entre hombres y mujeres, sino la inclusión robótica en nuestras vidas: ¿hasta qué punto somos capaces de soportar que somos inferiores ante lo que no podemos controlar? Y el último, el mas controversial, es el que tiene uno de los mejores finales ante tanta tensión. El resto, ni me acuerdo de qué iban.
En fin, una propuesta diferente dentro de un género subestimado. Ideal para amantes de La Dimensión Desconocida.
FRASES DESTACADAS
¿No era ése el sentido de la vida (...)? ¿No es acaso (...) lo grande infinitamente pequeño y lo pequeño también infinitamente grande?
(...) todo en la vida tiene efectos colaterales desagradables. Quizá (...) la conciencia misma no es más que un efecto colateral, un truco de la luz, por así decir, que nosotros, los humanos, en nuestra búsqueda azarosa e incesante, llevamos accidentalmente y de vez en cuando a la superficie, en la posición y el momento en que nuestra presencia puede actuar sobre una más extendida red de sensaciones.
La humanidad, a causa de la herencia del cerebro, vive entre dos mundos, el animal y el intelectual.
Es probable que (...) hayan dicho la verdad por accidente (...). Quizá nuestro sentido del tiempo esté en verdad trastocado. (...) Quizá somos contradicciones, cada uno de nosotros. Quizá... quizá somos demasiado imprecisos para poder sobrevivir...
-Siempre me pregunto por qué me cuesta tanto entrar en confianza (...) ¿Será que les desagradan cierto defecto en mi personalidad?
-Por Dios (...) ¡no lo sé! En cuanto a mí, estas preguntas personales me parecen muy embarazosas, y mucha gente piensa lo mismo.
- Ah, ¿pero es lógico que las encuentre embarazosas? ¿No tendría que haber menos barreras entre la gente?
(...) creadores y críticos son idénticos: todos se empeñan en hacer las cosas más simples o más complicadas. Yo solo desearía que algunos de nuestros críticos se mostraran más humildes; uno quiere leer críticas, no autobiografías (...).
-Esto es vida (...) Algunos de nuestros pretendidos expertos explican la vida como deseo de poder, otros encuentran la explicación de todas las cosas en los propósitos de Dios; para otros, todo es cuestión de glándulas, y para otros todo se reduce a un problema de deseos incesos sublimados. Pero yo veo la vida como una búsqueda del sol. (...) ¿Qué te sucede? ¿No estás de acuerdo?
-Yo... bueno, supongo que tengo otras aspiraciones.
-¿Cuáles? (...) ¿Cuáles son tus metas en la vida (...)?
-¿Por qué haces siempre preguntas tan aburridas? Yo vivo. No me paso la vida intelectualizando.
- (...) ¡Defina la diferencia entre longevidad e inmortalidad en un lenguaje accesible (...)!
-La inmortalidad puede olvidarse de la muerte, y por consiguiente de las responsabilidad de la vida. La longevidad no.
El presente es una nota musical. Esa nota ya no se puede sostener.
-La Verdad Universal es la más grande, de modo que soy más grande que tú, que solo percibes la Verdad Personal.
-¡De ninguna manera! Por supuesto, yo percibo la totalidad de la Verdad Personal, como es obvio, y también buena parte de la Verdad Universal. Así que tengo una idea mucho más clara que tú de la Verdad Total.
-Ahora estás inventando una tercera especie de verdad, para poder ganar la discusión. Solo porque tienes Condición Humana, te empeñas en demostrar que eres mejor que yo.
ANTOLOGÍA DE CIENCIA FICCIÓN SITUADO EN LA INDIA
Es la primera vez que leo historias situadas en otro pais, a pesar que el autor no sea de dicha nacionalidad, especialmente en un género que suele ser protagonista Estados Unidos.
Si bien no estaba en mi planes, es más, sin conocerlo, la sinopsis fue la que me atrapó (incluye el relato que inspiró a Steven Spielberg para su film "Inteligencia Artifical"). Quienes me conocen, saben que esta peli está en mi top 5 y, por el momento, no ha sido destronado.
Yendo a la lectura, este libro está compuesto por 14 relatos y un poema que es el que le da inicio.
Si desgloso cada historia, el relato homónimo (el primero) fue el que menos pinta de ciencia ficción tiene, o sea, es mas de ambiente científico. El de "A.I" es el cuarto y solo preserva la premisa inicial, manteniendo la esencia de la familia ensamblada entre humanos y robots. El octavo es básicamente un glosario de términos "extraterrestres". No hay historia. El 10 y el 11 se unen, compartiendo protagonista entre causa y consecuencia sobre la búsqueda de la inmortalidad y el peligro que se esparza a la humanidad si cae en manos equivocadas. El anteúltimo es un space-opera entre astillerxs y robots, abriendo un dilema no sobre entre hombres y mujeres, sino la inclusión robótica en nuestras vidas: ¿hasta qué punto somos capaces de soportar que somos inferiores ante lo que no podemos controlar? Y el último, el mas controversial, es el que tiene uno de los mejores finales ante tanta tensión. El resto, ni me acuerdo de qué iban.
En fin, una propuesta diferente dentro de un género subestimado. Ideal para amantes de La Dimensión Desconocida.
FRASES DESTACADAS
¿No era ése el sentido de la vida (...)? ¿No es acaso (...) lo grande infinitamente pequeño y lo pequeño también infinitamente grande?
(...) todo en la vida tiene efectos colaterales desagradables. Quizá (...) la conciencia misma no es más que un efecto colateral, un truco de la luz, por así decir, que nosotros, los humanos, en nuestra búsqueda azarosa e incesante, llevamos accidentalmente y de vez en cuando a la superficie, en la posición y el momento en que nuestra presencia puede actuar sobre una más extendida red de sensaciones.
La humanidad, a causa de la herencia del cerebro, vive entre dos mundos, el animal y el intelectual.
Es probable que (...) hayan dicho la verdad por accidente (...). Quizá nuestro sentido del tiempo esté en verdad trastocado. (...) Quizá somos contradicciones, cada uno de nosotros. Quizá... quizá somos demasiado imprecisos para poder sobrevivir...
-Siempre me pregunto por qué me cuesta tanto entrar en confianza (...) ¿Será que les desagradan cierto defecto en mi personalidad?
-Por Dios (...) ¡no lo sé! En cuanto a mí, estas preguntas personales me parecen muy embarazosas, y mucha gente piensa lo mismo.
- Ah, ¿pero es lógico que las encuentre embarazosas? ¿No tendría que haber menos barreras entre la gente?
(...) creadores y críticos son idénticos: todos se empeñan en hacer las cosas más simples o más complicadas. Yo solo desearía que algunos de nuestros críticos se mostraran más humildes; uno quiere leer críticas, no autobiografías (...).
-Esto es vida (...) Algunos de nuestros pretendidos expertos explican la vida como deseo de poder, otros encuentran la explicación de todas las cosas en los propósitos de Dios; para otros, todo es cuestión de glándulas, y para otros todo se reduce a un problema de deseos incesos sublimados. Pero yo veo la vida como una búsqueda del sol. (...) ¿Qué te sucede? ¿No estás de acuerdo?
-Yo... bueno, supongo que tengo otras aspiraciones.
-¿Cuáles? (...) ¿Cuáles son tus metas en la vida (...)?
-¿Por qué haces siempre preguntas tan aburridas? Yo vivo. No me paso la vida intelectualizando.
- (...) ¡Defina la diferencia entre longevidad e inmortalidad en un lenguaje accesible (...)!
-La inmortalidad puede olvidarse de la muerte, y por consiguiente de las responsabilidad de la vida. La longevidad no.
El presente es una nota musical. Esa nota ya no se puede sostener.
-La Verdad Universal es la más grande, de modo que soy más grande que tú, que solo percibes la Verdad Personal.
-¡De ninguna manera! Por supuesto, yo percibo la totalidad de la Verdad Personal, como es obvio, y también buena parte de la Verdad Universal. Así que tengo una idea mucho más clara que tú de la Verdad Total.
-Ahora estás inventando una tercera especie de verdad, para poder ganar la discusión. Solo porque tienes Condición Humana, te empeñas en demostrar que eres mejor que yo.
March 27, 2024
As I'm want to say collections like these are difficult to properly review since they're not necessarily bound by a theme or tend to have wildly uneven ups and downs when it comes to quality. The Moment of Eclipse by Brian Aldiss, author I keep accidentally coming back to without realizing, presents a solid example of both issues at hand. If you'd call them such, that is.
Definitely rooted on the SF side of things I'll list my most and least favorite short stories. There were three favorites for me: Super-Toys Last All Summer Long, Heresies of the Huge God and The Circulation of the Blood, with The Worm That Flies almost making the cut. It could be because I'm a simple man, but stories that focused less on meandering dialog and more on plots generally won out for me. From an overcrowded world where people are resorting to automatons for more than just mindless labor to what potentials discovery of immortality could have on humanity, with a bit of ridiculous zealotry in the middle, they all clicked for me. Unlike with stories below I did like the format used here as it lends itself to just enough of a word count to not wear out straightforward ideas. Speaking of my least favorite it would definitely have to be Confluence which isn't really a story as much an excuse to list invented alien words and Swastika, a brief exploration of Hitler surviving the WW2 in hiding.
Now you'd think "oh, he must like the rest", but some of the longest stories that actually had an established structure were bad in other ways. Only ONE of those set in India was alright and mainly because it connected to The Circulation of Blood. Others not so much as they tended to be needlessly wordy and focusing on lecherous characters with "every woman is there just to be seduced or seduce in turn" kind of approach. Not that I really care about such things, but you can only spend so much time describing someone's features and have female characters saying this isn't time for sex before it becomes grating. Even looking beyond those examples you have Down the Up Escalation and That Uncomfortable Pause Between Life and Art which I would, at best, describe as meanderings of an addled mind or superficial commentary on art. I've had issues with the way Aldiss writes characters as well as dialog before both of which safely endure here. They're not really people as much as merely vehicles to deliver expository information and/or internal musings that go on and on.
My final thoughts on The Moment of Eclipse? As per my tastes few pieces manage to drag it into mediocrity and I see that as a positive. Some stories I haven't mentioned like Working in the Spaceship Yards come just barely close. For me the collection improved as it went on and clear ties were formed between short stories with accompanied time skips. Only to end on a rather unrelated weak note.
Definitely rooted on the SF side of things I'll list my most and least favorite short stories. There were three favorites for me: Super-Toys Last All Summer Long, Heresies of the Huge God and The Circulation of the Blood, with The Worm That Flies almost making the cut. It could be because I'm a simple man, but stories that focused less on meandering dialog and more on plots generally won out for me. From an overcrowded world where people are resorting to automatons for more than just mindless labor to what potentials discovery of immortality could have on humanity, with a bit of ridiculous zealotry in the middle, they all clicked for me. Unlike with stories below I did like the format used here as it lends itself to just enough of a word count to not wear out straightforward ideas. Speaking of my least favorite it would definitely have to be Confluence which isn't really a story as much an excuse to list invented alien words and Swastika, a brief exploration of Hitler surviving the WW2 in hiding.
Now you'd think "oh, he must like the rest", but some of the longest stories that actually had an established structure were bad in other ways. Only ONE of those set in India was alright and mainly because it connected to The Circulation of Blood. Others not so much as they tended to be needlessly wordy and focusing on lecherous characters with "every woman is there just to be seduced or seduce in turn" kind of approach. Not that I really care about such things, but you can only spend so much time describing someone's features and have female characters saying this isn't time for sex before it becomes grating. Even looking beyond those examples you have Down the Up Escalation and That Uncomfortable Pause Between Life and Art which I would, at best, describe as meanderings of an addled mind or superficial commentary on art. I've had issues with the way Aldiss writes characters as well as dialog before both of which safely endure here. They're not really people as much as merely vehicles to deliver expository information and/or internal musings that go on and on.
My final thoughts on The Moment of Eclipse? As per my tastes few pieces manage to drag it into mediocrity and I see that as a positive. Some stories I haven't mentioned like Working in the Spaceship Yards come just barely close. For me the collection improved as it went on and clear ties were formed between short stories with accompanied time skips. Only to end on a rather unrelated weak note.
February 14, 2019
No soy un gran fan de los relatos, pero llegué a este libro por recomendación directa y la verdad es que no defrauda. Su mayor virtud es la excelente prosa de Aldiss, que a pesar de ser bastante densa resulta perfectamente clara. Tiene gancho, desde luego.
Los relatos presentan cierta variedad de escenarios y localizaciones, así como cambios en el marco temporal en que se desarrollan. Desde el presente hasta el futuro, tanto cercano como más lejano. Y toca muchos temas, desde el amor hasta la inmortalidad. La única pega es que algunos de ellos daban para más, pero el formato elegido no permite el tratarlos con demasiada profundidad. Me he quedado con ganas de más en alguna ocasión.
No todas las historias me han llegado por igual, y si bien algunas me han parecido soberbias a otras no las calificaría por encima del aprobado, de ahí mi nota considerada en global. Y me ha llamado la atención que aunque algunas historias son claramente ciencia-ficción, otras no se pueden encuadrar fácilmente en este género, aunque la prosa de Aldiss es común a todas ellas.
Los relatos presentan cierta variedad de escenarios y localizaciones, así como cambios en el marco temporal en que se desarrollan. Desde el presente hasta el futuro, tanto cercano como más lejano. Y toca muchos temas, desde el amor hasta la inmortalidad. La única pega es que algunos de ellos daban para más, pero el formato elegido no permite el tratarlos con demasiada profundidad. Me he quedado con ganas de más en alguna ocasión.
No todas las historias me han llegado por igual, y si bien algunas me han parecido soberbias a otras no las calificaría por encima del aprobado, de ahí mi nota considerada en global. Y me ha llamado la atención que aunque algunas historias son claramente ciencia-ficción, otras no se pueden encuadrar fácilmente en este género, aunque la prosa de Aldiss es común a todas ellas.
January 14, 2025
This is a strange, challenging collection of short stories where Brian Aldiss pushes the boundaries of the genre and gets experimental with his style. The stories include mutated tree people, android ship-builders and an immortality virus. One of them was even the inspiration for the Steven Spielberg film 'A.I.'. Many of them take place in India or feature Indian characters and upon further research, I found that Aldiss was stationed in several Asian countries during World War II which influenced much of his writing.
I think if I had read this book nearer the beginning of my science fiction reading journey, I would have hated it. I don't necessarily think that my level of comprehension is now higher, but I am more willing to meet the author on their terms and unpick the reasons behind their more difficult works. That being said, some of the stories still left me completely baffled and I'd say that I prefer Aldiss' novels.
I think if I had read this book nearer the beginning of my science fiction reading journey, I would have hated it. I don't necessarily think that my level of comprehension is now higher, but I am more willing to meet the author on their terms and unpick the reasons behind their more difficult works. That being said, some of the stories still left me completely baffled and I'd say that I prefer Aldiss' novels.
March 23, 2019
collection of short stories, real hit and miss. from the fantastic "Heresies of the Huge God" which should be a movie series gets +5 stars, alternative history "Swastika!" which i guess would have been shocking for it's time, to the dreadful "The Day We Embarked for Cythera..." where Aldiss can't quite get out of the 60s mentality and it's no loss to see stories wash over casual rape to be lost to the bottom of the pile (-3 stars).
June 18, 2019
Some a little bit dry, some a little bit weird, but there's some gems in here (I don't include Supertoys Last All Summer Long, as unengaging as the film based on it). Some interesting ideas around the idea of longevity, some humour - altogether a collection worth dipping into.
June 12, 2025
This collection contains both sf and non-sf (litfic) short stories, but I'm only rating the sf ones. And honestly: brilliant. "Heresies of the Huge God" and "Confluence" are enough for me to rate this a clear 4 stars.
June 3, 2019
A bizarre, patchy collection of weird tales some intriguing, some thought provoking, some defying comprehension. Some seemingly sketches for something grander, but unrealised. Some of it enjoyable, the rest unfulfilling.
September 22, 2019
A collection of short stories which are all a bit... meh. Most of them just seemed to peter out, and I just found myself reaching tbe ends and wondering what the point of the story was.
September 19, 2020
Awful. Racist and sexist ideas were frequent.
June 26, 2023
won this in a lucky dip! Liked the one about the Huge God / big gecko
September 30, 2016
I bought this book many years ago after the release of the film "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence." Stanley Kubrick based the script on the Aldiss short story "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long," so I wanted to read it and see what else he had to offer.
I wasn't all that impressed with "Super-Toys" or much of the rest. Kubrick must have seen much more in "Super-Toys" than I because all the story tells is how a couple is having a kid but, surprise, their first child is actually an android. That's it. No Jude Law android hustler, no Pinocchio symbolism, no robot aliens, but there is the robot teddy bear.
Some stories fell flat for me, such as the title story, but some were at least interesting. Three of them are linked by the same characters as they become immortal in a not-to-distance future thanks to a discovery in the lives of whales. "Working in the Spaceship Yards" is humorous, as a man describes the good and bad of working alongside androids all day.
It's average, at least in my eyes.
I wasn't all that impressed with "Super-Toys" or much of the rest. Kubrick must have seen much more in "Super-Toys" than I because all the story tells is how a couple is having a kid but, surprise, their first child is actually an android. That's it. No Jude Law android hustler, no Pinocchio symbolism, no robot aliens, but there is the robot teddy bear.
Some stories fell flat for me, such as the title story, but some were at least interesting. Three of them are linked by the same characters as they become immortal in a not-to-distance future thanks to a discovery in the lives of whales. "Working in the Spaceship Yards" is humorous, as a man describes the good and bad of working alongside androids all day.
It's average, at least in my eyes.
April 16, 2016
On this collection are short stories that appeared in magazines and anthologies such as The Year 2000, London Magazine, Galaxy and Nova I. Arrangement is done in such a way that, where possible, there is (even the slightest) links between one story and the next.
The setting (The Day We Embarked for Cythera) seems to have been derived from Titian's The Concert due to Portinari wearing a red jacket, or the lack of music in Monet's Le Dejeuner sur l'herbe (The Picnic), who influenced a controversial and visionary artist as Aldiss himself, Edouard Manet.
The stories are engaging enough to make one forget why 85% of science fiction has been removed from their science fiction.
The setting (The Day We Embarked for Cythera) seems to have been derived from Titian's The Concert due to Portinari wearing a red jacket, or the lack of music in Monet's Le Dejeuner sur l'herbe (The Picnic), who influenced a controversial and visionary artist as Aldiss himself, Edouard Manet.
The stories are engaging enough to make one forget why 85% of science fiction has been removed from their science fiction.
November 18, 2012
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.
October 26, 2016
Really wasn't impressed by this at all. I had read "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long* before, and enjoyed it, and was excited about reading more sci-fi from Aldiss. Truth is, this is about 50/50 sci-fi and straight fiction, which makes for an interesting albeit confusing collection of stories. Many of which seem to lack real depth of any sort. There was only a couple stories in here that really made me think. The rest were just bland and unremarkable.
Read
October 4, 20134/19/11:
"Confluence" (1967)
"Down the Up Escalation" (1967)
"Super-Toys Last All Summer Long" (1969)
"Swastika!" (1970)
"Working in the Spaceship Yards" (1969)
"Confluence" (1967)
"Down the Up Escalation" (1967)
"Super-Toys Last All Summer Long" (1969)
"Swastika!" (1970)
"Working in the Spaceship Yards" (1969)
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews