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The Seed of Evil
After The Knights of the Limits , here is a second collection of endlessly inventive stories by Barrington J. Bayley; dark fables resounding with sombre undertones - love used as a weapon, God assassinated by the ingenuity of man, the secret of death revealed, the inexplicable explained! Tales which will be pondered on, and remembered.Contains theSporting with the ChidThe God-GunThe Ship that Sailed the Ocean of SpaceThe Radius RidersMan in TransitWizard Wazo's RevengeThe Infinite SearchlightIntegrityPerfect LoveThe CountenanceLife TrapFarewell Dear BrotherThe Seed of Evil
320 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 1, 1979
3 people are currently reading
42 people want to read
About the author
Barrington J. Bayley
72 books40 followersBarrington J. Bayley published work principally under his own name but also using the pseudonyms ofAlan Aumbry, Michael Barrington (with Michael Moorcock), John Diamond and P.F. Woods.
Bayley was born in Birmingham and educated in Newport, Shropshire. He worked in a number of jobs before joining the Royal Air Force in 1955; his first published story, "Combat's End", had seen print the year before in UK-only publication Vargo Statten Magazine.
During the 1960s, Bayley's short stories featured regularly in New Worlds magazine and later in its successor, the paperback anthologies of the same name. He became friends with New Worlds editor Michael Moorcock, who largely instigated science fiction's New Wave movement. Bayley himself was part of the movement.
Bayley's first book, Star Virus, was followed by more than a dozen other novels; his downbeat, gloomy approach to novel writing has been cited as influential on the works of M. John Harrison, Brian Stableford and Bruce Sterling.
Bayley was born in Birmingham and educated in Newport, Shropshire. He worked in a number of jobs before joining the Royal Air Force in 1955; his first published story, "Combat's End", had seen print the year before in UK-only publication Vargo Statten Magazine.
During the 1960s, Bayley's short stories featured regularly in New Worlds magazine and later in its successor, the paperback anthologies of the same name. He became friends with New Worlds editor Michael Moorcock, who largely instigated science fiction's New Wave movement. Bayley himself was part of the movement.
Bayley's first book, Star Virus, was followed by more than a dozen other novels; his downbeat, gloomy approach to novel writing has been cited as influential on the works of M. John Harrison, Brian Stableford and Bruce Sterling.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 12, 2025
Barrington Bayley, with his crazed and unfettered imagination, is one of the science fiction writers of whom I am most fond. To date, Bayley is the only SF writer where each of his short stories has lingered with me; I remember them all by title and their contents. Further, I have read four novels by Bayley, and each has been an uncontested 5/5, with The Pillars of Eternity being particularly special to me.
The Seed of Evil is not an utter masterpiece like his first short story collection, The Knights of the Limits. Where Knights is deeply concerned with reimagining and deconstructing the traditional scaffold of the SF genre, Seed retains Bayley's remarkable imagination, but does so with a decidedly more existential and philosophical bent. These stories are extremely bleak and riddled with dread. In fact, stories like "Life Trap" are utterly terrifying.
Moorcock, a key defender and promoter of Bayley's work, who referenced The Knights of the Limits as his third favorite SF book, said of his friend: "Barry has a massive brain. It is too big for his skull. Once you could get him awake, you just thumped his head and two or three more ideas would spill out. I'd have them down on paper before he realized they were his."
Whenever the discussion of literary merit in SF inevitably arises, I am always quick to mention Bayley. He had that paramount skill of not only being a great writer, but a remarkable entertainer.
Personal favorites include: "Perfect Love," "The Countenance," "Life Trap," "Sporting with the Chid," and "The Seed of Evil." The latter two are masterpieces.
The Seed of Evil is not an utter masterpiece like his first short story collection, The Knights of the Limits. Where Knights is deeply concerned with reimagining and deconstructing the traditional scaffold of the SF genre, Seed retains Bayley's remarkable imagination, but does so with a decidedly more existential and philosophical bent. These stories are extremely bleak and riddled with dread. In fact, stories like "Life Trap" are utterly terrifying.
Moorcock, a key defender and promoter of Bayley's work, who referenced The Knights of the Limits as his third favorite SF book, said of his friend: "Barry has a massive brain. It is too big for his skull. Once you could get him awake, you just thumped his head and two or three more ideas would spill out. I'd have them down on paper before he realized they were his."
Whenever the discussion of literary merit in SF inevitably arises, I am always quick to mention Bayley. He had that paramount skill of not only being a great writer, but a remarkable entertainer.
Personal favorites include: "Perfect Love," "The Countenance," "Life Trap," "Sporting with the Chid," and "The Seed of Evil." The latter two are masterpieces.
July 14, 2025
A Collection of Vast Novelty
I’ll keep this short. I have never seen such a collection so filled with novel ideas in my life. This is consistent with the previous writings of Barrington J Bayley that I’ve encountered. The stories force you to think and are not light reading. A lot of philosophy and nature of reality/humanity. But for those interested, it will be overwhelmingly satisfying
I’ll keep this short. I have never seen such a collection so filled with novel ideas in my life. This is consistent with the previous writings of Barrington J Bayley that I’ve encountered. The stories force you to think and are not light reading. A lot of philosophy and nature of reality/humanity. But for those interested, it will be overwhelmingly satisfying
June 15, 2016
Here we meet Clinias and Marcus, two incumbents at the Temple of Mysteries. At this temple, they pursue life's secrets. And once they ask a question and obtain an answer, they must share that knowledge. And so here we have it. And what is the question? What happens after death?
So at midnight one night, Marcus is left in the inner sanctum along with a nostrum in a crucible over a small brazier, and his friend Clinias departs. Fearing that he'll never see his friend Marcus again. An hour later, Marcus returns hale and hearty from his trip beyond death and back again - but no, he isn't very hearty, not really. What he learns in the place beyond death... /spoilers/
I really liked this story. It isn't science fiction - more mystical, with lotions and potions, crucibles, braziers and temples. But in terms of time travel? It's definitely that. And its situation in the "Mazes and Traps" section of The Time Traveller's Almanac is definitely apt. Bayley's clear writing pulled me into the story, and the implications of Marcus' discoveries from beyond death weren't lost on me.
So at midnight one night, Marcus is left in the inner sanctum along with a nostrum in a crucible over a small brazier, and his friend Clinias departs. Fearing that he'll never see his friend Marcus again. An hour later, Marcus returns hale and hearty from his trip beyond death and back again - but no, he isn't very hearty, not really. What he learns in the place beyond death... /spoilers/
I really liked this story. It isn't science fiction - more mystical, with lotions and potions, crucibles, braziers and temples. But in terms of time travel? It's definitely that. And its situation in the "Mazes and Traps" section of The Time Traveller's Almanac is definitely apt. Bayley's clear writing pulled me into the story, and the implications of Marcus' discoveries from beyond death weren't lost on me.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews