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Incremental: 25 tales of fantasy, sci-fi, speculative, and bizarre fiction
These twenty-five tales from Geoff Nelder have increment as a theme.
INCREMENT:
Noun – an increase or addition, especially one of a series on a fixed scale.
Synonyms: increase, addition, gain, augmentation, step up, supplement, addendum, adjunct, accretion, boost, enhancement.
Verb – cause a discrete increase in.
Mathematically the difference can be negative – decremental.
For example a pothole doubles in size every day, a meteorite hits the same house daily at the same time, or a heavy leather-bound book on the top shelf teeters closer to toppling at each library visit. A sound is heard all over the Earth, but more worrying, it gets louder each day. A couple of astronauts crash land on an ocean planet (apparently) and incrementally sink.
A few stories are more mental than incremental, you’ll see.
Some of the stories have won awards and have been published before, but most of the wordage is new and drawn together for a common theme. I do not apologise for the mix of genres in this collection. I write as the muse takes me and only afterwards am I asked, is it hard SF, bizarre, horror? You have a smorgasbord of fantasy, science fiction and speculative in your hands.
INCREMENT:
Noun – an increase or addition, especially one of a series on a fixed scale.
Synonyms: increase, addition, gain, augmentation, step up, supplement, addendum, adjunct, accretion, boost, enhancement.
Verb – cause a discrete increase in.
Mathematically the difference can be negative – decremental.
For example a pothole doubles in size every day, a meteorite hits the same house daily at the same time, or a heavy leather-bound book on the top shelf teeters closer to toppling at each library visit. A sound is heard all over the Earth, but more worrying, it gets louder each day. A couple of astronauts crash land on an ocean planet (apparently) and incrementally sink.
A few stories are more mental than incremental, you’ll see.
Some of the stories have won awards and have been published before, but most of the wordage is new and drawn together for a common theme. I do not apologise for the mix of genres in this collection. I write as the muse takes me and only afterwards am I asked, is it hard SF, bizarre, horror? You have a smorgasbord of fantasy, science fiction and speculative in your hands.
294 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 6, 2018
3 people are currently reading
1 person want to read
About the author
Geoff Nelder
53 books81 followersGeoff Nelder has a wife, two grown-up kids, an increasing number of grandkids, and lives in rural England within an easy cycle ride of the Welsh mountains. He taught Geography and Information Technology for years until writing took over his life. Geoff is a competition short-fiction judge, and a freelance editor.
Publications include several non-fiction books on climate reflecting his other persona as a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society; over 50 published short stories in various magazines and anthologies; thriller, humour, science fiction, and fantasy novels.
2005: Humorous thriller Escaping Reality. Republished 2012.
2008: Award-winning science fiction mystery with hot-blooded heroine, Exit, Pursued by a Bee.
2010: Another thriller received an Award d’Or from an Arts Academy in the Netherlands. Its third edition will be published in 2012, Hot Air.
2012: ARIA: Left Luggage science fiction apocalypse.
An urban and historical magic realism fantasy, Xaghra’s Revenge, is in the hands of a literary agency.
Publications include several non-fiction books on climate reflecting his other persona as a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society; over 50 published short stories in various magazines and anthologies; thriller, humour, science fiction, and fantasy novels.
2005: Humorous thriller Escaping Reality. Republished 2012.
2008: Award-winning science fiction mystery with hot-blooded heroine, Exit, Pursued by a Bee.
2010: Another thriller received an Award d’Or from an Arts Academy in the Netherlands. Its third edition will be published in 2012, Hot Air.
2012: ARIA: Left Luggage science fiction apocalypse.
An urban and historical magic realism fantasy, Xaghra’s Revenge, is in the hands of a literary agency.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 16, 2021
I found this anthology absorbing. It's very well written with good characterisation. I loved the intelligent twists and turns with unpredictable endings. If you like stories that hook you in and make you think, then this should be in your collection.
February 29, 2024
I've reviewed a few of Geoff Nelder’s SF stories in ‘Perihelion SF’ and liked them so he felt emboldened to send me an advance copy of his new collection, ‘Incremental’. I’m glad he did. The blurb says: ‘These twenty-five tales from Geoff Nelder have increment as a theme.’The meaning of: Increment: Noun – an increase or addition, especially one of a series on a fixed scale. I didn’t always see this theme in the stories but they were so good I didn’t care.
The opening yarn is ‘Pothole’. In Madrid, cyclist Mateo comes across a small pothole on a minor road. He goes back the next day to cover it or put up a warning sign for others and finds that it has doubled in size. What’s more, it keeps doubling in size. He contacts his clever friend Zoe for help and she calculates that the whole of Spain will fall into it in a matter of weeks. Doubling a number to see how quickly it gets huge is an old kids game and Nelder even finds a scientific rationale for the hole. This could have changed into one of those fifties SF disaster movies with a learned young professor (pipe and spectacles) a stupid general and a beautiful girl but Nelder stayed with the kids’ story.
The theme of little people affected by big events shows up again in ‘Wrong Number’ in which Ken gets a call on his thirtieth birthday. The phone is a cheap knock-off given by his brother and the call is surprising because no one has his number yet. The call is either gibberish or details of a radio frequency. Another clever idea and well realised.
When the Perseid meteor shower is somehow diverted and several strike the Earth in ‘Gravity’s Tears’, it’s another big event and again we see it through the eyes of ordinary characters. Emma and Quil are driving on the unlit Manitoba Highway over undulating prairies towing a two-bed trailer. Towing it too fast as far as she’s concerned. It’s early days in their relationship and she’s not sure about him. As in all good stories, events illuminate character. Another good one.
One of my favourites was ‘Tumbler’s Gift’. Tumbler Recks has the power to unlock anything, just by being near it. His courtship of cute redhead Ember is interrupted when the authorities grab him for an important mission. One of the Portals has somehow become locked and they hope he can fix it. Portals are gateways that lead instantly to Mars or other cities. There are few of them. Like so many of the stories, this twists in an unexpected direction. Tumbler is from a near future which is cleverly put across by a variety of new words with meanings you can infer: Citzen, Crimpolice, cofftea and so on.
Sticking with SF, which forms a large part of the book, there’s ‘The Judgement Rock’. Jed is spaced for trying to steal an asteroid from a mining corporation. He’s wearing a spacesuit but that won’t keep him alive for long. However, the suit has a built-in AI which converses with him and it’s quite droll and Jed has a plan. I first read this excellent story in ‘Perihelion SF April 2017’ and it’s just as much fun revisited.
There are quirky fantasies here, too. In ‘View From’, a teacher not looking forward to his day of ‘wild animal management’ wakes to find himself stuck to the ceiling, looking down. ‘Mind Of Its Own’ has Merlin casting a spell that goes wrong. ‘In Absentia’ starts with an old man trying to figure out who he is while ten-year-old Amy chatters away at him. This was a great idea and turned in a totally unexpected direction. Straight fiction features in ‘Dummies Guide To Saving Lives’ where a nice man tries to persuade someone from jumping off a bridge in Chester. This won the Cafe Doom Story Contest in 2004.
Nelder writes well and even has bursts of poetic description in certain passages. These ruffles and flourishes add to the flavour but the meat of the thing is the story. Much of what Geoff Nelder does is like 1950s SF, those clever shorts by the likes of Phillip K Dick and Robert Sheckley. Although his characters have feelings and are affected by events, he eschews the modern misery and sense of futility that has become such a part of English Science Fiction. His stories are entertaining and include a bit of hard science, too. All in all, this collection is a treat.
The opening yarn is ‘Pothole’. In Madrid, cyclist Mateo comes across a small pothole on a minor road. He goes back the next day to cover it or put up a warning sign for others and finds that it has doubled in size. What’s more, it keeps doubling in size. He contacts his clever friend Zoe for help and she calculates that the whole of Spain will fall into it in a matter of weeks. Doubling a number to see how quickly it gets huge is an old kids game and Nelder even finds a scientific rationale for the hole. This could have changed into one of those fifties SF disaster movies with a learned young professor (pipe and spectacles) a stupid general and a beautiful girl but Nelder stayed with the kids’ story.
The theme of little people affected by big events shows up again in ‘Wrong Number’ in which Ken gets a call on his thirtieth birthday. The phone is a cheap knock-off given by his brother and the call is surprising because no one has his number yet. The call is either gibberish or details of a radio frequency. Another clever idea and well realised.
When the Perseid meteor shower is somehow diverted and several strike the Earth in ‘Gravity’s Tears’, it’s another big event and again we see it through the eyes of ordinary characters. Emma and Quil are driving on the unlit Manitoba Highway over undulating prairies towing a two-bed trailer. Towing it too fast as far as she’s concerned. It’s early days in their relationship and she’s not sure about him. As in all good stories, events illuminate character. Another good one.
One of my favourites was ‘Tumbler’s Gift’. Tumbler Recks has the power to unlock anything, just by being near it. His courtship of cute redhead Ember is interrupted when the authorities grab him for an important mission. One of the Portals has somehow become locked and they hope he can fix it. Portals are gateways that lead instantly to Mars or other cities. There are few of them. Like so many of the stories, this twists in an unexpected direction. Tumbler is from a near future which is cleverly put across by a variety of new words with meanings you can infer: Citzen, Crimpolice, cofftea and so on.
Sticking with SF, which forms a large part of the book, there’s ‘The Judgement Rock’. Jed is spaced for trying to steal an asteroid from a mining corporation. He’s wearing a spacesuit but that won’t keep him alive for long. However, the suit has a built-in AI which converses with him and it’s quite droll and Jed has a plan. I first read this excellent story in ‘Perihelion SF April 2017’ and it’s just as much fun revisited.
There are quirky fantasies here, too. In ‘View From’, a teacher not looking forward to his day of ‘wild animal management’ wakes to find himself stuck to the ceiling, looking down. ‘Mind Of Its Own’ has Merlin casting a spell that goes wrong. ‘In Absentia’ starts with an old man trying to figure out who he is while ten-year-old Amy chatters away at him. This was a great idea and turned in a totally unexpected direction. Straight fiction features in ‘Dummies Guide To Saving Lives’ where a nice man tries to persuade someone from jumping off a bridge in Chester. This won the Cafe Doom Story Contest in 2004.
Nelder writes well and even has bursts of poetic description in certain passages. These ruffles and flourishes add to the flavour but the meat of the thing is the story. Much of what Geoff Nelder does is like 1950s SF, those clever shorts by the likes of Phillip K Dick and Robert Sheckley. Although his characters have feelings and are affected by events, he eschews the modern misery and sense of futility that has become such a part of English Science Fiction. His stories are entertaining and include a bit of hard science, too. All in all, this collection is a treat.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews