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A Brilliant Void: A Selection of Classic Irish Science Fiction
An astronomer challenges an emperor.
A hunter pursues the last dinosaur through a remote rainforest.
A young Kerryman emigrates to the Moon to seek his fortune.
These fifteen darkly funny stories illuminate a side of Irish literary history that is often overlooked. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the winds of change came rushing in Ireland’s direction. Science and technology would transform everything: life, love, death, crime, war, and even history itself.
Edited and introduced by Jack Fennell, this collection of lesser-known works of classic Irish science fiction includes stories by Frances Power Cobbe, Fitz-James O’Brien, Charlotte McManus and Cathal Ó Sándair.
A hunter pursues the last dinosaur through a remote rainforest.
A young Kerryman emigrates to the Moon to seek his fortune.
These fifteen darkly funny stories illuminate a side of Irish literary history that is often overlooked. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the winds of change came rushing in Ireland’s direction. Science and technology would transform everything: life, love, death, crime, war, and even history itself.
Edited and introduced by Jack Fennell, this collection of lesser-known works of classic Irish science fiction includes stories by Frances Power Cobbe, Fitz-James O’Brien, Charlotte McManus and Cathal Ó Sándair.
256 pages, Paperback
Published April 2, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
September 29, 2019
Going to a talk by the Editor of this next week. I have some questions!
February 13, 2019
Most of the stories were ok but there was a few I actually disliked. Interesting to read about what Irish people thought future technology might be like. Very few of the stories are actually set in Ireland, most seem to be in the US or England. I wouldn't class most of them as SF as we know it today, I think speculative fiction would be more accurate. I'm just giving some very brief thoughts on each.
The New Frankenstein. This was bad, read like an undergrad story trying to show how much they know.
The Diamond Lens. This was interesting, read more like Fantasy than SF though.
The Age of Science was my favourite by far. Very funny and quite prescient on matters today. It's basically a newspaper from the future.
The Story of a Star was a bit too abstract for my liking.
Mercia, the Astronomer Royal was another good story. Again very relevant in todays society and the issues women still encounter in their professional capacity.
The Professor's Experiment. Another fairly dull mad scientist story. There's quite a lot in this collection.
An Advance sheet. Combined time travel and mystery, was actually quite good.
The Luck of Pitsey Hall. Sherlock Holmes meets Dan Brown. As bad as it sounds.
Lady Clanbevan's Baby. Another fairly dull mad scientist story.
The Great Beast of Kafue. H Rider Haggard type adventure, not too bad but not enough substance.
The Sorcerer. Again more Fantasy than SF. Not really very interesting and another professor.
A Story Without and End. A lot of potential here, would have liked more.
A Vision. A nice little observation on people's nature.
The Chronoton. It's kind of like Back to the Future. Surprisingly good.
The Exile. Kind of pointless to be honest.
The New Frankenstein. This was bad, read like an undergrad story trying to show how much they know.
The Diamond Lens. This was interesting, read more like Fantasy than SF though.
The Age of Science was my favourite by far. Very funny and quite prescient on matters today. It's basically a newspaper from the future.
The Story of a Star was a bit too abstract for my liking.
Mercia, the Astronomer Royal was another good story. Again very relevant in todays society and the issues women still encounter in their professional capacity.
The Professor's Experiment. Another fairly dull mad scientist story. There's quite a lot in this collection.
An Advance sheet. Combined time travel and mystery, was actually quite good.
The Luck of Pitsey Hall. Sherlock Holmes meets Dan Brown. As bad as it sounds.
Lady Clanbevan's Baby. Another fairly dull mad scientist story.
The Great Beast of Kafue. H Rider Haggard type adventure, not too bad but not enough substance.
The Sorcerer. Again more Fantasy than SF. Not really very interesting and another professor.
A Story Without and End. A lot of potential here, would have liked more.
A Vision. A nice little observation on people's nature.
The Chronoton. It's kind of like Back to the Future. Surprisingly good.
The Exile. Kind of pointless to be honest.
August 30, 2020
Early SF stories from Irish writers. Some good, some 'meh'. There is not much that seems particularly "Irish" about most of the stories, despite the fact that the final 3 were originally written in the Irish language. (Translated by the editor.) Even so, a few do mention specific bits of Irish history, and one is concerned with emigration and a longing for home. About half of the stories are by women.
The New Frankenstein. William Maginn, 1837. Really bad story. Concerned with what would happen if Frankenstein's monster were intelligent and able to talk. But, that was already true in the original! Did he not read it?
The Diamond Lens. Fitz-James O'Brien, 1858. The most famous story in the book, but not the best. A scientist casually commits murder to get a diamond to make a super microscope and then finds a beautiful woman inside a drop of water.
The Age of Science (abridged). Frances Power Cobbe, 1877. Excerpts from future newspapers show that when "Science reigns supreme over human affairs," things can go wrong. Partly funny, partly chilling. Incineration chambers can't keep up with the bodies "despatched by Euthanasia". Dogs are almost extinct since each vivisector experiments on an average of 14,000 each. Fiction is judged mainly by how well it can relate the characters actions to physics.
The Story of a Star. Æ (George William Russel), 1894. Elon Musk wasn't the first to think it is cool to have a name like "Æ". Metaphysical musings on the nature of the universe. Similar to Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon, but mercifully shorter.
Mercia, the Astronomer Royal: A Romance (excerpt). Amelia Garland Mears, 1895. This excerpt involves a situation where the emperor sexually harasses the royal astronomer. She ultimately triumphs. But this forcefully makes the point that even in a future where women have the same rights and respect as men, they'll still need to defend those rights.
The Professor's Experiment. Margaret Wolfe Hungerford, 1895. A mad scientist creates a potion to put someone into suspended animation. He unethically tests it on a woman who wants to kill herself. Luckily, it works out for the best.
An Advance sheet. Jane Barlow, 1898. Considers the possibility of infinitely many worlds where there is one where you made decision A and one where you made decision B. Basically the same idea as "Many Worlds Theory", but without invoking Quantum Mechanics, which was unknown at the time. (Are there earlier examples of this idea?)
The Luck of Pitsey Hall (excerpt). L.T. Meade (Elizabeth Thomasina Meade Smith) and Robert Eustace, 1899. Chapter 4 from The Brotherhood of the Seven Kings. Perfectly enjoyable pulp fiction story of a detective, probably capitalizing on the popularity of Sherlock Holmes. In this case, the evil scientist is a woman. Many chapters can stand alone.
Lady Clanbevan's Baby. Clotilde Graves, 1915. A lady gets what she wants from the mad scientist, no matter the cost.
The Great Beast of Kafue. Clotilde Graves, 1917. A hunter tells of when he discovered a sad dinosaur, the last of his kind, in Rhodesia.
The Sorcerer. Charlotte McManus, 1922. A scientist studies a magical cure. Unlike the other stories, this has an Ireland-specific feeling and uses some local vocabulary.
A Story Without an End. Dorothy Macardle, 1922. A woman talks of dreams she has had that have come true, and another dream which she worries might come true. Deals specifically with Irish history, which is not surprising since she wrote it while in jail for activities against the treaty that split Ireland it two pieces.
A Vision [Aisling]. Art Ó Riain, 1927. A very brief story where a scientist creates a device that allows seeing into the future.
The Chronoton [An Cianadóir]. Tarlach Ó hUid, 1946. A time travel story raising the issue of the "grandfather paradox". That idea has been done better many times.
The Exile [An Deorai]. Cathal Ó Sándair, 1960. An Irish man emigrates to the moon for a better future. Is homesick. Not bad.
The New Frankenstein. William Maginn, 1837. Really bad story. Concerned with what would happen if Frankenstein's monster were intelligent and able to talk. But, that was already true in the original! Did he not read it?
The Diamond Lens. Fitz-James O'Brien, 1858. The most famous story in the book, but not the best. A scientist casually commits murder to get a diamond to make a super microscope and then finds a beautiful woman inside a drop of water.
The Age of Science (abridged). Frances Power Cobbe, 1877. Excerpts from future newspapers show that when "Science reigns supreme over human affairs," things can go wrong. Partly funny, partly chilling. Incineration chambers can't keep up with the bodies "despatched by Euthanasia". Dogs are almost extinct since each vivisector experiments on an average of 14,000 each. Fiction is judged mainly by how well it can relate the characters actions to physics.
The Story of a Star. Æ (George William Russel), 1894. Elon Musk wasn't the first to think it is cool to have a name like "Æ". Metaphysical musings on the nature of the universe. Similar to Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon, but mercifully shorter.
Mercia, the Astronomer Royal: A Romance (excerpt). Amelia Garland Mears, 1895. This excerpt involves a situation where the emperor sexually harasses the royal astronomer. She ultimately triumphs. But this forcefully makes the point that even in a future where women have the same rights and respect as men, they'll still need to defend those rights.
The Professor's Experiment. Margaret Wolfe Hungerford, 1895. A mad scientist creates a potion to put someone into suspended animation. He unethically tests it on a woman who wants to kill herself. Luckily, it works out for the best.
An Advance sheet. Jane Barlow, 1898. Considers the possibility of infinitely many worlds where there is one where you made decision A and one where you made decision B. Basically the same idea as "Many Worlds Theory", but without invoking Quantum Mechanics, which was unknown at the time. (Are there earlier examples of this idea?)
The Luck of Pitsey Hall (excerpt). L.T. Meade (Elizabeth Thomasina Meade Smith) and Robert Eustace, 1899. Chapter 4 from The Brotherhood of the Seven Kings. Perfectly enjoyable pulp fiction story of a detective, probably capitalizing on the popularity of Sherlock Holmes. In this case, the evil scientist is a woman. Many chapters can stand alone.
Lady Clanbevan's Baby. Clotilde Graves, 1915. A lady gets what she wants from the mad scientist, no matter the cost.
The Great Beast of Kafue. Clotilde Graves, 1917. A hunter tells of when he discovered a sad dinosaur, the last of his kind, in Rhodesia.
The Sorcerer. Charlotte McManus, 1922. A scientist studies a magical cure. Unlike the other stories, this has an Ireland-specific feeling and uses some local vocabulary.
A Story Without an End. Dorothy Macardle, 1922. A woman talks of dreams she has had that have come true, and another dream which she worries might come true. Deals specifically with Irish history, which is not surprising since she wrote it while in jail for activities against the treaty that split Ireland it two pieces.
A Vision [Aisling]. Art Ó Riain, 1927. A very brief story where a scientist creates a device that allows seeing into the future.
The Chronoton [An Cianadóir]. Tarlach Ó hUid, 1946. A time travel story raising the issue of the "grandfather paradox". That idea has been done better many times.
The Exile [An Deorai]. Cathal Ó Sándair, 1960. An Irish man emigrates to the moon for a better future. Is homesick. Not bad.
November 24, 2021
Good:
- The Diamond Lens
- An Advance Sheet
- The Luck of Pitsey Hall
Awful:
- The New Frankenstein
- The Diamond Lens
- An Advance Sheet
- The Luck of Pitsey Hall
Awful:
- The New Frankenstein
January 18, 2019
The authors were very prescient people. I appreciate all the stories by women.
October 25, 2024
A very interesting curation of Irish short stories, for hardcore nerds who want to really dig into the history of SF as a genre.
Truthfully, it'd be a mistake to approach this as you would any modern collection. The style can be quite archaic in places (and honestly the language was too much for me in one or two stories) and while I suspect the editor went to great lengths to avoid more problematic stories, there's at least one that has an alarming streak of antisemitism (though as far as I know that story was quite influential and hard to overlook).
However, when this collection is approached as a record of the progression of SF over time, it becomes quite rewarding. Core tropes of SF, whether mad scientists, dystopian futures, or conflicts between imperious logic and folk wisdom, were present nearly 200 years ago, preserved as well as any fossil or bog body. Even the big modern ambiguity of whether a fantastical conceit is really SF or just fantasy is present here.
The only real changes have been in the technologies du jour that are leveraged to make those conceits work, and, importantly, in the psychological realism, political awareness, and symbolic texture authors have learned to use in fleshing out their SF tales. The works span from 1837 to 1960, and there's clear progression in those respects even within this small curated batch (and of course, this ends the collection right at the start of the New Wave in SF). It really is quite remarkable to see which parts of the genre were there from the beginning and which parts weren't. A particular favourite of mine was Clotilde Graves, who for my money felt like she had the closest voice to modern writers despite her stories coming from the 1910's.
One thing I did wonder about with the book is how much of this is Irish SF and how much of it is Anglo-Irish SF, but I think that's probably too big and nebulous a question to ask of an editor while translation and curation are going on. Certainly the later stories felt a lot more Irish in their subject matter.
All in all, a great window into the past.
Truthfully, it'd be a mistake to approach this as you would any modern collection. The style can be quite archaic in places (and honestly the language was too much for me in one or two stories) and while I suspect the editor went to great lengths to avoid more problematic stories, there's at least one that has an alarming streak of antisemitism (though as far as I know that story was quite influential and hard to overlook).
However, when this collection is approached as a record of the progression of SF over time, it becomes quite rewarding. Core tropes of SF, whether mad scientists, dystopian futures, or conflicts between imperious logic and folk wisdom, were present nearly 200 years ago, preserved as well as any fossil or bog body. Even the big modern ambiguity of whether a fantastical conceit is really SF or just fantasy is present here.
The only real changes have been in the technologies du jour that are leveraged to make those conceits work, and, importantly, in the psychological realism, political awareness, and symbolic texture authors have learned to use in fleshing out their SF tales. The works span from 1837 to 1960, and there's clear progression in those respects even within this small curated batch (and of course, this ends the collection right at the start of the New Wave in SF). It really is quite remarkable to see which parts of the genre were there from the beginning and which parts weren't. A particular favourite of mine was Clotilde Graves, who for my money felt like she had the closest voice to modern writers despite her stories coming from the 1910's.
One thing I did wonder about with the book is how much of this is Irish SF and how much of it is Anglo-Irish SF, but I think that's probably too big and nebulous a question to ask of an editor while translation and curation are going on. Certainly the later stories felt a lot more Irish in their subject matter.
All in all, a great window into the past.
May 3, 2025
https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/a-brilliant-void-ed-jack-fennell/
Jack Fennell has been fighting the good fight to uncover the historical traditions of Irish science fiction for many years, and this is quite an extraordinary collection of stories from various writers, many of them women and radicals, from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; and all of the stories are firmly on the science fiction rather than fantasy side of the divide.
The potted biographies of the authors frequently spurred me to seek more information from Wikipedia, and I realised the depth of my own ignorance of the science fictional side of the cultural revival – which is ironic, because in my PhD thesis I made the closely related argument that the pro-science agenda of revolutionary Irish nationalism had been ignored.
I was particularly intrigued by Clotilde Graves (1863-1932), a distant cousin of Robert Graves, who wrote plays as “Clo Graves” and novels as “Richard Dehan”, cropped her hair short, wore men’s clothes and smoked cigars in public. One of her plays compared marriage to prostitution and her work is generally feminist. I don’t think I had heard of her before.
Not all of these stories are top-notch, but I’m glad that Jack Fennell has revived them. The other authors represented are William Maginn, Fitz-James O’Brien, Frances Power Cobbe, George William Russell / Æ, Amelia Garland Mears, Margaret Wolfe Hungerford, Jane Barlow, Robert Eustace and L. T. Meade, L. McManus, Dorothy Macardle, Art Ó Riain, Tarlach Ó hUid and Cathal Ó Sándair.
Jack Fennell has been fighting the good fight to uncover the historical traditions of Irish science fiction for many years, and this is quite an extraordinary collection of stories from various writers, many of them women and radicals, from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; and all of the stories are firmly on the science fiction rather than fantasy side of the divide.
The potted biographies of the authors frequently spurred me to seek more information from Wikipedia, and I realised the depth of my own ignorance of the science fictional side of the cultural revival – which is ironic, because in my PhD thesis I made the closely related argument that the pro-science agenda of revolutionary Irish nationalism had been ignored.
I was particularly intrigued by Clotilde Graves (1863-1932), a distant cousin of Robert Graves, who wrote plays as “Clo Graves” and novels as “Richard Dehan”, cropped her hair short, wore men’s clothes and smoked cigars in public. One of her plays compared marriage to prostitution and her work is generally feminist. I don’t think I had heard of her before.
Not all of these stories are top-notch, but I’m glad that Jack Fennell has revived them. The other authors represented are William Maginn, Fitz-James O’Brien, Frances Power Cobbe, George William Russell / Æ, Amelia Garland Mears, Margaret Wolfe Hungerford, Jane Barlow, Robert Eustace and L. T. Meade, L. McManus, Dorothy Macardle, Art Ó Riain, Tarlach Ó hUid and Cathal Ó Sándair.
January 27, 2025
“The same refusal in both cases to meet and face one’s doom... You would create a new generation of cowards.” A Brilliant Void is, er, brilliant? This collection of classic Irish sci-fi, edited by Jack Fennell and published last year by the ever incomparable Tramp Press, is delightfully varied and riveting, bringing together stories by Irish men and women from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, focusing on such concepts as: living dinosaurs, Lunar colonies, mad scientists (a few of those) and the nature of existence. One of my favourite pieces in the collection, Amelia Garland Mears’ ‘Mercia, The Astronomer Royal’, involves the emperor of a future society abusing his power, and his would-be victim, a female astronomer, attaining justice socially and in the law; but not before the emperor is shown his future if he should pursue a trial against her, and chooses not to change his course. It’s a funny and bleak tale, cautioning against complacency, of taking advantage of concessions towards equality which could so easily be threatened – this, of course, is a theme that resonates deeply still today. And there are fourteen other stories just as fascinating, just as fantastical.
November 7, 2023
I really enjoyed this anthology of Classic Irish Science Fiction, even if some of the writing was very flowery and difficult! The book does show that we as a country were producing many writers of fantastic literature in the 19th and early 20th century, a lot of which would be classed as science fiction now. (Note to the editor: please don't call it sci-fi!) 'The Chronotron' by Tarlach Ó hUid, 'The Exile' by Cathal Ó Sándair and both stories by Clotilde Graves were excellent and it was only the first, 'The New Frankenstein' by William Maginn, that I found difficult to read in its entirety. It's wonderful to see that stories from our past are still being published and delighted to see that this book received Arts Council funding.
September 12, 2019
Thought I would get myself some education on Irish SF, and then the second story in the collection features a violently antisemitic main character who kills his Jewish upstairs neighbour. Much of the story is about him being delusional, but the way it presents his antisemitism offers no in-text counterpoint, the way it does for much of the other stuff he does.
No warning, no caveat, and this was the story the editor chose to name the whole anthology after. I've got no desire to finish reading an anthology that so clearly shows what it thinks of me. I don't fuckin' read Lovecraft any more and I don't care for imitators that follow him so closely no matter how ironic they're being about it.
No warning, no caveat, and this was the story the editor chose to name the whole anthology after. I've got no desire to finish reading an anthology that so clearly shows what it thinks of me. I don't fuckin' read Lovecraft any more and I don't care for imitators that follow him so closely no matter how ironic they're being about it.
September 16, 2020
The concept of an Irish collection of science fiction is really interesting. After finishing the book, I realised why I'd never heard of Irish sci fi writing before. Most of these tales are not very good and many of them just about qualify as sci fi. A book to read once and quickly forget
February 20, 2019
Nice idea but the stories don't stand up. Some are good but most are mediocre or pretty bad.
January 22, 2022
you know it’s been rough when it’s a short story collection and you still DNF.
June 3, 2025
Read about half of the stories before giving up. Some of them aren’t even sci-fi. None of them were really worth reading. Forgotten for a reason I think.
November 28, 2019
A good introduction to historical Irish science fiction that I - for the most part- was unaware of. There is a variety of writing styles and as a result some stories are more successful than others. The language at times can be archaic, reflecting the times they where written. However, themes such as the 'mad scientist' , gender equality to time travel - have a continuing relevance to today's issues.
I enjoyed the all to brief introductions to the stories and Mr Fennell has a deft hand at piqueing one's interest. With the resurging interest in finding Irish female authors (such as Dorothy McCardle) it is worth noting that this collection is over fifty percent female. Overall an intriguing collection.
I enjoyed the all to brief introductions to the stories and Mr Fennell has a deft hand at piqueing one's interest. With the resurging interest in finding Irish female authors (such as Dorothy McCardle) it is worth noting that this collection is over fifty percent female. Overall an intriguing collection.
May 28, 2019
Pretty terrible stuff., most of which I wouldn't really consider sci-fi. Lots of fantastical tales with very dated and not fully-formed ideas. With the honourable exception of "Lady Clanbevan's Baby" which made me laugh out loud such was the silly ludicrousness of its ending, all the stories had one thing in common - terrible endings or no endings at all. In most cases the story just kind of petered out, as if the author had used up all of his/her energy bringing the story along so far and then had no interest in finishing the thing off. 15 stories with only one half-decent ending between them made this a rather exasperating read.
January 3, 2025
I was initially excited about reading historical science fiction from Ireland as I happen to be an Irish author who has self published science fiction. But aside from the last short story which I genuinely liked, I did not enjoy this book at all.
The author who gathered this together heavily curates these stories and is clearly a left leaning progressive and rather than just presenting these short stories as they are, he introduces them in a curated manner that is to make us to think about these stories.
Many of the stories themselves are just about mad scientists or were completely unimpressive. All in all, these are merely my opinions but I do not recommend this book to anyone.
The author who gathered this together heavily curates these stories and is clearly a left leaning progressive and rather than just presenting these short stories as they are, he introduces them in a curated manner that is to make us to think about these stories.
Many of the stories themselves are just about mad scientists or were completely unimpressive. All in all, these are merely my opinions but I do not recommend this book to anyone.
July 17, 2019
I am not quite sure this book deserves four stars but three definitely seems too low. People buying this book should keep in mind the fiction is old and set your gauge accordingly for what to expect in Science Fiction.
Overall, a good selection, though the cliches in many of the stories can get thick. I bought at the Dublin airport and it made for a good read on the 6-hour flight home.
Overall, a good selection, though the cliches in many of the stories can get thick. I bought at the Dublin airport and it made for a good read on the 6-hour flight home.
April 5, 2019
A window into forgotten stories. Great selection of stories. I especially enjoyed: Mercia, the astronomer royal by Amelia Garland Mears.
April 21, 2019
A good review of Irish science fiction. Would like to have seen more detail in some of the extracts as well.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews