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Příliš vzdálený svět [A Tupolev Too Far]
Bohové starého Egypta, duchové indonéských pralesů, Frankensteinovo monstrum, ale také Franz Kafka to jsou hrdinové nových originálních příběhů z pera známého britského spisovatele Briana Aldisse, který se proslavil romány „Nonstop“ a „Skleník“.
230 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
1 person is currently reading
58 people want to read
About the author
Brian W. Aldiss
834 books673 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 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 13, 2018
A collection of short-stories. This is my first introduction to the work of Brian Aldiss.
I don't normally write reviews for books I feel luke-warm about, but since information on this book seems scarce, I'll briefly describe the stories.
A Tupolev Too Far - A man in a Tupolev flying to Moscow encounters a freak electrical storm that transports him to an alternative reality. One in which Moscow is not a bright new Paris ruled by Czar Nicholas III, but a dirty dystopian society ruled by some guy named Brezhnev. He hardly cares; all he is interested in is finding a woman to have sex with. [You may already know that a Tupolev is a type of airplane, but it was a new word for me.]
Ratbird - Frederic Sigmoid (Sigmund Freud?) travels to a remote area in Borneo and find a lost tribe.
FOAM - Describes a device that can steal memories.
Summertime was Nearly Over - The last days of Frankenstein's monster. Never directly described as such but you can pick that up from the style and setting. Incidentally, Aldiss also wrote the novel Frankenstein Unbound.
Better Morphosis - A cockroach is dismayed to find itself transformed into Franz Kafka.
Three Degrees Over - A woman on a plane meets a woman who ends up going home with her and causing her husband to become sex-crazed. Pay attention to the last line, it is a surprise twist that reframes most of the story.
A Life of Matter and Death - Flying aliens come to earth to eat our dead. How do you think people will react?
A Day in the Life of a Galactic Empire - Palace intrigue in a galactic empire. Good story, but could just as easily be an ordinary Earthly paranoid dictatorship.
Confluence / Confluence Revisited - Two sets of definitions extracted from an English-Confluence dictionary, where Confluence is the language spoken on planet Myrin. Examples:
BAGIRACK: Apologizing as a form of attack.
KARNAD EES: The enjoyment of a day or a year by doing nothing; fasting.
KARNDAL CHESS: The waste of a day or a year by doing nothing; fasting.
North of the Abyss - A businessman visiting Egypt encounters Anubis.
Alphabet of Ameliorating Hope - a short utopian poem.
I don't normally write reviews for books I feel luke-warm about, but since information on this book seems scarce, I'll briefly describe the stories.
A Tupolev Too Far - A man in a Tupolev flying to Moscow encounters a freak electrical storm that transports him to an alternative reality. One in which Moscow is not a bright new Paris ruled by Czar Nicholas III, but a dirty dystopian society ruled by some guy named Brezhnev. He hardly cares; all he is interested in is finding a woman to have sex with. [You may already know that a Tupolev is a type of airplane, but it was a new word for me.]
Ratbird - Frederic Sigmoid (Sigmund Freud?) travels to a remote area in Borneo and find a lost tribe.
FOAM - Describes a device that can steal memories.
Summertime was Nearly Over - The last days of Frankenstein's monster. Never directly described as such but you can pick that up from the style and setting. Incidentally, Aldiss also wrote the novel Frankenstein Unbound.
Better Morphosis - A cockroach is dismayed to find itself transformed into Franz Kafka.
Three Degrees Over - A woman on a plane meets a woman who ends up going home with her and causing her husband to become sex-crazed. Pay attention to the last line, it is a surprise twist that reframes most of the story.
A Life of Matter and Death - Flying aliens come to earth to eat our dead. How do you think people will react?
A Day in the Life of a Galactic Empire - Palace intrigue in a galactic empire. Good story, but could just as easily be an ordinary Earthly paranoid dictatorship.
Confluence / Confluence Revisited - Two sets of definitions extracted from an English-Confluence dictionary, where Confluence is the language spoken on planet Myrin. Examples:
BAGIRACK: Apologizing as a form of attack.
KARNAD EES: The enjoyment of a day or a year by doing nothing; fasting.
KARNDAL CHESS: The waste of a day or a year by doing nothing; fasting.
North of the Abyss - A businessman visiting Egypt encounters Anubis.
Alphabet of Ameliorating Hope - a short utopian poem.
May 14, 2025
I first read this when I was a teenager. I suspect most of it flew over my head at the time. To be fair, most of it did this time too. The main theme of the collection seems to be people in places, worlds or situations that they don’t expect or want to be in, but it’s not a strong theme.
The title story is the strongest in the book, an intriguing look at a man who, in the early 1990s boards an Imperial Russian Airlines jet in ‘our’ world and lands in a bleak Soviet Moscow ‘alternate’ world. Like many of the stories in this collection it takes some odd detours into bleak or disturbing sexual encounters.
Other stories that stick in my mind, a month later are A Day in the Life of a Galactic Empire, and Better Morphosis, an amusing retelling of Kafka’s metamorphosis from the perspective of the insect that Gregor Samsa transformed into.
The title story is the strongest in the book, an intriguing look at a man who, in the early 1990s boards an Imperial Russian Airlines jet in ‘our’ world and lands in a bleak Soviet Moscow ‘alternate’ world. Like many of the stories in this collection it takes some odd detours into bleak or disturbing sexual encounters.
Other stories that stick in my mind, a month later are A Day in the Life of a Galactic Empire, and Better Morphosis, an amusing retelling of Kafka’s metamorphosis from the perspective of the insect that Gregor Samsa transformed into.
February 27, 2021
They mostly rate from above average to very good; but nearly all of them are very original studies. Science-fiction can use a bit of grit and sleaze sometimes and most of these are working on those spheres. It has some first-class ideas, like the complete lack of understanding of a corporate lackey of a timeline shift and he goes on with his life in an alternate reality, a dictionary for an alien language, or bartering of stolen dreams. Ratbird and the Alphabet of Amerliorating hope were one notch below the others, but overall it is a solid compilation.
June 1, 2020
A collection of short stories - some of which explore brilliant ideas and challenge conventional beliefs. Aldiss manages to weave sci-fi and magical realism together and allow you to escape mediocrity. A very imaginative and sensitive soul.
October 25, 2018
A very weak collection of stories. Some readers might advocate for one story or another, but the collection as a whole is quite forgettable and easily skipped.
April 11, 2014
Boring comes to mind when thinking up words to describe my thoughts about this book. For one, its short, two its just nothing to it. The writing is good, descriptions are far, descriptions of the "war" were fly-overs at best, very little actual details there.
October 20, 2012
read the short story
A day in the life of a Galactic Empire,
not the whole book
A day in the life of a Galactic Empire,
not the whole book
January 3, 2015
Eh, not bad.
May 26, 2015
I'm a regular science fiction reader, but this was short, weird, and strange. A short story about a cockroach turned into a man. Don't recommend it.
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October 8, 2020Lo
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews