Jules Jones

Got home to an email telling me that the UK-themed Dreamspinner anthology "Not quite Shakespeare" is now available for pre-order from their site. I've got a short in the anthology, all about baking bread and what it can lead to. :-) The book is available on both dead trees and live electrons, and will be released on 2 June. I'm assuming that it will eventually show up on the third party distributors as well, but here are the purchase links for the Dreamspinner shop:

ebook - ISBN-13 978-1-63216-020-1
paperback - ISBN-13 978-1-63216-019-5

52) John Carnell, editor -- New Writings in SF 20

One of the 1972 editions of the long-running science fiction anthology series. I was always very fond of this series, but I found it hard to connect with some of the stories in #20. In fact, half way through I was thinking that there was no point in keeping it once I'd read it, as even the ones I liked didn't make me feel inclined to re-read them.

Conversational Mode by Grahame Leman -- decidedly grim short which consists of a transcript of a conversation between an involuntarily committed patient in a mental hospital and a psychiatric program running on a computer. The story is really about the potential abuse of psychiatry rather than the mechanics of such a program, but even so I was rather distracted by early 70s mainframe computer output conventions in software that is clearly at least as sophisticated as any of the AIs running in Turing Test competitions in 2010. Not one I feel inclined to re-read.

Which Way Do I Go For Jericho? by Colin Kapp -- It's the middle of a war, and a scientist volunteers for a military intelligence operation in which he will be left behind as an apparent civilian refugee after a military pullout. The aim is to give him a chance to look at a new sonic laser weapon being used by the enemy. The catch is that he will have to be a very convincing refugee, to the point of making him so starved and ill before the pullout that he will barely be able to function. It's the sort of science/engineering problem in harsh conditions story that Kapp was so good at. I liked it but am not inclined to re-read it.

Microcosm by Robert P Holdstock -- an astronaut visits an alien planet and gets caught in two time streams. I didn't entirely understand it and didn't like it. A complete waste of time as far as I was concerned.

Cain(n) By HA Hargreaves -- long story about the rehabilitation of a young teen who has been caught for some crime which has been wiped from his memory as part of the rehabilitation process. It's clear from what he does remember that he has been homeless and living on the streets for years, and has no clear idea of what happened to his family. Beautifully and movingly written to show how he is slowly resocialised and comes to recognise that what he initially perceives as punishment genuinely is an attempt to rehabilitate him to the point where he is fit to serve his time.

Canary by Dan Morgan -- The canary in question is a human being used the same way that canaries were used in mines -- he's a psychic who's sensitive enough to the possibility of his own death that he can be used as an early warning of the outbreak of nuclear war. There's some nice discussion of the problems faced by the sane members of government on both sides of a cold war in trying to stop their hotheads from stirring up trouble.

Oh, Valinda! by Michael G Coney -- on an alien planet, icebergs are harvested for fresh water. Since the locals sold the rights to the icecaps to humans long ago before they realised there might be any value to them, it's the humans who transport the icebergs to the seaboard cities where they're needed. But the unusual mode of transport requires the help of a hired local -- some of the icebergs are inhabited by giant worms who ingest seawater and filter it for food before expelling it. Persuade the worm to point in the right direction and the water jet can propel the berg. But it's a complicated business finding a worm and keeping it going...

LibraryThing entry

Book 61

This is the first of a 4 book anthology series, where the series concept is to have a set of four stories from each author, one per volume, which can each be read as individual stand-alone stories, but which together make up a story arc. It was published in 1974 and was edited by Roger Elwood, which is an entertaining and informative tale in itself.

I bought my copy of volume 1 about thirty years ago, and for various reasons (including the dreaded "it was only going to be in storage for a year or two") I probably haven't read it for close to twenty years. Nevertheless, I was surprised to find that I only remembered two of the stories -- the one by Philip Jose Farmer, which I don't actually like very much and don't think works as a standalone; and the story from Anne McCaffrey, which is the first part of what later became The Crystal Singer, and which I've thus read a fair number of times in the novel. The others seem completely unfamiliar to me. This is surprising, because there are some good stories in here. I read a library copy of volume 4 a few years after buying this volume, and can vaguely remember something about the closing stories of only those two authors as well. (I think I liked the Farmer sequence better for having seen the end of the arc.)

( detailed story list under the cut )

LibraryThing entry

One of the 1968 volumes in the long-running sf anthology series. The highlights for me were a Sector General story from James White , and a novella from Colin Kapp that was definitely not an Unorthodox Engineers story, but which pressed some of the same buttons (at least for me). As usual with this series, I personally didn't like everything in the collection, but thought it was all well-written.


Vertigo -- James White

A Galactic Survey ship comes across a decidedly peculiar planet which the crew promptly name Meatball. While they debate how to recognise any intelligent lifeforms, the lifeform solves the problem for them by sending up a primitive rocketship. It appears to be in difficulty, so the survey ship rescues ship and pilot, and carts it off to Sector General for the pilot to receive medical treatment. It's up to Conway and friends to work out why the rescue seems to have made things worse...

It is in general a fun and interesting story, but I did find it rather implausible that the medics took so long to realise what the basic problem was, especially given the Great Big Clue in the initial encounter.

(Later included in the Sector General fix-up novel "Major Operation", which is where I first read it.)


Visions of Monad -- M John Harrison

Psychological study of a man who has been the subject of a sensory deprivation experiment. Well-written, but didn't work for me.


Worm in the bud -- John Rankine

Short story in the Dag Fletcher space opera series. Fletcher's on a diplomatic mission to a hostile planet. Part of that mission is a one-man geological survey with limited supplies in a remote part of the planet -- so why are the natives finding all sorts of ways to delay pick-up of the geologist past the safe time limit?


They Shall Reap -- David Rome

A young family give up everything to make a fresh start in a new community of farms founded by wealthy philanthropists. The valley is even more isolated than they realise, and with reason. While I liked the writing, John Wyndham had covered this territory a decade earlier, and to better effect.


The Last Time Around -- Arthur Sellings

Poignant exploration of the social and emotional effects of being a pilot on a relativistic ship, with your subjective time decoupled from the objective time of your society. This theme has been covered by many writers, but this is one of the best ones I've read.


The Cloudbuilders -- Colin Kapp

In a low-tech world, hot air balloons are the main form of long-distance travel. Jacobi the Journeyman joins Timor the master Cloudbuilder, bringing personal experience of new techniques developed by their Guild. But that's not all he brings.


LibraryThing entry

at Amazon UK