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michaeldrakich's review
2.0
Considering the names of some of the authors in this collection, I expected a whole lot more. Let me first break down the individual short stories and then the overall review.
A PLANET CALLED CERVANTES by John Keith. A lone Keridish navy officer lands on a planet to face off against the entire Rengol space navy. True space opera with good action and a surprise ending. Heck of a start. 5 stars
MEN OF VALUE by Christopher Priest. A man vacationing in a small town is recruited by a big town producer filming an expose on a coming entertainment complex. Head office has some strange rules. Is this science fiction? One has to be hard-pressed to admit it. 2 stars
THREE COINS IN ENIGMATIC FOUNTAINS by Brian W. Aldiss. Three short shorts combined together without any real ties to each other. CAREFULLY OBSERVED WOMEN. A male slave watches as his owner lies ill in bed and soon to die. People come and go to pay respects and boring talk. The surprise ending doesn't make it any better. THE DAFFODIL RETURNS THE SMILE. An alien being, somewhat akin to a spider, goes out on the surface to attack some giant creature. Is there a story? No. THE YEAR OF THE QUIET COMPUTER. A one pager of incoherent thoughts. Sad. 2 stars
THE PHOBOS TRANSCRIPTS by Cherry Wilder. Two spacemen crash landed on Phobos encounter an alien essence. Some good intensity in this one. Felt like an old Star Trek episode. 5 stars
YOU GET LOTS OF YESTERDAYS, LOTS OF TOMORROWS, AND ONLY ONE TODAY by Laurence James. A woman has a perfect life with a wonderful man and two wonderful children but weird dreams interrupt it. Two many disconnects in the story. 2 stars
THE MAN WHO by David S. Garnett. A man who has constant flashes of deja vu but with slight alterations, most notably one person always appearing, watching, from different locations and angles. Another story where I'm challenged to find the science fiction content. 2 stars
MURDERS by Ramsey Campbell. An empath takes 3D television to a whole new level. It reminded me of those religious political shows. Lovers and haters of it. What side do you take? 3 stars.
TO THE PUMP ROOM WITH JANE by Ian Watson. A future where water is scarce and people have to go to a pump room for their daily ration. How does a young woman meet anyone when subjected to such a moribund ritual? 3 stars
THE SEAFARER by Ritchie Smith and Thomas Penman. There is no other way to describe this than as WORD SALAD. My guess is two modern style poets, you know the kind, the ones where nothing rhymes and everything is open to interpretation, nothing direct, get together to write scifi. The result? A most horrendous piece of mishmash unintelligible to just about anyone. 1 star
The final analysis is nine short stories with only two worth reading. Just not enough quality material to make it worthwhile.
A PLANET CALLED CERVANTES by John Keith. A lone Keridish navy officer lands on a planet to face off against the entire Rengol space navy. True space opera with good action and a surprise ending. Heck of a start. 5 stars
MEN OF VALUE by Christopher Priest. A man vacationing in a small town is recruited by a big town producer filming an expose on a coming entertainment complex. Head office has some strange rules. Is this science fiction? One has to be hard-pressed to admit it. 2 stars
THREE COINS IN ENIGMATIC FOUNTAINS by Brian W. Aldiss. Three short shorts combined together without any real ties to each other. CAREFULLY OBSERVED WOMEN. A male slave watches as his owner lies ill in bed and soon to die. People come and go to pay respects and boring talk. The surprise ending doesn't make it any better. THE DAFFODIL RETURNS THE SMILE. An alien being, somewhat akin to a spider, goes out on the surface to attack some giant creature. Is there a story? No. THE YEAR OF THE QUIET COMPUTER. A one pager of incoherent thoughts. Sad. 2 stars
THE PHOBOS TRANSCRIPTS by Cherry Wilder. Two spacemen crash landed on Phobos encounter an alien essence. Some good intensity in this one. Felt like an old Star Trek episode. 5 stars
YOU GET LOTS OF YESTERDAYS, LOTS OF TOMORROWS, AND ONLY ONE TODAY by Laurence James. A woman has a perfect life with a wonderful man and two wonderful children but weird dreams interrupt it. Two many disconnects in the story. 2 stars
THE MAN WHO by David S. Garnett. A man who has constant flashes of deja vu but with slight alterations, most notably one person always appearing, watching, from different locations and angles. Another story where I'm challenged to find the science fiction content. 2 stars
MURDERS by Ramsey Campbell. An empath takes 3D television to a whole new level. It reminded me of those religious political shows. Lovers and haters of it. What side do you take? 3 stars.
TO THE PUMP ROOM WITH JANE by Ian Watson. A future where water is scarce and people have to go to a pump room for their daily ration. How does a young woman meet anyone when subjected to such a moribund ritual? 3 stars
THE SEAFARER by Ritchie Smith and Thomas Penman. There is no other way to describe this than as WORD SALAD. My guess is two modern style poets, you know the kind, the ones where nothing rhymes and everything is open to interpretation, nothing direct, get together to write scifi. The result? A most horrendous piece of mishmash unintelligible to just about anyone. 1 star
The final analysis is nine short stories with only two worth reading. Just not enough quality material to make it worthwhile.
lordofthemoon's review
3.0
This is a collection of SF stories from 1975. There's a decent selection with Christopher Priest's Men of Good Value, a near-future tale of an SF writer who gets tangled up with a TV crew, David S. Garnett's The Man Who, an early take on the "doomed to repeat the same day again and again" theme and Ian Watson's To the Pump Room With Jane, a somewhat disturbing tale of a climate-changed future where icebergs are towed in to provide water, being highlights.
There were a couple of weird stories that I didn't really get, with Brian Aldiss' Three Coins in Enigmatic Fountains and The Seafarer, by Richie Smith and Thomas Penman being chief amongst these. These were both very lyrical, but the plots didn't really go anywhere, I felt.
A mixed collection that was worth reading though.
There were a couple of weird stories that I didn't really get, with Brian Aldiss' Three Coins in Enigmatic Fountains and The Seafarer, by Richie Smith and Thomas Penman being chief amongst these. These were both very lyrical, but the plots didn't really go anywhere, I felt.
A mixed collection that was worth reading though.
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