Shape of Further Things by
Brian W. AldissMy rating:
4 of 5 starsBrian's explorations of the marvellous often came secondary to his analysis of what the genre meant. At that time there was a glaring hole in this genre - the literary establishment either looked down their noses at it or just ignored it. As a result it was left to writers, magazine editors and the few authors with book deals to set literary standards. As a result new readers of this fast burgeoning field had limited resources to rely on in order to know what was good. The development of the genre was to depend on self-help. There were the pioneering efforts of John W Campbell, the Hugo and Nebula awards, the shock tactics of Michael Moorcock, the works of Philip K Dick...
This is where Brian Aldiss excelled - he was an enthusiast with the foresight to categorise. He also had great vision and this, coupled with his understanding of the genre, makes
the Shape of Further Things an important milestone in marking out the territory that SF (and indeed Fantasy) occupies here and now.
A good read for understanding the shape of the genre.
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