The Time-Lapsed Man and Other Stories

by Eric Brown

He made a sound of pleasure as the hot water needled his tired skin. Yet he heard nothing. The silence was more absolute than any he had experienced before. After more than fifty shifts, a lifetime among the stars, this was his first rehabilitation problem, and he was not unduly worried...

In Eric Brown's landmark first collection of stories, fear, desire, love and redemption are forged with an innovative and stunning science-fiction imagination, creating eight exotic tales of tomorrow. Witty, original, imbued with a cyberpunk bleakness, this is the work of one of the UK's leading, and most loved, SF authors.

"The essence of modern science fiction" Bob Shaw

"SF infused with a cosmopolitan and literary sensibility" Paul McAuley

"British writing with a deft, understated touch: wonderful" New Scientist

Genres: Science Fiction, Collections, Fiction

216 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Eric Brown was a British science fiction author and Guardian critic.

Reviews

[Karl · Rating 5 out of 5]

This hardcover is signed by Eric Brown is a limited, leatherbound with gold foil edges, edition of 100 numbered copies and is the author's first book. This collection of stories combines fear, desire, love and redemption with science fiction.

Publisher: Drunken Dragon Press
Date published: 1990

Contents:

001 - "The Time-Lapsed Man" (1988)
019 - "The Karma Kid Transcends" (1988)
041 - "Big Trouble Upstairs" (1988)
058 - "Star-Crystals and Karmel" (1989)
083 - "Krash-Bangg Joe and the Pineal-Zen Equation" (1987)
110 - "Pithecanthropus Blues"
130 - "The Girl Who Died for Art and Lived" (1987)
151 - "The Inheritors of Earth"

Cover by Fangorn

From Eric Brown - "My first book, my first collection, is of course dear to me. It contains “The Time-Lapsed Man”, which might be my best short story, six other tales, and the novella “The Inheritors of Earth”, which is original to the collection, as is “Pithecanthropus Blues”.

I wrote these stories, among others, over a period of three years after returning to England from India. The book contains all my early work first published in Interzone."

[Anne Seebach]

This was an.... interesting..collection, difficult to rate. I found some of the stories entertaining and thought-provoking, but there was also some content I found distinctly uncomfortable and difficult to justify.

A common theme across many, even all the stories, was the nature of death and how we might act within life correlated with our understanding of death. The author explored this from several angles, evocatively portraying possibilities both beautiful and ugly.

A number of the stories also included content that normalised intimate sexual relationships between children and adults. One story even indicated the laws against this had long since been discarded as being obsolete "throwback morality". To my mind, one purpose of science fiction can be to explore uncomfortable social and moral possibilities - but for the life of me, I couldn't see any such reason here. I couldn't see that this content contributed anything at all essential to any of the stories. Unwelcome and unsavoury, I wish I could understand why an otherwise insightful writer felt the need to go there.

I leave this collection unrated.

[Gordon Ralph · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a BIG Fan Of Eric Browns, so I was intrigued to read this, his first published works, and I was not disappointed at all. It was very interesting to read these stories and see how they all influenced most of his later works. The only disappointment I had was when I finished reading it!....as I didn't want it to stop ....oh well there's still more of his books I need to read !

[Soupsioux · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the first book I ever did a review that was published. There are so many ideas in here that are worthy of expansion into fuller novellas. My particular favourite is The Karma Kid, which to me always read like an edgy alternative take on a vampire movie... even if this was not his intention. Anyway there are plenty of stories here to entertain.

[Jon Pennycook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite being an avid reader of Interzone in the early/mid 90s, I must have forgotten about Eric Brown. This was an interesting collection of his early science fiction - definitely not hard-SF. I don't think I skipped any stories in this one.

There was something about the relationships that the telepaths in the Engineman stories here have that made me uncomfortable, but it was the early 90s. The telepaths are created medically at an early age and are needed to guide spacecraft (perhaps like Navigators in Dune, but much younger). I think this quote encapsulates it:-
"It’s no longer illegal, but oldsters like Mass have throwback morality."

[Sara]

Pithecanthrpus blues
the travel bird cant rest
the rooe crush at wight of snow
we changed in our body
to throw to another life
another stone of time
there isnt gd story
or sun rise
or hard big mistake
throw time we lost our self
to be another soul
under the eyes of sky
another body we take it clothes
secret meeting in blues time
tired to meet the truth
even all the lies still we lost our tour
hide many reqest to that stars
but love cant any write to it
havnt door
but i wait
and wait will be road to love
where sun vist it
and moon talk

[Ray Smillie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of this collection is so so but it is truly saved by the last short story, The Inheritors of Earth, which shows the author at his very best. An amalgam of HG Wells, who features in the story, and the Eric Brown to be, with the feel of CD Simak thrown in.

[Joshua · Rating 2 out of 5]

brown's first book. didn't do much for me.

[Lee Pfahler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have only read the title novella. My copy is signed by Eric Brown.