Different Kinds of Darkness

by David Langford

A major fiction collection from multiple Hugo Award winner David Langford, Different Kinds of Darkness complements his parody assortment He Do the Time Police in Different Voices. Besides the acclaimed, Hugo-winning title piece and its influential prequels, the 36 stories include the British SF Association Award winner "Cube Root", and eight "Year's Best" and "Best Of" anthology choices. SF, fantasy, horror, and unclassifiable Langford weirdness ranging from 1975 to 2003.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Science Fiction, Audiobook, Horror, Speculative Fiction, Fantasy

Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

British science-fiction author, editor and critic. He publishes the newsletter Ansible.

Reviews

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another Levar Burton Reads podcast offering.

I really liked this one. I love how it shows that children are not as weak as adults think they are. It is SUPER creepy the level of control the adults were willing to put the kids under though. And the terrorists willing to attack a school? Sickening, just like in real life.

4.5 stars. Was undecided which way to go, but I really did like this story and how it unfolded. The kids in this story were the heroes, so rounded up to 5 stars. Highly recommended.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The short story Different Kinds of Darkness is a perfect example of a compact but powerful story. This dystopian tale is set in a world in which some mathematical formulas have become so developed that viewing an image of it can kill you instantly. Terrorists use these images on posters and once on television to kill thousands. Parents have taken to extreme measures to keep their children safe by implanting a biochip into their optic nerves. Not fully understanding the situation, some students rebel and form the Shudder Club, in which they expose themselves to a dangerous image for longer amounts of time, which basically inoculates themselves against other images. Their motto "That which does not kill us, makes us stronger" becomes prophetic when something happens at their school. The children prove to the adults another path can be followed to combat the dangerous world they live in, but the author David Langford still expertly avoids the trope of children knowing more than adults. This story is found on LeVar Burton Reads as episode 19.

[Peter Tillman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review is solely for the award-winning short of the same name (2000 Hugo award). Outstanding story, fully deserved its award. Online at http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fic...
Highly recommended. 4.5 stars, rounded up.

[Nicholas Whyte]

http://nhw.livejournal.com/598941.html[return][return]This is a collection of all Langford's short fiction not collected elsewhere (and also some that is). About half of it consists of his sf stories, ranging from decent to excellent in quality, including the brilliant "A Game of Consequences". Though I was struck that several of them revolved around a nuclear war and post-Holoocaust Britain; I guess we have different nightmares now.[return][return]Rather to my surprise the quality of the four pure fantasy stories in the collection is markedly inferior; I found them all somewhat formulaic. Again, rather to my surprise, I enjoyed almost all of the nine horror stories that followed, a genre I don't normally think of myself as liking much.[return][return]But the crowning glory of the collection is the sequence of "BLIT" stories. Langford has taken the idea of the drawings that kill you when you look at them and riffed it four different ways - police procedural ("BLIT"), academic politics ("What Happened at Cambridge IV"), usenet document ("comp.basilisk FAQ") and schoolboy yarn ("Different Kinds of Darkness", which won a Hugo). The third of these actually gives a genealogy of the concept including Fred Hoyle's The Black Cloud, J.B. Priestley's The Shapes of Sleep, Piers Anthony's Macroscope, William Gibson's Neuromancer, and Monty Python's sketch about the deadly effects of the World's Funniest Joke. I would add to these H.P. Lovecraft's "The Colour Out Of Space" and the experiments of Policeman MacCruiskeen in Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this story causes one to think. Not only about the BLITs, but about how a world would be driven to essentially blind their children in an attempt to save them from this new kind of terrorism. Why did this terrorism start? Why are they so against the use of the biochips? Who got the idea to use BLITs for terrorism? Even though this is a shorty story, you don't finish thinking about it when you finish reading. These thoughts stay with you, and you wonder if we are on a similar path in real life.

[Denver · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this story is well thought out and well written. The story wastes no time getting right into the action by jumping in on the Shudder Clubs first meeting. However, this is sort of a bad thing because there is no time to acclimate to the story and it takes a few paragraphs to understand whats going on. But, when the story gets going it becomes very intriguing and the ending was very unpredictable and creative!

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listened to this read by LeVar Burton. I wasn't sure what to think at first, but then the reveal happened.. and I was instantly intrigued. I would rank this 1 star higher just for the LeVar reading, but otherwise it was good, not excellent, in my opinion. I think if the terrorist attacks were more fleshed out (perhaps the adult POV) then this would push the story into 4 star territory. Overall not a bad listen!!

[Christopher Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I fell in love with this story on the opening line, and the plot only deepened as we went along. To me, this tale was incredible because it confronts common tropes in the most unconventional ways. This is a story I've heard a million times, yet I've distinctly never hear David Langford's take on it, and I wholeheartedly approve. It was just exceptional.

[Daniel T · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this story however I found that at times it was a bit slow. I liked the premise and it is unlike most books that I read. I am sure this would be a great story to listen to aswell. I liked the subtlety of the book and the big reveal at the end of the story, I would have liked the story to be a bit longer than it was but thats alright.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was enjoyable.

It reminded me of something, but I can't remember what it is now (as it's been several days since I listened to it).

LeVar Burton of course did an excellent job as usual.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Listened to it via LeVar Burton Reads

[David Blaylock · Rating 3 out of 5]

This reminds me of Black Mirror - S04E02 - Arkangel.

[Just a Girl Fighting Censorship]

I fully read the 1st story in this collection entitled "Heatwave" and I found that I was slightly bored

Read the title story and thought it was amazing, really well done! It is one of 4 stories that are within the same universe that are called Langford's Basilisks'. So I started the original Basilisk story "BLIT" had literally a page to go and gave up because I was so bored.

Attempted another story entitled "A Game of Consequences" and gave up after a page because I was so uninterested. Maybe I will return to this some day but I could not bring myself to even attempt any of the other 37 stories...

The short story "Different Kinds of Darkness" is a MUST READ, however I did not find the same to be true regarding the book of the same name.

[Myr A · Rating 4 out of 5]

For some reason I thought I downloaded the whole collection but I ended up with only the « Different Kinds of Darkness » short story. Nevertheless, I loved how in just a few pages, David Langford was able to introduce a lot of novelty, questioning our right to confronte danger or to stay sheltered but to see our individual rights and freedom compromised.
Looking forward to reading more of Langford

[Skye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened via LeVar Burton Reads

It was fascinating and metaphoric enough for pondering but clear enough to enjoy the little tale and writing. It also left enough room for questions, leaving the reader wanting more. Only 4 stars because the ending was a bit cheesy imo.

[LayDownYourSoul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got this collection for the BLIT stories. Was planning to still read the whole thing. But honestly the first story was possibly the worst piece of writing I've ever read. Reading another story that bad would have been torture.

So (trying to learn my lesson from similar experiences) I skipped to just the BLIT/basilisk stories, which were very good.

Really loved the concept of basilisks in this context - images that hack and then crash your brain - as well as the descriptions of them visually. Enjoyed the pseudoscience exposition/theory and comparisons between the brain and an advanced computer. The first story was my favourite, interesting considering the author says this one was written in a single frantic sitting.

Powerful allusions to AIDS, especially given the first story was written during a time when AIDS was rapidly spreading, almost the peak of the epidemic in the United Kingdom. Also enjoyed the kind of blunt explanation of predecessor stories with similar themes, may be exploring some of these.

Quotes I liked:
- "Pattern recognition programs of sufficient complexity might be vulnerable to 'Gödelian shock input' in the form of data incompatible with internal representation"
- "The 'Fractal Star' is generated by a relatively simple iterative procedure which determines whether any point in two-dimensional space (the complex field) does or does not belong to its domain"
- The idea of multiplying casualties because anyone who finds someone who has been killed by the basilisk will also meet the same fate.
- "BLITs are considered to encode Gödelian 'spoilers', implicit programs which the human equipment cannot safely run"
- "Meta-logical safety devices permit the assimilation and safe recognition of self-referential loops ('This sentence is false'), the graphic analogues of subtler 'vicious circles' might evade protective verbal analysis by striking directly through the visual cortex'
- The comparison with a "wink murder" game.
- "I made an infernal machine"
- "The brain's electrochemical immune system"
- "Afraid of AIDS, are they? Now there's a psychic AIDS that's no respecter of rubbery protectives"
- "The human mind as a formal, deterministic computational system... that... can be crashed by thoughts which the mind is physically or logically incapable of thinking"
- "For centuries, people had been writing ghost stories about things so awful that just looking at them makes you die of fright. And then a mathematician... goes and brings the stories to life"

[Chrysten McNiel · Rating 5 out of 5]

5.0⭐ “We Are The Shutter Club, We Are The Ones Who Can Take It”
- Like An Episode of BlackMirror, Published A Full Seven Years Ahead Of The Show -
**Spoilers, Short Story Only (Not Entire Compendium)**

Next up in my review catch-up, we’re on episode nineteen of LeVar Burton Reads, and we’re gifted with “Different Kinds of Darkness” by David Langford. I wanted that BlackMirror quote in the title so that a passerby hunting through reviews for their next read—someone that would bypass this review due to my spoiler warning—would still get that much. BlackMirror really should send Mr. Langford a fat check for the screen rights and make this episode. It would be the shit.

Did anyone else feel like it went by too fast? This is another short that I felt like was just too short. I want a novel version please. I struggle with short stories this good, because I just want to keep going. I want to follow The Shutter Club, I want to see how far they take it. There’s a healthy amount of theme in this story. Coming of age and child-adult relation, technology, trust, friendship. It’s honestly the total package.

Langford put down some really great scifi language, I felt like I could really see that BLIT, and I also felt stressed by imagining it. Human nerves and sensory are so tender, I thought this was just a brilliant rendering of postmodern terrorism— upsetting, believable, human.

My only complaint (and it was so minor, I didn’t even dare dock a star) was that I wanted to get to know those kids better. Characterization was a little thin. The plot was the star and I feel like stories where plot takes center stage are usually pretty drab, but here we find the exception. The kids were almost a collective character because of how they were grouped together. They were ragtag, smart, interesting, people I wanted to know better.

I loved this to the core. LeVar’s reading was wonderful. Thanks for reading my review. See you on the next one!
- 📚☕♥

[Rob · Rating 1 out of 5]

Man, It's been a while since I've had a more disappointing read. I've been trying to purchase and read this book for over five years, I originally heard LeVar Burton read the short story "Different Kinds of Darkness" and have been trying to read the rest of the collection ever since.

What a disappointment.

I tried reading every story in this collection, but so many of them were muddled and unreadable. I think I honestly was able to finish probably 1/4th of the stories in this book. I could probably count on one hand how many of the stories were "good". A disappointingly few number unfortunately.

So many of the short stories just seem to get muddled in boring or outdated plot. A lot of them seem to meander around for no reason and drone on and on and on on minutia rather than having the plot actually progress.

For a book I was looking forward to reading for years, this book was an absolutely tremendous let down.

[Earl Truss · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, I'm disappointed. I bought this book because of the Basilisk stories, which I had already read elsewhere. The other stories were maybe OK at best. Most were dated feeling.
There are four sections to the book. The first, occupying half the book, was straight science fiction but were mediocre. The next section and most of the third were labelled "horror" but most of them did not keep my attention. I've read a little "horror" in the past and none of these stories were to that horror.

[Eva Therese · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part of the LeVar Burton Reads podcast series.

The story is kinda of super abbreviated young adult dystopia, which sounds odd, but actually works very well. It's not too dystopic, the authority figures being more overcautious and smothering than evil.
It has a simple premise, engaging characters and I liked the ending.

[Cynthia Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

What interested me the most about this story is though it's about technology, it's also about one of the elements we identified as a class last week: "government control." I wonder if my students think that it was okay to implant the chips into the students' heads. I'm looking forward to reading your responses.

[Fallon · Rating 5 out of 5]

#Disneyreadalong #meettherobinsons #readaboiksetinthefuture I read this via Levar Burton Reads for the Disney Readathon. I loved it. I love stories that explore our need for knowledge. Levar’s performance was exquisite as always.

[Simran Bodhak · Rating 3 out of 5]

A world where a biochip has been inserted into the children's brains without their consent which keeps parts of the world in the dark for them (which is apparently dangerous to them). The children are metaphorically and literally kept in the dark against their wishes.

[A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short (about 40 minutes) but oh so thought provoking! Also, loved listening to Levar Burton read it. The idea of a bit is so interesting but hope it never comes into being. Also, the idea a putting chips in children's brains is disturbing!

[Izzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Placeholder for Different Kinds of Darkness from LeVar Burton Reads
Really enjoyed this short story. It was unique and interesting.

[Jessie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story was read on one of LeVar Burton’s podcasts. It’s a science-fiction story involving people’s eyesight. I would have enjoyed more chapters to the story.

[Cmoore · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great short story... I am seriously glad to see that this won the Hugo awards... And to top it off LeVar Burton narration is sublime...

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really eerie Sci Fi tale that taps into our fear of being manipulated and controlled by the powers that be and even more resonant for someone with failing eyesight.

[Andi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very thought provoking short story giving a glimpse of what the future could be like. So interesting.

[Betsy Gant · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not too shabby. I like the obvious symbolism.