Deep Future

by Eric Brown, Eric Brown (Introduction)

The debut collection of Eric Brown's short science fiction, featuring 'The Kings of Eternity' and many more. Foreword by Keith Brooke.

172 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2001

About the author

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

Reviews

[Simon Mcleish · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories are a mixture of three and four stars.

[Les · Rating 4 out of 5]

What can I say other than this is another typically good collection of shorter work from one of my all-time favourite authors. I particularly enjoyed the original Kings Of Eternity short story which was the basis for Brown's full length novel of the same name, a novel that is simply brilliant. This is a highly recommended collection that is a must-read for Eric Brown fans and any other lover of good stories.

[Metaphorosis · Rating 3 out of 5]

reviews.metaphorosis.com

2.5 stars

A collection of speculative fiction stories, including some related to the Kethani universe.

I first encountered Eric Brown via his novel Helix, which I thought was interesting in a Ringworld or Jack McDevitt kind of way - an intriguing alien artifact explored - while remaining lightish adventure. I picked up several of Brown's other books to find them quite different - understated speculation in a vaguely Richard Cowperish style, but without the same depth. Then a couple of drab detective SF books. Essentially, with every Brown book I read, I liked him less. Deep Future arrests the slide, but it doesn't bring the curve back up.

Many of the stories are from relatively early in Brown's career, but I didn't feel a great sense of development; I didn't like the older better than the newer or vice versa. My copy of his novel Engineman included several stories in the back. These stories read very much like those - contemplative, vaguely speculative stories that often focus on art. Occasionally, details in a story are inconsistent, or there's a large info dump, but on the whole, the prose is polished. There's nothing objectionable about the stories, but there's also little that's particularly interesting or memorable. Each story is preceded by author notes that add background about the stories' creation. If you're really keen to read fiction that considers art, or you're a serious Eric Brown fan, these may be for you. Otherwise, they're a pleasant but bland way to pass some time.

[David C. Mueller · Rating 2 out of 5]

A collection of SF short stories with the common themes of an older man dealing with lost and musings on how immortality may affect the human psyche. The stories were intended to evoke emotion and they achieved that goal even if they were a little repetitive in storyline and settings for my tastes. The best story in this collection in my opinion is the "The Kings of Eternity." Despite the title of the collection, none of the stories were set in the far future. For a great far future story by this author, see "The Rest is Speculation" found in "The Mammoth Book of Mindblowing SF" edited by Mike Ashley.