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So Far, So Near
Seventeen extraordinary stories, covering science-fiction, fantasy, horror and slipstream, by one of Britain's most acclaimed short story writers.
200 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 5, 2022
A collection of shots where ordinary people, very British people deal with the otherworldly. Coward's writing has a unique flavor that sets it apart from the rest of the crow.
As usual with shot story collections not all of them are great. But the majority are wonderful and some are outright brilliant.
As usual with shot story collections not all of them are great. But the majority are wonderful and some are outright brilliant.
November 4, 2015
An interesting collection of SF/fantasy tales from the author's early career. You can tell he wrote them as a young man because they all affect a cynical, everythings-a-bit-shit kind of attitude that young authors like. The ideas are often excellent and the style is straightforward and conversational.
Highlights include "Time Spent in Reconnaissance", a military officer is put in charge of an odd little alien after it is released from a government base. "By Hand or By Brain", a down-trodden call center worker begins to suspect that the co-worker he fancies might be a witch. "Little Green Card", a man is surprised to find a genial stranger on his doorstep convinced that he has reached a disguised alien embassy - and he wants to emigrate. "Remote Viewing", a young soldier is sent on secret mission to drive a charming psychic woman around the UK searching for weapon caches.
Each story ends with a note from Coward about the story. I think these might have been better collected together at the back of the book, as it is a bit jarring to have the author leaping up at the end of each fiction with some instant commentary.
Highlights include "Time Spent in Reconnaissance", a military officer is put in charge of an odd little alien after it is released from a government base. "By Hand or By Brain", a down-trodden call center worker begins to suspect that the co-worker he fancies might be a witch. "Little Green Card", a man is surprised to find a genial stranger on his doorstep convinced that he has reached a disguised alien embassy - and he wants to emigrate. "Remote Viewing", a young soldier is sent on secret mission to drive a charming psychic woman around the UK searching for weapon caches.
Each story ends with a note from Coward about the story. I think these might have been better collected together at the back of the book, as it is a bit jarring to have the author leaping up at the end of each fiction with some instant commentary.
May 3, 2017
Review originally posted at SF Crowsnest July 2008:
I once read somewhere that a good story is either about ordinary people doing extraordinary things, or extraordinary people doing ordinary things. That definition fits Mat Coward’s short story collection So Far, So Near very well indeed. There are ordinary people, like a grandmother who washes the air, or the five friends who see a UFO. There are extraordinary people, like the aliens living among us who cook a fried breakfast or live in an old people’s home. The whole collection of seventeen stories is written in a friendly, informal style with a wry sense of humour. Many are written in the first person, allowing the narrator to include details on the banalities of life along with comments on the extraordinary. It also allows us to appreciate the narrator’s bewilderment at the unusual goings-on, so much so that at time we are none the wiser by the end of the tale. I’ll come back to that point in a moment. Meanwhile, a few of the highlights:
Time Spent in Reconnaissance is the story of a captive alien who is released by the UK government to take up a normal life, accompanied by an army officer to keep an eye on him. A wonderful, if somewhat one-sided, relationship develops between the two as they adjust to civilian life. The story makes ironic observations on society as the two contemplate their futures
A successful burglar discovers that the most valuable thing the rich possess is Room to Move. It’s a story that makes no attempt to explain the bizarre, but merely accepts it as normal. It’s a good attitude to have.
Another alleged alien living in the suburbs is the central character in Little Green Card. A conspiracy theorist tracks down his home address and asks to emigrate to his home planet. Whether he really is an alien, or whether the visitor is just wrong, is strung out throughout the story. The author makes the comment somewhere in the book that he likes to think of the practicalities behind classic SF tropes, and this little tale does a magnificent job of exploring such a theme.
Is time travel possible? Is it possible to write a time travel story without tying yourself up into paradoxes? The Second Question very cleverly explores some of the unanswerable questions on the subject and does so with great style and humour.
The final story of the collection, Remote Viewing, only marginally qualifies as SF, yet I still found it one of the most enjoyable. A young soldier is given the job of chauffeuring a mysterious American woman around the countryside for a week, and that’s about the sum of the story. The dialogue and characterisation are excellent though and really draw you into the enjoyable road trip. It’s a very satisfying conclusion to what I found to be a fabulous collection.
Although a couple of the stories were a bit uncomfortably weird, I enjoyed all of them. A large proportion of them were originally published in Interzone, so you can be sure a high quality prevails throughout. Many of the tales end with an air of mystery, which mostly was quite satisfying - the protagonists were perplexed, and so were we. Occasionally I found this disappointing though. Sometimes the unexplained ending gave the impression that the author didn’t really know either. If you like to be left hanging, that’s fine, but if you like a satisfactory explanation to your story, you may be left wondering…
I once read somewhere that a good story is either about ordinary people doing extraordinary things, or extraordinary people doing ordinary things. That definition fits Mat Coward’s short story collection So Far, So Near very well indeed. There are ordinary people, like a grandmother who washes the air, or the five friends who see a UFO. There are extraordinary people, like the aliens living among us who cook a fried breakfast or live in an old people’s home. The whole collection of seventeen stories is written in a friendly, informal style with a wry sense of humour. Many are written in the first person, allowing the narrator to include details on the banalities of life along with comments on the extraordinary. It also allows us to appreciate the narrator’s bewilderment at the unusual goings-on, so much so that at time we are none the wiser by the end of the tale. I’ll come back to that point in a moment. Meanwhile, a few of the highlights:
Time Spent in Reconnaissance is the story of a captive alien who is released by the UK government to take up a normal life, accompanied by an army officer to keep an eye on him. A wonderful, if somewhat one-sided, relationship develops between the two as they adjust to civilian life. The story makes ironic observations on society as the two contemplate their futures
A successful burglar discovers that the most valuable thing the rich possess is Room to Move. It’s a story that makes no attempt to explain the bizarre, but merely accepts it as normal. It’s a good attitude to have.
Another alleged alien living in the suburbs is the central character in Little Green Card. A conspiracy theorist tracks down his home address and asks to emigrate to his home planet. Whether he really is an alien, or whether the visitor is just wrong, is strung out throughout the story. The author makes the comment somewhere in the book that he likes to think of the practicalities behind classic SF tropes, and this little tale does a magnificent job of exploring such a theme.
Is time travel possible? Is it possible to write a time travel story without tying yourself up into paradoxes? The Second Question very cleverly explores some of the unanswerable questions on the subject and does so with great style and humour.
The final story of the collection, Remote Viewing, only marginally qualifies as SF, yet I still found it one of the most enjoyable. A young soldier is given the job of chauffeuring a mysterious American woman around the countryside for a week, and that’s about the sum of the story. The dialogue and characterisation are excellent though and really draw you into the enjoyable road trip. It’s a very satisfying conclusion to what I found to be a fabulous collection.
Although a couple of the stories were a bit uncomfortably weird, I enjoyed all of them. A large proportion of them were originally published in Interzone, so you can be sure a high quality prevails throughout. Many of the tales end with an air of mystery, which mostly was quite satisfying - the protagonists were perplexed, and so were we. Occasionally I found this disappointing though. Sometimes the unexplained ending gave the impression that the author didn’t really know either. If you like to be left hanging, that’s fine, but if you like a satisfactory explanation to your story, you may be left wondering…
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews