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Sunstroke and other stories
This second collection of Watson's short stories further demonstrates his seemingly inexhaustible imagination. In 'The Thousand Cuts' the entire human race finds its consciousness blanked out for varying periods, but life seems somehow to have gone on in the missing days, and indeed, previously intractable problems have moved towards a solution. In 'Sunstroke' a doctor blinded accidentally during the voyage to a seemingly benign new world becomes gradually aware of disturbing changes afflicting her sighted companions. These stories, and many others, confirm Watson's place in the forefront of contemporary SF writers.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 1982
About the author
Ian Watson
300 books123 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 5, 2019
Reading my way through my "to be read" genre short fiction list - I hit Ian Watson, four stories on the list were in this collection so - InterLibrary Loan....
Not being an SF guy, I found most of them okay - readable but not really my thing:
In "Nightmare," strange creatures made of darkness swarm around the earth and blot out the night sky and our view of the stars. A spaceship is sent to reflect sunlight at the unknown creatures and hopefully chase/burn them away, but instead finds out the true, noble reason for their actions, which the ship cannot, unfortunately, communicate to earth. Eh.
"Peace" has colonists on a "uninhabited" alien planet discover another race has settled there in the interim between discovery and colonization, after one of the aliens accidentally crashes his reconnaissance craft. The humans return the body to the reptilian "Crocs" in a goodwill gesture to broker a lasting peach accord. But the problem lays in the human assumption that things like peace accords are even needed, and how signals are often read as the reverse of the intent. This is not my thing but not all that bad as done - a little glib, but nicely streamlined.
Colonist scientists arrive at new world in "Sunstroke", their doctor having recently been blinded in an accident. As they settle down to run tests, the doctor becomes increasingly aware that all her fellow shipmates seem to be losing their minds (in different ways - paranoia, voices, delusions) while she remains sane.... This was okay, for what it is. And what I mean by that is that Watson sets up a suspenseful situation (the blindness adds to the tension), but then just stops the story at a stressful moment, with no resolution.
In "A Thousand Cuts," the entire world begins to experience missing time, during which events seem to occur as normal, but which they have no memory of afterwards (including our main characters who are involved in TV production). As these strange "jumps" ("Cuts" in the title refers to "edits") increase in frequency one of the producers believes that reality is being "edited", and that by producing a comedy special about that same idea, they can signal to the universe (in whatever form, conscious or natural, that is in control) that they are aware of the jumps. But events do not go as planned... This is a simple, smooth idea presented in a streamlined form, and reminded me of Richard Matheson's writing approach (there was a Matheson story, also, about a man who learns to "montage" his way through the boring parts of life). In a sense, it may be too streamlined, although I did like the near-cosmic horror ending.
Not being an SF guy, I found most of them okay - readable but not really my thing:
In "Nightmare," strange creatures made of darkness swarm around the earth and blot out the night sky and our view of the stars. A spaceship is sent to reflect sunlight at the unknown creatures and hopefully chase/burn them away, but instead finds out the true, noble reason for their actions, which the ship cannot, unfortunately, communicate to earth. Eh.
"Peace" has colonists on a "uninhabited" alien planet discover another race has settled there in the interim between discovery and colonization, after one of the aliens accidentally crashes his reconnaissance craft. The humans return the body to the reptilian "Crocs" in a goodwill gesture to broker a lasting peach accord. But the problem lays in the human assumption that things like peace accords are even needed, and how signals are often read as the reverse of the intent. This is not my thing but not all that bad as done - a little glib, but nicely streamlined.
Colonist scientists arrive at new world in "Sunstroke", their doctor having recently been blinded in an accident. As they settle down to run tests, the doctor becomes increasingly aware that all her fellow shipmates seem to be losing their minds (in different ways - paranoia, voices, delusions) while she remains sane.... This was okay, for what it is. And what I mean by that is that Watson sets up a suspenseful situation (the blindness adds to the tension), but then just stops the story at a stressful moment, with no resolution.
In "A Thousand Cuts," the entire world begins to experience missing time, during which events seem to occur as normal, but which they have no memory of afterwards (including our main characters who are involved in TV production). As these strange "jumps" ("Cuts" in the title refers to "edits") increase in frequency one of the producers believes that reality is being "edited", and that by producing a comedy special about that same idea, they can signal to the universe (in whatever form, conscious or natural, that is in control) that they are aware of the jumps. But events do not go as planned... This is a simple, smooth idea presented in a streamlined form, and reminded me of Richard Matheson's writing approach (there was a Matheson story, also, about a man who learns to "montage" his way through the boring parts of life). In a sense, it may be too streamlined, although I did like the near-cosmic horror ending.
February 28, 2021
A mixed bag containing a few true gems, as with Ian Watsons other collection "Slow Birds." This earlier work is less focused and the lesser stories struggle to encompass the expansive territory Watson attempts to map. The best stories are all comparatively limited to explorations of a single core dream scenario. Like in Slow Birds a couple stories work by moving unexpectedly to a small scale, atypical for an author who consistently explores the long-term effects of seemingly microscopic social affairs and psychological quirks.
The finest story is "Sunstroke." An astronaut is blinded in a chemical mishap on the way to a terraformed alien planet. She relies on the others to get around and they convey what the planet surface is like. The intense sunlight begins to disturb the mental states of the sighted astronauts. They give way to theoretical obsessions and tribal rivalries. The only immune member of the crew, the protagonist struggles to find a cure.
As always in his best work Watson indulges his stream-of-consciousness musings within the boundaries of a linear narrative. The building claustrophobia and limitation of available action is offset by the protagonists coolheadedness. This is the author's most explicit horror story and it is very effective.
"The Thousand Cuts" has the world population suffering intermittent bouts of collective amnesia. In the missing time they find that life has continued and great changes have been made, such as the beginnings of nuclear disarmament. A reality TV show develops around the idea of these amnesiac periods as filmic cuts. Like waking up after recognising that you are dreaming, this admission of the movie nature of reality breaks the illusion and in the last devastating cut atomic war breaks out. This might all sound heavy handed but is relayed with unusual feeling for the nuances of the situation. For example: "At last the newseller's call of 'Read all about it!' was literally true, for how else could anyone find out in detail what had happened?" There are some wild imaginative turns.
There are a few other goodies. "Peace" concerns an alien tribe who take offense to the idea of a peace treaty, because it works on the assumption that they would not be peaceful otherwise. "Nightmares" has a strange blanket of dark matter octopuses blocking out the sun. "Flame of the Healer" is a fairly basic rundown of the afterlife as a shared dream state, which ends on an inspiredly out-of-nowhere final image, with a suggestion of malevolence which recontextualizes everything that came before.
Unfortunately the bulk of the stories sag under the weight of Watson's imagination. "The Rooms of Paradise" is literally incoherent. There are a few stories which degenerate into back and forth essay-like dialogue between characters: "Returning Home", "Bud", "Insight". One story, "The Milk of Knowledge", returns a man in time from forty year old to his fourteen year old self. Increasingly a theme of violence against women which is delivered in very poor taste emerges.
However even these stories are scattered with seeds of great ideas. The authors obvious grasp of a huge scope of speculation is exhilarating. A good collection overall.
The finest story is "Sunstroke." An astronaut is blinded in a chemical mishap on the way to a terraformed alien planet. She relies on the others to get around and they convey what the planet surface is like. The intense sunlight begins to disturb the mental states of the sighted astronauts. They give way to theoretical obsessions and tribal rivalries. The only immune member of the crew, the protagonist struggles to find a cure.
As always in his best work Watson indulges his stream-of-consciousness musings within the boundaries of a linear narrative. The building claustrophobia and limitation of available action is offset by the protagonists coolheadedness. This is the author's most explicit horror story and it is very effective.
"The Thousand Cuts" has the world population suffering intermittent bouts of collective amnesia. In the missing time they find that life has continued and great changes have been made, such as the beginnings of nuclear disarmament. A reality TV show develops around the idea of these amnesiac periods as filmic cuts. Like waking up after recognising that you are dreaming, this admission of the movie nature of reality breaks the illusion and in the last devastating cut atomic war breaks out. This might all sound heavy handed but is relayed with unusual feeling for the nuances of the situation. For example: "At last the newseller's call of 'Read all about it!' was literally true, for how else could anyone find out in detail what had happened?" There are some wild imaginative turns.
There are a few other goodies. "Peace" concerns an alien tribe who take offense to the idea of a peace treaty, because it works on the assumption that they would not be peaceful otherwise. "Nightmares" has a strange blanket of dark matter octopuses blocking out the sun. "Flame of the Healer" is a fairly basic rundown of the afterlife as a shared dream state, which ends on an inspiredly out-of-nowhere final image, with a suggestion of malevolence which recontextualizes everything that came before.
Unfortunately the bulk of the stories sag under the weight of Watson's imagination. "The Rooms of Paradise" is literally incoherent. There are a few stories which degenerate into back and forth essay-like dialogue between characters: "Returning Home", "Bud", "Insight". One story, "The Milk of Knowledge", returns a man in time from forty year old to his fourteen year old self. Increasingly a theme of violence against women which is delivered in very poor taste emerges.
However even these stories are scattered with seeds of great ideas. The authors obvious grasp of a huge scope of speculation is exhilarating. A good collection overall.
May 27, 2020
I am rather late to this collection of Ian Watson stories that were, as I write this, actually collected and published 38 years ago (in 1982). However as I then stumbled onto the review pages to add my belated two pennyworth of praise, I was surprised to be met with virtual tumbleweed.
Why have so few people raved about this succession of clever ‘what ifs’? OK they have all aged as stories, but they have aged well and even the final story, which has been in one sense been bypassed by real history, is still an interesting take on what the impact of some intriguing strange events would, or could, have been.
Regret, resignation, and acceptance are the sort of accidental themes of all or most of these tales but it’s not all doom and gloom. ‘Jean Sandwich. The Sponsor and I’, and ‘Bud’ are both amusing pun based takes on two clever SF ideas, and in the ‘The Call of the Wild : The Dog Flea Version’ you really are going to find yourself rooting for a flea – I know I was.
Why have so few people raved about this succession of clever ‘what ifs’? OK they have all aged as stories, but they have aged well and even the final story, which has been in one sense been bypassed by real history, is still an interesting take on what the impact of some intriguing strange events would, or could, have been.
Regret, resignation, and acceptance are the sort of accidental themes of all or most of these tales but it’s not all doom and gloom. ‘Jean Sandwich. The Sponsor and I’, and ‘Bud’ are both amusing pun based takes on two clever SF ideas, and in the ‘The Call of the Wild : The Dog Flea Version’ you really are going to find yourself rooting for a flea – I know I was.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews