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Burning Brightly: 50 Years of Novacon
An anthology of rare reprints and original fiction from some of the biggest names in British Science Fiction.Includes “The Spheres” by Iain M. Banks, a story that has never been collected or reprinted since it first appeared in 2010 Novacon souvenir booklet, alongside similar rarities by Stephen Baxter, Peter F. Hamilton, Justina Robson, Paul McAuley, Jaine Fenn, Geoff Ryman, Juliet E. McKenna and Anne Nicholls. Also features original stories by Adrian Tchaikovsky, Ian R. MacLeod, Eric Brown, Kari Sperring, and Martin Sketchley.One of the longest running science fiction conventions in the world, Novacon is an established feature of the UK genre scene, with an illustrious list of guests stretching back over 50 years. To commemorate the event’s 50th anniversary, members of the convention committee have selected their favourite stories from those that have kindly been written by guests for the convention over the years.Those stories are presented here along with five new stories written for the book by other former guests and attendees.Cover art by David A. HardyTable of Introduction by Rog PeytonChiron – Stephen BaxterThe Spheres – Iain M. BanksActs of Defiance – Eric BrownHeatwave – Anne NichollsAlien TV – Paul McAuleyCanary Girls – Kari SperringSoftlight Sins – Peter F. HamiltonErie Lackawana Song – Justina RobsonThrough the Veil – Juliet E. McKennaThe Coming of Enkidu – Geoff RymanRed Sky in the Morning – Adrian TchaikovskyThe God of Nothing – Ian R. MacLeodThe Ships of Aleph – Jaine FennBloodbirds – Martin SketchleyAbout the Authorsspace opera
258 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 30, 2021
19 people are currently reading
30 people want to read
About the author
Ian Whates
122 books81 followersIan Whates lives in a comfortable home down a quiet cul-de-sac in an idyllic Cambridgeshire village, which he shares with his partner Helen and their pets – Honey the golden cocker spaniel, Calvin the tailless black cat and Inky the goldfish (sadly, Binky died a few years ago).
Ian’s earliest memories of science fiction are fragmented. He remembers loving Dr Who from an early age and other TV shows such as Lost in Space and Star Trek, but a defining moment came when he heard a radio adaptation of John Wyndham’s The Chrysalids. From that moment on he was hooked and became a frequent haunter of the local library, voraciously devouring the contents of their SF section.
This early love of science fiction manifested most tellingly during his school days, when he produced an SF murder mystery as homework after being set the essay title “The Language of Shakespeare”, much to the bemusement of his English teacher.
Ian’s first published stories appeared in the late 1980s in small press magazines such as Dream and New Moon Quarterly, after which he took a break from writing in order to research his chosen fields of science fiction and fantasy. In other words, he read copious amounts of both. Clearly the research was extensive, because he published nothing further for some seventeen years. In the early 2000s he made the decision to pursue writing seriously, joining the Northampton SF Writers Group in 2004 after being introduced to its chairman, Ian Watson.
In 2006 he started submitting stories again, and has subsequently been surprised at how many otherwise eminently sensible people have chosen to publish him. A couple have even appeared in the science journal Nature, and one, “The Gift of Joy”, even found its way onto the five-strong shortlist for best short story in the British Science Fiction Association Awards. And it didn’t come last! Ironically, the award was actually won by Ken MacLeod’s “Lighting Out”, a piece Ian had commissioned, edited and published in the NewCon Press anthology disLOCATIONS (2007).
In 2006 Ian launched independent publisher NewCon Press, quite by accident (buy him a pint sometime and he’ll tell you about it). Through NewCon he has been privileged to publish original stories from some of the biggest names in genre fiction, as well as provide debuts to some genuinely talented newcomers. The books, their covers and contents have racked up an impressive array of credits – four BSFA Awards, one BSF Award to date, inclusion in ‘Year’s Best’ anthologies and recommendations and honourable mentions from the likes of Gardner Dozios and Locus magazine.
In addition to his publishing and writing, Ian is currently a director of both the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) and the British Science Fiction Association (BSFA), editing Matrix, the online news and media reviews magazine, for the latter.
His first two completed novels are both due to appear in early 2010: City of Dreams and Nightmare via Harper Collins’ imprint Angry Robot, and The Noise Within from Rebellion imprint Solaris, with sequels to follow. When not pinching himself to make sure this is all really happening, Ian is currently beavering away at the sequels… honest!
Ian’s earliest memories of science fiction are fragmented. He remembers loving Dr Who from an early age and other TV shows such as Lost in Space and Star Trek, but a defining moment came when he heard a radio adaptation of John Wyndham’s The Chrysalids. From that moment on he was hooked and became a frequent haunter of the local library, voraciously devouring the contents of their SF section.
This early love of science fiction manifested most tellingly during his school days, when he produced an SF murder mystery as homework after being set the essay title “The Language of Shakespeare”, much to the bemusement of his English teacher.
Ian’s first published stories appeared in the late 1980s in small press magazines such as Dream and New Moon Quarterly, after which he took a break from writing in order to research his chosen fields of science fiction and fantasy. In other words, he read copious amounts of both. Clearly the research was extensive, because he published nothing further for some seventeen years. In the early 2000s he made the decision to pursue writing seriously, joining the Northampton SF Writers Group in 2004 after being introduced to its chairman, Ian Watson.
In 2006 he started submitting stories again, and has subsequently been surprised at how many otherwise eminently sensible people have chosen to publish him. A couple have even appeared in the science journal Nature, and one, “The Gift of Joy”, even found its way onto the five-strong shortlist for best short story in the British Science Fiction Association Awards. And it didn’t come last! Ironically, the award was actually won by Ken MacLeod’s “Lighting Out”, a piece Ian had commissioned, edited and published in the NewCon Press anthology disLOCATIONS (2007).
In 2006 Ian launched independent publisher NewCon Press, quite by accident (buy him a pint sometime and he’ll tell you about it). Through NewCon he has been privileged to publish original stories from some of the biggest names in genre fiction, as well as provide debuts to some genuinely talented newcomers. The books, their covers and contents have racked up an impressive array of credits – four BSFA Awards, one BSF Award to date, inclusion in ‘Year’s Best’ anthologies and recommendations and honourable mentions from the likes of Gardner Dozios and Locus magazine.
In addition to his publishing and writing, Ian is currently a director of both the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) and the British Science Fiction Association (BSFA), editing Matrix, the online news and media reviews magazine, for the latter.
His first two completed novels are both due to appear in early 2010: City of Dreams and Nightmare via Harper Collins’ imprint Angry Robot, and The Noise Within from Rebellion imprint Solaris, with sequels to follow. When not pinching himself to make sure this is all really happening, Ian is currently beavering away at the sequels… honest!
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 11, 2022
A collection of stories by some of the guest speakers over the 50 years of the Novacon SF conventions.
As with all anthologies, there is the good, the bad and the ugly.
The stories within the book are probably worth a combined average of a solid three stars. However, it was worth an extra star for the fact that I got the special numbered first edition hardback, signed by all the authors (except Iain Banks) and the editor Ian Whates.
Authors included Iain M Banks, Peter Hamilton, Stephen Baxter, Eric Brown, Paul McAuley, Adrian Tchaikovsky and Ian MacLeod, all of whom I've come across before and are well known to me for excellent SF.
The pick of the stories for me is probably Iain M Banks' 'The Spheres', which is basically a scene that was cut from his 'Transition' novel. If you've read Transition, then this is a bonus if you've not come across it before (like me). However, the story stands up on it's own if you haven't read Transition.
Other highlights are Stephen Baxter's 'Chiron', Eric Brown's 'Acts of Defiance', Paul McAuley's 'Alien TV' and Jaine Fenn's 'The Ships of Aleph' (an author previously unknown to me, but I was definitely impressed by this).
Apart from the 'Canary Girls' by Kari Spelling (which was less a SF tale and more a meandering, inchoate, mish-mash of semi-poetic prose about some historic women of Coventry which failed to be the least bit interesting or to have any point or purpose), everything else was easily readable, if not necessarily to my taste.
All in all, everything you could expect from a varied selection of stories from SF authors.
As with all anthologies, there is the good, the bad and the ugly.
The stories within the book are probably worth a combined average of a solid three stars. However, it was worth an extra star for the fact that I got the special numbered first edition hardback, signed by all the authors (except Iain Banks) and the editor Ian Whates.
Authors included Iain M Banks, Peter Hamilton, Stephen Baxter, Eric Brown, Paul McAuley, Adrian Tchaikovsky and Ian MacLeod, all of whom I've come across before and are well known to me for excellent SF.
The pick of the stories for me is probably Iain M Banks' 'The Spheres', which is basically a scene that was cut from his 'Transition' novel. If you've read Transition, then this is a bonus if you've not come across it before (like me). However, the story stands up on it's own if you haven't read Transition.
Other highlights are Stephen Baxter's 'Chiron', Eric Brown's 'Acts of Defiance', Paul McAuley's 'Alien TV' and Jaine Fenn's 'The Ships of Aleph' (an author previously unknown to me, but I was definitely impressed by this).
Apart from the 'Canary Girls' by Kari Spelling (which was less a SF tale and more a meandering, inchoate, mish-mash of semi-poetic prose about some historic women of Coventry which failed to be the least bit interesting or to have any point or purpose), everything else was easily readable, if not necessarily to my taste.
All in all, everything you could expect from a varied selection of stories from SF authors.
Read
January 3, 2022This collection of short pieces by Novacon guests of honour was, unsurprisingly, a variable read. I hesitate to call them "short stories" since several seemed to be more vignettes (eg "Canary Girls), exploration of an idea (eg "Softlight Sins"), or backstory or outtakes from a larger work such as a novel (eg "The Spheres"). As such, they worked as tasters of the authors' other writing.
I'd have liked to see some contextual commentary attached to each piece, as is done in some collections.
I hadn't read any of the authors before. Frankly, none of the pieces made me keen to seek out their other works.
I thank the publisher for a free copy. This is my honest review.
I'd have liked to see some contextual commentary attached to each piece, as is done in some collections.
I hadn't read any of the authors before. Frankly, none of the pieces made me keen to seek out their other works.
I thank the publisher for a free copy. This is my honest review.
December 12, 2023
I wanted to like this, especially as it has contributions from some of my favourite authors, but there was nothing memorable about this collection. It didn’t tie together in any way.
January 11, 2022
From 1979 onwards, every Novacon SF Convention featured a free special with a short story donated by that year’s guest of honour. This anthology features a selection from those specials.
Stephen Baxter’s ‘Chiron’ is set in his ‘Xeelee Sequence’ universe but stands alone just fine. Anna Gage is a top pilot who was lucky enough to be in space when the alien Squeem conquered the Solar System. She finds a colony of free humans on Chiron, ‘a dirty snowball two hundred miles across’ that loops between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus.
Should they fight or run away? The story stretches so far beyond this premise, in time and space, that a summary would be pointless, but it certainly evokes that good old sense of wonder.
‘The Spheres’ by Iain M. Banks was part of the first draft of his novel ‘Transition’ but he cut it when his plans changed. With some revision, it makes for a complex short story with multiple points of view. The spheres, glowing balls of light, float over the surface of a shallow lake and sometimes down the streets of Last Resort, the steam age city on the shore.
They seem to be intelligent. This, too, goes off in unexpected directions but that’s the joy of short stories.
In ‘Acts Of Defiance’ by Eric Brown, Britain is under a tyrannical regime that bans books. On a remote Scottish island, two old men seek to live quietly with their libraries but the Party is relentless. Features an impassioned plea for the value of literature which ‘allow me to share the visions, the thoughts of others besides myself. They show me that I am not the centre of the universe, that my psyche is not the only one that matters.’ Happily, Brown does not specify the political bent of the Party. The extremists of both left and right want to ban dissenting opinions. See Twitter.
‘Heatwave’ by Anne Nicholls is a novelette about a time-travelling expedition to the distant past to study climate events and Neanderthals. In 2091, floods plague northern Europe while everywhere south of the Pyrenees suffers drought and forest fires. A lot happened but somehow it didn’t grip me.
Paul McAuley’s ‘Alien TV’ has aliens broadcasting television programmes to Earth. From the information therein, scientists have learned vital stuff and our technology has progressed by leaps and bounds. Alan, a working scientist, meets with Howard, his best friend from Cambridge who took a science degree but went into freelance journalism. A subtle story about life choices.
‘Canary Girls’ by Kari Sperring is a prose poem about the role of women in the history of Coventry with an afterword by the author explaining who’s who. Different and a pleasant read.
I think ‘Softlight Sins’ by Peter F. Hamilton is my favourite in the book. The death penalty is back in Britain and a madman called Reynolds who slaughtered his entire family, due for execution, is sentenced instead to a personality wipe by means of softlight, a technique that uses lasers to erase a person’s memory and behaviour patterns.
The experiment takes an unexpected turn but the judge in charge decides to continue. There seems to be some confusion between Christianity and Buddhism in our hero’s mind but it’s worth it for the ending.
Justina Robson’s ‘Erie Lackawanna Song’ concerns a virus brewed in a laboratory that might have devastating effects if released into the population. ‘The end of the world as we know it,’ says Doctor Celia Glick to Jackson, her commuting companion on the Hoboken to Manhattan ferry. A slow, stately story, rich in similes and character.
‘Through The Veil’ by Juliet E. McKenna is an enjoyable fantasy novelette in which an organisation of priestesses work to prevent unreal creatures from stepping through the veil to enter the tangible world. If enough people believe in an imaginary creation, it can become real, like Sherlock Holmes.
Geoff Ryman does something a bit different with ‘The Coming Of Enkidu’. A creature takes shape in the dust, nourished by a lioness, rises and discovers the world. Ryman is involved in promoting African SF and this piece may reflect that influence. I liked it.
In ‘Red Sky In The Morning’ by Adrian Tchaikovsky, society has fallen apart due to floods and crop failures but Welsh people are building back better. Then the English soldiers come and it’s up to Rhys Ap Owain, the last descendant of Owen Glendower, to help the locals. Pure fantasy, of course, but my Celtic blood surged with pride.
‘The God Of Nothing’ by Iain R. MacLeod starts with the humble Chief Administrator being summoned by the king and told to work out an accurate system whereby tariffs, henceforth just one-tenth of what the people produce, can be accurately tallied. The current system is too primitive.
Clueless about how to do this, the Chief Administrator seeks help amid the temples to various gods on a nearby mountain. He stumbles into a small place which, the sole attendant tells him, serves the god of nothing. A charming, humorous story of the slow rise of civilisation.
Jaine Fenn’s protagonist also ends up a long way from his starting point in ‘The Ships Of Aleph’. Lachin is a fisherman’s son but curious about the world beyond the village. When a duke comes and launches a ship to sail out to the open sea, perhaps to the edge of the world, Lachin is keen to go. He goes far beyond his wildest dreams. Lachin is self-centred, self-contained, probably selfish, but he follows his own path and is content. I liked him.
‘Bloodbirds’ by Martin Sketchley concludes this volume. Nikki works for Vanguard, finding and killing humans who carry, unknowingly, the embryos of the Quall. That alien race came to Earth, enhanced humans with biotechnology to fight wars for them, then got fed up with human resistance and left, leaving the technology behind and the embryos. Nikki’s bloodbirds can detect the alien presence and she kills the carrier. Then she falls in love. There’s a hook, an infodump, a flashback to the body of the story and a perfect twist. Super.
On reading in Rog Peyton’s introduction that writers gave these stories free to Novacon, I worried. Might not ‘It Came From the Trunk’ be a more apt title? Maybe it would but great stories often don’t sell at once to the fickle market and these are by some of the biggest names in the field.
‘Burning Brightly’ is an excellent collection of varied Science Fiction tales with a few fantasies thrown in for good measure. More solid fare from Newcon Press and certainly worth your time and money.
Stephen Baxter’s ‘Chiron’ is set in his ‘Xeelee Sequence’ universe but stands alone just fine. Anna Gage is a top pilot who was lucky enough to be in space when the alien Squeem conquered the Solar System. She finds a colony of free humans on Chiron, ‘a dirty snowball two hundred miles across’ that loops between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus.
Should they fight or run away? The story stretches so far beyond this premise, in time and space, that a summary would be pointless, but it certainly evokes that good old sense of wonder.
‘The Spheres’ by Iain M. Banks was part of the first draft of his novel ‘Transition’ but he cut it when his plans changed. With some revision, it makes for a complex short story with multiple points of view. The spheres, glowing balls of light, float over the surface of a shallow lake and sometimes down the streets of Last Resort, the steam age city on the shore.
They seem to be intelligent. This, too, goes off in unexpected directions but that’s the joy of short stories.
In ‘Acts Of Defiance’ by Eric Brown, Britain is under a tyrannical regime that bans books. On a remote Scottish island, two old men seek to live quietly with their libraries but the Party is relentless. Features an impassioned plea for the value of literature which ‘allow me to share the visions, the thoughts of others besides myself. They show me that I am not the centre of the universe, that my psyche is not the only one that matters.’ Happily, Brown does not specify the political bent of the Party. The extremists of both left and right want to ban dissenting opinions. See Twitter.
‘Heatwave’ by Anne Nicholls is a novelette about a time-travelling expedition to the distant past to study climate events and Neanderthals. In 2091, floods plague northern Europe while everywhere south of the Pyrenees suffers drought and forest fires. A lot happened but somehow it didn’t grip me.
Paul McAuley’s ‘Alien TV’ has aliens broadcasting television programmes to Earth. From the information therein, scientists have learned vital stuff and our technology has progressed by leaps and bounds. Alan, a working scientist, meets with Howard, his best friend from Cambridge who took a science degree but went into freelance journalism. A subtle story about life choices.
‘Canary Girls’ by Kari Sperring is a prose poem about the role of women in the history of Coventry with an afterword by the author explaining who’s who. Different and a pleasant read.
I think ‘Softlight Sins’ by Peter F. Hamilton is my favourite in the book. The death penalty is back in Britain and a madman called Reynolds who slaughtered his entire family, due for execution, is sentenced instead to a personality wipe by means of softlight, a technique that uses lasers to erase a person’s memory and behaviour patterns.
The experiment takes an unexpected turn but the judge in charge decides to continue. There seems to be some confusion between Christianity and Buddhism in our hero’s mind but it’s worth it for the ending.
Justina Robson’s ‘Erie Lackawanna Song’ concerns a virus brewed in a laboratory that might have devastating effects if released into the population. ‘The end of the world as we know it,’ says Doctor Celia Glick to Jackson, her commuting companion on the Hoboken to Manhattan ferry. A slow, stately story, rich in similes and character.
‘Through The Veil’ by Juliet E. McKenna is an enjoyable fantasy novelette in which an organisation of priestesses work to prevent unreal creatures from stepping through the veil to enter the tangible world. If enough people believe in an imaginary creation, it can become real, like Sherlock Holmes.
Geoff Ryman does something a bit different with ‘The Coming Of Enkidu’. A creature takes shape in the dust, nourished by a lioness, rises and discovers the world. Ryman is involved in promoting African SF and this piece may reflect that influence. I liked it.
In ‘Red Sky In The Morning’ by Adrian Tchaikovsky, society has fallen apart due to floods and crop failures but Welsh people are building back better. Then the English soldiers come and it’s up to Rhys Ap Owain, the last descendant of Owen Glendower, to help the locals. Pure fantasy, of course, but my Celtic blood surged with pride.
‘The God Of Nothing’ by Iain R. MacLeod starts with the humble Chief Administrator being summoned by the king and told to work out an accurate system whereby tariffs, henceforth just one-tenth of what the people produce, can be accurately tallied. The current system is too primitive.
Clueless about how to do this, the Chief Administrator seeks help amid the temples to various gods on a nearby mountain. He stumbles into a small place which, the sole attendant tells him, serves the god of nothing. A charming, humorous story of the slow rise of civilisation.
Jaine Fenn’s protagonist also ends up a long way from his starting point in ‘The Ships Of Aleph’. Lachin is a fisherman’s son but curious about the world beyond the village. When a duke comes and launches a ship to sail out to the open sea, perhaps to the edge of the world, Lachin is keen to go. He goes far beyond his wildest dreams. Lachin is self-centred, self-contained, probably selfish, but he follows his own path and is content. I liked him.
‘Bloodbirds’ by Martin Sketchley concludes this volume. Nikki works for Vanguard, finding and killing humans who carry, unknowingly, the embryos of the Quall. That alien race came to Earth, enhanced humans with biotechnology to fight wars for them, then got fed up with human resistance and left, leaving the technology behind and the embryos. Nikki’s bloodbirds can detect the alien presence and she kills the carrier. Then she falls in love. There’s a hook, an infodump, a flashback to the body of the story and a perfect twist. Super.
On reading in Rog Peyton’s introduction that writers gave these stories free to Novacon, I worried. Might not ‘It Came From the Trunk’ be a more apt title? Maybe it would but great stories often don’t sell at once to the fickle market and these are by some of the biggest names in the field.
‘Burning Brightly’ is an excellent collection of varied Science Fiction tales with a few fantasies thrown in for good measure. More solid fare from Newcon Press and certainly worth your time and money.
March 2, 2022
First and foremost, this is a cracking read! Of course, as with any collection of disparate stories by a diverse range of authors, there will always be some stories in there which are less to one's taste than others - we all know what we like and there is necessarily a lot of subjective assessment in any review of such a collection - but as you might expect in a collection by some of the great and the good of SF/F fiction, this one hits the target much more than it misses. For my tastes, in fact, there was only one story that I found less than satisfactory, so in a collection of 14 tales that's pretty good going! The slow burning, philosophical 'The Ships of Aleph' by Jaine Fenn was a particular highlight, though to single her out seems rather unfair amongst such a high quality field. As you can tell, I heartily recommend this book, and if Science Fiction and Fantasy tales are your thing, then this has GOT to be worth a read!
December 7, 2025
https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/burning-brightly-50-years-of-novacon-ed-ian-whates/
This is a collection of fourteen short stories which were donated to the convention by their authors – quite a stellar list of contributors. I thought they were all good; the two best for me were “Acts of Defiance” by Eric Brown, in a future totalitarian Scotland where reading dangerous books has been forbidden, and “The Ships of Aleph” by Jaine Fenn, whose protagonist sails over the edge of a flat world and finds himself in a place both familiar and unfamiliar.
This is a collection of fourteen short stories which were donated to the convention by their authors – quite a stellar list of contributors. I thought they were all good; the two best for me were “Acts of Defiance” by Eric Brown, in a future totalitarian Scotland where reading dangerous books has been forbidden, and “The Ships of Aleph” by Jaine Fenn, whose protagonist sails over the edge of a flat world and finds himself in a place both familiar and unfamiliar.
December 21, 2021
This is a compilation of short stories written to be given out as part if the program book to attendees at Novacon. Some were written for that express purpose. Others were resurrected from the authors' unfinished manuscripts. As with any anthology some were pretty good, others not-so-much. By the time I had finished the book (read over about a week), I had already forgotten most of the earlier stories. The book was free so I can't complain but I am glad I didn't pay for it.
December 16, 2021
Some interesting stories in this anthology. Plus a couple I DNF as I was bored, alas.
April 3, 2022
A diverse, enjoyable read
September 9, 2022
A great collection of short stories.
November 8, 2023
Only read “Red Sky in the Morning” by Adrian Tchaikovsky
June 6, 2022
Disuguale
[Disclaimer: Ho ricevuto il libro grazie al programma Early Reviewer di LibraryThing]
Tradizione vuole che gli ospiti di Novacon - il ritrovo annuale dei fan SF del Regno Unito - scrivano un racconto per i partecipanti. Questo libro raccoglie alcuni di quei racconti. Naturalmente c'è un problemuccio: gli autori vivono con i proventi dei loro testi, e quindi è difficile che in qualcosa di regalato ci siano delle gemme. In effetti il livello delle storie è molto disuguale: soprattutto le prime sono più deboli, almeno a mio giudizio. Ecco un commento monolinea per ciascun racconto:
▪ Chiron (Stephen Baxter): Buona vecchia SF hard.
▪ The Spheres (Iain M. Banks): L'introduzione spiega come è nato il racconto (tagliato da un libro); ma non mi pare che il testo da solo regga.
▪ Acts of Defiance (Eric Brown): Variazione su Fahrenheit 451 che non aggiunge nulla.
▪ Heatwave (Anne Nicholls): Bella idea, ma con troppi buchi nella trama.
▪ Alien TV (Paul McAuley): L'idea sarebbe stata carina, ma arrivati alla fine l'autore si è perso.
▪ Canary Girls (Kari Sperring): Non l'ho capito.
▪ Softlight Sins (Peter F. Hamilton): In una parola: fantastico.
▪ Erie Lackawanna Song (Justina Robson): la fine è un anticlimax.
▪ Through the Veil (Juliet E. McKenna): I fantasmi possono diventare davvero reali. Bello!
▪ The Coming Of Enkidu (Geoff Ryman): Evocativo, ma non ho capito come finisce.
▪ Red Sky in the Morning (Adrian Tchaikovsky): Forse un po' troppo fantasy, ma comunque carino.
▪ The God of Nothing (Ian R. MacLeod): Anche se il finale è divertente, il testo è troppo stiracchiato.
▪ The Ships of Aleph (Jaine Fenn) Fantastico!
▪ Bloodbirds (Martin Sketchley): Stora troppo triste per i miei gusti.
[Disclaimer: Ho ricevuto il libro grazie al programma Early Reviewer di LibraryThing]
Tradizione vuole che gli ospiti di Novacon - il ritrovo annuale dei fan SF del Regno Unito - scrivano un racconto per i partecipanti. Questo libro raccoglie alcuni di quei racconti. Naturalmente c'è un problemuccio: gli autori vivono con i proventi dei loro testi, e quindi è difficile che in qualcosa di regalato ci siano delle gemme. In effetti il livello delle storie è molto disuguale: soprattutto le prime sono più deboli, almeno a mio giudizio. Ecco un commento monolinea per ciascun racconto:
▪ Chiron (Stephen Baxter): Buona vecchia SF hard.
▪ The Spheres (Iain M. Banks): L'introduzione spiega come è nato il racconto (tagliato da un libro); ma non mi pare che il testo da solo regga.
▪ Acts of Defiance (Eric Brown): Variazione su Fahrenheit 451 che non aggiunge nulla.
▪ Heatwave (Anne Nicholls): Bella idea, ma con troppi buchi nella trama.
▪ Alien TV (Paul McAuley): L'idea sarebbe stata carina, ma arrivati alla fine l'autore si è perso.
▪ Canary Girls (Kari Sperring): Non l'ho capito.
▪ Softlight Sins (Peter F. Hamilton): In una parola: fantastico.
▪ Erie Lackawanna Song (Justina Robson): la fine è un anticlimax.
▪ Through the Veil (Juliet E. McKenna): I fantasmi possono diventare davvero reali. Bello!
▪ The Coming Of Enkidu (Geoff Ryman): Evocativo, ma non ho capito come finisce.
▪ Red Sky in the Morning (Adrian Tchaikovsky): Forse un po' troppo fantasy, ma comunque carino.
▪ The God of Nothing (Ian R. MacLeod): Anche se il finale è divertente, il testo è troppo stiracchiato.
▪ The Ships of Aleph (Jaine Fenn) Fantastico!
▪ Bloodbirds (Martin Sketchley): Stora troppo triste per i miei gusti.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews