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New Writings in SF #16
New Writings in Science Fiction: No. 16
ContentsDouglas R. Mason. All Done By Mirrors. 1969Colin Kapp. Getaway From Getawehi. 1969Sydney J. Bounds. Throwback. 1969Christopher Priest. The Perihelion Man. 1969Michael G. Coney. R26/5/PSY and I. 1969James White. Meatball. 1969
- GenresScience Fiction
192 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1969
About the author
John Carnell
125 books5 followersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
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Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
November 1, 2025
The editors did a poor choice choosing stories.
All of them have deeply scientific principles at their core. This is the hardest of hard science fiction. For the most part, the principle is the only significant part of the story.
Story 1: principle established. Principle mathed out. Done.
Story 2: principle established (a wonky and unnecessary mechanism, given that cloning would have existed as a concept anyway). Amateurish choreography meant characters in the wrong places, and a conclusive twist that makes no sense at all.
The last story is a neat idea: if you had a galactic federation with aliens in it, then you would have that many different biological and atmospheric needs. As with most of the stories, though, the concept is about it. There was literally no plot. It more or less just listed a bunch of aliens with fairly novel biological features and then it stopped.
One story had a neat principle which it actually demonstrated having meaningful consequences to the people in the story, and progressed to resolving an idea at the end. This. This is fiction.
I would avoid this series entirely. It seems the editor does not understand what a story actually is.
All of them have deeply scientific principles at their core. This is the hardest of hard science fiction. For the most part, the principle is the only significant part of the story.
Story 1: principle established. Principle mathed out. Done.
Story 2: principle established (a wonky and unnecessary mechanism, given that cloning would have existed as a concept anyway). Amateurish choreography meant characters in the wrong places, and a conclusive twist that makes no sense at all.
The last story is a neat idea: if you had a galactic federation with aliens in it, then you would have that many different biological and atmospheric needs. As with most of the stories, though, the concept is about it. There was literally no plot. It more or less just listed a bunch of aliens with fairly novel biological features and then it stopped.
One story had a neat principle which it actually demonstrated having meaningful consequences to the people in the story, and progressed to resolving an idea at the end. This. This is fiction.
I would avoid this series entirely. It seems the editor does not understand what a story actually is.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review