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pussreboots's review against another edition
5.0
Whereas Wyndham may now be best remembered for his novel Day of the Triffids clearly his strenghth as a story teller lay in the short story rather than the novel. These stories, the longest of which is thirty pages, each of which starts on the notion of "what if..." are delightfully entertaining, thrilling or disturbing depending on the tone of the particular story.
CHRONOCLASM: It's the story of a man faced with sudden knowledge of the immediate and distant future and his willing participation (for good and bad) to see the future play out as it has been described to him. Though the threat of a temporal paradox is presented, the story ends up playing out as if paradoxes cannot come into being leaving the reader to ponder if man really has as much free will as he thinks he does.
TIME TO REST:
This is one of three stories themed around Mars. Here the Martians are native humanoids, tall, graceful and cultured. The main character is an expatriot Earthman living the sort of life one of Hemingway's characters would have lived if he had written science fiction. It's really just a lovely mood piece.
METEOR:
Meteor plays on the notions of perception and assumption as it follows the disasterous attempt of a slow ship to colonize a far away world.
SURVIVAL:
Survival is the closest these stories get to pure horror. It has all of the classic themes of man's inhumanity to man and monster within that is released when one's existence is threatened. It is the second story that features Mars but here Mars is an unattainable goal.
PAWLEY'S PEEPHOLES:
This story is another time travel piece but is much more lighthearted than Chronoclasm. What would happen if people from the future decided to turn the past into one giant theme park? How would the citizens of the past react?
OPPOSITE NUMBER
Here's another take on time travel. This story works around the idea of different futures arising from different outcomes to decisions. Can true love sort things out when fates goes horribly pear shaped?
PILLAR TO POST
Wyndham's writing here reminded me most of H.G. Wells's social comentary science fiction, espcially that of The Time Machine. Here a man gets a brief chance to live in the future when he is mistakenly transmitted into a distant future. Although the future society is no Eutopia it is better than his life in the past. How hard will he fight to keep his future life and do they really want him in the future?
DUMB MARTIAN
If the woman in this story weren't a Martian (and I think she was a human but of a multi-generation Martian lineage), the story would just be a cautionary tale against domestic abuse.
COMPASSION CIRCUIT
There are a couple classic Twilight Zone episodes that are similar to this story of man and machine and man becoming machine. It's not particularly unique or clever but still chilling.
WILD FLOWER
The last story of the group is by far the weakest. The book ends on a whimper. Just sing Where Have All the Flowers Gone and leave it at that.
CHRONOCLASM: It's the story of a man faced with sudden knowledge of the immediate and distant future and his willing participation (for good and bad) to see the future play out as it has been described to him. Though the threat of a temporal paradox is presented, the story ends up playing out as if paradoxes cannot come into being leaving the reader to ponder if man really has as much free will as he thinks he does.
TIME TO REST:
This is one of three stories themed around Mars. Here the Martians are native humanoids, tall, graceful and cultured. The main character is an expatriot Earthman living the sort of life one of Hemingway's characters would have lived if he had written science fiction. It's really just a lovely mood piece.
METEOR:
Meteor plays on the notions of perception and assumption as it follows the disasterous attempt of a slow ship to colonize a far away world.
SURVIVAL:
Survival is the closest these stories get to pure horror. It has all of the classic themes of man's inhumanity to man and monster within that is released when one's existence is threatened. It is the second story that features Mars but here Mars is an unattainable goal.
PAWLEY'S PEEPHOLES:
This story is another time travel piece but is much more lighthearted than Chronoclasm. What would happen if people from the future decided to turn the past into one giant theme park? How would the citizens of the past react?
OPPOSITE NUMBER
Here's another take on time travel. This story works around the idea of different futures arising from different outcomes to decisions. Can true love sort things out when fates goes horribly pear shaped?
PILLAR TO POST
Wyndham's writing here reminded me most of H.G. Wells's social comentary science fiction, espcially that of The Time Machine. Here a man gets a brief chance to live in the future when he is mistakenly transmitted into a distant future. Although the future society is no Eutopia it is better than his life in the past. How hard will he fight to keep his future life and do they really want him in the future?
DUMB MARTIAN
If the woman in this story weren't a Martian (and I think she was a human but of a multi-generation Martian lineage), the story would just be a cautionary tale against domestic abuse.
COMPASSION CIRCUIT
There are a couple classic Twilight Zone episodes that are similar to this story of man and machine and man becoming machine. It's not particularly unique or clever but still chilling.
WILD FLOWER
The last story of the group is by far the weakest. The book ends on a whimper. Just sing Where Have All the Flowers Gone and leave it at that.
jaymoran's review
4.0
Wyndham is such a creative, genius mind that I am left in awe of his limitless ideas. Not his greatest piece but still thoroughly enjoyable and immensely clever.
questingnotcoasting's review
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
I've read most of Wyndham's novels but this was my first collection of his short stories. There were some really brilliant ones here. I particularly enjoyed Meteor and Survival. The stories are pretty varied in terms of themes, which include time travel, space and parallel universes. Some of them ended as I expected but there were a few which really surprised me.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cannibalism, Death, and Domestic abuse
still_reading_sam's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
latepaul's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars
A sort story collection from the author of one of my favourite books ([b:The Chrysalids|826845|The Chrysalids|John Wyndham|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1271095852s/826845.jpg|910927]. These are from the late 40s/50s and so feel dated without that compensating factor that I read them as a kid, unlike The Chrysalids. In particular the depiction of women, although there are a couple of stories with female protagonists. I think he intends to be progressive, and probably was for his time, but nearly all the women lack agency and/or are secondary to the male main character. It occurs to me that I often bring this up - it tends to jump out at me - in older works, and perhaps I shouldn't bother. It is a little relevant here as a few of the stories have romantic relationships as a key element of the plot.
As is often the case with SciFi from an earlier time it's interseting/amusing what he doesn't predict. In [i]Survival[/i] there are spaceships capable of reaching Mars and beyond but they seem to be navigating using charts and controlling the ship mechanically. But that's not really a criticism, not a fair one anyway. It jumps out at you but it doesn't hurt the story.
The stories:
Chronoclasm - not a bad time-travel paradox story. Like a few of the stories has a comic/romantic inflection. Also like a few would probably have stood out more if I hadn't read/seen lots like it before. 3 stars.
Time to Rest - story of man living out his life on Mars. Melancholic and creates a nice sense of the location. 3.5 stars.
Meteor - story about colonizing another planet. Douglas Adams has a very similar story in one of the 'book' sections from [b:The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy|386162|The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #1)|Douglas Adams|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388282444s/386162.jpg|3078186]. Once again, even though this was written first, I read H2G2 first. 3.5 stars.
Survival - story about a bunch of men, and one woman, marooned on a spaceship that's lost its propulsion. Darker tone. 3 stars
Pawley's Peepholes - comic story about future generation using time "peepholes" to look at the present as a kind of tourism. 3 stars.
Opposite Number - another story mixing time-travel and romantic comedy. 3.5 stars.
Pillar to Post - time-travel again but this time it takes place by swapping bodies. Also a battle of wits about how to stay in the body/time you want to be in. 3 stars.
Dumb Martian - a man goes to a remote space station for five years taking a Martian woman as his "wife". Essentially she's a sex slave but Wyndham is far too delicate to put it that bluntly. The man under-estimates her. 3.5 stars
Compassion Circuit - in the foreword Wyndham calls this 'horror'. I suppose it is but it probably says something about me that whilst I found the ending satisfying I did not think of it as horrific. Has to do with a robot nurse that takes "compassion" on the disabled lady it is looking after in an unexpected way. 3.5 stars
Wild Flower - more "literary" in tone. Has to do with a teacher who worries about the impact of science and her pupil brings her a flower from the site of a plane crash. Didn't really understand it. 2 stars.
A sort story collection from the author of one of my favourite books ([b:The Chrysalids|826845|The Chrysalids|John Wyndham|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1271095852s/826845.jpg|910927]. These are from the late 40s/50s and so feel dated without that compensating factor that I read them as a kid, unlike The Chrysalids. In particular the depiction of women, although there are a couple of stories with female protagonists. I think he intends to be progressive, and probably was for his time, but nearly all the women lack agency and/or are secondary to the male main character. It occurs to me that I often bring this up - it tends to jump out at me - in older works, and perhaps I shouldn't bother. It is a little relevant here as a few of the stories have romantic relationships as a key element of the plot.
As is often the case with SciFi from an earlier time it's interseting/amusing what he doesn't predict. In [i]Survival[/i] there are spaceships capable of reaching Mars and beyond but they seem to be navigating using charts and controlling the ship mechanically. But that's not really a criticism, not a fair one anyway. It jumps out at you but it doesn't hurt the story.
The stories:
Chronoclasm - not a bad time-travel paradox story. Like a few of the stories has a comic/romantic inflection. Also like a few would probably have stood out more if I hadn't read/seen lots like it before. 3 stars.
Time to Rest - story of man living out his life on Mars. Melancholic and creates a nice sense of the location. 3.5 stars.
Meteor - story about colonizing another planet. Douglas Adams has a very similar story in one of the 'book' sections from [b:The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy|386162|The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #1)|Douglas Adams|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388282444s/386162.jpg|3078186]. Once again, even though this was written first, I read H2G2 first. 3.5 stars.
Survival - story about a bunch of men, and one woman, marooned on a spaceship that's lost its propulsion. Darker tone. 3 stars
Pawley's Peepholes - comic story about future generation using time "peepholes" to look at the present as a kind of tourism. 3 stars.
Opposite Number - another story mixing time-travel and romantic comedy. 3.5 stars.
Pillar to Post - time-travel again but this time it takes place by swapping bodies. Also a battle of wits about how to stay in the body/time you want to be in. 3 stars.
Dumb Martian - a man goes to a remote space station for five years taking a Martian woman as his "wife". Essentially she's a sex slave but Wyndham is far too delicate to put it that bluntly. The man under-estimates her. 3.5 stars
Compassion Circuit - in the foreword Wyndham calls this 'horror'. I suppose it is but it probably says something about me that whilst I found the ending satisfying I did not think of it as horrific. Has to do with a robot nurse that takes "compassion" on the disabled lady it is looking after in an unexpected way. 3.5 stars
Wild Flower - more "literary" in tone. Has to do with a teacher who worries about the impact of science and her pupil brings her a flower from the site of a plane crash. Didn't really understand it. 2 stars.
wendleness's review against another edition
5.0
I will never tire of reading Wyndham. His writing is witty, original and thought provoking. The themes and ideas he explores are still relevant today. This book is no exception. With 10 short stories, all of the above come quickly and relentlessly. There were no huge twists or surprises in the stories, it is easy to see where they are leading, but it is the details and atmosphere that kept me reading. Such a good book.
lordofthemoon's review against another edition
4.0
According to Wyndham in the introduction to this collection of short stories, he's trying to experiment with the form and bring science fiction to people who wouldn't necessarily otherwise read it. There are stories here in the pastoral vein, Gothic horror, satire, traditional English short stories, 'new form' English short stories and a few others. While I perhaps haven't read widely enough to judge how well he succeeds in writing to these different genres, the stories themselves are cracking reads.
To name but a few: Time to Rest has an almost Bradbury-esque country gentleness and sadness about it, which is sort of echoed in Wild Flower. Pawley's Peepholes (about an English town besieged by incorporeal time-tourists) is downright hilarious while Survival (disaster strikes on a ship bound for Mars) is just creepy.
An excellent collection by a master of the genre.
To name but a few: Time to Rest has an almost Bradbury-esque country gentleness and sadness about it, which is sort of echoed in Wild Flower. Pawley's Peepholes (about an English town besieged by incorporeal time-tourists) is downright hilarious while Survival (disaster strikes on a ship bound for Mars) is just creepy.
An excellent collection by a master of the genre.