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jobby's review
3.0
I enjoyed this book as I always enjoy collections of short stories. Not quite as good as some collections I've read. There are seven stories in this collection and some hit the mark for me more than others.
"Lost Ground" is a strange tale about weather which affects people's moods. That's quite an odd concept to get your head around. The tale moves forward with the hero stumbling upon an area of England where there are random patches which exist in different times causing the incautious to move from period to another.
I found the mood-weather in this to be a bit too weird for me. The time-travelling aspect was interesting but was wrapped up too soon.
"Not So Certain" is a rather heavy read about a group of humans trying to communicate with intelligent aliens. They've got the basics of the language worked out but certain nuances keep tripping them up. I feel this might have been a better read had I got a degree in linguistics!
"Mouth of Hell" is a curiously compelling story about a team of explorers who encounter a massive gaping hole many miles deep. whilst part of the team are climbing down into the hole they experience deep psychological effects of the scale of the terrain. I really enjoyed this one.
"A Two-Timer" is a tale of a chap from the 17th century who steals a traveller's time machine. The 17th century man moves forward to 1964 where he is, not surprisingly, dazzled by the technology and society. The amusing part for me, reading this 50 years after it was written and not having lived anywhere near that decade, was trying to wrap my head around what life in the 60s was like. Rather a good read, though probably for different reasons than when it was originally written.
"The Transfinite Choice" deals with a man flung into the far (and very crowded) future. Happily the man is given useful work to do in try to bring down the numbers of people there. A truly novel idea is developed to deal with this. Quite an interesting read but not the best in the collection.
"Psychosmosis" is a strange tale indeed. When someone dies anyone with the same name has their name changed. Quite bizarre until it transpires that saying a dead person's name makes you disappear. I did enjoy this one and felt drawn in a bit by the mystery of the names.
"Travellers Rest" was probably the best story of the collection in my opinion. Dealing with a soldier fighting in a war in a place where times run at different rates depending on how far south he goes. A very strange scenario but certainly one that captures the imagination. This story was my favourite of all of them.
Overall, the scenarios presented in the stories are certainly interesting. Sometimes I found Masson's writing style a bit difficult to follow, especially when his characters talk in depth about linguistics where I became totally lost! When not flailing around in linguistic jargon I did enjoy what I read and would probably read more of his work if there was any!
"Lost Ground" is a strange tale about weather which affects people's moods. That's quite an odd concept to get your head around. The tale moves forward with the hero stumbling upon an area of England where there are random patches which exist in different times causing the incautious to move from period to another.
I found the mood-weather in this to be a bit too weird for me. The time-travelling aspect was interesting but was wrapped up too soon.
"Not So Certain" is a rather heavy read about a group of humans trying to communicate with intelligent aliens. They've got the basics of the language worked out but certain nuances keep tripping them up. I feel this might have been a better read had I got a degree in linguistics!
"Mouth of Hell" is a curiously compelling story about a team of explorers who encounter a massive gaping hole many miles deep. whilst part of the team are climbing down into the hole they experience deep psychological effects of the scale of the terrain. I really enjoyed this one.
"A Two-Timer" is a tale of a chap from the 17th century who steals a traveller's time machine. The 17th century man moves forward to 1964 where he is, not surprisingly, dazzled by the technology and society. The amusing part for me, reading this 50 years after it was written and not having lived anywhere near that decade, was trying to wrap my head around what life in the 60s was like. Rather a good read, though probably for different reasons than when it was originally written.
"The Transfinite Choice" deals with a man flung into the far (and very crowded) future. Happily the man is given useful work to do in try to bring down the numbers of people there. A truly novel idea is developed to deal with this. Quite an interesting read but not the best in the collection.
"Psychosmosis" is a strange tale indeed. When someone dies anyone with the same name has their name changed. Quite bizarre until it transpires that saying a dead person's name makes you disappear. I did enjoy this one and felt drawn in a bit by the mystery of the names.
"Travellers Rest" was probably the best story of the collection in my opinion. Dealing with a soldier fighting in a war in a place where times run at different rates depending on how far south he goes. A very strange scenario but certainly one that captures the imagination. This story was my favourite of all of them.
Overall, the scenarios presented in the stories are certainly interesting. Sometimes I found Masson's writing style a bit difficult to follow, especially when his characters talk in depth about linguistics where I became totally lost! When not flailing around in linguistic jargon I did enjoy what I read and would probably read more of his work if there was any!
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