David Langford (1) (1953–)

Many times, and quite effusively, Terry Pratchett mentions this book in his sort of autobiography, "A Slip of the Keyboard." In addition, Terry Pratchett wrote the forward to this edition of this book. And having read both of those as well as this book, it is clear that Sir Terry Pratchett is a very British writer. This book is a very British take on the activities of workers at a nuclear research station in England during the 1960s. It is not that the activities of the workers could only have happened in Britain, but rather, things like the emphasis on which activities are important and which trivial, and definitely which are humorous, could only have been chosen by a very British writer.… (more)

This was OK for me, but no more. There are two SFnal gimmicks needed to drive the plot and that was enough to make the result seem contrived to me. First, Earth has apparently been involved in international warfare so long that a special set of troops has been developed to endure and even enjoy being violently killed and reborn. Next, there is a wormhole technology but it turns out using it causes stars to go nova all over the place. So now our hero is selected to be sent through a really tiny (1.934 cm) wormhole to a colony in order to convince them to stop using the technology. Somehow they have a way to squeeze him through that hole, fatally hence why they pick him, but reconstructibly. I couldn't figure out how that worked. Then eventually his talents are needed again for the big climax. Oh, and there's a nascent love interest who goes through the same process but she remained a cypher for me for the entire book. So much detail is spent on the physics at several points that I assume some of it must make sense, but it bogs down the narrative.

OK, and recommended if space opera mixed with a bit of angst is your thing.… (more)

I love how a whole world can be created in a short story. Many of my early SF readings were the short stories in Analog magazine. I like short stories which I can read in up to 30 minutes. Longer than that they become something else. The perfect thing about outstanding short-stories like "Different Kinds of Darkness" is that it's short. I don't want to get to know the characters if I'm forced to part with them after 30 minutes or an hour. A lot of authors nowadays seem to be under the impression that all they have to do is write a scene and then just stop - no narrative, no message, no characters, no atmosphere, no point. Particularly true of single-author collections (but not Langford’s). I don't think I've really appreciated any writers in more than a single shorty story since the likes of Borges, Clarke, Langford & Bradbury. I measure shortness and thus quality of short stories by comparing how much of time passes in the narrative compared to how much time the book takes to read. Short stories - genre or literary - are more able to stun the reader in their entirety. You can forget bits of even the best novel. But an incisive short story hits you hard and hits you whole. I remember acutely reading Different Darkness” the first time round. The essence of Best Short Stories is something very difficult to attain. On the other hand, I’ve re-read entire novels I forgot which I read only a few years ago.

A well-executed short story is truly a Thing of Beauty. In this collection we have several Things of Beauty.

We all know Borges was the master of short stories. Langford comes a close second.… (more)