The Complete Short Stories: The 1960s

The Complete Short Stories: The 1960s
Brian Aldiss

Following on from the 1950s collection, this is the second collection of Brian Aldiss’ short stories, taken from the 1960s. A must-have for collectors. Part four of four.This collection gathers together, for the very first time, Brian Aldiss’ complete catalogue of short stories from the 1960s, in four parts.Taken from diverse and often rare sources, the works in this collection chart the blossoming career of one of Britain’s most beloved authors. From the first robot to commit suicide to the tale of a little boy who finds more companionship from his robot Teddy than from his parents – a story which was the literary basis for the first act of Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster feature film A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. This book proves once again that Aldiss’ gifted prose and unparalleled imagination never fail to challenge and delight.The four books of the 1960s short story collection are must-have volumes for all Aldiss fans, and an excellent introduction to the work of a true master.THE BRIAN ALDISS COLLECTION INCLUDES OVER 50 BOOKS AND SPANS THE AUTHOR’S ENTIRE CAREER, FROM HIS DEBUT IN 1955 TO HIS MORE RECENT WORK.

Copyright (#u26255378-8b5f-5072-b09b-04857dbcd8bd)

HarperVoyager an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpervoyagerbooks.co.uk (http://www.harpervoyagerbooks.co.uk) First published in Great Britain by HarperVoyager 2015 Stories from this collection have previously appeared in the following publications: Nova (1967), New Writings in SF (1967), New Worlds Science Fiction (1967, 1969), Titbits (1967), Orbit 2: The Best Science Fiction of the Year (1967), Impulse (1967), Intangibles Inc. and Other Stories, Dangerous Visions: 33 Original Stories (1967), Galaxy Magazine (1968, 1969), Solstice (1969). Copyright © Brian Aldiss 2015 Cover illustration © Shutterstock.com Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2015 Brian Aldiss asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library. This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins. Source ISBN: 9780007482290 Ebook Edition © September 2015 ISBN: 9780008148973 Version: 2015-07-31

Contents

Cover (#uaf7e1731-adbe-597e-a3fc-41de225848c6)

Title Page (#ued66a979-78c3-5074-af55-c73717a9f4c1)

Copyright

Introduction

1 A Difficult Age

2 A Taste for Dostoevsky

3 Auto-Ancestral Fracture

4 Confluence

5 The Dead Immortal

6 Down the Up Escalation

7 Full Sun

8 Just Passing Through

9 Multi-Value Motorway

10 The Night that All Time Broke Out

11 Randy’s Syndrome

12 Still Trajectories

13 Two Modern Myths (Reflection on Mars and Ultimate Construction)

14 Wonder Weapon

15 …And the Stagnation of the Heart

16 Drake-Man Route

17 Dreamer, Schemer

18 Dream of Distance

19 Send her Victorious

20 The Serpent of Kundalini

21 The Tell-Tale Heart-Machine

22 Total Environment

23 The Village Swindler

24 When I Was Very Jung

25 The Worm that Flies

26 The Firmament Theorem

27 Greeks Bringing Knee-High Gifts

28 The Humming Heads

29 The Moment of Eclipse

30 Ouspenski’s Astrabahn

31 Since the Assassination

32 So Far From Prague

33 The Soft Predicament

34 Supertoys Last All Summer Long

35 That Uncomfortable Pause Between Life and Art…

36 Working in the Spaceship Yards

About the Author

Also by Brian Aldiss

About the Publisher

Introduction (#u26255378-8b5f-5072-b09b-04857dbcd8bd)

Should an author concern himself about who his readers are? Should he worry about what they think of his writings?