A bout of Covid sent me to familiar John Wyndham books, the perfect length to read in a day when slightly brain fogged. I've not actually read these short stories in years, and didn't remember them at all. They are enjoyable, if a bit similar.

There is a very clear line from Consider Her Ways to The Handmaids Tale, a dystopia where women have very specific roles. It is through different reasoning but there is a lot in common too. Time travel, throwing of consciousness, and fate are recurring themes. ( )

fantastic. I love John Wyndham.
random quest and long spoon particularly brilliant. ( )

I've read a number of Wyndham's novels and looked forward to trying his short stories. This collection was reissued in 2014 by Penguin and the stories date to the late 50's. A novella (the title story) and 5 other shorter stories of varying length. Some science fiction, some not, some more like fantasy. The first stories revolve around time travel via a transference of consciousness. For example, the second story "Odd" has a man in 1906 hit by a tram while crossing the street and his consciousness is temporarily sent forward in time to his older self in 1958 with interesting results. The opening novella has an excellent reputation but I thought it was overdone and would have been better at a shorter length, and it too used a similar time travel idea with a woman's consciousness being thrown more than a hundred years into a dystopian future after taking an experimental drug. It is something of a subtle horror story and a little heavy on the social satire within it.

Having the first two stories play off of a similar device (time travel of the mind) was a little disappointing, but where the collection failed me was the third story, purely a satire about a would be movie starlet. After starting with a bit of promise I kept expecting the story to go somewhere and it took too much time and wandering to get to the punchline and was not at all worth the trip. A middle story, "A Stitch in Time" was I think the story I liked best here. It ponders other dimensions and time, and an experiment that occurs as an old woman reflects on her life and how decisions and events affect where your life may go.

Overall I would say I was a little disappointed with the collection. I'll give it an OK rating. I bought another Penguin edition of stories at the same time as this and I look forward to reading it and another Wyndham I have handy. ( )

A series of short stories, all to do with time travel of some kind.

So related but not so.

Many with a them of love lost

Big Ship

23 July 2016 ( )

A collection of 6 novellas and short stories by the author of "Day of the Triffids". The title story is one of his most entertaining tales. Other stories include: "Odd", "Oh, Where, Now, is Peggy Macrafferty", "Stitch in Time", "Random Quest", and "A Long Spoon". Four of the stories concern time-travel or travel between parallel realities. The other two have a bit of O. Henry in them but are not science fiction.

The title novella (copyrighted 1956) reminded me somewhat of the premise of Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale. Wyndham's rather less-horrifying take revolves around a society in which all men have died and female humans have become specialized (think of the Biblical quote, "Go to the ant, O sluggard, and consider her ways"). ( )