Currently Reading #28

[littlerdog.livejournal.com]

Two books on the go at the moment, at least theoretically. The Romans, from the non-fiction challenge, and the book I bought after seeing it on drasecretcampus's FB page: England Swings SF, edited by Judith Merril.

I'm two stories into the Merril book. The first one, 'The Island' by Roger Jones, I didn't enjoy all that much. It has a decent premise: three men on a small island who are carrying out actions they don't understand for reasons they don't know. There's enough detail cleverly inserted to enable the reader to make a good guess at what's going on, but the writing itself is stilted and formal, with too much telling. I can see it making a decent tv play.

With the second story, 'Ne Deja Vu Pas' by Josephine Saxton, I was left with a feeling I've often had before: Why is this not a classic of the genre? It's a marvellous little story about what happens when you transgress the borders of spacetime. Sometimes you have to shake your head over the vagaries of fame. It's all you can do.