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Real-Time World +2
This is a paperback re-issue of Christopher Priest’s
first short story collection, Real-Time World. Originally a hardback from
NEL in 1974, the book has been more or less unavailable ever since. A GrimGrin
hardback was published in 2008; the new paperback has the same stories, PLUS 2
others not included before. Here's what amazon.co.uk said about the hardback:
These are the early Priest sf
stories that made print in various magazines (the companion volume, Ersatz
Wines, also from GrimGrin Studio, features mostly previously unpublished
stories). Some are admittedly the work of a writer finding his voice and place
in the world of late sixties-early seventies British New Wave sf,
but most are important in allowing devotees an insight into the emergent
career of one of Britain's most gifted and original writers. The eponymous
story is an important one in the Priest canon, nodding a head as it does to
future projects (including the novel Inverted World), but for me, the
absolute stone cold New Wave classic in the book is CP's first published
story, 'The Run', a gripping, blunt tale of a future Prime Minister's response
to goading from unemployed, unemployable masses as a massive crisis looms on
the horizon. Terse, ambiguous, with a character simultaneously unsympathetic
and recognisably human, shot through with the ominous presence of impending
nuclear doom, this is stunning stuff. There are, of course, other good stories
in this book, but for my money, 'The Run' (which CP describes as 'pristine
melodrama') is worth the price of admission alone, despite its 10-12 page
length. In my opinion (and I wrote the book 100 Must Read Science Fiction
Novels) it is one of the great 1960s British sf
stories, even if it does not present the author's mature style. Just
brilliant. To sum up, if you are interested in classic British literary sf
that sits alongside the work of Moorcock, M. John Harrison, Aldiss and Ballard
from this period, then you must buy this book, as it is essential. (Steve
Andrews)
As well as ‘The Run’, the book includes the much-anthologized stories ‘Fire Storm’
and ‘Real-Time
World’. The new stories are 'Nothing Like the Sun' (1970) and 'The Invisible
Men' (1974). |
