From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Sep 24 21:57:59 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!solace!eru.mt.luth.se!news.algonet.se!news.uoregon.edu!hunter.premier.net!www.nntp.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!usenet From: simon@speed.demon.co.uk (Simon Speed) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Blue Shifting by Eric Brown Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 16 Sep 1996 12:04:15 -0400 Organization: Intelligent Agents Group Lines: 71 Sender: wex@tinbergen.media.mit.edu (Graystreak) Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Message-ID: Reply-To: simon@speed.demon.co.uk NNTP-Posting-Host: tinbergen.media.mit.edu Keywords: author= Simon Speed X-Newsreader: (ding) Gnus v0.94 "Blue Shifting" by Eric Brown Review Copyright 1996 Simon Speed Rating on a scale of 0 to 10 : - 6 Summary:- Intense short stories varying from OK to very good I've always thought that short stories are written science fiction at its strongest; the freedom that sf gives, if the writer is prepared to take it, can allow them to get a lot in a very small package. Think 'Harlan Ellison' and you'll see what I mean. I had come across a couple of Eric Brown's contributions to Interzone and had been favourably impressed, so I was looking forward to reading this collection. All but one of the pieces -- the title story -- were published in various science fiction magazines, including Interzone, from 1989 to 1993. All but the title story are set in a variety of near and far futures. However the more things change in Brown's universe, the more they stay the same - particularly the nuclear heterosexual family as found amongst the twentieth century middle class. What stays just as much the same is that this family is well and truly fucked up. And what stays the same even more, is that the solution to this fucked-upness is LOVE. The juxtaposition of the different stories covering the same ground is quite striking. Important plot points are repeated from one to another with the different periods of future history making no apparent difference: - female characters are chopped up by vengeful males; artists use their art to deny LOVE; and it's LOVE in the end that provides some sort of solution. It's unfair of me to present this as Brown's view of the future. Clearly what he's doing is working repeatedly through a number of concerns. It feels as though what Brown should really have done was written a novel. In fact the final (title) story, a recurring time fantasy set in the present day, works as a closing chapter. Science fiction is the one genre where human beings' relationship to their world is explored. It's the one genre where this is assumed to be within human control and thus worth talking about. Other genres talk about the moral makeup of an individual "character" or about the relationships between small social groups: anything beyond that is just given and immutable. I think Brown has abandoned this strength to produce relationship stories in a science fiction setting. Characters drive hover cars rather than ordinary cars, tourist resorts are set on exotic planets rather than in exotic countries and the mornings interstellar flight from the space port can be seen zooming overhead. But all of these are simple equivalents to things found in the late twentieth century, they are just there to make the stories "science fiction." But is the book any good? The plots are well and truly melodramatic. A melodrama is like a huge blow swung at the reader, it's likely to miss and have very little effect, but if it hits the mark then it hits hard. And a couple of times Brown hits really hits the mark - once in particular with the story "The Sons of Apollo" where the final joke denoument is handled to turn farce into tragedy. So though I have my criticisms, and though I'll prefer to read Brown's single stories bracketed by the work of other authors, I'll say - Yes the book's good - it's worth buying. Title : Blue Shifting Author : Eric Brown Published : 1995 Publisher : Pan Books Price : Pounds Sterling 4.99 ISBN : 0-330-33590-1 Pages : 264 Distribute freely in cyberspace - if you can find it.