First published 1904. Methuen, paperback, 2005, translated by Michael Frayn, 1978 (revised to 1990), pp 152 (main text pp 67). Chekhov called this play a comedy, but the original producer, Stanislavsky, insisted that it was a tragedy [p xxii]. So which is it? Both, of course. Like Shakespear’s Twelfth Night, there are elements of each. […]
Cherry Orchard, The — Anton Chekhov Read More »
First published 1968. Pan, paperback, 1977, pp 222, c.75,000 words. This is a collection of fourteen short stories, loosely connected by the need for the protagonist(s) to escape from a bad situation. Some are set on a future Earth, but many are set on alien planets being visited by humans, often for the first time.
People Trap, The — Robert Sheckley Read More »
First published 2021. Picador, paperback, 2022, pp 412, c.70,000 words. This is quite a short book, despite being spread over 412 pages: 70,472 words to be exact, according to the pointless data given at the end of the text. A lot of pages are taken up with graphic images, which are unnecessary in terms of
Black Locomotive, The — Rian Hughes Read More »
First published 2016. 4th Estate, paperback, 2017, pp 440, c.150,000 words. du Sautoy is a professor of Mathematics at Oxford University as well as Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science and has presented several television programmes, so he is well qualified as a communicator of science, and this book explores some of the
What We Cannot Know — Marcus du Sautoy Read More »
First published 2018. Sceptre, paperback, 2019, pp 182, c. 45,000 words. What is this book about? Don’t expect to learn any physics from it. It’s a philosophical meditation on how the study of physical phenomena have revealed incredible wonders about the origins, workings and fate of the universe, and also what the current limits to
Consolations of Physics, The — Tim Radford Read More »
First published 2005. Penguin, paperback, 2006, pp 326, c.85,000 words. This book was an immediate success when it was first published, being shortlisted for the Orange Prize, winning the Bollinger Everyman prize for comic fiction, and appearing on many other prize short- and long- lists. It garnered many positive newspaper reviews and has sold over
Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian — Marina Lewycka Read More »
First published 1957. Penguin, paperback, 1963, pp 217, c.65,000 words. Stewart was a prolific novelist, writing over eighty books, as well as being a fellow of English at Oxford University. He is perhaps best known for his detective Appelby, who featured in many books written under the pen name of Michael Innes. The protagonist of
Use of Riches, A — J I M Stewart Read More »
First published 1954. Penguin, paperback, 1959, pp 236, c.90,000 words. C. P. Snow is not in fashion these days, and is currently out of print. I developed a fascination with his work in the early 1980s, reading all his fiction. I picked this off my shelves recently to see how it stood up to the
New Men, The — C P Snow Read More »
First published 1960. Penguin, paperback, 1971, pp 204, c.60,000 words. I can’t help feeling that Wyndham was a jolly nice man. His characters tend to be decent people with hearts in the right place who have got caught up in some ‘what if’ near future. The ‘what if’ here is the discovery of a rare
Trouble with Lichen — John Wyndham Read More »
First published 1975. Arrow, paperback, 1976, pp 112, c.30,000 words. Blish was a prolific writer of science fiction short stories. This book was a development of Beep, one he wrote in 1954. That story was seminal because it introduced a device for instantaneous communication over infinite distance – the Dirac Transmitter – much used by
Quincunx of Time, The — James Blish Read More »