The Moment of Eclipse

If there's one thing to be said about Aldiss' work, it's certainly never lacking in imagination or invention. I found this collection of short stories to be challenging, amusing, entertaining, electrifying, baffling and at times, even infuriating. I'm certainly going to be dipping back into this

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collection from time to time.

1) The Moment of Eclipse: 3/5
A filmmaker seeking an assignation with a beautiful woman follows her to a West African country where he picks up a parasite. Strange story but one I’m still puzzling over.

2) The Day We Embarked For Cythera: 3/5
Two parallel stories, one about a bunch of dandies out on a picnic where they bandy philosophy and drink fine wine. The other is about carnivorous cars. Just as I was thinking that this one was going way over my head, I recalled the joke one of the characters makes about time and the natural order of things - it gives a whole new perspective on the story... I think!

3) Orgy of the Living and the Dying: 3/5
In a future where over-population has devastated India, a Swiss/English doctor with a UN relief team starts to hear voices in his head.

4) Super-Toys Last All Summer Long: 5/5
The story on which the movie A.I. was based. Works wonderfully as a pared down tale, though Aldiss did write two follow ups which I'm keen to read.

5) The Village Swindler: 3/5
A white man travelling in India has a heart attack on a train and is taken by a doctor to his home. His daughter who was accompanying him on the trip meets a man in the nearby village selling a vase.

6) Down the Up Escalation: 3/5
Escalating violence in Vietnam while an editor back in the west suffers a heart attack. A strange, surreal story.

7) That Uncomfortable Pause Between Life and Art...: 4/5
The author is accosted by a woman in the cafeteria of the Victoria & Albert Museum after he has just seen the works of Wiliam Holman Hunt. An odd but witty dissection about art and criticism and time.

8) Confluence: 2/5
A partial dictionary of an alien language. Tongue in cheek.

9) Heresies of the Huge God: 5/5
A brilliant and hilarious and terrifying story. 900 years in the future, a Church official writes about the history of heresies in the worship of the Huge God – an alien giant lizard that leapt onto the world plunging the world into chaos. Brilliant story.

10) The Circulation of the Blood...: 4/5
A scientist discovers a virus that is giving longevity to various animal species it inhabits. Could it work for humans too?

11) ...And the Stagnation of the Heart.: 2/5
Western countries have allowed the virus that induces longevity but in overpopulated South Asia, it is made illegal.

12) The Worm That Flies: 2/5
Millions of years hence, change is coming to the world where everything heretofore was immortal.

13) Working in the Spaceship Yards: 4/5
Amusing story about working in the spaceship yards with women and androids.

14) Swastika!: 3/5
The author goes to meet Hitler, who still lives under a pseudonym, about getting the rights to a musical based on his life.

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