The Complete Short Stories: The 1950s. Brian Aldiss
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The Complete Short Stories: The 1950s
BY BRIAN ALDISS
The Friday Project An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 77–85 Fulham Palace Road Hammersmith, London W6 8JB
This ebook first published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2013
Copyright © Brian Aldiss 2013
Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2013
Brian Aldiss asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
FIRST EDITION
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780007482085
Ebook Edition © August 2013 ISBN: 9780007482092
Version: 2014-10-03
We are indebted to the following individuals who provided rare source materials: Jim Linwood, Richard Fidczuk and Phil Stephensen-Payne.
Contents
A Book in Time
Criminal Record
Breathing Space
The Great Time Hiccup
Not for an Age
Our Kind of Knowledge
Outside
Panel Game
Pogsmith
Conviction
Dumb Show
The Failed Men
Non-Stop
Psyclops
T
There is a Tide
Tradesman’s Exit
With Esmond in Mind
The Flowers of the Forest
Gesture of Farewell
The Ice Mass Cometh
Let’s Be Frank
No Gimmick
The War Millennia
The Sterile Millennia
The Dark Millennia
The Ultimate Millennia
The Shubshub Race
Supercity
Judas Danced
Ten-Storey Jigsaw
The Pit My Parish
Blighted Profile
Who Can Replace A Man?
The Carp That Once …
Carrion Country
Equator
Fourth Factor
The Megalopolis Millennia
The Star Millennia
The Mutant Millennia
The New Father Christmas
Ninian’s Experiences
Poor Little Warrior!
Sector Diamond
Sight of a Silhouette
They Shall Inherit
Are You An Android?
The Arm
The Bomb-Proof Bomb
Fortune’s Fool
Intangibles, Inc.
Sector Yellow
The Lieutenant
The Other One
Safety Valve
The Towers of San Ampa
Three’s a Cloud
Also by Brian Aldiss
About the Publisher
I was browsing in Albert’s, down Cecil Court, when I saw another customer slipping books under his coat. Indignation high, I made a grab at him, but he had seen my glance and was out of the shop before you could say ‘Limited signed edition’.
I followed hot-foot (crepes always do that to me). Luckily, he did not run far. He had something that looked to my wild glance like a car, hidden behind a pile of crates in a hotel yard. As I jumped on to the running board, I realised it was a queer make. It had no steering wheel, no driving wheels. A publisher? The wild thought flashed through my head, and then my quarry at the dashboard flipped a lever …
London was gone! At least, the old one had disappeared. It simply blurred and vanished, and a new one of smooth stone and metal took its place. We seemed not to have moved. I was bowled over; indeed, when the fugitive opened his door, I was knocked over.
‘Never impede a passing time machine,’ he said, helping me up.
‘Time machine?’ I queried. Could that really be the hideous explanation of the strangeness around about me?
‘What year is this?’