Aldiss was a British science fiction author and \u201cWho Can Replace A Man\u201d is the name of a short story collection published in 1965. \u00a0From my exposure to the English films and theater from that time period they seemed like a thoroughly unhappy bunch.\u00a0 A lot of that shows up in Aldiss\u2019s stories.\u00a0 There\u2019s a dreariness and an almost claustrophobic atmosphere to some of his work which I can\u2019t enjoy.\u00a0 But mixed in with these will be a gem.\u00a0 Out of the fourteen stories in this collection two of them are excellent and highly recommended.<\/p>\n
\u201cOld Hundredth\u201d is the story of a megatherium (giant sloth) riding on a baluchitherium (sort of like a prehistoric giant rhinoceros) in search of transubstantiation into a musicolumn.\u00a0 This piece of insane storytelling is remarkably enjoyable and feels like some kind of impressionistic water color of a beautiful landscape rather than a science fiction story.\u00a0 I\u2019ve always greatly enjoyed rereading it.<\/p>\n
The story \u201cWho Can Replace a Man?\u201d is more prosaic and recognizably science fiction in its content but it provides a self-consistent and believable vision of what a world of robots would be like after humans disappear.\u00a0 It\u2019s fun even when it\u2019s bleak.<\/p>\n
After these two stories recommendations become qualified.<\/p>\n
\u201cPoor Little Warrior!\u201d is the story of a time travelling brontosaurus big game hunt.\u00a0 It follows in the footsteps of Ray Bradbury\u2019s \u201cA Sound of Thunder,\u201d but outdoes it in grimness.\u00a0 It has that British mid-century dreariness but has some cheerful horror at the end.\u00a0 To each his own on this one.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Impossible Star\u201d is equally grim but does include and interesting imagining of how proximity to a black hole might affect the human animal.\u00a0 I\u2019ll give it a passing grade.<\/p>\n
Finally, \u201cThe New Father Christmas\u201d is dreary enough but so odd that it gets points for holding my interest.\u00a0 I\u2019ll give it a D+.<\/p>\n
The rest of the stories, although they have interesting facets are just too downbeat for me to enjoy or recommend.\u00a0 If you do decide to read the New Father Christmas and enjoy it then maybe you can find value in the rest of the collection.\u00a0 Once again, to each his own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Aldiss was a British science fiction author and \u201cWho Can Replace A Man\u201d is the name of a short story collection published in 1965. \u00a0From<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[241,237,4,242],"tags":[68,1592,38,44,265,1593],"class_list":["post-5483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-reviews","category-sff","category-sff-book-reviews","tag-book-review","tag-brian-w-aldiss","tag-review","tag-sci-fi","tag-science-fiction","tag-who-can-replace-a-man"],"yoast_head":"\n