Man in His Time: The Best Science Fiction Stories of Brian W. Aldiss
Apr 2025 · Open Road Media
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327
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About this ebook
Twenty-two classic science fiction stories spanning the first three decades of the Science Fiction Grand Master's career.
Features "Super-Toys Last All Summer," the short story that inspired the film A.I. Artificial Intelligence.
"Britain's most versatile and durable and consistently most interesting science-fiction writer presents his own personal 'best of': 22 splendid tales. . . . To Aldiss, the human dimension has always been more important than hardware or fireworks—which is why his best stories have a timeless quality weaving intelligence, emotion, and inventiveness." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards, Brian W. Aldiss was a science fiction author "in competition with no one but himself" ( The New York Times Book Review). In this collection he shows why, offering up twenty-two stories from the first three decades of his career, encompassing a stunning range of ideas, moods, and styles.
In the title story we find a man, recently back from an expedition in space, who lives 3.3077 minutes in the future. A meteor shakes things up in a quiet English town in "The Saliva Tree," an homage to H. G. Wells, and which earned Aldiss the Nebula Award in 1965. A giant lizard-like alien comes to Earth in "Heresies of the Huge God," and while some believe it is a monster, others worship it. A mother tries to connect with her son through the help of a robot intermediary in "Super-Toys Last All Summer." Unhappy with the state of his life, a man ventures back in time to hunt dinosaurs in "Poor Little Warrior!" Robots have an existential crisis in "Who Can Replace a Man?" and men travel to Mars to take a picture of the planet's tallest volcano in "The Difficulties in Photographing Nix Olympica."
Although the stories in this collection were originally published in the 1950s,'60s, '70s, and '80s, they remain just as gripping today. Each conveys a fascinating idea for readers to ponder, and together, they make a perfect introduction to one of British science fiction's greatest authors.
Features "Super-Toys Last All Summer," the short story that inspired the film A.I. Artificial Intelligence.
"Britain's most versatile and durable and consistently most interesting science-fiction writer presents his own personal 'best of': 22 splendid tales. . . . To Aldiss, the human dimension has always been more important than hardware or fireworks—which is why his best stories have a timeless quality weaving intelligence, emotion, and inventiveness." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards, Brian W. Aldiss was a science fiction author "in competition with no one but himself" ( The New York Times Book Review). In this collection he shows why, offering up twenty-two stories from the first three decades of his career, encompassing a stunning range of ideas, moods, and styles.
In the title story we find a man, recently back from an expedition in space, who lives 3.3077 minutes in the future. A meteor shakes things up in a quiet English town in "The Saliva Tree," an homage to H. G. Wells, and which earned Aldiss the Nebula Award in 1965. A giant lizard-like alien comes to Earth in "Heresies of the Huge God," and while some believe it is a monster, others worship it. A mother tries to connect with her son through the help of a robot intermediary in "Super-Toys Last All Summer." Unhappy with the state of his life, a man ventures back in time to hunt dinosaurs in "Poor Little Warrior!" Robots have an existential crisis in "Who Can Replace a Man?" and men travel to Mars to take a picture of the planet's tallest volcano in "The Difficulties in Photographing Nix Olympica."
Although the stories in this collection were originally published in the 1950s,'60s, '70s, and '80s, they remain just as gripping today. Each conveys a fascinating idea for readers to ponder, and together, they make a perfect introduction to one of British science fiction's greatest authors.
Twenty-two classic science fiction stories spanning the first three decades of the Science Fiction Grand Master's career.
Features "Super-Toys Last All Summer," the short story that inspired the film A.I. Artificial Intelligence.
"Britain's most versatile and durable and consistently most inter...
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About the author
Brian W. Aldiss was born in Norfolk, England, in 1925. Over a long and distinguished writing career, he published award-winning science fiction (two Hugo Awards, a Nebula Award, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award); bestselling popular fiction, including the three-volume Horatio Stubbs saga and the four-volume the Squire Quartet; experimental fiction such as Report on Probability A and Barefoot in the Head; and many other iconic and pioneering works, including the Helliconia Trilogy. He edited many successful anthologies and published groundbreaking nonfiction, including a magisterial history of science fiction ( Billion Year Spree, later revised and expanded as Trillion Year Spree). Among his many short stories, perhaps the most famous was "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long," which was adapted for film by Stanley Kubrick and produced and directed after Kubrick's death by Steven Spielberg as A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Brian W. Aldiss passed away in 2017 at the age of 92.
Brian W. Aldiss was born in Norfolk, England, in 1925. Over a long and distinguished writing career, he published award-winning science fiction (two Hugo Awards, a Nebula Award, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award); bestselling popular fiction, including the three-volume Horatio Stubbs saga a...
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