Title: The Secret of This Book
Title Record # 36809
Author: Brian W. Aldiss
Date: 1995-10-00
Type: COLLECTION
Language: English
Current Tags: None Add Tags
Author: Brian W. Aldiss
Date: 1995-10-00
Type: COLLECTION
Language: English
Synopsis: From the front flap of the St. Martin's Press edition: "Even for a collection of Brian Aldiss stories, Common Clay is unconventional. Many of these tales are interrelated, linked by their themes of life, death, and transformation. Commentary between the narratives shows how such themes are explored in storytelling - and in one of the most amusing links, how a story may be stretched out until on after bedtime.
The twenty stories almost become chapters in a long, curious, decidedly odd novel. Sometimes they are domestic, as in the tense "Making My Father Read Revered Writings"; sometimes they are startling and horrific, as in "Horse Meat." The disastrous human traits that make life infernal are here, as in "The Mistakes, Miseries and Misfortunes of Mankind," and so too are designs for a happier state of existence, as in "Three Moon Enigmas" and "Her Toes Were Beautiful on the Mountains."
As is usual with Mr. Aldiss, humor is not lacking here, as in the profoundly Shakespearean "If Hamlet's Uncle Had Been a Nicer Guy," which demonstrates that the Prince of Denmark was losing the Battle of the Bulge, and in the bizarre glimpse of a cost-conscious heaven in "Evans in His Moment of Glory."
In all, Common Clay is a unique mingling of anthology and chronicle novel - and a breathtaking book."
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Other Titles
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Awards
Place | Year and Award | Category |
---|---|---|
15 | 1996 Locus | Best Collection |
Nomination | 1996 World Fantasy | Best Collection |
Publications
Displaying all variants and translations • Do not display translations • Do not display variants or translations
Title | Date | Author/Editor | Publisher/Pub. Series | ISBN/Catalog ID | Price | Pages | Format | Type | Cover Artist | Verif |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Secret of This Book | 1995-10-00 | Brian W. Aldiss | HarperCollins (UK) | 0-00-225364-X | £15.99?£: UK pound |
333+ [1] |
hc?Hardcover. Used for all hardbacks of any size. |
coll | Gary Embury | |
Common Clay: 20-Odd Stories | 1996-03-00 | Brian W. Aldiss | St. Martin's Press | 0-312-13948-9 | $24.95?$: US dollar |
334 | hc?Hardcover. Used for all hardbacks of any size. |
coll | Gary Embury | |
The Secret of This Book | 1996-11-00 | Brian Aldiss | HarperCollins (UK) | 0-00-649793-4 | £5.99?£: UK pound |
333+ [1] |
tp?Trade paperback. Any softcover book which is at least 7.25" (or 19 cm) tall, or at least 4.5" (11.5 cm) wide/deep. |
coll | Gary Embury |
Reviews
- Review by M. J. Simpson (1995) in SFX, #5
- Review by Chris Gilmore (1996) in Interzone, January 1996
- Review by Gary K. Wolfe (1996) in Locus, #422 March 1996
- Review by Paul Di Filippo (1996) in Asimov's Science Fiction, June 1996
- Review by K. V. Bailey (1996) in Foundation, #66 Spring 1996
- Review by L. J. Hurst (1997) in Vector 191
- Review by William M. Schuyler, Jr. (1997) in The New York Review of Science Fiction, March 1997
- Review by Colin Steele (2001) in SF Commentary, #77
- Review by Bruce Gillespie (2010) in SF Commentary, #80A