This was a chance aquisition. I was in London, in my favourite second-hand bookshop (Skoob, in the Brunswick Centre) and I didn't want to leave without a purchase. That, I felt, would be letting the side down. So I saw this, thought what the hell? Wandered up to the counter where, of course, one of the books I had wanted for some time was on display ... but that's another story.
It was only when I was on the train, leafing through, that I realised this was a collection from the sci fi era currently interesting me - the Interzone Eighties, 1987 in fact, featuring several writers I have beens looking into recently. Moorcock, of course (an End of Time story), Kilworth, Keith Roberts, and Lisa Tuttle, all of whom featured in the Other Rdens and New Worlds anthologies reviewed here in the last few weeks. Aldiss is here, too, with a really enjoyable one called 'Tourney', and Iain M Banks (excellent). I liked John Brunner('A Case of Painter's Ear'), Josephine Saxton's 'The Interferences' and Gwyneth Jones's 'The Snow Apples'. I did not like in any way the story by Harry Harrison, but that's the point of anthologies, isn't it?
One of the things that attracted me in the shop was the fact the stories all had an illustration by a British illustrator of the period. I thought this would be a bonus for me and my own illustrations. As it happens, the only one I enjoyed was Dave Gibbons for the Banks story 'Descendant'. I liked the cover illustration, too, the work of Brian Bolland.
Turns out the common denominator for the collection is that all these authors had done sessions at the Forbidden Planet bookshops. As good a connection as any.
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