By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
The influence of H. G. Wells (1866-1946) on science fiction goes without saying. Brian Aldiss, in Trillion Year Spree, call him the Shakespeare of science fiction, acknowledging his role in raising the emerging genre to an art form. The tales of The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds are familiar to millions of people, even those who have never read Wells’s books, thanks to notable film adaptations.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘The Watch-Towers’ is one of the finest of J. G. Ballard’s early stories. Published in 1962, the story concerns a town whose skyline is dominated by the tall observation-towers which provide the story with its title. Ballard’s story follows Renthall, a man who is trying to figure out just how much interest the watch-towers are taking in him and his fellow townsfolk.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘The Missing Mail’ is a story from Malgudi Days, the short-story collection by the Indian writer R. K. Narayan (1906-2001). ‘The Missing Mail’ is about a postman who is friendly with a particular family on his postal round. The story follows the attempts of the man of the family to get his daughter married.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘The Immortal Bard’ is a short story by the science-fiction author and prolific non-fiction writer, Isaac Asimov (1920-92). The story’s title wittily plays on the phrase used to describe William Shakespeare, who lives on and is thus ‘immortal’ thanks to his work. In the story, Shakespeare himself is rendered ‘immortal’ after a fashion, when a physicist invents a way of bringing him into the twentieth century. The story was published in the May 1954 issue of Universe Science Fiction.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘I See You Never’ is a short story by Ray Bradbury (1920-2012), published in 1947. One of Bradbury’s shortest stories, ‘I See You Never’ is about a Mexican man who, after two-and-a-half years living in the United States, is told he must leave the country because his visa has expired. The story focuses on his emotional farewell to his landlady.