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Different Kinds Of Darkness by David Langford. check out website: www.cosmos-books.com and www.wildsidepress.com
So no pressure then, Davy boy! 'Different Kinds Of Darkness’ is a collection of short stories that includes most of his important tales from the last twenty years or so. It is an eclectic collection with more variety in it than a fetish club on cheap drinks night. The pieces range from the trouser-dampeningly funny to the fascinatingly serious, with the occasional odd experimental job thrown in for good measure. Wonderfully, all of the pieces sparkle with an in-built humanity, believability and realism missing from other SF authors who would attempt to write in such a range of literary modes (cough, Greg, cough, Bear, cough). This collection certainly does contain something for everyone. If you want a balls (or, um, ovaries) to the wall, gritty little piece of Science Fiction than you couldn't do better than to take a look at 'Cube Root'. It's as if Langford has watched 'Deliverance' and 'Straw Dogs' and then said to himself, 'Hmmm not bad, but how about we add a few nukes?' Nasty stuff indeed. If you're looking for a laugh, Langford's humour is pervasive throughout. Several pieces stick out though such as 'Heatwave', a wonderful tale of bureaucracy and novas, and how they really shouldn't mix. 'Leaks' is also memorable. It concerns a man with an amazing but almost useless power who is entrusted with an important mission, one that is way above his talent levels.
Originality oozes out of the book, within a few hundred pages we encounter an advanced AI with a dark secret, an odd post-apocalyptic society and a cursed alarm clock. That's just for starters. There are several fantasy stories of surprising quality, surprising in that it is often during this genre meandering that authors wander off the track the most. Most wander off the track completely, get lost in the fog on the moors and get savaged to death by a werewolf. Metaphorically speaking. When Langford switches gear into fantasy there is no loss of quality. 'Too Good To Be' is a perfect example, Langford creates a vision of a world more vivid and colourful than ours and tells the story of its transition into the more familiar muted tones we know. 'In The Place Of Power' makes us feel the loneliness of a god as its narrator discovers the truth behind his world's existence. This is the kind of stuff that should fill the shelves of your local book emporium to overflowing. The fact that the UK edition is print on demand makes me want to stand outside my local bookstore and batter the customers over the head with it, shouting, 'Stupid, stupid, stupid!', at the top of my voice. There are only a few discordant notes in the whole collection and these are mainly the 'clever' pieces, like 'Logrolling Ephesus'. Am I the only one who believes that a 'clever' story is also often 'surprisingly boring?' Even this complaint may simply be down to my basic barbarism. What can I say? Ug! I do not mind telling you though that this is a collection that contains stories that have left vivid imprints in my mind. I'm talking about the 'BLIT' tales of course. These are stories of the discovery of an image that will kill you if you look at it. If I didn't like seeing so much I'd probably never open my eyes again after reading these pieces! The title story 'Different Kinds Of Darkness' concludes the sequence about BLITs. It is a worthy winner of the Hugo that Mr Langford has added to his ever-expanding collection of the prestigious awards. This is a terrific book. Which is great, as it means I can keep reading Langford's column, and I don't have to hunt him down with a harpoon gun for betraying me. Did I just say that out loud? Paul Skevington
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OTHER REVIEWS - May 2004
Non Fiction Mythology: The DC Comics Art Of Alex Ross Futures: 50 Years In Space The Challenge Of The Stars by David A. Hardy and Patrick Moore Lyra’s Oxford by Philip Pullman Tolkien: A Cultural Phenomenon: Second Edition by Brian Roseberry DVDs Babylon 5: The Complete First Season: Signs and Portents Fantasy Midnight Tides by Steven Erikson The Siege Of Mithila by Ashok K. Banker Broken Crescent by S. Andrew Swann The Magician’s Guild by Trudi Canavan The Destroyer Goddess by Laura Resnick The Weavers Of Saramyr by Chris Wooding The Iron Grail by Robert Holdstock Faerie Tales edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Russell Davies Darknesses by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. Slipstream Changing Of Faces by Tim Lebbon Karloff’s Circus by Steve Aylett The Well Of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde Science Fiction The Golden Globe by John Varley Market Forces by Richard Morgan It Came From Outer Space screenplay by Ray Bradbury A Gift Of Dragons by Anne McCaffrey Different Kinds Of Darkness by David Langford Felaheen The Third Arabesk by Jon Courtenay Grimwood Absolution Gap by Adrian Reynolds The Line Of Polity by Neal Asher The Affinity Trap by Martin Sketchley Natural History by Justina Robson Horror Living Dead In Dallas by Charlaine Harris Magazines
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This
is an immensely exciting book for me. It is the first book by Langford
that I have read, despite having been a fan of his column in the UK
SF magazine ‘SFX’ for many years now. For me, it is a
monthly highlight of that publication as Langford tackles a myriad
of subjects in his unique style, provoking the reader with a deftly
humorous touch to serious thought on the most important issues surrounding
the SF genre.
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