Science fiction

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33869, 14 June 1975, Page 10

Science fiction

The Eighty-Minute Hour. By Brian W. Aldiss. Jonathan Cape. 285 pp. N.Z. price. $4.85.

In his early science fiction novels Mr Aldiss demonstrated his excellence as an exciting, erudite story-teller. “Non-Stop.” arid some outstanding short stories, put him among the best. Then, with “The Hand-Reared Boy”, he recieved general critical acclaim and showed, with the title at least, his tendency to jest. However, Mr Aldiss has now returned to science fiction, but it is doubtful whether the genre is greatly enriched by his latest, contribution. A jerky, almost non-existent. plot involves real people located all over time and space: some in a micro-world contained in a locket hanging round a television writer’s neck, others shot a billion years into the past where they casually destroy the planet which becomes the asteroid belt. Semantic rubbish and obscure adjectives abound—-" .. . the logical extension of a zero-infinity nightmare topology, undiminished by distance, unfamiliarised by any proximity.” is a notable example. The hook is a space-opera cum schoolboy giggle. Extended, however, for 285 pages it becomes tiresome.