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4.0 out of 5 stars
Taking In The News, They've Just Given Me Their Last Orders, November 15, 2004
'Last Orders' is one of Brian Aldiss' later short story compilations. Unlike earlier fast-paced novels such as 'Non-Stop' and 'Hothouse', Aldiss takes a more dreamlike and cerebral approach in these futuristic tales. Many of the stories share characters and themes, so it almost reads like a weird disjointed novel at times, rather than a story collection. One of these recurring themes is about an (intentionally) extremely dull race of aliens. Of course, reading descriptions of intentionally dull things can be...dull! So I removed a star here.
That doesn't mean the book doesn't deserve the four stars I DID give it, because the stories that truly are 'separate' are truly brilliant. The title story, for instance, is a melancholy study of a few bar patrons refusing to evacuate at the 'end of the world'. It's very good stuff. I also love 'An Appearance Of Life' about a researcher in the future's largest-ever museum who discovers lost love-letter holograms between a long-dead couple. It's very sad, funny and moving, too.
Other goodies include the oft-reprinted 'Wired For Sound' about a future Earth that outdoes '1984' for surveillance paranoia, ' 'Live? Our Computers Will Do That For Us!', about machines that really CAN predict your future, and a strange retelling of the Noah's Ark tale; 'The Expensive Delicate Ship'. All well worth buying the book for...
So if you want to have some fun, some confusion, and basically want to re-canalize your brain, check this one out, although I wouldn't recommend it as a starter for newcomers to Aldiss. The aforementioned novels would probably be more accessable. Hope this was enlightening...
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Too much of a hodgepodge, stick to Aldiss novels, October 7, 2009
This review is from: Last Orders (Paperback)
Last Orders is a book of short stories, but it's not like Aldiss' short story collection titled The Book of Brian Aldiss. Most collections tend to be hodgepodge sets of tales, but Last Orders is strange in this regard.
There's a definite focus on the Zodiacal Planets and their reliance on destimeter, which accurately can read someone's biological signs and deduce that person's near future. The stories explore the generation gap and their separate philosophical ideas about their destinies. The dull cast is reused often.
There are also five very short stories which are bound in three-story series titled Enigma I-V. Sometimes the connection is fairly clear but for a few I didn't see why they were bound together and if there is an enigma behind it, I didn't care to delve through it again. Enigma II is titled `Diagrams for Three Stories.' Instead of getting three short stories, we get Aldiss' walk through about three novels which he never managed to fully flesh out, which fills 23 pages of the 214 page book.
Lastly, the best stories are those which are scattered here and there and have no link to the Zodiacal Planet universe. These are refreshing, considering the dull characters and their dull stories drags the reading down. Typically, Aldiss writes some great novels but his short stories seem to be crumbled paper taken out of the bin. Perhaps I'll stick to the Aldiss novels rather than trying another Aldiss short story collection.
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