Brian W. Aldiss

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Brian W. Aldiss
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36 Quotations from Brian W. Aldiss

alternate universe n. 1973 B. W. Aldiss Billion Year Spree 20 So with science fiction novels. They may locate themselves in distant futures on Earth, or on one of the planets of the solar system, or anywhere in our galaxy, or even in a distant galaxy; or they may occupy a different probability sphere or another time-track entirely (there are at least three brilliant alternate universe novels, Ward Moore’s Bring the Jubilee, in which the South won the American Civil War; Harry Harrison’s A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah! in which George Washington was shot and the American Revolution never happened; and Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle, in which the Axis powers won World War II).
alternative history n. 1977 B. Aldiss Future & Alternative Histories in B. Ash Visual Encyclopedia of Science Fiction 123/1 Silverberg’s ‘Trips’ (1974), referred to at the beginning of this sub-section, depicts tourist trips to such alternative histories as those where the Industrial Revolution never happened, where the Mongols have achieved a world-wide Empire, and, inevitably, where Germany won the Second World War.
alternative history n. 1977 B. Aldiss Future & Alternative Histories in B. Ash Visual Encyclopedia of Science Fiction 116/3 A noted example is the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, which provided the trigger mechanism for the First World War, which, in turn, led to the second conflict a quarter of a century later. What kind of world might we now be living in had the Archduke survived? Such speculations form the basis of alternative-history fiction, or worlds that might have been.
alternative history n. 1986 B. W. Aldiss Trillion Year Spree 257 Ward Moore’s name lives on because of two novels, the satirical Greener Than You Think (1947), a great success in its time, and a classic alternative world story, Bring the Jubilee (1953), in which the hero lives in an America where the South won the Battle of Gettysburg; his interference in the battle to which he time-travels, causes the North to win. So matters turn out as we know them today. The wit and ingenuity of this story influenced more recent excursions into alternative history such as Harry Harrison’s A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah!
alternative world n. 1977 B. Aldiss Future & Alternative History in B. Ash Visual Encyclopedia of Science Fiction 116/1 The text mentions the alternative consequences of the Second World War, of which the two most brilliant examples are Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle (1962) and Sarban’s The Sound of His Horn (1952). The latter once appeared in paperback editions with an introduction by Kingsley Amis, whose interest in alternative-worlds is well known.
alternative world n. 1986 B. W. Aldiss Trillion Year Spree 257 Ward Moore’s name lives on because of two novels, the satirical Greener Than You Think (1947), a great success in its time, and a classic alternative world story, Bring the Jubilee (1953), in which the hero lives in an America where the South won the Battle of Gettysburg; his interference in the battle to which he time-travels, causes the North to win. So matters turn out as we know them today. The wit and ingenuity of this story influenced more recent excursions into alternative history such as Harry Harrison’s A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah!
astrogating n. 1956 B. W. Aldiss Psyclops in New Worlds Science Fiction (#49) July 35 Astrogating, the business of getting from one planet to another, is far too intricate a task for anyone but an expert to master.
automatics n. 1970 B. W. Aldiss Orgy of Living and Dying in Moment of Eclipse 61 She said, ‘The gate’s shut already!’ He peered ahead, instinctively accelerating the truck. The gate was indeed closed. Flipping off the automatics, he steered the truck until its nose was thrust hard against the wire-shielded pole now barring the gateway.
Bradburyish adj. 1976 B. W. Aldiss Space Odysseys 178 The vital question of scale arises too in the Bryce Walton story. This pleasant Bradburyish piece contains the quote which heads this section; ‘A human being is the smallest thing of all, out here,’™ thinks one spaceman, drifting in space. But an answer is given: ‘The human being was bigger than the Universe itself.’
catastrophe adj. 1965 B. Aldiss British Science Fiction Now in SF Horizons (#2) Winter 35 Anyone who has composed any catastrophe story has dealt in this knowledgeable and inoffensive journalistic language.
catastrophe adj. 1973 B. W. Aldiss Billion Year Spree xi. 294 The essence of cosy catastrophe is that the hero should have a pretty good time (a girl, free suites at the Savoy, automobiles for the taking) while everyone else is dying off.
ferry n. 2012 B. W. Aldiss Finches of Mars xvii. 92 The ferry carried the new exiles from Armstrong up to the Confu, waiting in orbit.
ferry n. 1978 B. W. Aldiss Enemies of the System in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction June 5/2 From the ferry, the passengers transferred to a gulfhopper awaiting them in a parking orbit around the Moon.
holoscreen n. 1969 B. W. Aldiss Soft Predicament in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Oct. 68/2 We had old-fashioned two-dimensional oil paintings, no-mobile, on the walls, and no holoscreen.
ion gun n. 1963 B. Aldiss Impossible Star in World of Tomorrow Aug. 159/1 He moved toward his suit. Reluctantly, he climbed into it, menaced continually by the ion-gun.
light-century n. 1964 B. W. Aldiss Kind of Artistry in Starswarm ii. 11 Midway along the trailing edge was the blister in which Derek lay, senseless over most of his voyage, which stretched a quarter way across the light-centuries of Vermilion Sector.
near-future adj. 1986 B. W. Aldiss & D. Wingrove Trillion Year Spree x. 257 Coppel made a different reputation with a near-future thriller, The Dragon (1977).
New Wave n. 1968 B. W. Aldiss in J. Merril England Swings SF 279 Really, I’m no part of the new wave (don’t even like their stories madly).
out-system n. 1963 B. Aldiss Under-Privileged in New Worlds Science Fiction May 31 I guess you two are from out-system…. I’ve seen people from out-system amazed at our microfab circuit before.
probability world n. 1967 B. Aldiss Report on Probability A in New Worlds SF Mar. 76 I’d say this probability world, if that is what it is, is several degrees from ours. Even the names of the places we’ve been given are entirely foreign.
science fantasy n. 3 1973 B. Aldiss Billion Year Spree 133 Tales of prehistory have always remained a sort of sub-genre of science fantasy.
science fantasy n. 3 1973 B. Aldiss Billion Year Spree 8 In many cases, it is impossible to separate science fiction from science fantasy, or either from fantasy, since both genres are part of fantasy.
scientific romance n. 1973 B. Aldiss Billion Year Spree 10 The term ‘science fiction’ is a recent one. It was coined in the late 1920s as an improvement on the more ludicrous term ‘scientifiction’ long after the genre itself had come into being. It was then applied to crudely written stories appearing in various American magazines, of which Amazing Stories (1926 onwards) was the first. For more respectable forays into the same fields, the label ‘scientific romance’ was used.
scouter n. 1974 B. Aldiss Frankenstein Unbound in Fantastic Mar. 8/2 Doreen came round on her scouter, which she is just about old enough to drive.
shaggy god story n. 1965 ‘Dr. Peristyle’ in New Worlds Science Fiction Oct. 125 I confess to a weakness for the tale where it turns out that all mankind originated from a pair of escaping experimental animals from the lab of a visiting spaceship…. The story-type is a species of lay blasphemy; my label for it is ‘the shaggy god story’…. The shaggy god story is the bane of magazine editors, who get approximately one story per week set in a garden of Eden spelt Ee-Duhn.
shipmind n. 1975 B. W. Aldiss Year by Year the Evil Gains in K. Bulmer New Writings in SF 27 86 But Shipmind was assuring them that the sun ahead had only eight attendant planets, and not nine…. ‘The readings all point to my initial assumptions being one hundred percent correct,’ said Shipmind.
space opera n. 1974 B. Aldiss Space Opera Introd. 9 What space opera does is take a few light years and a pinch of reality, and inflate thoroughly with melodrama, dreams and a seasoning of screwy ideas.
subgenre n. 1977 B. Aldiss Future & Alternative History in B. Ash Visual Encyclopedia of Science Fiction 116 I believe the alternative world is growing as a sub-genre, following the warm reception of perhaps the three most brilliant examples of the species, Bring the Jubilee, The Man in the High Castle and A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah!, which belong to the fifties, sixties and seventies respectively.
subgenre n. 1977 B. Aldiss Future & Alternative Hist. in B. Ash Visual Encyclopedia of Science Fiction 121 In an afterword to his story ‘Trips’ (1974), Robert Silverberg has noted: ‘If science fiction is a literature of infinite possibilities, the subgenre of alternative-timetrack fiction must be one of its most infinite compartments.’
terrestial n. 1964 B. W. Aldiss Pink Plastic Gods in Science Fantasy June–July 17 The rumour’s been fostered, I guess, by the Spatial Anti-Miscegenation Laws of twenty-seventy, forbidding Terrestials and Uffitsians to marry in case they beget freaks.
Terrestrial n. 2 1960 B. W. Aldiss X for Exploitation in New Worlds (#92) Mar. 25 Take a note. Translate it into terrestrial, get it up into Transmissions as soon as possible, see it is circulated to all native contractors concerned.
time-slip n. 1974 B. Aldiss Frankenstein Unbound in Fantastic Mar. 19/1 When I woke, it was without any idea of time. The timeslip had upset my circadian rhythms.
timestream n. 1977 B. Aldiss Future & Alternative Hist. in B. Ash Visual Encyclopedia of Science Fiction 122/3 Another early novel of some influence on the development of the theme was Jack Williamson’s The Legion of Time (1938), in which the hero discovers the future existence of two possible time-streams (amongst others), that of Jonbar, a good, peaceful world, and another, Gyronchi, of an oppressive nature. Which of these two futures will actually come to pass depends upon a young boy who, in 1921, will find either a magnet or a pebble.
time travel v. 1986 B. W. Aldiss Trillion Year Spree 257 Ward Moore’s name lives on because of two novels, the satirical Greener Than You Think (1947), a great success in its time, and a classic alternative world story, Bring the Jubilee (1953), in which the hero lives in an America where the South won the Battle of Gettysburg; his interference in the battle to which he time-travels, causes the North to win. So matters turn out as we know them today. The wit and ingenuity of this story influenced more recent excursions into alternative history such as Harry Harrison’s A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah!
widescreen baroque n. 1973 B. W. Aldiss Billion Year Spree x. 247 The latter novel [sc. Alfred Bester’s The Stars My Destination] in particular is a definitive statement in Wide Screen Baroque—a kind of free-wheeling interplanetary adventure, full of brilliant scenery, dramatic scenes, and a joyous taking for granted of the unlikely. Bester writes with natty panache. [Ibid. xi. 314] [Kurt Vonnegut’s] Sirens of Titan, in particular, is a cascade of absurd invention, its hither-thither technique a sophisticated pinch from the Wide Screen Baroque school.
widescreen baroque n. 1964 B. W. Aldiss Introduction in C. L. Harness The Paradox Men v. These pure science fiction novels may be categorized as Widescreen Baroque. They like a wide screen, with space and possibly time travel as props, and at least the whole solar system as their setting.