Further Thoughts on Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan Sometimes you just have to read bits of a novel again. Machines Like Me is that kind of novel. (reviewed here) I mused for a long time over the title. What does it mean? Is it a reflection of the fact that we humans, just like …
Category: short stories
Cut Off
Unchosen Love by Ursula K LeGuin This, the third story in the collection The Birthday of the World, is set on a planet called O, where ideas of sex and family are even more bizarre than on Gethen or Seggri. [See my two previous posts, here and here.] 'When I explained our concept of incest …
Sixteen To One
The Matter of Seggri by Ursula K LeGuin 'Their gender inbalance has produced a society in which .... the men have all the privilege and the women have all the power.' The Matter of Seggri is the second story in LeGuin's collection The Birthday of the World. It depicts a planet where the ratio of …
The Travelling Companion
A Short Story by Ian Rankin I picked this little book up in a shop in Australia; I hadn't seen it for sale in the UK [though I see it's been mentioned on Goodreads]. It's not an Inspector Rebus story of course, but if you have a few minutes to spare it's a good read. …
The Snakes of Horus
A Short Story by Andrew Greenfield Lockhart [I originally wrote this for a session at my writers' group.] ‘We’re safe for now. They can’t get in.’ I risked a glance at Jude out of the corner of my eye. I couldn’t, I daren’t allow my attention to be diverted from the window. She was statuesque, …
The Attic
A Short Story A whiff of something unexplained, alien, reaches me through the half-open trapdoor. I fumble for the light switch just inside on the floor, find it and flip it on. Nothing happens. The bulb has gone. Something crawls across my hand and I draw it back instinctively. The ladder creaks and wobbles underneath …
