/lit/ - Literature

Read pic related recently.

The central idea is underdeveloped in favor of the protagonists somewhat prosaic personal narrative. The ending of "The Plural of Helen of Troy" also seriously undermined one of the central points of the whole collection regarding the fundamental immorality of time travel.

"The Slayer of Souls" was an unexpectedly good horror story. Wright ought to do that more often.

I'm struck, as another anon pointed out when recommending this, that Wright is actually good at writing dialogue. He's not quite at Jack Vance level, but he's getting there without the annoying Joss Whedon/"reddit" factor that bothers me about so much witty banter in contemporary fiction.

He also manages (here and elsewhere) to keep his goddamn characters distinct. They occasionally descend into caricature but I don't have trouble keeping track of who's who. I might be giving him too much credit having just come off of a Clarke stint though.