A Brilliant Void: A Selection of Classic Irish Science Fiction
Registered by 
GoryDetails
of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 3/9/2020
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
GoryDetails of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 3/9/2020 This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
I got this softcover from an online seller. It's a collection of Irish SF stories, from the 1800s through 1960. While the introduction does explain the editor's choices here, I found some of the stories a bit thin on the "SF" front; still, there were several that I liked very much, including:
"The Diamond Lens" by Fitz-James O'Brien, in which a scientist perfects a marvelous lens such that he can see living creatures on particles within a drop of water - including a lovely female with whom he becomes infatuated. [As one might guess, things... do not end well.] I wasn't surprised to learn that H. P. Lovecraft enjoyed this story too!
"The Professor's Experiment" by Margaret Wolfe Hungerford, from 1895: it deals with experiments in suspended animation, which work better than the professor could have hoped - if only he hadn't made a couple of tiny miscalculations (including not keeping written notes).
Jane Barlow's "An Advance Sheet" reads more like a ghost-story with ESP-like foreshadowings, but has a mild SF factor.
"Lady Clanbevan's Baby" by Clotilde Graves deals with experiments in maintaining youthfulness - and their unfortunate side effects. I admit that the last line of this one came across as far too wacky to fit the story up to that point, and I have no idea if the author meant it to be funny or shocking, but other than that it's a nice solid tale.
Another Graves story, "The Great Beast of Kafue", reminds me of Ray Bradbury's "The Foghorn" a bit, with the discovery of a creature from a long-thought-extinct species.
"The Chronotron" by Tarlach Ó hUid is a time-travel story with a very Irish focus - one character hopes to prevent the Irish Civil War by going back in time and destroying London with an atomic bomb, preventing England from interfering in the Irish conflict.
"The Diamond Lens" by Fitz-James O'Brien, in which a scientist perfects a marvelous lens such that he can see living creatures on particles within a drop of water - including a lovely female with whom he becomes infatuated. [As one might guess, things... do not end well.] I wasn't surprised to learn that H. P. Lovecraft enjoyed this story too!
"The Professor's Experiment" by Margaret Wolfe Hungerford, from 1895: it deals with experiments in suspended animation, which work better than the professor could have hoped - if only he hadn't made a couple of tiny miscalculations (including not keeping written notes).
Jane Barlow's "An Advance Sheet" reads more like a ghost-story with ESP-like foreshadowings, but has a mild SF factor.
"Lady Clanbevan's Baby" by Clotilde Graves deals with experiments in maintaining youthfulness - and their unfortunate side effects. I admit that the last line of this one came across as far too wacky to fit the story up to that point, and I have no idea if the author meant it to be funny or shocking, but other than that it's a nice solid tale.
Another Graves story, "The Great Beast of Kafue", reminds me of Ray Bradbury's "The Foghorn" a bit, with the discovery of a creature from a long-thought-extinct species.
"The Chronotron" by Tarlach Ó hUid is a time-travel story with a very Irish focus - one character hopes to prevent the Irish Civil War by going back in time and destroying London with an atomic bomb, preventing England from interfering in the Irish conflict.
Journal Entry 2 by GoryDetails at Little Free Library, Hartshorn Mill Rd in Amherst, New Hampshire USA on Saturday, March 21, 2020
GoryDetails at Little Free Library, Hartshorn Mill Rd in Amherst, New Hampshire USA on Saturday, March 21, 2020
Released 4 yrs ago (3/21/2020 UTC) at Little Free Library, Hartshorn Mill Rd in Amherst, New Hampshire USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
Guidelines for safely visiting and stocking Little Free Libraries from the LFL site here.I left this book in this charming Little Free Library on this lovely day; hope someone enjoys it! (The house in the background has an Irish flag flying from their porch, so I hope they'll find this book!)
[See other recent releases in NH here.]
*** Released for the 2020 Celebrate the Irish challenge. ***
*** Released for the 2020 Science Fiction challenge. ***
