This Film’s Crap, Let’s Slash The Seats

M John Harrison lists some interesting science fiction. Rather brilliantly he adds:

Some of these picks come with a caveat: I don’t much like either the metaphysics or the outcome of Flatliners, for instance, but I think the basic idea–killing yourself for fun–is so sound it makes up for a lot. To avoid revisionary items like “the first 20 minutes of Stargate but the rest is such shite”, I curbed this tendency.

Presumably something similar applies to Event Horizon. I should have bloody asked Harrison to contribute to the BSFA pamphlet I am putting together about science fiction writers on science fiction film . Somehow he slipped my mind.

Harrison also sneakily has Under The Skin by Michael Faber on this and his fantasy list. I must get round to reading both it and The Weight Of Numbers by Simon Ings.

‘In Xanadu’ by Thomas M. Disch

Sarrantonio suggests this story “recalls a bit his New Wave days”. Presumably what he means by this is that Disch has given each section its own title. I’m not a huge fan of Disch’s work, not even from the period when he was sane. This is pretty good though, even if it does have rather too many obvious riffs on consumerism like “YOUR AFTERLIFE BEGINS NOW! BROUGHT TO YOU BY DISNEY-MITSUBISHI PRODUCTIONS OF QUEBEC”.

Quality: ***
Shiftiness: ***