After I have finished with Anne Rice (whom I remember being much better than what actually is) I took a break from reading - which in my case means simply one day without book, just to clear up my head - I took a look upon my virtual library and decided to look up to something different, let's say to a genre that I don't usually visit. Not long ago I have read "Legends: Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy" which was a lovely collection of short stories written in Fantasy genre. It also inspired me to check out some more Fantasy writers, so I ended up over-dosing on George R. R. Martin and for no matter how exciting it was, for now I am just fine with swords and magicians. This collection also reminded me that I don't usually go for Science Fiction, perhaps because all that talk about Aliens, space ships and technological details puts me off - with notable exception of Frank Herbert's "Dune" I have not been specially interested in this genre. But I did my very serious research and found out several pretty famous titles so now I have another pile to check out and decided (in the spur of the moment) that now I'm going to read some serious Science Fiction. Maybe not too serious and too technical, because (just to play it safe) I started with father of Science Fiction, famous English writer Herbert George Wells who belongs to mostly 19th century so (I hoped) he wasn't too technical.
Of course, I know H.G.Wells from before - in fact, one of the very first movies I saw in the cinema as a kid was darkly disturbing 1970s version of "The Island of Dr Moreau" which actually is horror story of the first order for any adult reader, not to mention a small child who was left traumatised for life. But since H.G.Wells is so well-known and legendary writer, he fell into group of those people I somehow got impression I was very familiar with where in fact I knew movie versions of his novels - I do have both "The Island of Dr Moreau" and "The Time Machine" (which I always loved) and this happened to be the whole extent of my knowledge. Just like with Jules Verne (another famous writer and visionary) Wells is someone I thought I know well, where in fact I can only name famous titles. So right now I decided to start my Science Fiction with him, as he basically started the genre.
Science Fiction my foot - quickly I realised this is collection of short stories that have absolutely nothing to do with Science fiction, Wells simply compiled his earlier works published in various magazines and it is delightful in its own way but no Science Fiction. In his introduction, Wells explains that at certain point magazines seriously pursued and even encouraged the genre of short stories, which readers at the time loved and some famous writers in fact got their start this way - the whole tradition of short stories somehow declined and eventually almost disappeared with time, nowadays magazines mostly focus on short articles, photos of celebrities and colourful adverts but there was a time, long time ago when people actually read articles. I clearly remember the contest in my local paper, long time ago, where one of the stories haunted me long afterwards and in fact I recall its title to this day - it was "Školjka" (The Shell) but unfortunately I don't recall the author, it was about young village girl, innocent in her youth and as she finds a pretty, shiny thing on the floor, she assumes it is a shell so she proudly pins it on her - it turns out it was not a shell but a pin from a uniform of German soldier killed by her relatives and as Germans search the village for the killer, she was noticed on the window with her "shell" and quickly executed with the rest of her family. So this is what I always think about short stories - Wells basically agrees with me - they are little masterpieces meant to enjoy in a short span of time (waiting rooms, trains and such) where the story if its really inspired and imaginative stays with us much longer than we expected. It takes a special skill to create such little miniatures and I am right now deep in fantastic world of H.G.Wells though so far there is nothing remotely scientific about them, in what I have read so far he is firmly standing in the present time and describing everyday people around him, but he is truly good. It is also a welcome change of pace for me after reading all these history books and Anne Rice.
Another writer who became world famous for his short stories was Guy de Maupassant whom I definitely need to check out.
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Dear reader, once I wrapped my head around the fact that this, after all, perhaps won't be Science Fiction collection in a sense of space ships and aliens, it turned out to be very enjoyable read - some of his stories are truly magnificent and unforgettable in a sense that border on fantastic, they only seemingly happen to be in present time but is characters always live trough some unexpected, weird adventures. I thought he might have been influenced by H. P. Lovecraft but than I realised Lovecraft came after him (and was much darker). One of the stories I just read was titled "AEPYORNIS ISLAND" and it was truly excellent, about a man who found him stranded on a deserted island with a egg fossil from some ancient bird - egg somehow actually hatches and the man has to live with little bird that belongs to long disappeared species of animal that lived in completely different era. Two of them live alone of this island in harmony as long as the bird is small but as it grows and becomes dangerous, where eventually two of them compete for power - ancient bird is bigger and stronger, human much smaller and more dangerous for he is cunning and clever. Eventually there is inevitable end which I won't explain here, its truly excellent. So it IS very interesting and I actually can't wait to continue reading this - maybe it wasn't exactly what I expected but its thrilling read.
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