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Supertoys Last All Summer Long: And Other Stories of Future Time

Supertoys Last All Summer Long: And Other Stories of Future Time

List Price: $13.95
Your Price: $10.46
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: There's more to this book than "Supertoys"
Review: That said, the three Supertoy stories are here, and are quite nice. I think some of the imagery in the three are superior to that of the movie, the first in particular (Monica's response to being allowed to breed is incredible). However, there is much more to this book than just Supertoys.

To start off Aldiss apparently hates humanity, or at the very least human vanity and self-centeredness. He also seems to think that humankind will not grow out of these flaws, instead humanity will become more and more self-centered as time goes on, so be prepared for a future that is at the same time utopia and distopia...

Aldiss's writing style does seem to swing between brilliant and not so good, but there is enough brilliant to make up for the rest. III was particularly grim (the image of what humanity does to the inhabitants of Triton will stick with you), and "A Matter of Mathematics" could possibly be made into a decent screenplay. All told, "Supertoys..." is an incredible collection of eerily plausible sci-fi that just about everyone should read once, if not more. (if just to avoid turning the inhabitants of Jupiter's moon Europa into Campbell's Canned ET)

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Brilliant or just so-so
Review: The book contains an interesting collection of short stories. Being a SF master, Aldiss cannot escape the fate of old-fashioned writing. His style resembles the "Classics" of SF, and is not to the taste of the Matrix watching generation.

Just like what others had said, the first three "Supertoy" stories are good, then the rest becomes rather irrelevant. Kubrick and Spielberg seem to have good taste, in mainly adopting the first story in the excellent movie A.I. It's worth buying the book just to read the first story.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Brilliant or just so-so
Review: The book contains an interesting collection of short stories. Being a SF master, Aldiss cannot escape the fate of old-fashioned writing. His style resembles the "Classics" of SF, and is not to the taste of the Matrix watching generation.

Just like what others had said, the first three "Supertoy" stories are good, then the rest becomes rather irrelevant. Kubrick and Spielberg seem to have good taste, in mainly adopting the first story in the excellent movie A.I. It's worth buying the book just to read the first story.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Mythmaking?
Review: The first three stories have obvious parallels (which Aldiss apparently denied) with Pinnochio (and also the Tin Man in Wizard of Oz and Pygmalion and seal-wife and fairy-wife legends). Maybe I'm reading too much into this (making me guilty of deconstructionism) but I saw a pattern of recreation of old stories. "Nothing in Life is Ever Enough" tells the story of Shakespeares "Tempest" from Caliban's angle. "The Old Mythology" is what its title suggests; a visitor from a future age is present at events (told with a sharp sense of humor) that precapitulate (if that's a word) Greek and Hebrew creation myths. "Headless" is a version of the sacrificed hero described in Fraser's "Golden Bough." "A Matter of Mathematics" is about Plato's cave. In "Becoming the Full Butterfly" the breaking of a divine law results in the destruction of a world by flooding. "Talking Cubes"= "The Picture of Dorian Grey." "Steppenpferd"=the Temptation of St Anthony (I couldn't make a connection to Hesse's "Steppenwolf").
Most of the stories have down-beat endings. Whenever anybody has a good time they get their come-uppance, so it's a pessimistic view of the future. Even "The Marvels of Utopia" is dystopic - at least it's far from Thomas More. In spite of they're enjoyable because of Aldiss's sheer good writing,excellent jokes, wild imagination and page-turning action.I

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Don't Trash the Movie
Review: The movie is "loosely" based on the book. It does not even share the title. the movie was great but should never be compared with the book. They are basically two different stories on two different types of media.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: only "supertoy" is worth to read
Review: The supertoy story is quite different from the film, but I still love it because it gives another angle to see what happens to the the supertoy. In actual fact, I love this more than the film. However, the rest of the stories are horrible. Maybe the author want to espress his worries and negative views about the future of human life. However, he kept repeating the same idea all over the other stories, which really makes me fall asleep. Some of them I think they are NOT stories but simply author's theories about future and the bad sides of human beings. Sometimes it is really hard to understand what the writer want to say. In my point of view, the publisher just put all those stories together and make a BOOK to sell. Only the few pages about the supertoy is worth to read.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A.I. is the best of the stories in this collection
Review: The three short stories that make up what we all know as A.I., are the best of the lot in this collection. As Kubrick told Aldiss, he either writes exceptionally, or just so-so. Go see the movie. It does deviate from the short story; but, is well worth the nine bucks.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: s e r i o u s dissapointment. DO NOT BUY
Review: this book is more than dissapointing. the book never says anywhere that the first three "stories" or chapters are only 23 pages in legenth.

the main story is fairly good, adds a new element to movie, but other than that, DONT BUY THIS BOOK, only get it at the library if you insist

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: s e r i o u s dissapointment. DO NOT BUY
Review: this book is more than dissapointing. the book never says anywhere that the first three "stories" or chapters are only 23 pages in legenth.

the main story is fairly good, adds a new element to movie, but other than that, DONT BUY THIS BOOK, only get it at the library if you insist

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Yes, There's More Than "Supertoys", But...
Review: Without question, Brian Aldiss is a good writer, capable of writing memorable tales such as his "Supertoys" trilogy. However, this uneven collection doesn't quite rise to the high literary standards I've expected from fellow British science fiction writers J. G. Ballard and Michael Moorcock. Only "III" and "A Matter of Mathematics" are as finely wrought as "Supertoys Last All Summer Long". If you have a taste for robots, you might be better off reading Asimov, though the first "Supertoys" tale is among the finest I have read about androids and robots. And frankly, I didn't find Aldiss' space tales as engrossing as any I have read by Arthut C. Clarke. Still, Aldiss' work deserves a broad readership and those unfamiliar with his oeuvre may find this slender tome an excellent introduction.


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