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Machines and Men |
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Machines and Men was the author's second collection of short
stories, containing fine work originally published in the 1960s, and his first
collection of short stories proper. This statement is not intended to disparage
Anita which, although a book of short stories, can almost be read as a
novel because of the constant presence of one central character through all of
them. Well received at the time of its first publication Machines and
Men is still regarded as perhaps the author's best collection. Out of print
now for many years, first editions are very difficult to find, paperbacks come
on the market occasionally.
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DUSTJACKET BLURB: Although his reputation was made in the
short-story field, this is the first story collection Keith Roberts has ever
published. Its two sections — 'Machines' and Men — divide easily
according to subject-matter. But not conventionally: the 'Machines' section has
only one star-ship for space-opera fans, and that is stubbornly earthbound. But
it does have other and subtler ideas — imagine how the Battle of Sedgmoor
could literally be fought in your local cinema at the instigation of worried
24th-Century admen; or think of an ordinary car accident which is in reality
one of the nastiest telepathy murders ever envisaged. The 'Men' section shows
people — human and synthetic — trying to cope with equally strange
situations, and sometimes succeeding alarmingly. Take 'The Deeps', where a
bathyscaphe society puts humanity to the test as rigorously as any lunar
colony. Or 'Synth', which gives the sentient robot theme an unexpected twist.
The emphasis throughout . . . . is on character, and its development in extreme
and complex situations.
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| FIRST EDITION: Hutchinson & Co, London, 1973 |
