The Moment of Eclipse

The Moment of Eclipse is the only collection to have won the BSFA award before novels and collections were split into separate categories. In fact it was fairly difficult to tell if it really was the same award as all those novels, and I almost decided I was going to ignore it as a result. It was also the only book in the BSFA winners list I didn't own, at the start of the year.

I've been making a special effort to read short fiction this year, though, and I decided to pick up a copy via abebooks and get on with it.

I have to say I don't really know what the BSFA saw in it. Collections are almost always a mixture of highs and lows, and I didn't think the highs were very high or very frequent in this one. The prose was generally very good, but the stories just didn't really connect with me. Even the most famous story - Super-Toys Last All Summer Long - seemed a bit slight, to me.

Disappointing.