The Art of Space Travel and Other Stores by Nina Allan

I would like to thank Titan for an advance copy of this collection in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher - Titan

Published - Out Now

Price - £8.99 paperback £6.64 Kindle eBook

A collection of short stories from the award-winning author of The Rift and The Dollmaker, Nina Allan. This compilation brings together rarely seen tales spanning the vast breadth of Allan's writing career for the first time. It also includes a brand-new introduction and one never-before-published story. Locus has described Nina as 'a subversive writer… playing with both the familiar protocols of genre and with the nature of the reading experience itself.' This is a stunning collection from one of the most astute and innovative voices writing today.

A short review on this one to explain my thoughts upon this collection. Having read Allan’s The Silver Wind I was looking forward to reading this collection but sadly it very much was a case of a writing style and approach very much not for me. For me a good short story collection needs variety and while this has tales of various subjects my ongoing issue was each feels written in the same voice. Every character sounded the same be it a school girl a near future hotel worker or a little girl. The monotone approach combined with a strange dated 70/80s way of talking for me made stories all apparently written in last twenty years jarring. I felt like I was reading a much older collection and one were formica and Brasso jarred with characters talking about wifi and the internet. Its rare I find a collection I just cannot connect with in any emotional way and yet I can recognise Allan is clearly a skilled writer but this isn’t a style of SF short fiction I felt particularly working for me. Not for me I am afraid but hopefully Allan’s longer fiction will be when I next get to it.