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Time and the Riddle

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About this listen

A collection of Fast’s best short fiction, from science fiction and fantasy to philosophy and suspense

This collection of short stories encompasses 20 years of work by Howard Fast, including some of his best-known and most treasured tales. Not merely fantasy or science fiction, these "Zen stories" explore the world’s mysterious and unanswerable questions, big and small, and the results are at once bizarre, humorous, chilling, and poignant. An American general shoots down what appears to be an angel during a Vietnam War battle, a celebrated author becomes a hunted man, and a mouse is granted human thought and emotion by a group of alien beings. The 31 stories in Time and the Riddle showcase Fast’s range and supreme talent as a storyteller.

©1975 Howard Fast (P)2014 Audible, Inc. Anthologies & Short Stories Fiction Literature & Fiction Satire Science Fiction Short Stories Comedy Witty Fantasy
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Almost all of these stories could have sat quite comfortably among the canon of The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits, without being at all out of place. Indeed, it seems entirely possible to me (not having checked) that maybe some of them did appear in the later, renewed series’?
Some are a little flawed by their (now dated) attitudes toward race and there are one or two usages that may make some listeners bristle? However, all are well written, imaginative and clever. Some have twists, while others are more simple explorations of the, “What If?” variety, that simply ask us to consider what the world might look like had such and such a thing actually occurred; or what are the true implications of common place ideas that most of us take for granted, without fully thinking them through.
Whilst never attaining the calibre of a Rod Serling or a Harlan Ellison penned anthology, they are nevertheless rather thoughtful, original and rewarding tales, marred only slightly by a somewhat indifferent reading by the narrator, who, whilst being competent enough, doesn’t really do the stories or their characters justice with his delivery. Some of the accents he attempts are a little cringeworthy.
Yet, I’m confident that fans of the genre will get a lot of enjoyment from this series of stories: there will be at least one or two that fans would probably wish had been made into a movie or TV show. I certainly felt that way.

Time And The Riddle. Anthology for fans of The Twilight Zone

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