The Society of Time: The Original Trilogy and Other Stories by John Brunner

(British Library, 2020)

Reviewed by Nick Hubble

This is an entry in the British Library’s somewhat eclectic series of ‘Science Fiction Classics’. The book contains five novellas: ‘The Analysts’ (1961) and ‘Father of Lies’ (1962), both originally published in Science Fantasy; and the three ‘Society of Time’ novellas, ‘Spoil of Yesterday’, ‘The Word Not Writien’ and ‘The Fullness of Time’, first published in 1962 in successive issues of Science Fiction Adventures. The back-cover blurb is slightly misleading in that although it correctly states that the trilogy was abridged when first collected as Times Without Number in 1962, it does not mention that the cuts were restored in the expanded 1969 edition. Mike Ashley discusses this in his introduction, but it should be more clearly labelled on the cover.

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Review from BSFA Review 14 - Download your copy here.