Brian Aldiss, Total Environment (1968) **
Grim, pervy dystopia from the era of Star Trek.
Frederik Pohl, The Merchants of Venus (1972) ****
Ancient alien archaeology makes a good tease for the series. I'd read it before, but only just got the Shakespearean pun.
Gene Wolfe, The Death of Doctor Island (1973) ****
I remembered this being a surreal classic, but it was less mind-blowing the second time.
Robert Silverberg, Sailing to Byzantium (1985) ***
Frittering away eternity doesn't sound so bleak to me, though the billennia could start to drag.
The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain: A Fancy for Christmas-Time (1848) ***
More emotionally complex than A Christmas Carol, though not as good. None of them were, predictably, though I'd read The Chimes again. Now I'll have to come up with a new tradition.
Nurse's Stories (1860) ****
A celebration of literature's power to inspire and traumatise kids.
The Bagman's Uncle (1837) ***
Ghosts or time travel, either way fairly mundane.
