The Best of Ian Watson

One thing I cannot deny is the breadth of Ian Watson's imagination. These short stories run a gamut of ideas, and even flip a bit between genres. Watson is first and foremost recognised for his science fiction work, and that does provide the backbone of this collection, but he does dip into some other speculative fiction genres such as horror with some success. The wildness and variety of his ideas are what really stand out here, and even the older stories have aged relatively well because of this.

However, whilst I can respect the sheer variety of ideas I do struggle with a lot of the stories for a few reasons. He does have a habit of setting up a story with one expectation, before flipping it completely on its head in the last few paragraphs and going off on a wild tangent. Used sparingly, this technique could have been an interesting twist, but here it is just exhausting. The way his prose flows also tends to be a little bit distant. The characters in the stories all feel a little flat to me.

This is still an interesting read, and it shows well how his craft has developed over time. As a cheap punt from the PS2 sale section I am not unhappy with this - it was entertaining and a worthy read. His imagination is a fascinating thing