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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Worth waiting for…. 🙂 The consolation here of course is that there’s still a fair bit of KB’s work I’ve yet to read - several novels & at least another 2 collections…

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

It’s a sobering thought when, having enjoyed a collection so much, you realise you’re down to the final stories. This tale, hauntingly depicting a boat trip down a disused canal on an alien world, is sometimes denoted as one of Keith Roberts’s ‘minor’ stories. Hah, there is no such thing…🙂 #booksky

Copy of the collection ‘The Grain Kings’ by Keith Roberts, which contains the 1973 story ‘The Lake of Tuonela’.

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Very faithful to the original story too. The production is certainly a very ambitious one for 1966.

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

OTD 1966. The 2nd season of the BBC’s SF anthology series ‘Out of the Unknown’ begins with an outstanding adaptation of E.M. Forster’s remarkably prescient ‘The Machine Stops’. This shot was just one of the many remarkable directorial flourishes Philip Saville brought to this ambitious production.

Close-up of Yvonne Mitchell as Vashti in the 1966 television adaptation of E.M. Forster’s ‘The Machine Stops’. A camera overlay presents the image of her son Kuno (played by Michael Gothard) climbing a ladder as if ascending towards her left eye.

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

You’re very welcome Deb - hope he enjoys it 👍

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Excellent first novel - overshadowed by the likes of ‘Pavane’ of course, but nonetheless an extremely engaging work.

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

A fine 40 minute piece - with the interviewer simply letting Moorcock talk at length regarding his memories of the era.

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Absolute gem of an interview with Michael Moorcock here from 2024. Amongst other things, many fascinating reflections on the trials and tribulations of editing New Worlds magazine in the 60s. Recommended 👍 podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/t...

podcasts.apple.com

Michael Moorcock: celebrating 60 years of New Worlds

Podcast Episode · The Book Club · 13 November 2024 · 43min

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Absolutely - particularly some of the lost gems of that 3rd season - Wyndham’s ’Random Quest’ and Peter Phillips ‘Dreams are Sacred‘ (retitled ‘Get Off My Cloud’) and many others…

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

OTD 1965. The opening episode of ‘Out of the Unknown’, still one of the best SF anthology shows made for television. Despite the era’s inevitable budgetary & technical limitations, the ambitious remit to bring the likes of Wyndham, Pohl & Ballard to the small screen often met with stunning success.

Copy of ‘Out of the Unknown: A guide to the legendary television series’ by Mark Ward and the 2014 BFI DVD boxset of the remaining episodes of the series.

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Ah I see - nice that it was in good condition though. I imagine there are many others out there that are in a fairly battered state. Wish I’d kept my own copy from the early 80s!

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Lucky find indeed! As you say, one to pick up at any opportunity 👍

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SciFiScavenger @scifiscavenger.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Visiting #4 child in Bristol, did a bit of bookshopping. Found a rare copy of Booker contender Mike Harrison’s first novel in the paperback first edition. VG condition. This is a book you grab when you see it (almost) regardless of cost and condition. #scifibooks #sciencefiction #bookcollecting

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Just one reader I imagine (haven’t heard this myself, but I believe it was a reading rather than dramatisation). The 5 seconds into the future moment is the start of a train of events too, without this being sustained for tricky dialogue. Good story though -more lighthearted than others I’ve read.

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

An light-hearted story by Christopher Priest, written for a BBC Radio 4 series in 2009. A very playful take on time travel paradoxes (meeting your other self - 5 seconds into the future!), it nicely echoes the offbeat tales of David I. Masson, a huge influence on Priest in the 60s. #booksky

Copy of the Christopher Priest short story collection ‘Episodes’, which contains his 2009 story ‘futouristic.co.uk’.

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Another welcome acquisition. The quirky irony of the title has always raised a smile - no wonder it’s been lodged in the memory for years. Read the title story today - and then happily reread, knowing I’d missed a few things first time around… And of course, it’s all beautifully written. #booksky

Copy of the Orb Paperback edition of the Gene Wolfe collection ‘The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories’.

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Ah, one I’ve yet to catch up with (I certainly enjoyed Babel-17 and the stories in the Driftglass collection).

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Revisited Bradbury’s ‘Mars is Heaven’ today. Although I generally recollected where the story was heading, this familiarity still didn’t blunt the impact of that ending. Superbly crafted. And that’s why I love Bradbury - a sense of horror created purely by suggestion & oblique description. #booksky

Copy of the 1970 anthology ‘The Science Fiction Hall of Fame’ which contains Bradbury’s 1948 story ‘Mars is Heaven’.

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

My sequential sojourn through Aldiss’s ‘Barefoot in the Head’ tales has brought me to ‘Multi-Value Motorway’. Certainly challenging given the wealth of playful wordplay, but entirely engaging when read in context, with imagery as striking as the accompanying 1967 illustration in New Worlds👇 #booksky

Uncredited illustration from the August 1967 issue of the British magazine New Worlds (the Contents page credits internal illustrations to three artists: Cawthorn, Zoline and Young) which accompanied the first appearance of the Brian Aldiss story ‘Multi-value Motorway’. Image depicts a snake with bared fangs, whilst in the foreground the snake’s body merges into the curving shape of a busy motorway.

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Ah, that’s one I haven’t seen - it sounds like I’m not missing anything there either! 😀

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I was thinking that it’s now been a few years since I last watched it - overdue for a rewatch I think (I’ll have to track down Boorman’s novelisation sometime too 👍)

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Absolutely agree - sometimes my own familiarity with too many tv and cinema adaptations prevents me from discovering how fabulous the source material truly is 👍

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Finished Wolfe’s ‘The Sword of the Lictor’ today. Captivating and satisfyingly unpredictable, in a way that sometimes brought to mind what someone once described as the ‘unhinged theatrical nightmare’ of John Boorman’s splendid ‘Zardoz’. And yes, I’m a long term admirer of the latter too 🙂 #booksky

Copies of the two Gollancz SF Masterworks volumes which together make up the original quartet of novels in Gene Wolfe’s ‘The Book of the New Sun’ series.

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I‘ve heard very good things about ‘The Traveller in Black’ stories - hopefully will catch up with them one day. And as you say, some of his later works are characterised by a notable degree of prescience (‘The Sheep Look Up‘ is another on my radar too).

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

John Brunner, born OTD 1934. Would love to see more of his extensive output in print. Now and again though, it’s heartening to find nice vintage items like this Fontana paperback in the wild, virtually unread judging by the condition. Beautiful cover by Peter Goodfellow too. #booksky

Copy of the Fontana release of the John Brunner novel ‘The Squares of the City’, with a cover credited to Peter Goodfellow (shows a man in a cityscape laid out like a chessboard with giant chess pieces). Machinery is visible in an exposed section of the Knight Chesspiece.

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Thank you 🙂 It’s a brilliantly realised novel - full of unpredictable incident too!

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Currently halfway into the 3rd book of Wolfe’s ‘Book of the New Sun’ series. I feared I’d be flagging a little at this point, but there’s a fine momentum to the narrative that still has me entirely involved. And this one in particular boasts some gripping ‘edge-of-your-seat’ set-pieces… #booksky

A copy of the Gollancz SF Masterworks edition of the 3rd and 4th books (combined in one volume) of Gene Wolfe’s ‘Book of the New Sun’ series.

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Likewise only caught up with this about a month ago - and I agree, an extraordinary novel for its time 👍

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Celebrating the enduring legacy of H.G. Wells, born OTD 1866. Every time I discover or revisit the likes of The Time Machine, The Island of Doctor Moreau or The War of the Worlds, I’m truly astonished at the fact that they were written at the turn of the 19th century. Simply timeless works. #booksky

Copies of Penguin paperback editions of The Time Machine, The Island of Doctor Moreau and The War of the Worlds.

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Likewise, haven’t come across anything as yet which I felt was anywhere near sub-par. It‘s a heartening thought that I’ve still heaps to discover - that copy of ‘Kiteworld’ on the pile there is still unread too! I imagine I’ll be getting ahead of myself and ordering another one soon too… 🙂

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Celebrated author Keith Roberts was born OTD 1935. Still best known for his superb alternative history novel ‘Pavane‘ - although I was delighted to discover that there’s a whole body of work that‘s equally captivating. One of the few authors to have ignited the ‘completist’ gene in me.📚📖📚🙂 #booksky

Four recent editions of books by British author Keith Roberts - ‘Pavane’, ‘The Furies’, ‘The Grain Kings’, and ‘Kiteworld’.

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

…I confess I’ve gone down an internet wormhole now - I’ve seen listings of original DFL vinyls that make reference to a sticker BUT also a fold-out poster - maybe it’s the latter I thinking of!? 👇

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

😀Well, I guess it was 1979 after all - the memory may have exaggerated the size! Maybe the sheet it was adhered to (prior to peeling it off) was sufficiently large for me to ponder why I hadn’t detected it before alongside the slipcase. Apologies Joe, no intention to mislead here!

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Ah you’ve got me thinking now - I also had RoadHawks at this point so I’m wondering if my memory is conflating the two? I remember the sticker was very large - almost the width of the vinyl (I also remember that a friend of mine gave me a withering look when I told him I‘d only just found it 😀).

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I recall that I had this album for at least 2 years before discovering one night that the sleeve contained a large circular sticker duplicating this image! Having played it endlessly during that time I can’t imagine how this eluded me so long! 😀

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I confess the job is made super easy by a huge tome entitled The Complete Short Stories - I’m pacing this out by reading one of these a month (& look up any references, covers etc for the original publication too). The only one that continues to elude is his first novel ‘The Wind from Nowhere!‘ 🙂

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arn @arn99.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

(Broke my current rule as a reread) . #booksky #SF An utterly wonderful book, one of his best, his elegant style of writing makes a multi-layered complex story about identity, memories and illness, so easy to read, and a real joy to do so.

The Affirmation, hardback book by Christopher Priest.

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

My chronological readthrough of J.G. Ballard has brought me to 1963’s ‘The Time-Tombs’. One of the few stories to be set on another planet, it plays effectively with those tropes immortalised by Tomb-raiding adventure tales. Virgil Finlay’s striking cover certainly ramps up the drama too. #booksky

Virgil Finlay’s cover art for the J.G. Ballard story ‘The Time-tombs’ from the March 1963 issue of the SF magazine Worlds of IF. Cover shows two men rushing towards the materialising image of a woman seen between banks of scientific apparatus.

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

The latest pick from the Selected Stories tome was one of Philip K. Dick’s last tales, ‘I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon’ from 1980. A sombre affair involving the attempts of a computer to preserve a man’s sanity, when he is accidentally awoken from cryogenic sleep during an interstellar voyage. #booksky

Cover of The Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick (cover image composed on the titles of the short stories overlayed onto a simple circular graphic)

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I found this fascinating - an exceptionally well informed commentary on the 1966 film adaptation of Bradbury’s ‘Fahrenheit 451’. A real treasure trove of information courtesy of Bradbury Scholar Phil Nichols. Easy to follow too, even if you haven’t seen the film 👍 podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/b...

podcasts.apple.com

Bradbury 100 - episode 80 - Fahrenheit 451 Movie Commentary

Podcast Episode · Bradbury 100 - Celebrating the Life and Work of American Writer Ray Bradbury · 11 September · 1hr 58min

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

😀 It’s a fairly varied collection, but there’s something about the playful & often decidedly odd structure of some of the stories that appeals to me! Others are more serious in tone - ‘Travellers Rest’ in particular is superb. Very influential on a young Christopher Priest.

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

It struck me that at that point in time books and other items would generally just ‘appear’ on the shelves (or in this case newsagent spinner racks!), having little, if any, access to advance information. Part of the thrill of ‘discovery’ at a young age I guess! 🙂

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Rarely discussed nowadays, but I’ve a soft spot for the playfulness of David I. Masson’s mind-bending tales. This 1974 story centres on a means of ‘hopping’ between parallel Earths, allowing travellers to meet their doppleganger counterparts. Frequently off-the-wall, I’m delighted to say 🙂 #booksky

Copy of the collection ‘The Caltraps of Time’ by David I. Masson, which includes his last story ‘Doctor Fausta’.

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Blimey, that’s a blast from the past - I remember picking this up from one of those ‘spindle‘ racks in a local newsagent.

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Lucky indeed - fabulous editions there! I have a rather battered copy of that issue of New Worlds - a little worse for wear now though, but such a striking illustration (certainly one of my favourites). Mal Dean was a real talent.

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Way back in 1983 as I recall - long overdue for a reread! I‘d recently read that it had been a key factor in the decision by WH Smiths to stop selling the magazine - piqued my curiousity of course :) Must track down a 2nd hand copy in the near future (think it’s long been out of print).

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Noted that Norman Spinrad is 86 today. So an apt time to revisit his 1969 tale ‘The Last Hurrah of the Golden Horde’, one of the best stories to utilise Michael Moorcock’s ubiquitous anti-hero Jerry Cornelius. Striking Mal Dean cover here for the story’s first appearance in New Worlds. #booksky

Cover by artist Mal Dean for the July 1969 issue of the magazine New Worlds (stylised image of an archetypal Mongol warrior astride a horse facing a large Jumbo Jet Airliner).

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Ah, yes, no worries. The only other tangential thing that came to mind (again not a novel as such, sorry) was Gibson’s screenplay for Johnny Mnemonic - rare as hens teeth I hear!

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Tiptree’s ‘Girl Who Was Plugged in‘ is a neat precursor of course, but I think you’re focusing primarily on novels here though?

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Future Revisitations @futurerevisited.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Seconded! One of the best novel’s I’ve read this year (and there’s been some stiff competition). Yet to read The Prestige, The Affirmation and The Glamour though, so I guess the best is (arguably) still yet to come… 🙂

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