An Ornament to His Profession
The New England Science Fiction Association does sf lovers a big favor with this valuable collection of 17 pieces by an exceedingly gifted, lamentably obscure author now in his eighties and still writing. "The Rose," a moving tribute to his older brother and to dance; the title story, which mixes science and the supernatural as well as comedy and grimness in a fashion typical of Harness; a new piece, "Lethary Fair"; two classic time-travel stories; and the others cover a very wide range in subject and manner. Harness has always loved to play with ideas--the more ideas, the merrier--and mix them together with sublime disregard for genre categories or editorial prejudices. He has also been a master of graceful prose during times when clunkiness was far more common in the sf and fantasy fields. For those who wonder whether the author of the superlative novelThe Paradox Men(1953) ever wrote anything else--well, he did, and here is a highly enjoyable sampling of it.Roland Green