I’m an aficionado of pastiches and riffs on HG Wells’ The Time Machine – my favourite SF novel, which I re-read at intervals — so a new Constable collection, THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF TIME TRAVEL SF (edited by Mike Ashley, who I somehow persuaded to write for Crime Time for years, despite a derisory remuneration) is catnip to me, not least for David Lake’s clever novella, in which Weena is rescued from a Morlock-dominated future and brought back to the 19th century. This collection contains twenty-five short stories – including previously unpublished work – that consider all aspects of time. The stories raise questions that linger in the mind long after reading. Mike Ashley, of course, is a leading authority on SF and fantasy and has compiled over fifty successful Mammoth anthologies. In this collection, Mike has brought together some cherisgable SF writers, including Kage Baker, Simon Clark, Fritz Leiber, Kristine Kathryn Rusch and many others.
