From Sam Edge, Ringwood, Hampshire, UK
As usual, I enjoyed Emily H. Wilson’s review of the books Vigil and The Rainseekers. However, I don’t generally find novellas or even short stories unsatisfying. Some of the most-praised science-fiction stories of all time, such as The War of the Worlds and The Day of the Triffids, are very slim volumes compared with today’s doorstop paperbacks. When I was in my teens, I would easily consume one of these in a night, and I can still do so in about a week, now that I have less time and don’t read as fast as I once did. I, Robot and many other classic mid-20th-century authors’ books are anthologies of short stories, originally published in sci-fi magazines, and are none the worse for their brevity (14 February, p 26).
