the last man by mary wollstonecraft shelley

I think I need to go and reread the Helliconia Trilogy - I really do not want to have 'Finches of Mars' as my last memory of Aldiss. And the high expectations for the last SF novel of one of the best authors did not help - a lot of my frustration was because of this - I would have accepted some of it from a new author that is still learning the craft - or at least I would have accepted it a bit better. The saving grace of the whole book are the ideas - they are there, underdeveloped but still visible. How exactly that could happen in such a novel is beyond me.

But far more often, it is disjointed and alogical, sounding more as an exercise or a rough draft. There are passages that hint at what Aldiss can do and the story is heart-breaking. But they never survive - and without it, the world really do not belong to the humans. And all would have been great if babies could be born - but all of them die - most before birth, some after birth. The story should have been a good one - humanity made it to Mars, made colonies and is surviving. Unfortunately he seems to have forgotten how to do that. It made me appreciate what Aldiss can do when he puts his mind to it.

Years ago, when I was still learning what science fiction is, a Bulgarian publisher decided to translate and make available the Helliconia Trilogy.

The last man by mary wollstonecraft shelley