2007 books

67) C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce, 1946
A fantasy journey into Heaven and Hell that was inspired by Lewis's understanding of Christian theology. I automatically have problems with this kind of story, the sort that attempts to ground itself in ethereal landscapes populated by spirits and ghosts – thankfully God doesn't put in an appearance – but Lewis manages to get his point across regardless, in that Heaven and Hell are not conditions reserved for the afterlife but are states of mind created in the here and now. The 'great divorce' seems to refer to a conscious separation of negativity from any influence over positive thought, which seems absolutist and overly optimistic but is intended as Lewis's recipe for a happy life. This is not as accessible or as easily understood as The Screwtape Letters but it is occasionally told with an equally dry humour.

In his preface Lewis gave credit to an unknown SF writer from whom he borrowed a certain science fictional idea from a story he once read in an SF magazine. I wondered if this story and writer had ever been identified, and editor Doug Anderson informed me it was 'The Man Who Lived Backwards' by Charles F. Hall, which appeared in 1938 and will also appear next year in Anderson's anthology Tales Before Narnia: The Roots of Modern Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Life imitates SF

Back to Back to the Future: DeLorean cars may start production again.

Stand on Zanzibar redux: the Yatakangi South Korean scientist who faked cloning may have done something useful after all.

Dept. of Complete Wrongness: Doctor Who's the Master (Simm), Ten, Six and Three, drag queens all...