Brian Aldiss - Non-Stop (SF Masterworks 33)

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A brilliant treatment of the generation starship and also the theme of conceptual breakthrough; it has become accepted as a classic of the field. The Enclyclopedia of Science Fiction

Non-Stop offers a number of conventional sf pleasures, but it does more... it refuses to resolve itself into a happy, wish-fulfilling ending. The characters discover that they are the victims of a cosmic joke: ironies abound, the struggle goes on DAVID PRINGLE , Science Ficton: The 100 Best Novels

Novels

The Brightfount Diaries (1955)

Non-Stop (1958)

Bow Down to Nul (1960)

The Primal Urge (1961)

The Male Response (1961)

Hothouse (1962)

The Dark Light Years (1964)

Greybeard (1964)

Earthworks (1965)

An Age (1967)

Report on Probability A (1968)

Barefoot in the Head: A European Fantasia (1969)

The Hand-Reared Boy (1970)

A Soldier Erect (1971)

Frankenstein Unbound (1973)

The Eighty Minute Hour: A Space Opera (1974)

The Malacia Tapestry (1976)

Brothers of the Head (1977)

A Rude Awakening (1978)

Enemies of the System: A Tale of Homo Uniformis (1978)

Moreaus Other Island (1980)

Life in the West (1980)

Helliconia Spring (1982)

Helliconia Summer (1983)

Helliconia Winter (1985)

The Year Before Yesterday (1987)

Ruins (1987)

Forgotten Life (1988)

Dracula Unbound (1991)

Remembrance Day (1993)

Somewhere East of Life (1994)

The Secret of This Book (1995)

Short Story Collections

Space, Time and Nathaniel (Presciences) (1957)

No Time Like Tomorrow (1959)

The Canopy of Time (1959)

Galaxies Like Grains of Sand (1960)

The Airs of Earth (1963)

Best Science Fiction Stories of Brian W. Aldiss (1965)

The Saliva Tree and Other Strange Growths (1966)

Intangible Inc. (1969)

The Moment of Eclipse (1970)

The Book of Brian Aldiss (1972)

Last Orders and Other Stories (1977)

New Arrivals, Old Encounters (1979)

Seasons in Flight (1984)

The Magic of the Past (1987)

Best SF Stories of Brian W. Aldiss (1988)

Science Fiction Blues (1988)

A Romance of the Equator: Best Fantasy Stories (1989)

A Tupelov Too Far (1994)

Common Clay (1996)

Non Fiction

The Shape of Further Things (1970)

Billion Year Spree (1973)

Science Fiction Art (1975)

Science Fiction Art (1976)

Science Fiction as Science Fiction (1978)

This World and Nearer Ones (1979)

The Pale Shadow of Science (1985)

... And The Lurid Glare of the Comet (1986)

Trillion Year Spree (1986)

Bury My Heart at W.H. Smiths: A Writing Life (1990)

The Detached Retina (1995)

The Twinkling of an Eye or My Life as an Englishman (1998)

As Editor:

Penguin Science Fiction (1961)

Best Fantasy Stories (1962)

More Penguin Science Fiction (1963)

Yet More Penguin Science Fiction (1964)

Nebula Award Stories II (1967) with Harry Harrison

Venus (1968) with Harry Harrison

The Years Best Science Fiction Series (19) (19681976) with Harry Harrison

The Astounding-Analogy Reader (Vols 1 and 2) (19723) with Harry Harrison

Space Opera (1974)

Space Odysseys (1975)

Evil Earths (1975)

Decade: The 1940s (1975)

Hells Carotographers (1975)

Galactic Empires (1976)

Decade: The 1950s (1976)

Decade: The 1960s (1977)

Perilous Planets (1978)

The Penguin World Omnibus of Science Fiction (1986) with Sam J. Lundwall

The Book of Mini Sagas I (1985)

The Book of Mini Sagas II (1988)

In affectionate memory of
TED CARNELL

Editor of New Worlds and Science Fantasy and starter of Non-Stop

It is safer for a novelist to choose as his
subject something he feels about than
something he knows about.

L. P. HARTLEY

For this new edition of an old favourite, I have made some alterations here and there. These occur on forty-eight pages. The adventure remains the same; the characters remain the same; the theme of an idea gobbling up real life remains the same. Only a few words have been changed.

But of course words make all the difference.

B.W.A.

A community which cannot or will not realise how insignificant a part of the universe it occupies is not truly civilised. That is to say, it contains a fatal ingredient which renders it, to whatever extent, unbalanced. This is the story of one such community.

An idea, which is man-conceived, unlike most of the myriad effects which comprise our universe, is seldom perfectly balanced. Inevitably, it bears the imprint of mans own frailty; it may fluctuate from the meagre to the grandiose. This is the story of a grandiose idea.

To the community it was more than an idea: it became existence itself. For the idea, as ideas will, had gone wrong and gobbled up their real lives.

Like a radar echo bounding from a distant object and returning to its source, the sound of Roy Complains beating heart seemed to him to fill the clearing. He stood with one hand on the threshold of his compartment, listening to the rage hammering through his arteries.

Well, go on out then if youre going! You said you were going!

The shrill sarcasm of the voice behind him, Gwennys voice, propelled him into the clearing. He slammed the door without looking back, a low growl rasping the back of his throat, and then rubbed his hands together painfully in an attempt to regain control of himself. This was what living with Gwenny meant, the quarrels arising out of nothing and these insane bursts of anger tearing like illness through his being. Nor could it ever be clean anger; it was muddy stuff, and even at its full flood the knowledge was not hidden from him that he would soon be back again, apologizing to her, humiliating himself. Complain needed his woman.

This early in the waking period, several men were about; later, they would be dispersed about their business. A group of them sat on the deck, playing Travel-Up. Complain walked over to them, hands in pockets, and stared moodily down between their ragged heads. The board, painted on the deck, stretched twice as far as the span of a mans outstretched arms. It was scattered with counters and symbols. One of the players leant forward and moved a pair of his blocks.