A Son of the Rock

Time’s Chariot by Nina Allan

The writing in this is much better than in Gladwish’s story. No missing punctuation, no errant words, no dangling participles. Allan clearly knows the nuts and bolts of language and how to weave them together.*

But, for an entry to a competition run by a Science Fiction Association, Time’s Chariot is, at best, borderline SF or fantasy and could be read entirely as a mainstream piece (or slipstream if you will.)

It is about the close relationship between a brother and sister in an idiosyncratic but slightly dysfunctional family (wherein I felt that one or two of the familial dynamics depicted did not quite cohere.) To say more would be to give away too much.

I did like Allan’s designation of a watch as time machine. I believe she intends us to take this literally but to my mind the working out of the story does not really lend itself to that. Whatever, it was a good pun. One that made me think for a minute.

The story’s major fault, though, is that too much is told; not shown. However, it is atmospheric, with some fine descriptive writing and a tender sensibility too often missing in the genre. Allan may be one to watch.

*Edited to add:- Except I’ve just read her article in the previous Focus, which I hadn’t got around to till now, and she appears to believe the word “none” is plural. She certainly employed it with the plural form of the accompanying verb.