Reviews

Different Kinds of Darkness by

markimus's review against another edition

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3.0

Listened to this read by LeVar Burton. I wasn't sure what to think at first, but then the reveal happened.. and I was instantly intrigued. I would rank this 1 star higher just for the LeVar reading, but otherwise it was good, not excellent, in my opinion. I think if the terrorist attacks were more fleshed out (perhaps the adult POV) then this would push the story into 4 star territory. Overall not a bad listen!!

qalminator's review against another edition

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4.0

Very interesting thought-experiment: what if there were images that could crash the human brain, even kill the person who looked at them? What would that world look like? What precautions would be put in place? And what would happen if a bunch of kids found one of those images with no idea what it actually was?

Highly recommended.

isabelisalright's review against another edition

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4.0

Placeholder for Different Kinds of Darkness from LeVar Burton Reads
Really enjoyed this short story. It was unique and interesting.

the_brewed_bookworm's review against another edition

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3.0

A world where a biochip has been inserted into the children's brains without their consent which keeps parts of the world in the dark for them (which is apparently dangerous to them). The children are metaphorically and literally kept in the dark against their wishes.

betsygant's review against another edition

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2.0

Not too shabby. I like the obvious symbolism.

jabennett2194's review against another edition

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5.0

Incredible!! LeVar burton reads feature:)

nwhyte's review against another edition

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http://nhw.livejournal.com/598941.html[return][return]This is a collection of all Langford's short fiction not collected elsewhere (and also some that is). About half of it consists of his sf stories, ranging from decent to excellent in quality, including the brilliant "A Game of Consequences". Though I was struck that several of them revolved around a nuclear war and post-Holoocaust Britain; I guess we have different nightmares now.[return][return]Rather to my surprise the quality of the four pure fantasy stories in the collection is markedly inferior; I found them all somewhat formulaic. Again, rather to my surprise, I enjoyed almost all of the nine horror stories that followed, a genre I don't normally think of myself as liking much.[return][return]But the crowning glory of the collection is the sequence of "BLIT" stories. Langford has taken the idea of the drawings that kill you when you look at them and riffed it four different ways - police procedural ("BLIT"), academic politics ("What Happened at Cambridge IV"), usenet document ("comp.basilisk FAQ") and schoolboy yarn ("Different Kinds of Darkness", which won a Hugo). The third of these actually gives a genealogy of the concept including Fred Hoyle's The Black Cloud, J.B. Priestley's The Shapes of Sleep, Piers Anthony's Macroscope, William Gibson's Neuromancer, and Monty Python's sketch about the deadly effects of the World's Funniest Joke. I would add to these H.P. Lovecraft's "The Colour Out Of Space" and the experiments of Policeman MacCruiskeen in Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman.

myriame's review against another edition

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4.0

For some reason I thought I downloaded the whole collection but I ended up with only the « Different Kinds of Darkness » short story. Nevertheless, I loved how in just a few pages, David Langford was able to introduce a lot of novelty, questioning our right to confronte danger or to stay sheltered but to see our individual rights and freedom compromised.
Looking forward to reading more of Langford

lisaajnine's review against another edition

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3.0

Interesting concept. 3.5 stars

ashleyg101's review against another edition

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5.0

THIS SHIT WAS CRAZY AND AMAZING.