Imagine my surprise while browsing through Wordsworth's in Harvard Square, to find a collection of novellas by one of my favorite writers — a collection that had been published months before, but of which I had no knowledge. I stood there in confusion for a minute or so before running to pay at the register and making off with my unexpected treasure.

This particular collection is a long-awaited return to science fiction for Dan Simmons, and it is mostly very successful. I found three of the five novellas excellent, and the others okay (I didn't really get the one about the Jews in the distant future). The return to the Hyperion universe in one piece was a joy. The final piece, which revolves around the Russian space program, is particularly topical in these weeks after the space shuttle Columbia disaster.

Simmons is unlike most of the other authors I enjoy. His prose has a poetry of simplicity and is never shrouded in clever language. His writing is straightforward, but the simplicity is almost desceptive; there is depth, but you won't find it in wordplay. I don't recommend this collection as a starting point for Simmons' work — his novels are better — but Worlds Enough & Time will be a treat for long-time fans.