Second paragraph of third story (“Acts of Defiance” by Eric Brown):

I worked all morning on my portable typewriter, and towards lunchtime replaced it beneath the floorboards of my study. Old habits died hard, even though I was no longer on the mainland where the government might swoop unannounced at any time. I had moved to Shapinsay after the death of my wife, fleeing painful memories and the Party both. None of us were free these days, though paradoxically I did feel a little less imprisoned on the island which measured just five miles by four.

The last of the books that I acquired at Novacon in 2021, this is a collection of fourteen short stories which were donated to the convention by their authors – quite a stellar list of contributors. I thought they were all good; the two best for me were “Acts of Defiance” by Eric Brown, in a future totalitarian Scotland where reading dangerous books has been forbidden, and “The Ships of Aleph” by Jaine Fenn, whose protagonist sails over the edge of a flat world and finds himself in a place both familiar and unfamiliar. You can get Burning Brightly here.

This was the top unread book that I had acquired in 2021, the shortest unread book that I had acquired in 2021 and the sf book that had lingered longest on my shelves. That leaves only one book in my 2021 pile, Het lijkt Washington wel: Hoe lobbyisten Brussel in hun greep hebben, by Peter Teffer.