Mat Bowles

I know what you mean about books that are nominally "science fiction", although lacking in any elements that actually identify them as such. I had a similar moment a while back, when I got an anthology from the library in Exeter. Supposedly it was a "the best of" collection from one of the big American magazines. A lot of the stories, though, had nothing in them that set them aside in any real way from conventional literature.

I had nothing against them as stories, but I just couldn't see what the point was of pretending they were SF/fantasy when, umm, they obviously aren't.