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Post by sean on Jul 8, 2008 10:19:27 GMT
Science FictionFirst published 1979 (John Murray, 1982 - part of a 'short story' series which included Horror, Fantasy, Crime, War etc etc) (cover by Guy Wyndham-Jones) Contains:Allamagoosa - Eric Frank Russell The Ruum - Arthur Porges Imposter - Philip K. Dick Blemish - John Christopher Zero Hour - Ray Bradbury The New Wine - John Christopher The Half Pair - Bertram Chandler Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow - Kurt Vonnegut The Fun They Had - Isaac Asimov In the Abyss - H.G. Wells The Raid of 'Le Vengeur' - George Griffith Not the greatest anthology in the world, but still, it contains a few good pieces. I think I probably picked this one up mainly for the two John Christopher stories. On the whole, this one contains 'what most people thought of as sf around after a quick squizz at a few other antho's'. With a couple of older pieces at the end for good measure (the last 2 tales date from 1896 and 1901). The Philip K Dick story is not one of his best, with, very unusually for him, an ending you can see coming a mile off. Bradbury's 'Zero Hour' (collected in 'The Illustrated Man') has children helping beings from another dimension into our world. Well's tale goes deep underwater in an early bathyscope to the depths that are still relatively unexplored. The two John Christopher stories are OK, but not great - one has an envoy from a Galactic Empire checking humankind for suitability, and the other has the human race wiped out by telepathy (oops, spoiler...) Possibly worth a look, if you don't have most of the stories already.
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Post by sean on Jul 8, 2008 12:02:32 GMT
...and here's another, along the same lines as the French antho allthingshorror posted about furthur up the thread. VORTEX: New Soviet Science FictionEdited by C.G. Bearne. First published 1970 (Pan 1971) BLURB: Seven imaginatively conceived stories by popular Soviet SF writers cover a variety of subject an mood and include 'a truly memorable intrusion on mankind in THE SECOND MARTIAN INVASION which fills nearly half the book and is worth all the price' - Liverpool Daily Post
A welcome bonus comes with the engrossing introduction by Ariadne Gromova. This revealing analysis of SF in the East and in the West comments on the differences within the genre, on its psychology and social influence. 'Sharp, clever and blissfully unpretentious' - The Scotsmen Contains:Introduction: At the Frontier of the Present Age - Ariadne Gromova The Time Scale - Aleksandr & Sergei Abramov Futility - Andrei Gorbovskii The Test - Artur Mirer The Old Road - Artur Mirer The Silent Procession - Boris Smagin He Will Wake in Two Hundred Years - Andrei Gorbovskii The Second Martian Invasion - Arkadii & Boris Strugatskii A strange one this, and one I think I maybe need to read again. Strange in the same way as the Brazillian story 'Darkness' in 'Nova 2' is strange, simply because they are written by someone in an entirely different culture. Odd that there are two sets of brothers writing as well. The introduction isn't as interesting as it could be, but given that it was written slap bang in the middle of the cold war might have something to do with this. And (annoyingly for me - I hate the things) there are two 'excerpts' from a longer piece. Grrr. I can't remember much about each individual tale in detail, but I guess I'll go along with the 'Second Martian Invasion' being the best read of the bunch. Soviet SF seemed to, at this time at least, be a rather drab affair - either that or the translations are crap!
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Post by sean on Jul 9, 2008 9:32:18 GMT
Here's one from Tandem... Masters' Choice 1Edited by Lawrence M. Janifer. First published 1966. (Tandem 1969) BLURB (inside cover - the outside one is just lists): Twenty major authors and editors of science fiction, people who have achieved outstanding reputations in their field and who have done much to make science fiction what it is today, were asked to choose their favourite science fiction and science fantasy stories - those they consider the most memorable, those they believe to be the best SF stories of all time.
In Masters' Choice 1 and Masters' Choice 2, Laurence M. Janifer has assembled the stories for which these masters cast the most votes, including, among others:
an exploring party on a frontier planet, whose lives are endangered by a stowaway...
a boy whose power to kill by thought changes the world...
an automated house which makes parents unnecessary...
a naval battlefought with computers before they were ever invented...
a matter converter which, thousands of years in the future, changes Earth beyond recognition...
an android who faces an ancient magic... Contains:Liar! - Isaac Asimov It's a Good Life - Jerome Bixby The Veldt - Ray Bradbury The Golem - Avram Davidson Helen O'Loy - Lester del Ray The Cold Equations - Tom Godwin The Dwindling Sphere - William Hawkins Requiem - Robert A. Heinlein Don't Look Now - Henry Kuttner Theory of Rocketry - C.M. Kornbluth 'It's a Good Life' is the obvious stand-out story from this bunch (basis of the classic Twilight Zone episode), but the Bradbury (another one from 'The Illustrated Man') isn't far behind. The contents of vol 2 (which I haven't got) are: Seven-Day Terror - R.A. Lafferty Coming Attraction - Fritz Leiber Politics - Murray Leinster Memento Homo - Walter M. Miller jr The Bright Illusion - C.L. Moore And Now the News - Theodore Sturgeon The Custodian - William tenn The New Accelerator - H.G. Wells As I typed them up I've noticed for the first time that the stories are (like in the first Pan BoH) printed in alphabetical order of author's surnames over the 2 volumes. Another thing these two books show is the closeness of SF and Horror (maybe more then than now), inasmuch as several writers included are at ease writing either.
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Post by pulphack on Jul 9, 2008 10:32:16 GMT
Now that last point is a really good one, sean! I hadn't really thought about it consciously, but I used to read loads of sf - it was the first thing I really got into via UFO (the Gerry Anderson series) and then through the covers of paperbacks when I was about 6 or 7. Didn't understand much, but it made me grow up quick reading-wise.
Anyway, it occurs to me that I haven't read much sf for the last fifteen-twenty years. Why? And why, when I do, is it always stuff that's pretty much pre-1980. Nostalgia? Perhaps, except that I read stuff that I didn't back then - writers and books I never got to. I think it may be becasue sf now is more rigidly codified into space opera/hard sf and fantasy, and the genre barriers have become sharply defined - perhaps to the point of being constraints. Looking back at the anthologies you're posting, some of which I remember fondly, there was a much more fluid definition of sf and fantasy which allowed what we also call horror to enter the frame, and writers could sell similar stories to editors in both fields. Is it editors or is it writers or is it readers that have caused this sharp delineation?
I think it's probably true across all genre fiction now - I remember LJ, when I started, telling me to take a genre and throw in something from another to spice it up as editors loved it. Well, they didn't - this was about 1990/91, and already it was becoming much more seperated. He was talking about ten-twenty years before, when he started.
I supppose readers buy a book and expect a certain something for their money, particularly if it's a leisure read and we're talking about that particular function of fiction (pure entertainment as opposed to a deeper impulse from the writer - not mutually exclusive, but let's call it that for arguments sake). But even so, you can still give 'em what they want and shake 'em up as well. It seems to me that a lot of editors, writers and readers want to play safe. Which is a shame.
But thanks for all these, Sean - there are some old faves in this thread that I haven't had copies of for years, and it's revived some happy memories (sorry Dem, I might start buying sf again...).
BTW - the new wave of the sixties and seventies: I loved a lot of it, even at its most obtuse and experimental (sometimes I love a failed experiment, cause without them you don't get the ones that open new doors), but there is a question as to whether it caused this rigidity in the long run, with lots of failed sales and disgruntled readers. Anyone care to discuss? (c'mon steve, I bet you've got some thoughts on this)
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Post by jkdunham on Jul 10, 2008 0:17:23 GMT
The late, great C.M. Kornbluth's THE MARCHING MORONS makes 1984 look like the Golden Age with its bleak, horrifically funny vision of a future Earth populated by morons with an average IQ of 45... The story by Kornbluth... is more my cup of tea. His future society where the overwhelming majority are dumb bastards is quite bitingly portrayed, and the solution for getting rid of them is both funny and a bit vicious. I've just got to get hold of that one. ...the new wave of the sixties and seventies: I loved a lot of it, even at its most obtuse and experimental (sometimes I love a failed experiment, cause without them you don't get the ones that open new doors), but there is a question as to whether it caused this rigidity in the long run, with lots of failed sales and disgruntled readers. Anyone care to discuss? (c'mon steve, I bet you've got some thoughts on this) Thirty years ago I might have been able to give you something like a decent answer, Pulps, but anyway... that experimental approach was the very thing that attracted me to the New Wave stuff. That and the way that much of it was difficult, if not completely impossible, to categorise other than under the amorphous umbrella of "New Wave". A lot of it fell into the New Wave almost by default because it couldn't really be classified as anything else, not even Science Fiction as the term was generally understood. The notion of hacking away at the boundaries of not just a particular genre but of accepted forms of writing in general has always appealed. I have a lot of sympathy with Harlan Ellison's vociferous refusal to be pigeon-holed as a "Science Fiction" writer. Not that being a SF writer is anything to be ashamed of, just that writing shouldn't be constrained by considerations of genre necessarily. Anyway, yeah, I used to love the way you could pick up a book such as some of those featured here and, even though someone might have stuck a picture of a spaceship on the cover, you really had no idea what you were going to encounter. It was exciting - like all bets were off. Of course some of it verged on the unreadable but this was revolutionary stuff and so there are always going to be casualties. I have no idea if other readers, maybe those looking for more conventional SF, were disgruntled. My assumption is that there must have been a reasonably good market for the new stuff at the time or it wouldn't have been published as widely as it was. I imagine SF readers as being a fairly discriminating bunch who know what they like and what they don't. The reason I don't read any new Science Fiction or Fantasy is pretty much the same as that given above. I look at books on shelves and they don't promise anything new. I know exactly what I'm going to get so what's the point? It's basically the same stuff that was being written 30 years ago and which wasn't new and didn't interest me all that much then. SF, arguably more than any other type of fiction, should be challenging and give the reader something to think about. I suppose people who read what passes for SF and Fantasy today mostly just want something generic, something escapist. Why concern yourself with changing people's perceptions when you've got a big fuck-off plasma rifle or a Runestaff of Invincibility. Maybe TV and computer games are the reason. Maybe one day soon we will all have an IQ of 45.
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Post by sean on Jul 10, 2008 8:00:01 GMT
I have to say that 90-odd% of the SF I read is written prior to the early/mid 1970s. After that it seemed as if some of the fun went out of it, or at least the variety and the element of surprise got lost. Whether this was as a reaction against it all getting (or at least being percieved as getting) too weird it is hard to say, although that is certainly a possibility. It could even be argued that 'Star Wars' played a big role in narrowing down the genre.
I think that categorisation of the various flavours of SF, as well as the definitions of the genre itself, helped to throttle some of the fun out of the writing. Maybe this was down to the publishing / editing side of things or maybe not. What I do know is that things were a lot more enjoyable when a collection could veer from traditional SF to fantasy (back when 'fantasy' and 'sword and sorcery' were two different things) to horror and back again without any fuss, without that sense of 'hey look, I'm mixing genres!' about it. Many of the writers that got me reading SF (and horror) such as Bradbury, Matheson, Bloch, Leiber and Beaumont did this with such ease that it never really occured to me that it was a big deal. I still think it shouldn't be.
Back to the new wave / New Worlds era - sure, it was responsible for some pretentious dross, but speaking from personal preference, the only SF authors (all of which write in other genres) I read these days are a product of that time, or at least took to the atmosphere of experimentation like ducks to water. Aldiss, Ballard, Harrison and Disch (who sadly committed suicide just last week) produced far more interesting reading than any number of cyberpunk or hard-sf writers. I know it is not always helpful to hark back to golden ages that may not have existed, but the last thirty-odd years of SF hasn't really thrown up anything like the amount of interesting reading that the thirty years before did.
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Post by pulphack on Jul 10, 2008 12:29:25 GMT
steve, sean, thanks for replying to this. and i think we're fairly agreed on many points. i always thought that part of the idea of science fiction was that it was a fiction of ideas - looking forward - and so as a result it figured that it would look to new ways of telling some of those stories. and that's what the best of the new wave - and some stuff before that - did.
it's true - part of the appeal was that you'd pick up a 'best of new worlds' paperback or one of the later quarterlies, and you know some of it would be good because of the writers, some of it may suck, some of it would be baffling, but ALL of it would be fascinating. i don't see that now (though i wonder if it's getting older - like with music where the kids love bands cos it's new to them, and i just think 'that's very 1978' as i remember it first time around - how much new wave just really copped riffs off early C20 experimental art writing?).
yet if this is the case with sf, and its rigidity has killed my interest, how come i've read four sexton blakes this past fortnight, when they're all basically the same (having said that, we've had film studios, viking relics, a quatermass II riff, and a bent small town police force as plot devices)?
i would have assumed new wave styles were selling as they kept coming out, but i think it may be that they had a limited if steady audience - certainly the new worlds quartely shifted publishers as one dropped it for lack of sales - and it was the explosion of retro-sf post star wars that alerted publishers to that potential. was it responsible for the star trek movies getting the green light? i blame trek as well, if inadvertantly. the original was pretty off the wall at time, despite the soap opera frame, but subsequent spin-offs were hardly challenging. and the plethora of merchandised books took us the route where only trad sf can compete for shelf-space in a world of Smiths buying policies.
the new wave was maybe a more selective buy - most people do want escapism, and why not? - and this tempered publishing views to non-hard or space opera sf. certainly, having been in and around publishing for nearly twenty years, it's ALWAYS been in crisis (according to publishers) yet sales go on regardless.
to a large degree, i agree with you about the lowest common denominator effect, steve. looking to hit the bases that will get the maximum return, editorial policy seems to have been to reduce it to a formula that ticks boxes. writers stepping outside this either have to make a big deal of it as a USP, or get slapped down. partly this is because publishers are now - like record companies - all owned by three or four congloms, so returns are rigidly monitored. it's not about 'lets have a big book and try a few smaller ones and see what happens', it's 'we've had a big book, why weren't these little ones bigger?'. partly big advances, too. bigger authors get bigger money, which means if they don't earn back quickly the smaller guys better earn back their little advances to cover it... and if they don't, then they don't come back!
sf seems harder hit maybe because it was the only real part of genre and pulp publishing where risks in writing were once welcomed. for my money, the finance shouldn't come into it, but sadly does - and that's why writers have less fun, get more constrained, and that communicates to the reader.
so i guess we should look back to the new wave as the last flowering of overground freedom. it's still there, we just have to dig deeper, i guess. i miss it. i'd rather have a bewildering experiment that doesn't quite come off, but makes me think about what it was trying to do, than any amount of star trek and wars p/b's.
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Post by sean on Jul 10, 2008 12:54:33 GMT
Probably a good time to post this one... New Worlds 2: The Science Fiction QuarterlyEdited by Michael Moorcock. Associate editor: Langdon Jones. Art editor: Richard Glyn Jones. Literary editor: M. John Harrison (Sphere 1971) BLURB: NEW WORLDS has achieved an enviable and well-deserved reputation as Britian's foremost science fiction magazine. It now makes its appearance as a quartely publication in paperback book format. Contains:Keeping Perspective - Michael Moorcock Monkey and Pru and Sal - Keith Roberts No Direction Home - Norman Spinnard The Meek - William Woodrow The Causeway - M. John Harrison Visions of Hell - J.G. Ballard Fifth Person Singular - Peter Tate Four Colour Problem - B.J. Bayley Listen, Love - George Zebrowski & Jach Dann Feathers from the Wings of an Angel - Thomas M. Disch Monitor Found in Orbit - Michael G. Coney Pandora's Bust - Richard A. Pollack The Key of the Door - Arthur Sellings By Tennyson out of Disney - M. John Harrison A collection of fiction, reviews, articles and illustrations - a fair sampler of new wave SF. One story starts with the line 'On 17 Febuary, 1971 at 0254 hours, the Vag1na Police busted Pandora.' The best article is probably MJH on Tolkien and Gormenghast.
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Post by sean on Jul 11, 2008 8:05:44 GMT
Heading back in time a little... Science Fiction Hall of Fame: The Novellas, Book 1Edited by Ben Bova. First published 1973 (with much more content, split into three volumes for paperback release - the Hall of Fame short stories were also published in two paperback volumes, edited by Robert Silverberg) (Sphere 1975) BLURB: 'Something for the connoisseur to gloat over, a magnificent line-up' - Evening Standard
From the seventy-six novellas recommended, the Science Fiction Writers of America chose twenty-four - the best sf stories of all time. Ben Bova wrote the introduction and presents in Book One:
CALL ME JOE by Poul Anderson
WHO GOES THERE? by John W. Campbell Jnr
NERVES by Lester del Ray
Some more 'traditional' SF here, these stories date from 1957, 1938 and 1942. The idea was that the Hall of Fame would cover the period before the Nebula awards started in 1966. Lists of Nebula winners can be found at www.sfwa.org/awards/archive/pastwin.htmBack to this book, the first story is a bit too 'straight' sf for my liking, dealing with artificial life on Jupiter controlled by humans on one of the moons. Interesting enough, but lacking that spark which makes a great sf tale. 'Who Goes There?' is the basis for both film versions of 'The Thing' and is a pretty good read once it gets going. It has to be said that J.W.C Jr is not the greatest writer, and all the characters are heroes, REAL men, men men, American Men etc but as the story progresses it does get genuinely creepy with an air of paranoia about it that survives in spite of the clumsy, dated style. 'Nerves' by del Ray is pretty interesting. He's one of those authors who almost always produced a good tale, but who is gradually being forgotten as fashions change. This story concerns the panic around a nuclear meltdown and, whilst wildly innacurate, the struggles of the medical team and the others who try to limit the damage are told in a very readable fashion. The first fifty pages or so are absolutely manic, conveying the sense of panic and confusion perfectly. A minor gem.
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Post by sean on Jul 14, 2008 9:17:43 GMT
Future CityEdited by Roger Elwood. First published 1973 (Sphere 1976) BLURB (outside and in): A startling vision of man's urban future.
In all its excitement, wonder and terror, the city stands as a symbol of Man's glory - and of Man's self-destructiveness. It has survived centuries of pollution, overcrowding and violence. The Very concept of civilisation is inseperable from it: as the city goes, so goes mankind.
In this unique anthology of new short stories, twenty-two leading science fiction writers put forward their compelling, shocking views of urban life to come.
'Keen, fascinating - and more than a bit frightening' - Publishers Weekly _______________
In Future City, R.A, Lafferty takes the reader on a kaleidoscopic allegorical trip through a fairy-tale city founded on a nameless horror. Barry N. Malzberg envisages a society in which group homosexuality has become the only accepted practice. Frank Herbert bortrays Bjska, the City Doctor, a man invested by humanit with the power to destroy or call into being whole cities at a single command. Robert Silverberg shows what happens to a totally computerised city when someone steals its Master Programme.
Composed of entirely original material written especially for this book, Future City becomes more than the usual random collection. It carries the reader step by step from 1973 to 5,000,000 AD for a comprehensive, frightening, challenging view of Man's urban future. Contains:Preface - Roger Elwood Foreward - Clifford D. Simak In Praise of New York - Tom Disch The sightseers - Ben Bova Meanwhile, We Eliminate - Andrew J. Offutt Thine Alabaster Cities Gleam - Laurence M. Janifer Culture Lock - Barry N Malzberg The World As Will and Wallpaper - R. A. Lafferty Violation - William F. Nolan City Lights, City Nights - K. M. O'Donnell The Undercity - Dean R. Koontz Apartment Hunting - Harvey & Audrey Bilker As a Drop - D. M. Price Abendlandes - Virginia Kidd The Weariest River - Thomas N. Scortia Death of a City - Frank Herbert Assassins of Air - George Zebrowski Getting Across - Robert Silverberg In Dark Places -Joe L. Hensley Revolution - Robin Schaeffer Chicago - Thomas F. Monteleone The Most primitive - Ray Russell Hindsight: 480 Seconds - Harlan Ellison 5,000,000 AD - Miriam Allen deFord Afterword - Frederik Pohl A pretty good themed anthology, it on the whole avoids repetition of ideas and manages to keep things varied in both style and content. Three or four poems are chucked in here and there, and the non-fiction pieces by Simak and Pohl are reasonably interesting. The best of the bunch are the stories by William Nolan (a robotic traffic cop that shows no mercy), Harlan Ellison and R.A. Laffery (a kind of fairy-tale version of Ballard's 'Build-Up' in which the city appears to be both bigger and smaller than it actually is).
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Post by sean on Jul 15, 2008 10:09:11 GMT
Time for a few hairy elephants, methinks! The Mammoth Book of Golden Age Science Fiction(Short Novels of the 1940s) Edited by Isaac Asimov, Charles G. Waugh, Martin H. Greenberg First published 1989 (Robinson 1989) (Cover illustration by Bob Layzell) BLURB: During the 1940s, the great names emerged in an eruption of talent. They formed the mould for the next three decades of science fiction and their writing is as fresh today as it was then. Contains:Time Wants a Skeleton - Ross Rocklynne The Weapons Shop - A.E. van Vogt Nerves - Lester del Ray Daymare - Frederic Brown Killdozer! - Theodore Sturgeon No Woman Born - C.L. Moore The Big and the Little - Isaac Asimov Giant Killer - A. Bertram Chandler E for Effort - T.L. Sherred With Folded Hands - Jack Williamson As a rule, I don't enjoy the work of the 40s as much as that of the 50s and 60s, but this is a pretty good collection. Another appearance of del Ray's 'Nerves', the mighty 'Killdozer' and the story by the frankly loony van Vogt are the high points here. _______________ The Mammoth Book of New World Science Fiction(Short Novels of the 1960s) Edited by Isaac Asimov, Charles G. Waugh, Martin H. Greenberg First published 1991 (Robinson 1991) (Cover illustration by Mike Masters) BLURB: The 'new wave' in science fiction started in Britian in the early 1960s and then spread to America, where it was hugely popular and changed the face of SF for years to come. This volume, following the sucessful collections of novels form the 30s, 40s and 50s, including short novels by thee 60s' most talented and famous writers. Contains:Night of the Trolls - Keith Laumer How It Was When the Past Went Away - Robert Silverberg The Eve of Rumoko - Roger Zelanzy Hawk Among the Sparrows - Dean McLaughlin Weyr Search - Anne McCaffrey The Suicide Express - Philip Jose Farmer The Highest Treason - Randall Garrett Code Three - Rick Raphael Mercenary - Mack Reynolds Soldier, Ask Not - Gordon R. Dickson The title to this one is more than a little misleading, as it doesn't really have anything to do with 'New Worlds' itself. For a new wave antho, it is very traditional - a little bit experimental, but heaven forbid it gets too weird! Still, worth a look, the Farmer and Silverberg stories are great and the rest are all okay to some degree or other. (There was also a 'Short Novels of the 1950s', and one for the 30s, but I haven't bumped into either as yet) _______________ The Mammoth Book of Short Science Fiction NovelsFirst published as 'Bakers Dozen - 13 Short Science Fiction Novels' in the USA, 1984 Robinson 1986 BLURB: 13 Short Science Fiction Novels by the world's most renowned writers:
ISAAC ASIMOV Profession A tale of a tomorrow where existence is programmed from childhood.
JOHN W. CAMPBELL, JR Who Goes There? An Antartic research team digs up a frozen alien - alive and evil.
LESTER DEL RAY For I am a Jealous People God has abandoned the human race, Earth is invaded by murderous aliens.
GORDON R. DICKSON The Mortal and the Monster A researcher forms a strange friendship with one of the last creatures in Loch Ness
DAVID DRAKE - Time Safari A dinosaur hunt made possible by time travel turns into a deadly disaster.
PHYLLIS EISENSTEIN - In the Western Tradition In the 21st century a historian discovers the dangers of bringing the past back to life
PHILIP JOSE FARMER - The Alley Man An anthropologist investigates 'the last pure-blooded Neanderthal still alive'.
JOHN JAKES - The Sellers of the Dream A future where people change their personalities to match each new fashion.
DONALD KINGSBURY - The Moon-Godess and the Son A young girl obsessed by the moon and the son of a lunar engineer who loathes the place.
BARRY LONGYEAR - Enemy Mine A human and a Dracon in the middle of a war, are stranded and must rely on each other for survival.
LARRY NIVEN - Flash Crowd Instant travel has ended America's social and enviromental problems... or has it just created new ones?
FREDERIK POHL - In the Problem Pit An unlikely group of strangers are brought together by government policy - with surprising results.
ROBERT SILVERBERG - The Desert of Stolen Dreams A young man journeys to a desert where nightmares kill men as they sleep. Not the greatest SF anthology, although Pohl and Silverberg come up with the goods, and its nice to see 'Who Goes There?' again. Contains a couple of really dreadful tales (Dickson and Kingsbury, I'm looking at you). Oh well.
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Post by sean on Jul 16, 2008 9:49:07 GMT
Here's one with possibly the worst SF antho title ever: Science Fiction Adventures in DimensionEdited by Groff Conklin. First published in 1953 (with more stories) (Berkley Medallion 1965) BLURB: TIME TRAVEL AND PARALLEL WORLDS
All the stories in SCIENCE FICTION ADVENTURES IN DIMENSION concern themselves basically with time-travel. From H.G. Wells' Time Machine of 1895 to the immediate present, this theme has fascinated SF writers as has no other single subject.
Groff Conklin has assembled a rich harvest of stories in which you may meet yourself walking through yesterday, or wake up in all of tomorrow's strangeness Contains:Yesterday was Monday - Theodore Sturgeon Ambition - William L. Blade The Middle of the Week After Next - Murray Leinster ...And It Comes Out Here - Lester del Ray Other Tracks - William Sell Night Meeting - Ray Bradbury The Flight That Failed - E.M. Hull Endowment Policy - Lewis Padgett The Mist - Peter Cartur What If... - Isaac Asimov Tiger by the Tail - Alan E. Nourse Business of Killing - Fritz Leiber Jr It's been so long since I've looked at this one that I can hardly remember any of the stories. The Bradbury one (which appears in 'The Martian Chronicles') in which a human and a Martian occupying two different times meet, is splendid. I guess the Leiber, the del Ray and the Sturgeon tales are pretty good as well. I think I'm going to have to put this on the 'to be read' pile.
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Post by sean on Jul 17, 2008 8:26:27 GMT
Gateway to TomorrowEdited by John Carnell. First published 1954 (Panther 1963) BLURB: TOMORROW and the worlds beyond today - the worlds and the tomorrow we are shaping today by our own thoughts and actions.
Never has this tremendous and intruiging theme been more excitingly explored than in the hands of such brilliant masters of science fiction as:
Arthur C. Clarke - John Wyndham John Christopher - E.C. Tubb
We are proud to present this selection of some of the best stories in this fascinating genre to have been written in the last few years.
(A clumsy blurb by even blurb standards - and all the stories are over a decade old at time of that printing. Just call me Mr Picky) Contains:Dumb Martian - John Wyndham Hide and Seek - Arthur C. Clarke Home is the Hero - E.C. Tubb Lost Memory - Peter Phillips Of Those Who Came - George Longdon The Bliss of Solitude - J.T. M'Intosh Finishing Touch - A. BErtram Chandler The Drop - John Christopher Emergency Working - E.R. James Life Cycle - Peter Hawkins Mainly dating from the early 50's, this is an interesting anthology inasmuch as the majority of writers were UK based. Amidst the vast numbers of US writer-heavy books, this makes a nice change. All the stuff in here is pretty traditional, the best of the bunch is probably John Wyndham's tale of interplanetary racism, 'Dumb Martian'.
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Post by sean on Jul 23, 2008 12:20:24 GMT
The Best of Sci-Fi 5Edited by Judith Merril. First published 1960 (Mayflower 1969) (possibly the only book I own with that awful, nonsense abbreviation 'Sci-fi' on the cover... shame really, cos its quite a good collection, title aside) BLURB: Here are over 20 selections of the greatest in SF.
Culled from thousands published during one year.
Representing the best in adventure, excitment, originality and sheer reading pleasure.
Chosen by Judith Merril, an editor whose name is synomymous with taste and quality.
'Miss Merril's yearly anthology is the best in the field' -New York Journal Contains:The Handler - Damon Knight The Other Wife - jack Finney No Fire Burns - Avram Davidson No, No, Not Rogov! - Cordwainer Smith The Shoreline at Sunset - Ray Bradbury The Dreamsman -Gordon R. Dickson Multum in Parvo - Jack Sharkey Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes 'What do you mean... human?' - John W. Campbell jr Sierra Sam - Ralph Dighton A Death in the House - Clifford D. Simak Mariana - Fritz Leiber An Inquiry Concerning the Curvature of the Earth's Surface and Divers Investigations of a Metaphysical Nature - Roger Price Day at the Beach - Carol Emshwiller What the Left Hand was Doing - Darrel T. Langart The Sound Sweep - J.G. Ballard Plenitude - Will Worthington The Man Who Lost the Sea - Theodore Sturgeon Make a Prison - Lawrence Block What Now, Little Man? - Mark Clifton Me - Hilbert Schenck jr All the stories here date from 1959/60, and thus it is a bit more limited than wider ranging anthologies, but still, there is some pretty good stuff here. Nice to see 'Algernon' again, and the stories by Ballard, Finney, Leiber and Simak are definitely worth a read. Also of note is Damnon Knight's tale, 'The Handler'. Knight was probably better know as an editor, but (mainly during the 50s) he wrote a good many freaky sf stories.
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Post by sean on Jul 26, 2008 13:17:02 GMT
The Year's Best Science Fiction No.4Edited by Harry Harrison & Brian Aldiss. First published 1971 (Sphere 1971) BLURB: The best science fiction of 1970Contains:Introduction - Harry Harrison Gone Fishin' Robin Scott Wilson The Ugupu Bird - Slawomir Mrozek Black is Beautiful - Robert Silverberg The Lost Face - Josef Nesvadba Gorman - Jerry Farber Mary and Joe - Naomi Mitchison Oil-Mad Bug-Eyed Monsters - Hayden Howard A Pedestrian Accident - Robert Coover The Asian Shore - Thomas M. Disch Traffic Problem - William Earls Erem - Gleb Anfilov Car Sinister - Gene Wolfe 'Franz Kafka' by Jeorge Luis Borges - Alvin Greenberg Pacem Est - Kris Neville & K. M. O'Donnell Afterword - The Day Equality Broke Out - Brian W. Aldiss I'd be interested to see the three previous volumes of this, as this one (as far as I can recall) contains some pretty good stuff, including what is probably Thomas Disch's best known short story, 'The Asian Shore'. The Silverberg tale is now a little dated, but is still a great example of that kind of 'angry' SF which Ellison (for instance) does so well. It is doubtful that anyone today would write such a story, for fear of offence or misunderstanding. Oh, and I was going to type up an 'oil mad bug eyed monster' joke but it was (a) too easy, and (b) depressing.
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