217 reviews1 follower
On my award-winner/historic retrospect binge, looks like a good bet.
Introduction: Nicely summarizes trends and themes in the genre. Spectator Sport by John D. MacDonald: Reading this right after the introduction, it almost seems the embodiment of the attributes discussed therein. Humorous tone masking a terrifying message. Feedback by Katherine MacLean: Promising witch-hunt scenario dwells on violence, loses its way. Bettyann by Kris Neville: Long-familiar story title, with no sense (on my part) of its nature. Clearly a superior story with 16 pages to go, fascinating with only a few of the usual tropes. A powerful emotional ending. I don’t see how anything else in the book could top th…
217 reviews1 follower
On my award-winner/historic retrospect binge, looks like a good bet.
Introduction: Nicely summarizes trends and themes in the genre. Spectator Sport by John D. MacDonald: Reading this right after the introduction, it almost seems the embodiment of the attributes discussed therein. Humorous tone masking a terrifying message. Feedback by Katherine MacLean: Promising witch-hunt scenario dwells on violence, loses its way. Bettyann by Kris Neville: Long-familiar story title, with no sense (on my part) of its nature. Clearly a superior story with 16 pages to go, fascinating with only a few of the usual tropes. A powerful emotional ending. I don’t see how anything else in the book could top this. Amazing that with my determination to read award-winners and milestone works, this one eluded me for so long. Dark Interlude by Fredric Brown/Mack Reynolds: An adequate punch-ender, this suffers from its next-after proximity to the stunning BettyAnn. I disagreed with the story intro regarding the message gathered. What Have I Done? by Mark Clifton: Effective semi-humorous take on alien invasion utilizing the author’s personal background DP! by Jack Vance: Atypical of the author for me, a neat fictional-document driven treatment of disaster relief. The title puzzles me. The Liberation of Earth by William Tenn: A brilliant alien contact satire, more biting (so to speak) than To Serve Man Bad Day for Sales by Fritz Leiber Jr: Pointed two-pronged satire, would have been worthy of an EC adaptation filtered through the eyes of Wally Wood Heirs Apparent by Robert Abernathy: Competent post-atomic war piece. Short in the Chest by Margaret St. Clair: Didn’t do much for me, didn’t see the point. The Academy by Robert Sheckley: A near-perfect satire with an almost-satisfying conclusion. Nobody Bothers Gus by Algis Budrys: Why that’s so, but not necessarily what he wants. Really gets into the superman’s head. Happy Birthday Dear Jesus by Frederik Pohl: Commercialization satire reading like a light but quirky 40s romance film. A Work of Art by James Blish: Unique (for me) idea makes this a standout in a volume already crowded with excellence, but I felt the author oversold his expertise. The Country of the Kind by Damon Knight: I recently read it, so I skipped it this time, since its charms were lost on me. My assessment remains: so what? The Education of Tigress McCardle by CM Kornbluth: Compact, surprisingly humorous piece from this author. The Cage by A Bertram Chandler: The intro terms this a "test" story, I found it riveting and efficitently resolved.
(By now you should be scrambling for a copy to read.)
Last of the Deliverers by Poul Anderson: Elegiac treatment of lingering cold war rivalries in surviving America, but to what point?. Adrift at the Policy Level by Chan Davis: Effective satire on corporation hierarchy and business interaction.
484 reviews30 followers
The best story in this book is "Happy Birthday, Dear Jesus," by Frederik Pohl. And it’s definitely not a science fiction story. Seek it out if you love short stories.
Some other memorable stories herein are: "The Liberation of Earth," by William Tenn (an author who should be more widely known); and "Saucer of Loneliness" by Theo Sturgeon.
The editors seem to have taken pains to avoid including too many stories that have been repeatedly anthologized. Out of 21 stories, there were only four titles that I recognized when I first opened the covers. If you enjoy science fiction stories, and if you can even find a copy of this book, it’s probably a worthy addition to your library.
5,169 reviews1,464 followers
Looking over the database records for M.H. Greenburg, one is impressed at how many books the man has compiled and edited in science fiction and other fields. His long experience and the contacts he has established show in this collection of stories, all of which are better than average and one of which, Blish’s work, is superb.
Author **5 books81 followers
A week ago I was talked into going to a craft fair in the just north of the Melrose district in Central Phoenix. While there I strolled into a vendor’s tent to look at his collection of books and dvds he had for sale. Typically I walk right past this kind of booth because more often than not it’s books like Chicken Soup for the Soul and movies like Armageddon and Pearl Harbor. But this guy had a bunch of low-brow genre type stuff (horror and science fiction) that I have a finely tuned radar for. On his table was this book, with it’s cover depicting a laser-blasting robot shooting down spaceships with a city in flames in the background. The price was $2. I’m a complete sucker for books like this. The nice thing about this anthology is that it’s not the same stories you’ll find in dozens of other science fiction anthologies out there. No Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury, etc. None of the usual go-tos in old collections. Here was a selection of deeper cuts than typically found. And this was the era of science fiction stories that I was first exposed to as a kid checking out old sci-fi anthologies from the library. This particular anthology was published in 1979, twenty years after the latest story, "Adrift on the Policy Level" by Chan Davis" was published. The common themes to these stories are conformity, cold war hysteria, post-nuclear holocaust and a fear of the outsider. The common enemy is our own worst instincts. These are stories were written approximately 15 years before the "new-age" trend of science fiction that I tried (and mostly failed) to read as a teenager. The collection here still aimed for the sense-of-wonder that I always looked for in a sci-fi story. They can be cynical, and a fair number of the stories here are cynical, but they still aimed to entertain the reader despite the downer themes. A few months ago a free copy of a current "year’s best" science fiction and fantasy anthology came into my possession. I gave it a good try but gave up. These modern year’s best stories were unreadable. Something has shifted in publishing tastes and trends in the sci-fi short story market and all the sense of wonder has been erased. I know it’s a sweeping statement and arguably an unfair observation, but I wasn’t keeping that modern Year’s Best anthology. I guess that’s got nothing to do with this particular book, except that for several hours this past week I got to feel some of that old thrill and wonder again reading these vintage stories. This is probably my last October Halloween Season review. I wanted to get to more creepy old stuff to read and share but life gets in the way.
325 reviews3 followers
Une anthologie de nouvelles des années 50’s par différents auteurs.
Une bonne anthologie avec des nouvelles portant sur différents thèmes dont les pouvoirs, les extraterrestres parmi nous, les régimes politiques, l’humour, la publicité, etc.
Mon problème : Plusieurs de ces nouvelles font déjà partie de différentes anthologies en français, dont le grand livre de la science-fiction (36 livres), que j’avais déjà lues.
Mes préférées :
Bettyann de Kris neville, une histoire douce amère sur une extraterrestre qui se sent différente parmi les humains, qui l’ont élevée, et qui ne sait pas pourquoi.
La soucoupe de solitude de Theodore Sturgeon, sur...la solitude.
Feedback (rétroaction) de Katherine MacLean, inspiré du Maccarthysme ou la chasse aux communistes aux États-Unis.
Dark interlude (Sombre intermède) de Fredric Brown et Mack Reynolds, sur le ..racisme.
Nobody bothers Gus (Personne n’embête Gus) de Algis Budrys, sur une surprenante adaptation.
Et bien d’autres qui mêlent la réflexion au divertissement, ce que j’apprécie beaucoup en science-fiction.
J’ai aimé, mais il manquait le plaisir de la découverte. J’ai tout de même apprécié le rappel.
875 reviews6 followers
One of bunch of collections I picked up on the library free table...I only intend to read my favorite authors (and maybe some I’ve been curious about).
Jack Vance’s DP! A top-notch, bleak satire of our world and how we respond to humanitarian crises. Vance covers most of the bases, including the compassion maybe only capable by first-hand witnesses.
Fritz Leiber’s A Bad Day for Sales. A short, black-comedy piece about the inhumanity and perservance of capitalism. Meh.
James Blish’s A Work of Art. I haven’t read much, if any, of Blish, but have read good things about him. An erudite piece about a composer brought back from the dead. Better than I thought it was going to be after just the first few pages. The character of the reincarnated Strauss superseded the sci-fi elements, which is almost always the sign of a good sci-fi story.
946 reviews27 followers
This is a nice evaluation of the science fiction that was published in the decade of the fifties. These twenty-one short stories were as diverse and eclectic as one could hope for in an admittedly concise area of introspection.
Tales such as "Spectator Sport" by John D. MacDonald extrapolated on the dangers of TV, and you really wouldn’t want to go there.
There was even a dark tale of race issues in "Dark Interlude" by Fredric Brown and Mack Reynolds about a time traveler from the far future, where all the human races have commingled for so long race was no longer an issue, who had the misfortune to visit the deep south and fall in love with the wrong woman.
What about a cautionary tale on the horrors of war told tongue-in-cheek, very much tongue-in-cheekly, such as "The Liberation of Earth" by William Tenn.
Or a farcical look at the future and population control, then, "The Education of Tigress McCardle" by C. M. Kornbluth may be worth the price of admission alone.
I recommend this volume of tales from the fifties, because it was these tales that were the spark for the writers that came later.
46 reviews3 followers
Classic stories, often reprinted, from the 1950’s sf magazines. Maybe a selection on the dark side; The Liberation of Earth by William Tenn, is a sad commentary on repeated invasions by "the good guys". The Academy by Robert Sheckley is a kind of "reverse Matrix" where people who can’t conform to the norm in the real world are packed away into a dream world.
Overall, a good sample of stories that stand the test of time.
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125 reviews1 follower
I thought only about half the stories were good, but of those, they were excellent and sometimes profound and unforgettable. I thing the editors are simply not very good at choosing stories.