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Post by Jesse on May 3, 2014 12:31:35 GMT -5
 My current favorite collection (and has been for years) is one I feel lucky to own the hardcover of. The Hugo Winners Edited by Isaac Asimov Volumes I & II may be the best science fiction short story collection I've ever read/owned. Along with these wonderful shorts are an intro and anecdotes about each author. It starts with the novelette The Darfsteller by Walter M. Miller, Jr. about an actor turned theatre janitor in a future where all actors have been replaced by robots. The main character who had refused to 'sell out' schemes to get himself back on stage. Another story I found particularly moving is Arthur C. Clarke's The Star. Earth explorers led by a astrophysicist/priest, travel to a distant star system that was destroyed by a supernova. They discover a time capsule sealed in a vault that was left by the dead civilization that once lived there. I can't really explain anymore than that without spoiling the ending but it was shocking and I was very moved. Robert Bloch's The Hell-bound Train is classic Bloch if your a fan of the macabre I highly recommend it. The most moving story in the entire collection Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes about a janitor of below average intelligence and a lab rat named Algernon who both undergo experiments to increase their intellect. I can't really say more than that without spoilers but this could be a tearjerker for some and I challenge everyone to read it and not be affected by it in some way. It is both beautifully crafted and highly entertaining. Other stories I recommend Poul Anderson's The Longest Voyage, The Sharing of Flesh & No Truce With Kings, Jack Vance's The Dragon Masters & The Last Castle, and Nightwings by Robert Silverberg. There are also three Harlan Ellison stories that are must read classics; The Beast That Shouted Love At The Heart Of The World, "Repent, Harlequin!" Said The Ticktockman & I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream. Plus this wonder Asimov anecdote about Ellison always showing up to conventions with a different beautiful woman on his arm. |
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Post by Deleted on May 3, 2014 12:42:28 GMT -5
![]() It starts with the novelette The Darfsteller by Walter M. Miller, Jr. Whereby I suddenly have vague memories of a dream last night in which I was in a used bookstore & came across a Walter M. Miller Jr. collection (based, I presume, on my real-life ownership of Conditionally Human &/or The View from the Stars ...) Can't remember the upshot of the dream, except that I'm sure it wasn't good, knowing most of my dreams. |
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 3, 2014 13:18:13 GMT -5
That Hugo Winner collection is a great item to have in hardcover. The material it contains (which pretty much duplicates the material in the SF Hall Of Fame vols)is stuff that you would eventually re-read later in life and pass down to your future genetically-manipulated generations
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Post by Slam_Bradley on May 3, 2014 14:32:10 GMT -5
I don't remember there being that much crossover between the SF Hall of Fame book and The Hugo Winners, though it's been years. I have both and they are absolutely among the first books anyone getting into SF should acquire.
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Post by wildfire2099 on May 3, 2014 16:50:04 GMT -5
I don't remember there being that much crossover between the SF Hall of Fame book and The Hugo Winners, though it's been years. I have both and they are absolutely among the first books anyone getting into SF should acquire. Based on the titles lists, Flowers for Algernon is the only one in the SF Hall of Fame vol. 1 I just read. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on May 3, 2014 17:04:10 GMT -5
Gather, Darkness! Author: Fritz Leiber Orginally published: 1950, after appearing in serial form in 1943 My edition: Pyramid Editon, 1969  Plot: It's 2305, and the Hierarchy has ruled mankind for 139 years, meteing out the grace of the Great God to the poor peasants of Earth. The Witchcraft (both an organization and a talent) seems set to oppose them, using the same 'miracles' (in the form of atomic techology disguised as 'miracles') in the name of their secret leader, Asmodeus. In the middle of it all is a young prieest name Jarles having a crisis of faith and a girl with a secret. Analysis: I couldn't help but think of the Foundation reading this.. almost a 'what if the foundation failed'. The parallel of having technology saved after a big war by hiding it as religions is obvious. I don't think there's a connection though (both were written pretty close to each other)... seemingly just great sci-fi minds thinking alike. Some cool technology here... they pretty much have holographic recording, which is pretty cutting edge (I'm not sure that was even a think yet in the 40s... if it was, it was just a vague concept), and 'wrath rays' that are somewhere between Starman's rod and a lightsaber.. there's what amounts to a light saber duel towards the end, which is sweet. for a book written 40+ years before Star Wars. Of course, being at the dawn of the 'atomic age' they thought radiation was, well, pretty much magic. There's emotion control, brainwashing, memory wiping, all manner of stuff, just add the right wavelengths and you're good to go. My only complaint is the writing style, which used alot of sentence fragments and was very choppy at times (especially during dramatic scenes)... I didn't find it dramatic, more annoying. Other than that, an excellent read!
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Post by Jesse on May 3, 2014 17:30:53 GMT -5
 I was given another collection of seven short stories called Beyond Control Edited by Robert Silverberg, who also wrote the introduction and contributes the tale The Iron Chancellor about a family who upgrades their house robot which puts them on a diet that starves them eventually traps them in their own home. A great technology run amok story which is basically the theme of the book. The better stories IMO are Isaac Asimov's The Dead Past (which appears in another anthology I own) and Autofac by Philip K. Dick. Asimov's story is about the government suppression of an invention that allows the user to view events in the past similar to how we watch television today. P.K.D.'s story is about automated factories that continue to supply mankind with everything they need long after they are wanted. A group of humans must stop the factories before the use up the last of Earth's resources. It is similar to his short story Second Variety (which is not included in this book) for those of you who have read it or watched the movie Screamers, both of which I also enjoy. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on May 3, 2014 22:50:33 GMT -5
This will be a long one, this is my review, story by story, of
Science Fiction Hall of Fame vol. 1
1. Martian Odyssey by Stanley Weinbaum - Great start to the book... very fun old-timey space sci-fi, with lots of weird, non-sensical aliens living on the moon. It kinda made me think of the Star Trek: TNG episode when Picard is stuck with an alien that only speaks in metaphors, and they can't figure out each others language, yet get along and help each other anyway. Only if that story was done as a Chuck Jones Looney Tunes Cartoon. Fantastic imagery and a fun little story. I'd definitely be up for reading some of his other work.
2. Twilight by John W. Campbell - Meh. This is exactly the type of story I don't like. It has a clear moral, and is essential a parable in service to that moral. I can imagine it was unique in 1934, but there are far better stories about the dangers of complacency and the reliance of technology now.
3. Helen O'loy by Lester Del Rey - I had forgotten he was a writer before he was a publisher! Anyway, very short story about making a Robot 'real'... super predictable, but I'd guess that it wasn't at the time... probably bordered on scandalous, in fact. Good for what it is.
4. The Roads Must Roll! by Robert Heinlein - Pretty typical of Heinlein.. mostly a political statement, but very good. He constructs a very plausible scenario (even if he overestimated the dangers of cars and the scarcity of oil), and just when I was thinking 'Hey, that could really work', he shows why it wouldn't. Functionalism is one of those fun 19th century ideas that are great for alternative societies.
The interesting part was the lack of difference in Campbell's distant future. After 7 million years, Earth was still inhabited (though only Humans, and those were clearly dying off)... that's a far better run than most sci-fi authors give us. The robots that run everything aren't that more advanced that what we have now.. just the addition of a self-sustaining power source and a city level co-ordination that doesn't seem that far off... certainly not millions of years.
Microcosmic God by Theodore Sturgeon
Wow, what a great story! Totally implausible today, mind you, but man, what a fantastic premise and execution. I especially loved the motivation of Dr. Kidder... he just wanted someone else to learn from. Anyone know if there's ever a follow up... it sure does scream for one.
Nightfall by Isaac Asimov
I'd definitely read this one before. It's not my favorite of his work, but it's not bad. The concept of an advanced society that doesn't know about artificial lights is kinda ridiculous when it first pops into your head, but when you take it in the context of the story, it makes perfect sense. For some reason, it made me want to be an archeologist on that planet.. that would be pretty crazy!
Weapon Shop by A.E. van Vogt This wouldn't be a bad first 2 chapters to an epic fantasy novel, if you swapped the laser rifles with swords and the 'auto repair shop' with 'blacksmith'... it felt much more fantasy-ish than sci-fi. Some political elements, too, as most stories of the time had. As Sci-Fi... meh.
Mimsy Were the Borogoves by Lewis Padgett Strange one. A guy in the far future sends some toys back in time (just so there's something to measure when they went back to), and it turns out some kids break his time machine and take the toys. They dealt with 'different thinking', and made the kids think in wierd ways, eventually figuring out how to pass into that dimension themselves. Apparently the key was a Lewis Carroll poem, I guess the idea is he (or the real 'Alice') got some similar toys from the same guy (he sent to time machines), but was 'too set in Euclidean logic' to find the rabbit hole. Yup... very odd.
Huddling Place by Clifford Simak Some interesting concepts here for a really short story... reminiscient of Asimov's Spacers, the people don't leave their house. The main character is a surgeon of former renoun, and is asked to save a Martian would has a earth-shaking discovery... only his agrophobia is so bad he can't leave his house. Just as he psyches himself up and is ready to go, his robot servant tell him he shooed the people who were going to take him away. The End. Pretty sad sorry, but well crafted with some interesting concepts.
Arena by Fredric Brown Humans vs. Aliens, only no one has ever seen the alients. On the eve of interstellar holocaust, a fighter pilot gets beamed into an arena with a force field separating him from one of the aliens (who are alot like Terra-Firmans from Uncle Scrooge).. winner take all. The battle is one of logic.. the force field blocks people, but not things, and the contest to figure out how to kill the other guy is on. Seems like this would be a pretty good TNG episode.. fun one.
First Contact by Murray Leinster This one's up towards the top of the list... a human starship on a science mission runs into an alien for the first time... only neither they, or the aliens, feel like they can leave without compromising their civilation. Fantastic stuff in MAD and the cold war mindset, and the resolution, if implausible, is pretty awesome.
Only a Mother by Judith Merril Not really Sci-Fi, more of a cautionary tale about the dangers of atomic weapons. Not bad for what it is.
Scanners Live in Vain by Cordwainer Smith - Interesting twist on the 'Man or Machine' theme.. good, thought provoking story, but really ridiculous 'science' parts take away a bit.
Mars is Heaven! by Ray Bradbury - I wonder if this is the first story of this type... where people go out to space and find... exactly what they're looking for. Good story, but the ending was both predictible and abrupt.
Little Black Bag by C.M. Kornbluth - Very cool! A near-magical black doctor's bag raises a desititute Doctor out of the gutter, but his secretary gets greedy...definitely DIDN'T expect the ending on this one, and it was a very good, complete story. One of the best in the collection.
Born of Man and Woman by Richard Matheson - I've read this before, and I still don't get it. Is it a child speaking, or a pet, or some sort of alien, or maybe one of the pseudo-vampires from I am Legend? It hurts my head.
Coming Attraction by Fritz Lieber - some really cool post-nuclear war stuff, but develops far too slowly for a 12 page story... seems like this could be the beginnings of a pretty decent novel, but as a short story, it fails.
Quest for Saint Aquin by Anthony Boucher - Another good set up, but this one just don't really end at all. If I was a teacher, it'd get an incomplete.
Surface Tension by James Blish - I had no idea he wrote anything but Trek stuff... very amusing story about a microscopic society.
The Nine Billion Names of God by Arthur C. Clarke - Meh. Clarke is far better at novels, IMO. This was is too short to be good... just a one-note sorta story
It's a good life by Jerome Bixby - I'd never read this, but I vividly recall the Twilight Zone adaptation... great story about a little boy (maybe a bit spoiled) who's thoughts become deed.
Cold Equations by Tom Godwin - ALMOST a great story, about a stowaway on a space shuttle going to see her brother, that puts said shuttle over weight. Hit all the right notes, but a gaping plot hole aggravated me too much to really enjoy it. If the main focus of your story is the ship is overweight and will run out of gas, there should be some attempt to fix it (beyond spacing the stowaway). There must be some stuff that's not 100% essential (since said stowaway was writing a letter)... how about try that first? chairs? clothes? extra food/drink? Tools? Panels covering stuff? anything! Or at least state WHY that didn't happen, it just seemed like no one thought of it, which greatly diminishes the emotional impact.
Fondly Fahrenheit by Alfred Bester - I always love Asimov-ish robot stories, this is a pretty decent one, even if the main character is thoroughly unlikable.
Country of the Kind by Damon Knight - Either I missed something here, or there's some missing bit of my education... this one was pretty much a hot mess... didn't get it at all.
Flowers for Algernon Daniel Keyes - I'm not sure I'd call this a sci fi story.. but it IS a great story... especially the actual writing style... very cool.
A Rose for Ecclesiates by Roger Zelazny - A poet goes to Mars to study their dying race... and gets more than he bargained for. Very reminiscient of ERB, I thought.
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Post by wildfire2099 on May 3, 2014 23:01:29 GMT -5
Brittle Innings by. Michael Bishop Edition: 1994 Hardcover from the library... cover features the team bus of the fictional baseball team in the story, the Highridge Hellbenders, in front of what I'm assuming is the house most of the team lived in. Plot: Danny Boles is the greatest scout ever, but few recall back in the day when he was an extremely promising shortstop in the CVL... this is his story, and that of the rest of the Highridge Hellbenders in their pennant winning 1943 season. I really loved this book as a historical fiction about baseball in the war era. Bishop did a fantastic job capturing what I know of the era, the time period, the whole thing. My only slight issue is the framing sequence, which essentially spoiled the ending before the story got started. Otherwise it was a great (if dark) story about a never-was ball player. Nice shout out to Plastic Man (twice)... I guess Mr. Bishop is a fan.  What seemed entirely superfluous is the sci-fi part.. in the form of Henry 'Jumbo' Cerval. It seemed pretty much entirely unnecessary... he could have easily just be a big guy from Alaska with a mysterious past, and it would have worked just as well. I felt as though the 40 or so pages dedicated to this subplot could have easily been a separate story. Overall, I'd definitely recommend the book, it's both a very good read, and quite unique in it's nature. Thanks for suggesting it![/b]
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Post by wildfire2099 on May 3, 2014 23:04:48 GMT -5
Titans' Daughter by James Blish Originally a short story 'Beanstalk', published 1952 Novel version from 1961 Cover: Abstract art that reminds me of the Star Trek logs and has nothing to do with the story.  Plot: Dr. Fredrick Hyatt has created a genetic process to unlock the human genome.. 'giants' that literally tower of regular 'duploid' humans, and have exceptional intelligence. They just just want to live in a world that hates and fears them. After a disaster 15 years ago, a fragile peace between the races exists. Magneto, er Maurey, is one of the 2nd generation of giants, and sets about to create a tipping point to start a war, using a young engineer and his breakthrough discovery to do it. Wow, so, anyone know if Chris Claremont ever read this? If you substitute in crazy superpowers for the more general size and intelligence stuff here, you totally get the X-Men... it's, well, Uncanny. Great beginning and end, the middle is a kinda a drag, and consists of quite a bit of wool gathering by the characters.. I'm starting to see why y'all like the short stories better . I do wonder how much was added to novelize it.. it's not clear, and it's pretty short anyway ( only 142 pages of 'pocket' size). The only down side is that there was no 'future' stuff in the world... just the genetics and the one invention the book is sorta based around...until the end. Otherwise, they're using paper notes, operator driven phones, worrying about Russian Communists, etc. It certainly works fine as far as the plot goes, it just felt odd since it was clearly meant to be in the future (30 years since the genetics breakthrough, and they mention WWII as 'decades ago'). Shout outs here to Alice in Wonderland and Buck Rogers Artist Dick Calkins.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 3, 2014 23:04:58 GMT -5
I don't remember there being that much crossover between the SF Hall of Fame book and The Hugo Winners, though it's been years. I have both and they are absolutely among the first books anyone getting into SF should acquire. Based on the titles lists, Flowers for Algernon is the only one in the SF Hall of Fame vol. 1 I just read. Maybe I'm having a senior moment but I was including the SF Hall of Fame volumes that had the novellas. Or maybe I should just slink away |
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Post by wildfire2099 on May 3, 2014 23:09:06 GMT -5
That's allowed, and you could very well be correct  Ish, I'm assuming you either have moved everything you want to move, or you're going to.. if that's not the case, let me know |
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Post by wildfire2099 on May 3, 2014 23:10:48 GMT -5
This was a fun one: The Atlantic Abomination by John Bruner  Great Cover! And totally references the story. The scene in the front is pretty well described in the prologue, while the cool futuristic tower comes into play at the end. Published 1960.. funnily enough, the back cover proclaims it a Horror Novel, though it's very clearly sci-fi. Looks like it was written in novel form (though, at 128 smallish pages, maybe more of a novella) from the start. it appears this was the 2nd printing of the book, first appearing as a double novel with The Martian Missile (I'm assuming the double novel was first due to the lower cover price). There's also a later edition with a cheesy cover that doesn't do the monster justice. Amazon apparently recently put it out on Kindle, with a hypno-pattern cover (appropriate, but not as cool as the one I have) Plot: In the days of promoridal Earth Ruagh ruled his portion of it, and his many human slaves with an iron mind. Then the land split asunder, and Ruagh, too long dependent on his slaves, was unable to save himself... on of his kind, with careful planning and forethought, retreated to a safe cave to wait out the cataclysm. 100,000 years later, Peter Trant heads an expedition deep in the Atlantic, and the unearth what may be a long forgotten civilization. The sleeper awakes, and attempted to re-establish his dominion over mankind... the fight for Earth is on! Analysis: I think I've read John Brunner before (a couple of the titles on his wiki entry looked familiar), but nothing struck me (good or bad) enough to be memorable. While not particularly fantastic or noteworthy, this was a quite enjoyable little story. Set in an unnamed Future from 1960, it has good pacing, a logical plot, and a fun conclusion. You see both the humans planning and the alien monster's internal thoughts, which is fun. You have a bit of a political message (it's stated quite a few times that it was a shame there were so many missile treaties, so they couldn't just nuke the alien into oblivion. That, and the collateral damage, but still), which was interesting in it's uniqueness. The author is quite enamored of missiles in the story, in fact. The real highlight was the vivid descriptions and characterization of how this alien monster used and abused the humans he enslaved... quite chilling, and probably why they described it as a horror novel. |
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 3, 2014 23:12:47 GMT -5
That's allowed, and you could very well be correct Ish, I'm assuming you either have moved everything you want to move, or you're going to.. if that's not the case, let me know Yes I believe I'm done |
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Post by wildfire2099 on May 3, 2014 23:21:55 GMT -5
OK, thanks Up to page 21 on the old thread, so that's good. I'll make a section or two and put the non-sci fi stuff up on the index at some point, too. Funny Story, my wife randomly got Stranger in a Strange Land out of the library (my little sister absonded my copy.. she though it was about the 60s drug culture (due to We Didn't Start the Fire) |
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