After really enjoying Volume One of this series, I was all set to enjoy Volume Two, which was divided into two halves because it would have been outrageously big. As it is, Volume Two A is already pretty big. I don't know what it was, though, but Volume Two A didn't impress me anywhere near as much as Volume One, which was filled with stories I thought were excellent-- and rightly so, given that they were supposed to be the definitively best short stories published prior to 1964. But the best novellas of the same time period were pretty average for the most part. There were some standouts, however: I really liked Universe by Robert A. Heinlein even though I thought it felt like half a story. (Wikipedia has informed me that it is half a story; Heinlein connected it with another novella later on to make a full novel.) Cyril M. Kornbluth's The Marching Morons was also good fun. My favorite of the book was probably Vintage Season by Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore, a surprisingly affecting story about tourists from the distant future and their effect on one man.

An anthology of stories chosing by the SFWA, from the sixties and earlier. A pretty good bunch, but given the age of some may not appeal as much now, with the stories set in closer to the present time, like the del Rey example, or Williamson. Even includes Wells' Time Machine, which most people will think of as a novel. The standouts are Campbell's Who Goes there and the ageless Cordwainer Smith's The Ballad of Lost C'Mell.

Still, another book worth having for the SF story fan's collection.

Science Fiction Hall of Fame 2A : CALL ME JOE - Poul Anderson
Science Fiction Hall of Fame 2A : WHO GOES THERE? - John W. CampbellJr.
Science Fiction Hall of Fame 2A : NERVES - Lester delRey
Science Fiction Hall of Fame 2A : UNIVERSE - Robert A. Heinlein
Science Fiction Hall of Fame 2A : THE MARCHING MORONS - C. M. Kornbluth
Science Fiction Hall of Fame 2A : VINTAGE SEASON - Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore
Science Fiction Hall of Fame 2A : AND THEN THERE WERE NONE - Eric Frank Russell
Science Fiction Hall of Fame 2A : THE BALLAD OF LOST C'MELL - Cordwainer Smith
Science Fiction Hall of Fame 2A : BABY IS THREE - Theodore Sturgeon
Science Fiction Hall of Fame 2A : THE TIME MACHINE - H. G. Wells
Science Fiction Hall of Fame 2A : WITH FOLDED HANDS - Jack Williamson

"Psibeams are persnickety"

3 out of 5

A discovery of a lifeform buried in the Antarctic ice causes serious problems for an isolated research team.

5 out of 5

Atomic accident surgery improvisation.

3.5 out of 5

Outside discovery ship mutiny conflict.

3.5 out of 5

Unfrozen average bloke's lemming solution lack of life lesson.

4 out of 5

Past holiday.

4 out of 5

Antigand-a be any authority around here, you crazy people.

4 out of 5

Underpeople Lord assisted execution escapage.

4.5 out of 5

Gestalt growth.

3.5 out of 5

It will come as no surprise that the protagonist in this story, the traveller, invents a time machine and uses it to venture into the future.

The society that he ends up in seems amazing for a brief time, then he realises that all is not as it seems. There is a large underclass that is terribly exploited to produce all this for the eloi, as they are called.

The underclass are named Morlocks, and it is here that the Time Traveler's sympathies reside.

3.5 out of 5

Robot home help useless.

2.5 out of 5

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2008/01... ( )

A collection of the greatest science fiction novellas of all time, chosen by the members of the Science Fiction Writers of America. The authors are generally known to me, but the only story I remember is H. G. Wells' "The Time Machine". I remember enjoying every story, but can not now recount any of the plots with the one exception I mentioned. A candidate for re-reading some day. ( )