The Hugo Winners: Volumes I & II (original 1972; edition 1962)

I'm enjoyed the hell out of this book, and I'm not a sci-fi reader. Believe it or not, I took it from a colleague who was using it to prop up and display some specimens and instruments when teaching his lab class. The stories are intriguing, the characters eccentric, and the settings and plots out of another world; more importantly, the prose and wording doesn't saturate you with pseudo-scientific jargon. A real gem. ( )

Reviewed Nov. 2004

Asimov's usual arrogant style of writing about himself is never more apparent than when he sets up the Hugo Award winner stories. I was very disappointed with the first few stories, "The Darfsletter" and overlong story about a dejected actor who tries to sabotages the robot plays that have replaced human actors. The next "Allamagoosa" was a red-tape paper pusher story about men who are bureaucrats, the whole story is about a miss-spelling. "Exploration Time" another overly long story of a man and his bears that try to colonize an unfriendly world. Finally Clarke's "The Star" shows me that these Hugo winners can indeed be excellent stories. Next "Or all the Seas with Oysters" could have happened at any modern year -a bicycle shop- safety pins and clothes hangers never think of them the same way. "The Big Front Yard" another wonderful suspense novelette makes you think about the common man - and talents we all have making us unique. "The Hell-Bound Train" was okay - more like something from a Twilight Zone episode. "Flowers for Algernon" was a tear jerker, I think I've heard of this story and wish I had read this while at CSUMB. Lots of labs, testing and fooling the humans. The last story, "The Longest Voyage" talks about the common Sci Fi theme of advanced societies giving their knowledge to "primitive" peoples. The need to continuing to discover for ourselves the unknown outweighs this knowledge handed to us. All the stories have a common theme - no female lead characters guess Sci Fi writers are a bunch of male losers!

17-2004 ( )

A sterling collection of the Hugo Award winners in the novelette and short story categories at the World Science Fiction Conventions from 1955 to 1970. With Isaac Asimov's inimitable commentary, this collection includes one of my very favorite stories, Arthur C. Clarke's "The Star". Also prized by yours truly are Daniel Keyes' "Flowers For Algernon" and Harlan Ellison's "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream". ( )