Charles G. Waugh

I picked this up at the used book store expecting a healthy dose of dated, sexist, adolescent fantasy-fullfillment tales, which would likely be more of historical interest than particularly compelling. I am happy to report that a majority of the ten novella and novelette length stories proved much better than that.

Most of these authors were already familiar to me. Of that group, I enjoyed both A.E. van Vogt's "The Weapon Shop" and A. Bertram Chandler's "Giant Killer" quite a bit more than show more works I read previously from these sources. I thought that, while Isaac Asimov's "The Big and the Little" works reasonably well as a stand alone story, it somehow works better in its more familiar place as a section of Foundation. I can't say that I particularly liked C.L. Moore's "No Woman Born," but it is astonishing to see a story from that era asking such probing questions about gender and identity and how men perceive women; I suspect it is the first feminist science fiction story. While "Killdozer!" may not be among Theodore Sturgeon's most probing stories, I'm not sure that any subsequent entry in the subgenre it spawned has topped it. Of the familiar authors, only Lester Del Rey and Jack Williamson's entries were in line with my fairly low expectations.

Of the Authors that were (more or less) new to me, I thought T.L. Sherred's "E for Effort" was quite good, Ross Rocklynne's "Time Wants a Skeleton" was better than it should have been, and Fredric Brown's "Daymare" was again in line with my low expectations.

So this anthology delivers both as a reminder of where the genre was 70 years ago, and as a source of some pretty darned compelling storytelling.

Sadly the book I purchased had a misprint which ruined two of the stories, but interlibrary loan supplied temporary access to a duplicate copy. Highly recommended. show less

This little book collects fifteen short stories from across the 19th century, most of them being more science fiction than not. They originate from Britain, the United States, Germany, and France, though Britain and America dominate the book. Only four of the stories are pre-1850, since short sf really took off in the 1880s in the popular periodicals.

My favorite was probably the first, E. T. A. Hoffman's "The Sandman" (1817), about a boy who sees his father die working on an automaton, and show more grows up to be menaced by his co-inventor. It's dark and creepy, even now, in terms of what it postulates at the end. The funnest story is definitely Frank R. Stockton's "A Tale of Negative Gravity" (1884). Stockton also wrote some racist future-war fiction, but this a screwy comedy about a guy who can fly, and it's nice and fun. Guy de Maupassant's "The Horla" (1887) is another creepy tale, about an ancient race that might out-evolve humanity. (This was definitely a thing 19th-century folks were really worried about, between this and The Coming Race and Dracula and The War of the Worlds. I think it's all about imperialism.) Oh, and let's not forget Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Rappaccini's Daughter" (1844). That ending gets me every time.

Some of the stories are more noteworthy for what they do than how they do it. Not that they do it bad, but it will be done better later, and these versions only stand out because they did it first. Edward Page Mitchell's "The Clock That Went Backward" (1881) gives us a time travel story that features not only the first time machine (contrary to the British Library, who give that honor to an 1887 story), but also a predestination paradox. Wibbley-wobbley timey-wimey and all that! J.-H. Rosny aîné's "The Shapes" (1887) has some fantastic inorganic aliens that make the story alone. And Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Great Keinplatz Experiment" (1894) is a fair-to-middling body swap comedy.

Then, of course, there's the blight of all science fiction: coming up with a good idea but not a good story: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's "The Mortal Immortal" (1834), featuring immortality, Edward Bellamy's "To Whom This May Come" (1888), featuring telepathy, H. G. Wells's "Into the Abyss" (1896), featuring an underwater civilization, and C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne's "The Lizard" (1898), featuring a man fighting a dinosaur, are all guilty of this to differing degrees, though most have a great "sense of wonder" moment regardless.

But even the not-so-great stories are still interesting reads. Good stuff if you're remotely interested in the history of sf-- early material like this isn't often reprinted. This is a genre being born, and everyone here is a visionary in their own right. show less

Interesting combination stories for fans of both mystery and SF. The stories are from the 1950s-70s and are dated in unexpected ways. The concept of a CSI camera that can take pictures into the recent past is still futuristic, but the suspension of disbelief fails when one of the restrictions on it's use is how long it takes to develop the film! A team of robots working with a lawyer to define themselves as independent beings stumbles when the robots are described as writing out, on paper, show more information they've looked up in law books. show less

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, put Isaac Asimov’s name on it and I’ll buy it, don’t care it it’s a sci-fi short story compilation or a cookbook. Now add Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, Philip K. Dick, Harry Harrison, and Olson Scott Card to the list of authors, and I just dare to you stop me buying it. ;)

This is an anthology of twenty-five science fiction stories about war. At first, I was a bit worried that it would be too machismo and full of laser swords and show more such, but that fear was allayed with about one story. This compilation was filled with thoughtful, creative, stories. There were cautionary tales, stories of hope, and stories that surprised. There was a great variety, battles waged on distant planets, in space, and here on earth. As I find with most complications, the best stories were at the front and end of the collection, with some lessor works sandwiched in between the best ones. The stories were written between 1949 and 1980, but they all seem to share a common thread, war may be unavoidable, but it’s always evil.

It starts with a cracker by Arthur C. Clarke, that seemed familiar to me, that supposes that superior technology does not always provide superior results. I was thrilled to find the original Olson Scott Card short story of Ender’s Game, that inspired the full novel and the resulting sequels and prequels. It’s such a wonderful short, I’m sure Card had many urging him to expand it into a full-length novel (my opinion, it’s the best story of the bunch). There were a few stinkers in the middle, but only one, I found unreadable. And, of course, the anthology finishes strong with a few, very short, but excellent stories by Heinlein and the other bookend by Clarke.

All in all, this collection does not disappoint. It’s important to think about war, the implications, the prelude and the aftermath, and the unexpected outcomes. I enjoyed the writing, it made me think, and the pages flew by. I find it hard not to pick up a sci-fi short story anthology now and then, especially with Isaac Asimov’s name on the author list. show less