The view from the stars

This short-story collection includes 9 stories originally published in the 1950’s. Several of the stories felt very dated, and "The Big Hunger" was rather abstract for my tastes. Still, I was impressed by the quality of Miller’s writing and the depth of some of his characters, especially in the context of the short-story format. My favourite story was "Crucifixus Etiam" about a migrant laborer on Mars, who is working to make the planet habitable for future generations of humans.

When the restless ones, the wild-eyed spacers were gone, the addicts got religion and the federalists became placid anarchists and the Parliaments voted themselves out of existence. There was peace on the third planet of 27 Lambda Serpentis, and good will among the inhabitants thereof. They made love and studied sociology under a friendly sun, under a pleasant blue sky forever.
From "The Big Hunger".

Nine science fiction stories by the author of one of my favourite books "A Canticle for Leibowitz", who was just as good at short fiction. I bought this book recently from a used book store, and was irritated to find that five of these stories are also found in "The Darfsteller and other Stories" which I already own, and that I had read show more nearly all of the stories before. My favourites are "You Triflin' Skunk!"," Big Joe and the Nth Generation" and "The Big Hunger". show less

You Triflin' Skunk! 4* Never underestimate the courage of a protective mother. Would be a great Twilight Zone but would have required a mature content warning, very talented actors & creative special effects.

The Will *3 Sentimental time travel (find the cure in the future), would have been a decent TZ.

Anybody Else Like Me? *4 Very well written exploration of the What If? of telepathy... a horrifying way it could be. Not suitable for TZ, in part because it's too smart.

Crucifixus Etiam *4 "What man ever made his own salvation?" Philosophical. Too epic in scope for TZ.

I, Dreamer *3 Compare & contrast to The Ship Who Sang. This more harsh/bleak. Wouldn't be film-able.

Dumb Waiter *2 How to be smarter and braver than Central and its show more automatons. And have a chance to spank a 'girl' while you're at it.

Blood Bank *2 Sorry, just a mess. Interesting premise/ gimmick, but too much clutter weighing it down. (Why did the guy want to go to Sol III anyway?) Still, there's this: "Life first tries to climb a tree to get to the stars. When it fails, it comes down and invents the high-C drive."

Big Joe and the Nth Generation *3 What happens when the Mars colonists lose their understandings of science and technology? Maybe, eventually, when all there is to believe in is myth and unreliable magic, one young man will start to wonder if there's something more going on than the priests know.

The Big Hunger *2 Sorry, though epic in scope, insufficiently imaginative. Like Asimov's Foundation, it's a remotely far future that resembles the present implausibly closely.

Note that the star ratings are vague and subjective, with assorted ones that are barely a three, almost worth rounding up to four, etc. The other thing is that most of these explore concepts explored similarly elsewhere... not very original or fresh (even given the dates)... but Miller is usually deft, and if you like short stories from this era and can readily find this, give it a go. show less