Platinum Pohl
by Frederik Pohl
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Frederik Pohl, the bestselling author of The Boy Who Would Live Forever, is famous for his novels, but first and foremost, he is a master of the science fiction short story. For more than fifty years he has been writing incisive, entertaining SF stories, several hundred in all. Even while writing his bestselling triple-crown (Hugo, Nebula, Campbell Award) novel Gateway and the other Heechee Saga novels, he has always written short fiction. Now, for the first time, he has gathered together show more the best of his many stories in Platinum Pohl. Spanning the decades, these tales are in their way a living history of science fiction. Because Frederik Pohl has been on the frontlines of the field since the halcyon days of the late 1930s, and has written short stories in every decade since. And because he has always been a keen observer of the human condition and the world that is shaped by it, his stories reflect the currents of political movements, social trends, major events that have shaken the world . . . Yet at their core, all his stories are most acutely concerned with people. All sorts of people. Some are people you'll love, some you'll hate. But you will need to find out what happens to the people who inhabit these stories. Because Frederik Pohl imbues his characters with a depth and individuality that makes them as real as people you see every day. Of course, he also employs a mind-boggling variety of scientific ideas and science fictional tropes with which his characters must interact. And he does it all with seemingly no effort at all. That's some trick. Not everyone can do that . . . but that's why he was named a Grand Master of Science Fiction by his peers in the Science Fiction Writers of America. Here are his two Hugo Award winning stories, "Fermi and Frost" and "The Meeting" (with C. M. Kornbluth), along with such classic novellas as the powerful "The Gold at the Starbow's End" and "The Greening of Bed-Stuy," and stories such as "Servant of the People," "Shaffery Among the Immortals," and "Growing Up in Edge City," all finalists for major awards. And dozens of other wonderful tales, like "The Mayor of Mare Tranq" and the provocative "The Day the Martians Landed" and many others. Altogether, a grand collection of thought-provoking, entertaining science fiction by one of the all-time greats! At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied. show lessTags
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Frederik Pohl turned ninety a couple of months ago, he's one of the last golden age writers still with us. I discovered his blog last year and it is a treasure among author blogs, I've been following it religiously ever since. Until I read The Last Theorem, his collaboration with another of the science fiction greats, Arhtur C. Clarke, I had never actually read anything by him and that of course had to change. Pohl does not appear to have a great many books in print at the moment but among the more recent publications is the collection Platinum Pohl, A career spanning collection of his best short fiction. Almost every collection of short fiction contains weak stories but I was absolutely blown away by editor James Frenkel's selection of show more Pohl's work. It is one of the best collections of short fiction I have ever read.
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637+ Works 42,749 Members
Frederik Pohl was born in New York City on November 26, 1919. More interested in writing than in school, he dropped out of high school in his senior year and took a job with a publishing company. After serving as a public relations officer in the United States Army from 1943 to 1945, he returned to publishing as copywriter for Popular Science, a show more literary agent for several sci-fi writers, and the editor for the magazines Galaxy and If from 1959 until 1969, with If winning three successive Hugo awards. His first published work, a poem entitled Elegy to a Dead Satellite: Luna, was printed in Amazing Stories magazine in 1937 under the pen name Elton Andrews. His first science fiction novels were published in the mid 1960's, some written in collaboration with other writers, others created alone. During his lifetime, he won over 16 major awards for his writing (much of which was published pseudonymously) including six Hugo Awards and three Nebula Awards. His works include Gateway, which won the Campbell Memorial, Hugo, Locus SF, and Nebula Awards, Beyond the Blue Event Horizon, and Jem, which won the National Book Award in 1979. He also embraced blogging in his later years, using his online journal as an ongoing sequel to his autobiography, The Way the Future Was. He died on September 2, 2013 at the age 93. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Awards and Honors
Awards
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Is contained in
Contains
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Platinum Pohl
- Original title
- Platinum Pohl: The Collected Best Stories
- Original publication date
- 2005
- Publisher's editor
- Frenkel, James
- Blurbers
- Willis, Connie; Sallis, James
- Original language
- English
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Statistics
- Members
- 217
- Popularity
- 148,204
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (4.06)
- Languages
- English, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 3
- ASINs
- 3
