The Road to Science Fiction #3: From Heinlein to Here

Ok, I skipped most of the notes, and some of the stories. But honestly, I have about three yards of SF anthologies to read and I already have gray hair - I'm not about to become a scholar, or even a connoisseur, now. I like a provocative yarn, and there are plenty of them in here. And if I'm in a used book store and see other volumes in this series I will add them to that shelf.

This would be a great book to keep, especially if you're new to SF, as reference (lots of oft-mentioned stories are here for handy reading) and as a sampler (check if you like this story by that author before heading out to collect his oeuvre).

Btw, I've been working on this, in v. odd moments, for a long time. I couldn't begin to actually remember details of each show more story. show less

As with all anthologies, the general level of writing is average to high (even though these are "the most important" that does not translate into "things I think are really good"). The introductions to each story give a good over-view of the genre and the writers, as well as the publishers and magazines.
Useful for students of science fiction, but most of the stories would now be considered cliché (having been the first to do things that are now common-place among their successors).
Although I was familiar with all the authors by name and most by reading, I had somehow missed many of these particular works, having come into the field with access only to library collections and not the magazines (until much later in the 1970s).
PS Tom show more Godwin of "Cold Equations" =/= Mike Godwin of "Godwin's Rule of Nazi Analogies".
CAUTION: One at least of the stories is not suitable for children but I don't remember which one.

Contents: All You Zombies-- (Heinlein); Reason (Asimov); Desertion (Simak); Mimsy Were the Borogoves (Padgett = Kuttner & Moore); The Million-Year Picnic (Bradbury); Thunder and Roses (Sturgeon); That Only a Mother (Merril); Brooklen Project (Tenn = Klass); Coming Attraction (Leiber); The Sentinel (Clarke); Sail On! Sail On! (Farmer); Critical Factor (Clement); Fondly Fahrenheit (Bester); The Cold Equations (Godwin); The Game of Rat and Dragon (Cordwainer Smith); Pilgrimage to Earth (Sheckley); Who Can Replace a Man? (Aldiss); Harrison Bergeron (Vonnegut); The Streets of Ashkelon (Harrison); The Terminal Beach (Ballard); Dolphin's Way (Dickson); Slow Tuesday Night (Lafferty); Day Million (Pohl); We Can Remember It for You Wholesale (Dick); I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream (Ellison); Aye, and Gomorrah (Delany); The Jigsaw Man (Niven); Kyrie (Poul Anderson); Masks (Knight); from "Stand on Zanzibar" (Brunner); The Big Flash (Spinrad); Sundance (Silverberg); from "The Left Hand of Darkness" (LeGuin); When It Changed (Russ); The Engine at Heartspring's Center (Zelazny); Tricentennial (Haldeman). show less

It is fascinating to experience and learn the history of Science Fiction and how it got to where it is . In this book James Gunn does a fantastic job of Tracing Science Fiction from the Golden Age in the '40's to present day. I did not like all of the stories, but I didn't expect to, everyone has different tastes, but I did like most of them and I recognize the place each story has in the Pantheonic History of the coolest genre.

F/SF