SF: Authors' Choice 4

Well, if anything, this book proves the worth of publicists. These Sci Fi shorts have all been selected by their authors. Some authors made better choices from their work than others. Of course Arthur C. Clarke picked a gem, if not a tiny one--"The Forgotten Enemy", only 8 pages long. Brian W. Aldiss' "Old Hundredth" tells us of the unimaginable, unhuman future of Earth's inhabitants. John Brunner's "Fair" takes an intelligent beatnik's take on a futuristic Vanity Fair. Gordon R. Dickson tells a lively little tale in his "Warrior", though his introduction to it complicates matters some, unless you have followed all of his work. Thomas M. Disch's "Et In Arcadia Ego" was the stinkingest pile of corprolite I've come across; though I do show more like the fact that he's somewhat of an insane poet--perverted. Carol Emshwiller's "But Soft, What Light..." was sickening in that it told of the loss of HER virginity through a story that dealt with a "robot" (bloody feminine drivel from the blasted 70s, which the aformentioned story was steeped in as well). The next story is next in the book because it is an answer to all the womens lib clucking. James Gunn's "The Misogynist" is just awesome. Not only did the author have big balls for writing it, but he also read it aloud to his students of the era. George Clayton Johnson's "All of Us Are Dying" has a distinct Twilight Zone feel about it--in fact Rod Sterling purchased the story from the author. "The Fire and the Sword" by Frank M. Robinson came off as amateurish to me. Robert Sheckley's "Bad Medicine" was an excellent criticism of pyschology. Clifford D. Simak's "The Autumn Land is the best of the collection. His prose is hauntingly dark and beautiful, not to mention prophetic. Robert Taylor's "A Sense of Beauty" was bland to me. "The Last Flight of Dr. Ain" was James Tiptree, Jr.s call for extremist environmentalism--and the sick bastard meant it. "Ullward's Retreat" by Jack Vance seeks an answer to overpopulation in quiet privacy. Roger Zelazny's "The Man Who Loved the Faioli" sucked but for the fact the setting was a galactic graveyard. Overall a worthwile look at future's past. show less

Interesting reading these notes, written as I was coming of age and learning about the issues of the world, the things that were bothering these writers: alienation, the Cold War and the futile War with Vietnam, the growing but pessimistic ecological movement.... We weren't talking so much about racism anymore, you see, nor feminism, and gay rights & gender diversity were outré speculations....

Old Hundredth - Aldiss - maybe sort of an Uplift story, not for me

Fair - Brunner - a different kind of propaganda machine, with a different message; smart

The Forgotten Enemy - Clarke - hard science short-short; I like Clarke in that mode much better than in his woo-woo mode

Warrior - Dickson - a teaser for his Dorsai / Childe cycle. makes me even show more less interested in the one that I have on my to-read shelf :(

Et in Arcadia Ego - Disch - p'raps a satire of pretentiousness; p'raps pure weirdness, I certainly don't know nor care for such

But Soft, What Light - Emshwiller - experimental self-indulgence imo

The Misogynist - James Gunn - from his prefatory note, it's clear that the author is only slightly less ignorant than the title character... blech

All of Us Are Dying - George Clayton Johnson - with a generic name like that, it's only natural that he came up with this kind of generic character for this gimmick short-short

The Fire and the Sword - Robinson - Interesting prefatory note about alienation to this pseudo-anthropological tale: should the locals protect themselves from the outsiders, or welcome and adopt them? Would also make a good Star Trek episode, but Kirk would not have been given six months to get an answer from this culture!

Bad Medicine - Sheckley - the author's normal spun-out weirdness, but I do like this bit, "Both the manager and the clerk exchanged horrified looks. They were thinking of the General Motors Reformatory outside of Detroit, where Company offenders passed their days in sullen silence, monotonously drawing micro-circuits for pocket television sets."

The Autumn Land - Simak - this time the author's pastoralism is a veneer over a base of horror

A Sense of Beauty - Robert Taylor - From the author's note: "There are no villains here in my story.... We have gone beyond that humbug.... the serpent merely gave us the excuse we were searching for." Luminous fable; I'll look for more by the author

The Last Flight of Dr. Ain - Tiptree - Yes, the planet would be better off it 90% of humans were gone, but who was Dr. Ain's woman friend? Gaea herself, maybe?

Ullward's Retreat - Vance - when you're so accustomed to synthetic simulated algae that genuine algae is the height of luxury, when you're 37 billionth in line to get permission to have a child, what would you do if you bought half a planet? Btw, I won't single Vance out, but his preface might make it the most clear why writers need editors & publishers to vet their stuff & make them fix it...

The Man Who Loved the Faioli - Zelazny - erotic fantasy for men who lust for girls

Ok done thank goodness. Stories vary from weak, to lame, to, well, corpselike. Sorry. show less