The World Turned Upside Down

The World Turned Upside Down, edited by David Drake, Eric Flint, Jim Baen

29 Stories, the likes of which I've not seen for over 50 years. These are stories that are so gripping that I do remember the majority of them…if not their authors or titles. Well, "gripping" may be too strong; let's say "memorable". Indeed, I have memories of rethinking the plots of many of these very stories in the past 50 years (and wondering who wrote them and what were they called). These are the types of stories that stick with you and tickle at the back of your mind with "what would I have done?" "is this possible?" "this story was so prescient."

There's one tale the plot line of which, if not the actual story, was possibly the inspiration for an episode of show more "Star Trek, the Next Generation" where the young hero is condemned to death despite his innocent ignorance of what seems to be an arbitrary law. How would you feel, knowing that you're about to die for doing something you thought was at worst a silly prank? Or, how would you feel being the executioner of someone who truly does not deserve to die?

There's only one story that is monster-scary, "Who Goes There?" and it was made into two movies: "The Thing From Another World," 1951; and the remake, "The Thing" in 1982. (I remember the 1951 movie, with James Arness—Matt Dillon, from "Gunsmoke"—as the monster…okay, I date myself.)

These vignettes, averaging about 24 pages…including prefaces and postscripts by the editors, describe situations that require meditative effort to comprehend. Not that they're complicated or intricate; but that they serve as examples of "thought experiments" conducted by philosophers or psychoanalysts. What would be right action under THESE conditions.

Forgive me, but these are the Sci-Fi tales I grew up on; these are the stories that fed my psychological needs. The short-stories of today just don't "touch" me in the same way. Or captivate me to the same extent. I recommend each story and the whole book of them to anyone who wants to either reawaken lost emotions—or to inspire the emotions of a prior age's childhood.

My recommendation is that you not read this book too quickly. Give each story it's due and let yourself digest it before you move on to the next. show less

This could have been very self indulgent - a collection of the editors' favourite stories from the golden age of science fiction (from the time you were thirteen or so :-)) but by-and-large, they have come up with excellent stories and authors, some of which I had not heard of and some of which are definate classics.

Some stories show their age - inevitably given the fact they were written over half a century ago, but the great surprise is the way most manage to remain interesting despite their age.

Of these, the classic Arthur C Clarke 'Rescue Party' opens the anthology but in many ways Rick Raphael's 'Code Three' takes pride of place as an example of descriptive science fiction. It's basically the story of a highway patrol on the show more superhighways of an international freeway system that is basically impossible to imagine these days. The weirdest piece by far was P Schuyler's 'Spawn'. CL Moore's (Caroline Lucille) 'Shambleau' is one of the greatest stories ever written to be set on Mars, despite it being a Mars that is difficult to envision these days, but it's her first ever published story and has a great deal of back story that appears well developed if it was her first ever story. show less

A collection of classic early Sci-Fi stories. If you've been reading Sci-Fi for a while you may find some familiar ones here. But if you haven't, or if you've only read more recent stuff, I found this collection to be highly engaging and quite enjoyable.

That true rarity: an anthology where I didn't even mildly dislike any of the stories. Some old friends, some classics, and a couple that were new to me. Excellent!

Extensive collection of early "SciFI", most were excellent then and many remain so.

Sample Chapters: http://webscriptions.net/chapters/0743498747/0743498747.htm