Customer Reviews

Good Old Stuff

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Good assortment of science fiction topics. Was especially useful exposure to some the giants in the field, who's work is well worth reading, but who aren't currently popular. Also interesting to read earlier treatments of sci-fi topics - alternate history, alien encounters, collapse of civilization. Agree with other reviewers that the stories have a strong literary bent, but not excessive.

The back cover led me to expect a lot of golden age sf, but a good amount of this stuff is probably recent enough (1970) to qualify as good *new* stuff. (Although some of it is embarassingly fascinated with things like hypnosis and the Campbellian dogma of America/Earth's eventual superiority over all other alien races.) Dozois seems to have gone to some trouble to dig up some solid stories from lesser-known writers, some almost totally out of print (C. M. Kornbluth, Murray Leinster, Leigh Brackett, H. Beam Piper). I also appreciate that he's knowledgeable enough about his field to ensure a fair representation of women writers without his needing to visibly lower the bar to let them in.

Trust Gardner Dozois to throw the dart into the board and pick some outstanding SF works.THAT SHARE OF GLORY by C.M. Kornbluth is worth the price of admission. GUNPOWDER GOD continues H. Beam Piper's "Verkan Vall" character adventuring in the levels of Earth (sideways in time). Included are Gordon R. Dickson's delightful THE MAN IN THE MAILBAG, and Jack Vances weird THE NEW PRIME. Don't skip a word or a story. Get close to the roots of this genre.

The cover for this book was originally for a full-length SF-Adventure novel by Andre Norton called Galactic Derelict. It was published in the '60s, and not included in the collection.

I just finished reading this book, and there's not a bad story in the bunch! I also was unfamiliar with all of these stories, although I had read works by some of the authors previously. Recommended to anyone who loves SF, and even as an entryway for those who are unfamiliar with the genre.