The Science Fiction Century

Rating:
Summary: Where are the aliens?
Review: This book purports to survey the evolution of science fiction over the course of the twentieth century, and in this regard is a fairly educational tome. It's nice, for example, to know that E.M. Forster and Rudyard Kipling (!) wrote short stories that could fairly be called science fiction, and that there was a controversy among serious writers at the beginning of the century regarding whether inexorable technical progress would bring utopia or dystopia, and I feel richer for knowing that. However, this vast (>800 pages!) anthology baldly ignores stories which explore two favorite subjects of mine (and, I assume, many other readers): the implications of interstellar travel, and speculation on the nature of alien intelligence. There are a few stories here which investigate these topics, but only a few, and I was left with the suspicion that either (a) Hartwell simply doesn't like/"get" aliens and space opera, and likes time travel and noodlings on dystopia a whole lot more, or (b) there were serious copyright or reproduction problems with enough of the major short stories and novellas which classically treat these subjects that the entire subgenre was ignored...there's one particular example in which the introductory abstract for a story glows *about another story by the same author*, and then treats us to one of his lesser works. There are definitely some gems here which I haven't seen elsewhere (e.g. Farmer's "Mother"), and the works chosen are unquestionably among the best-written of the genre, but after plowing through the dozens of stories I found myself missing a treatment of the aspects of science fiction that I personally enjoy the most. It might be a good gift for that special someone whom you've never been able to turn on to SF -- these are good transition stories; some so good that you don't even know you're reading science fiction.

Rating:
Summary: Where's Heinlein?
Review: This is an excellent book. I just would like to ask David Hartwell; why is there nothing from Robert A. Heinlein? Arguably the most influential science fiction author ever. I am very disappointed over this omission.

Rating:
Summary: Where's Heinlein?
Review: This is an excellent book. I just would like to ask David Hartwell; why is there nothing from Robert A. Heinlein? Arguably the most influential science fiction author ever. I am very disappointed over this omission.

Rating:
Summary: Sci-fi for grownups
Review: This wonderful collection offers a wide variety of the very best science fiction, not of the "square-jawed-heroes-and-beautiful-princesses" kind, but the kind of fiction that leads you to ponder about deep philosophical matters. I only do not rate it with the full rating of 5 stars because of a few rather uninspired choices, for example H.G.Wells's "A Story of the Days to Come." I like Wells but it is no mystery that some of his stories are not up to scratch, and this is one of them: preachy and curiously unvisionary (sometimes comically so, like, why on Earth did Wells believe that the quaint institution of the chaperone would survive so many years into the future? But then, probably all of Wells' good stuff has already been overanthologized). Others have apparently been included just for the sake of representing a particular author, rather than because of their quality. However, the selection has been mostly made based on excellence, and the few not-so-goods are largely compensated by the sterling quality of the rest of the stories, some of which are true masterpieces, like Poul Anderson's "Goat Song," a beautiful and haunting recreation of the myth of Orpheus, the deeply disturbing "Mother" by Philip José Farmer and "Consider Her Ways" by John Wyndham, the original and fairy-taleish "The King and the Dollmaker" by Wolfgang Jeschke, the poetic "Riding the Tide of Mourning" by Richard Lupoff, and many others, in fact too numerous to mention. Of special merit are the inclusions of modern classics like Gibson's "Johnny Mnemonic" and Ellison's "Repent, Harlequin!" and others which are excellent but hard to find, like the exquisite but out of print "The Rose" by Charles Harness. A truly indespensable item for the sci-fi serious fan.

Rating:
Summary: Sci-fi for grownups
Review: This wonderful collection offers a wide variety of the very best science fiction, not of the "square-jawed-heroes-and-beautiful-princesses" kind, but the kind of fiction that leads you to ponder about deep philosophical matters. I only do not rate it with the full rating of 5 stars because of a few rather uninspired choices, for example H.G.Wells's "A Story of the Days to Come." I like Wells but it is no mystery that some of his stories are not up to scratch, and this is one of them: preachy and curiously unvisionary (sometimes comically so, like, why on Earth did Wells believe that the quaint institution of the chaperone would survive so many years into the future? But then, probably all of Wells' good stuff has already been overanthologized). Others have apparently been included just for the sake of representing a particular author, rather than because of their quality. However, the selection has been mostly made based on excellence, and the few not-so-goods are largely compensated by the sterling quality of the rest of the stories, some of which are true masterpieces, like Poul Anderson's "Goat Song," a beautiful and haunting recreation of the myth of Orpheus, the deeply disturbing "Mother" by Philip José Farmer and "Consider Her Ways" by John Wyndham, the original and fairy-taleish "The King and the Dollmaker" by Wolfgang Jeschke, the poetic "Riding the Tide of Mourning" by Richard Lupoff, and many others, in fact too numerous to mention. Of special merit are the inclusions of modern classics like Gibson's "Johnny Mnemonic" and Ellison's "Repent, Harlequin!" and others which are excellent but hard to find, like the exquisite but out of print "The Rose" by Charles Harness. A truly indespensable item for the sci-fi serious fan.