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Rating: 
Summary: It Just Doesn¿t Get Any Better Than This
Review: Any newcomer to sf looking for a place to start could do no better than 'The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume I.' The collection includes some of the very best sf stories from 1929 to 1964, as nominated by members of SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America) and chosen by editor Robert Silverberg. They include such classics as:"Nightfall" Isaac Asimov (perhaps the most famous sf story ever)
"Scanners Live in Vain" Cordwainer Smith
"The Nine Billion Names of God" Arthur C. Clarke "Flowers for Algernon" Daniel Keyes
"A Rose for Ecclesiastes" Roger Zelazny
just to name a handful So many other powerhouse writers are also represented: Ray Bradbury, John W. Campbell, Robert A. Heinlein, Clifford Simak, Theodore Sturgeon, James Blish, Alfred Bester, Damon Knight...the list goes on and on and on. If I could only have one book of sf stories, this would be the one. A classic. 672 pages
Rating:
Summary: It Just Doesn?t Get Any Better Than This
Review: Any newcomer to sf looking for a place to start could do no better than `The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume I.' The collection includes some of the very best sf stories from 1929 to 1964, as nominated by members of SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America) and chosen by editor Robert Silverberg. They include such classics as: "Nightfall" Isaac Asimov (perhaps the most famous sf story ever)
"Scanners Live in Vain" Cordwainer Smith
"The Nine Billion Names of God" Arthur C. Clarke "Flowers for Algernon" Daniel Keyes
"A Rose for Ecclesiastes" Roger Zelazny
just to name a handful So many other powerhouse writers are also represented: Ray Bradbury, John W. Campbell, Robert A. Heinlein, Clifford Simak, Theodore Sturgeon, James Blish, Alfred Bester, Damon Knight...the list goes on and on and on. If I could only have one book of sf stories, this would be the one. A classic. 672 pages
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Beginning
Review: Back in the 1970's, while in my early teens, someone handed me this book - my very first SF. To this day I fondly remember many of the stories... They were quite eye-opening and exciting for my young self. While the material is dated by today's standards, the quality and diversity of this volume dominates the experience. As well, it serves as a showcase for many (now) recurring themes in SF. I cannot think of a better book to introduce someone to SF. If I remember correctly, the publisher followed-up with a 2-volume set of novellas. All three books belong in any serious collection.
Rating:
Summary: I'm Glad This Is On My Bookshelf
Review: First of all, my memories of some of the stories in this book are not entirely clear, as I have read it off & on over the course of the last 6 or 7 years. Basically, this is a collection of the greatest SF stories of all time, as chosen by the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1968. Their cut-off date was December 31, 1964, so you're not going to read anything in here that's less than 35 years old. The problem with this is obvious: science fiction, more than any other genre, does not always age well. What is gloriously new & exciting in 1930 or 1940 is old news in 2001. Some of the early stories (they're arranged chronologically), while probably great fun to read when they were first published, now have a kitschy, dated quality that's hard to get past. Having said that, the best stories in this book (my nominees include Isaac Asimov's "Nightfall", Jerome Bixby's "It's A GOOD Life", and Daniel Keyes' heartbreaking "Flowers For Algernon") have a resonance & a timelessness that mark the best stories, SF or otherwise. If you're looking for a good capsule history of the SF of this era, warts & all, you could do a lot worse than to pick this up. I'm certainly glad it's on my bookshelf.
Rating:
Summary: Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume ONE
Review: I came to this site looking for this book *specifically* to find "The Cold Equations" short story that another reviewer mentions above. I haven't read these stories since the first time when the book was new. This book is a MUST READ for people interested in quality science fiction
Rating:
Summary: The BEST Sci-Fi Collection Ever!
Review: If you are a sci fi buff, this is a must have. It is a definitive collection of some of the most important science fiction ever written. It spans works from the late 30's into the earlys 60's with a good portion coming from the 40's (arguably the most pivotal era for sci fi). I had to read this book as a requirement for a class in high school and somehow, I "accidentally" failed to turn it back in (oops!). Some of my personal faves: "Arena," "Helen O'Loy," "The Little Black Bag"... heck! I love the whole book!
Rating:
Summary: A must-own for sci-fi readers.
Review: If you ever had an interest in science fiction, you simply must go out and find these books. Classic, defining stories from the days of science fiction when giants walked the earth and there were no special effects, just ideas and the need to tell a story in less then 5000 words. Read classics like "Flowers for Algernon" and "The Cold Equations" and see what visionaries some of these authors were. Read "Nightfall" and see Isaac Asimov in his prime, or "Mimsy Were The Borogroves" and muse on the time when sci-fi wasn't written to fit on a Taco Bell cup.
Any one of these stories is worth the price of the book. Nothing else to say. Find it, buy it, read it, keep it.
Rating:
Summary: The best short stories from Science Fiction's Golden Age
Review: The Science Fiction Writers of America was formed in 1965 and the following year began handing out Nebula Awards. When Robert Silverberg was the SFWA's second president, it was decided to extend the concept of awards retroactively. Consequently, members were asked to vote on the 10 best science fiction stories of the period from the beginning of the world until December 31, 1964. Instead of receiving awards, the stories receiving the most votes would be published in "The Science Fiction Hall of Fame." The only limitation was that they could not vote for more than one story by the same author, but even with that caveat Arthur C. Clarke, Robert A. Heinlein and Ray Bradbury each had two stories in the top twenty. The resulting books provide exactly what the title says: The Greatest Science Fiction Stories of All Time, as long as you take that to be the period between 1929 and 1964. But the results are an anthology that needs to be kept in print because it is literally impossible to come up with a better collection than what Silverberg has edited together from those lists. The Top 10 provides the following classic short stories: "Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov, "A Martian Odyssey" by Stanley G. Weinbaum, "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes, "Microcomsic God" by Theodore Sturgeon, "First Contact" by Murray Leinster, "A Rose for Ecclesiastes" by Roger Zelazny, "The Roads Must Roll" by Robert A. Heinlein, "Mimsy Were the Borogoves" by Lewis Padgett, "Coming Attraction" by Fritz Leiber and "The Cold Equations" by Tom Godwin. But, as they used to say in those late night sales pitches, you get much, much more, such as "The Nine Billion Names of God" by Arthur C. Clarke, "It's a Good Life" by Jerome Bixby and "Mars is Heaven" by Ray Bradbury. These were the classic tales of Science Fiction that nurtured an entire generation of writers to go farther and faster. Here are industrial civilizations caught up in the deadly flaws of their own complexity, frightening portrayals of biological mutations and a planet where the sun sets but once a millennium and provides a chilling study in mass psychology. There simply is not a better anthology available that capture as well the birth of Science Fiction as a literary field and if this book were in print it would be the first thing we would cover in class. This one is definitive.
Rating:
Summary: The Rise and Passage of the Golden Age
Review: This book takes you on a journey through the Golden Age of science fiction, and into the first steps of the New Age. It isn't true that this contains the "greatest science fiction stories of all time," because it only contains work prior to 1963 (this anthology was first published in 1970). A few of the stories will seem campy by today's standards. "Martian Odyssey," by Stanley Weinbaum (1934) will show you just how far today's authors have come in terms of storytelling and prose styling. From those humble beginnings, the genre takes off like a rocket. John Campbell's "Twighlight" (1934) show many of the themes and ideas--alienation, wonder, potential misuse of science--that would often define the Golden Age. "Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov (1941) is probably the best of the early stories, showing perfect plotting and construction, combined with scientific ideas and thinking. As time marches on, we encounter such stories as "Scanners Live in Vain," by Cordwainer Smith (1948) which shows us a future society without burying us under the type of exposition that previously weighed-down other work; by 1954, we have "Fondly Fahrenheit," by Alfred Bester, a head-spinning, poetic, tour de force of a tale. "Flowers for Algernon" (1959) is one of the best-plotted, most poignant tales of the Golden Age. The book ends with "A Rose for Ecclesiastes," rife with the poetic, experimental style that would become a theme for much of the science fiction literature of the New Wave. Unfortunately, a few of the stories don't age that well--and it is necessary for readers to realize that science fiction has continued to evolve in the decades since this book's publication. Nevertheless, it contains a large number of wonderful stories and--and serves as a schematic for the genre's development over four decades.
Rating:
Summary: The Rise and Passage of the Golden Age
Review: This book takes you on a journey through the Golden Age of science fiction, and into the first steps of the New Age. It isn't true that this contains the "greatest science fiction stories of all time," because it only contains work prior to 1963 (this anthology was first published in 1970). A few of the stories will seem campy by today's standards. "Martian Odyssey," by Stanley Weinbaum (1934) will show you just how far today's authors have come in terms of storytelling and prose styling. From those humble beginnings, the genre takes off like a rocket. John Campbell's "Twighlight" (1934) show many of the themes and ideas--alienation, wonder, potential misuse of science--that would often define the Golden Age. "Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov (1941) is probably the best of the early stories, showing perfect plotting and construction, combined with scientific ideas and thinking. As time marches on, we encounter such stories as "Scanners Live in Vain," by Cordwainer Smith (1948) which shows us a future society without burying us under the type of exposition that previously weighed-down other work; by 1954, we have "Fondly Fahrenheit," by Alfred Bester, a head-spinning, poetic, tour de force of a tale. "Flowers for Algernon" (1959) is one of the best-plotted, most poignant tales of the Golden Age. The book ends with "A Rose for Ecclesiastes," rife with the poetic, experimental style that would become a theme for much of the science fiction literature of the New Wave. Unfortunately, a few of the stories don't age that well--and it is necessary for readers to realize that science fiction has continued to evolve in the decades since this book's publication. Nevertheless, it contains a large number of wonderful stories and--and serves as a schematic for the genre's development over four decades.
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