Paperback , pages. More Details Original Title. Other Editions Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 4. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Jun 04, Williwaw rated it liked it.
Strange Flight of Richard Clatyon, by Robert Bloch: excellent, deceptive story of "inner space" -- a story that was inevitable, but Bloch got to it first! Trouble With Water, by H. Gold: very entertaining and humorous fable, but not sure it should be classified as "sf.
Cloak of Aesir, by Don Stuart J. Campbell : hopelessly tedious and unreadable. Tried to stick with it for over two days and gave up! The Day is Done, by Lester del Rey. A fine "prehistoric" tale about the last Neanderthal and his inability to fit in with a Cro-Magnon culture. I empathized with Hwoogh, the main character. This story has relevance for geezers like me: I realize that my own culture is fading and my sense of relevance is dwindling.
The Ultimate Catalyst, by John Taine. Taine was a brilliant mathematician who also wrote sf. This story is about a biochemist who uses his knowledge to help his daughter escape a brutal dictatorship. I'll try not to spoil it, but I will say it involves poison and fungus. This story is okay, but not "great," as the title of the book suggests.
The Gnarly Man, by L. Sprague de Camp. What if a Neanderthal were alive today? He's been around for the last 40 thousand years or so, always finding some niche in which he can coexist with homo sapiens. When the story opens, he's working at a freak show on Coney Island. When an anthropologist discovers him, the fun begins!
A clever and entertaining story which hinges on human greed. The Black Destroyer, by A. Van Vogt. Supposedly, this story ushered the world into the "Golden Age" of sf. It was the cover story for the July, issue of Astounding SF. The central character is a ravenous cat-like being with tentacles called "Coeurl. He seems to have eaten his last available meal when, as luck would have it, visitors from Earth plunge to the planetary surface in their ovoid ship.
Although Coeurl plans to destroy and suck the marrow from the or so humans on board, he craftily conceals his intent and manages to get invited inside.
Little by little, after some mysterious deaths, the Earthlings begin to catch on. Against seemingly insurmountable odds for Coeurl is a very powerful being, indeed , the Earthlings finally outsmart and overcome Coeurl.
With this story, Van Vogt created the paradigm for many an episode of Star Trek!!! I learned from watching a youtube video, that Marvel Comics adapted this story in Worlds Unknown 5 You can see it here: Pulp Crazy The comic book looks great, so I ordered a copy! Van Vogt's writing is fluid and engaging.
I am not sure why this story had such a powerful impact when it was first published, but I think it was partly the quality of Van Vogt's writing, and partly the fact that the point of view is primarily Coeurl's. Van Vogt really gets us inside the alien's mind, and Coeurl's perspective is unmediated by human judgment.
Greater Than the Gods, by C. A poetic and dreamy story about making an important decision choosing a mate in the face of influences from the future. Suggests that there are multiple realities. Trends, by Asimov. The public has turned against science in the world of the future 's. A man struggles to privately finance and build a rocket to the moon in a climate of extreme resistance. The Blue Giraffe, by L. A great yarn about a wildlife reserve in South Africa, where some extreme mutations are taking place.
The narrator tells his story in order to explain to his son why he was adopted. An engaging and entertaining tale. The Misguided Halo, by Henry Kuttner. This is more of a fantasy yarn than a sf tale. A goofy premise what if someone woke up with a halo? Great fun from the pages of Unknown Astounding SF's companion fantasy magazine. Heavy Planet, by Milton Rothman. In this story, a ship from earth has crashed on a massive planet inhabited by E.
All the humans on board have been reduced to a pulp by the planet's intense gravitational field. There are two factions of E. The earth ship has some technology which will give one faction the upper hand. Nothing too "heavy" here, but it's an entertaining, fast-paced tale.
Life-Line, by Robert A. Pinero, the central character, has developed a device which can predict the exact time of a person's death. He quickly becomes the target of an assassination plot by the insurance industry.
This was, I believe, Heinlein's first-published story. Quite impressive! Ether Breather, by Theodore Sturgeon. Sturgeon imagines a future when television has been developed and is widely used commercially remember, this was written in ! Color is the new thing, and one broadcaster has begun the first color transmissions.
Trouble ensues, in the form of beings who live in the "ether," at a high frequency. It turns out that they are practical jokers who decide to interfere with the broadcasts. The central characters are a screenplay writer and a perfume company executive, who investigate some unexpected alterations in the presentation of their products.
A clever, amusing, light-hearted story. Pilgrimage, by Nelson Bond. Rod Serling must have found inspiration for the ending of "Planet of the Apes" in this one. A well-known landmark appears in a post-apocalyptic world. It's not the Statue of Liberty, though. Good story! This is so Spielbergian that I'm convinced he must have read it. Three aging robots slowly succumb to rickety joints and ultimately, death in the twilight of a post-human world. Truly poignant! What a great story! Apparently, this one inspired a film which I'd like to track down.
The "triangle" is a love triangle. Two scientists love the same woman, but she can only marry one of them. So the "loser" builds his own replica of the woman, with tragic results. Great twist ending, too! This story was published in Argosy, a popular pulp magazine which did not specialize in any particular genre. Average bookkeeper with average family has an encounter with a meteor.
A piece lodges in his brain and bestows the gift of creation by fiat. Among other things, he creates counterfeit money just by visualizing it. Trouble ensues. An excellent, modern-day fairy tale. Misfit, by Robert A. This is the only "realistic" piece in the whole book. While other stories in this book are arguably "hard sf," this is the hardest of the lot. A troubled young man joins a space corps which is involved in transforming an asteroid into a space station.
Heinlein packs this with convincing details which convey a sense of wonder about the human conquest of space. There's not much to this story except for the technology, but somehow it manages to be perfectly enjoyable despite a total absence of character development and lack of plot.
On to Volume II!! View all 4 comments. Destructor negro A. Le 25 raccolte furono pubblicate in origine dal al , alla cadenza di due volumi l'anno. Greenberg assieme a Robert Silverberg le condizioni di salute di Asimov andavano peggiorando e lo condussero alla morte nel Le antologie sono state edite in italiano da diverse case editrici.
Dal momento che non fu raggiunto un accordo sulla loro pubblicazione, i testi dei racconti di Robert A. Heinlein presenti nelle raccolte originali non furono pubblicati in italiano, con l'eccezione del primo volume di tutte le edizioni e dei primi tre volumi della ristampa Bompiani, che li riportano.
In questa raccolta di racconti si vedono molti aspetti della fantascienza. Forse troppi, tutti mescolati insieme. Feb 15, Craig rated it really liked it. These stories are Asimov's and Greenberg's choices as the best of , which they defined as the first year of the golden age of science fiction.
It's hard to argue with any of their choices, and I think it's good that they picked a few stories that were a little more obscure than the obvious, famous, often-anthologized choices. Good historical stuff here!
Jan 21, Jim Syler rated it liked it. Refer to my review of that book for my thoughts on the book as a whole. This is as much for my reference as it is for the benefit of prospective readers of this book I wish there was a Goodreads for short stories!
Spoilers are included, but are marked off with Spoiler tags. I did not include star ratings for the stories. I can, if anyone would find that helpful. No, computers will not develop drives and emotions without being programmed to do so, but the story specifically claims otherwise, so fine. Stewart a. John Campbell is surprisingly good. Surprisingly because it starts out very oddly and obtusely, with a strange and obscure writing style. And yet, if you stick with it, it begins to clarify; the obscure is made clear, the obtuse is explained, and the seemingly irrelevant becomes worthwhile.
I was liking the story until I figured out what was going on. I would really have much preferred a sociological story exploring why and how the world came to reject dictatorship. Sprague de Camp , unsurprisingly, lives up to his reputation.
Not superb, but interesting and well worth reading. The idea of a predator that cunning, that able…chilling. And this was his first published story! I should read some more van Vogt. For five hundred years we have been moving toward science. Surprisingly good, for a story with what seems to be a silly premise, namely the discovery of blue giraffes and other impossible creatures in an African preserve.
Or perhaps not so surprisingly, given that the author is L. This story is not only scientifically plausible and gripping, but has an excellent and unexpected ending.
Mind you, I foresaw the problem, but the way it was resolved surprised me. Is this an excerpt? It is, of course, pretty good. Am I missing something? An engrossing story about a matriarchal culture and a girl who wants to be a priestess, but has some surprising things to learn. Very enjoyable and well done.
Kelleam is a somewhat oversimplistic story. Temple has promise, but that promise is not fulfilled. Three people—two men and a woman—invent a perfect duplicator. But the author does not then go on to show us the possible consequences of such a device, as it is put to relatively mundane purposes.
Then view spoiler [they decide to duplicate the woman, as both of the men are in love with her. She consents to this, but as it turns out, she only loved one of them. I was honestly a little grossed out by Asimov's intro, where he says he lifted Brackett high in the air at a con and hugged her so hard she limped for the rest of the convention. Ha ha, injuring someone you just met by accident, what a character. Far in the future, a scientist tests his time machine by sending back his childrens' discarded toys.
In the present, the children of an amusing couple based on Kuttner and Moore I assume? Good stuff. Not sure how they made a feature length movie out of it with Rainn Wilson?
Two dudes try to make a start-up company selling new-fangled non humanoid robots to a society where androids are injuring themselves doing tasks not suited to their physical forms. It took me a bit to get it since nowadays non-humanoid robots are the norm and androids are novelties.
Definitely one of the more dated stories. Clash by Night by Henry Kuttner and C. Basically the only interesting idea was that Earth nuked itself to oblivion and the only humans left are on Mars and Venus. Actually that sounds like fun as opposed to the story that we got, which was so dull I skipped the last few pages. Exile by Edmond Hamilton Fun short-short about a group of science fiction writers hanging out and one of them drunkenly tells the rest about his becoming trapped in one of his own creations.
You can see where it's going but the storytelling is so amazing. Daymare by Fredric Brown Great sci-fi mystery set on Callisto. Murders are rare there, and when a cop arrives at the scene he discovers that everyone who perceives the body sees a different kind of murder. I loves me some Frederic Brown, I was riveted from beginning to end on this one. Doorway into Time by C. Moore An alien or perhaps a really advanced human? If I didn't know it was from , I would almost say it's New Wave - very artistic, kind of hard to follow at first since the alien character is really alien.
The Storm by A. I was not into it and the ending was so dated I laughed pretty heartily at its ideas of gender norms. The Proud Robot by Henry Kuttner [as Lewis Padgett] Laugh-out-loud story about an inventor who can only do science while blackout drunk.
His latest invention is a robot that spends all its days preening in a mirror. Kind of has a The Thin Man kind of vibe in its over the top embrace of drinking. Apparently it's part of a series and I definitely want to track it down. Symbiotica by Eric Frank Russell Meh tale about humans landing on a planet of symbiotic creatures. Only real highlight for me is close to the end when they attempt to leave the planet and it seemingly throws every kind of beast at them, from dragon-like giant worms to vicious gnats that eat through their space suits.
Moore [as Lewis Padgett] Interesting story about a group of humans stranded on Venus and their only way off is to try and get money from native Venusians.
But alas, every citizen of Venus is a member of a guild and the guilds have enforced the status quo on Venus for generations. You can't just barge in here and sell what you want! Pfft pfft! It's kind of funny as the increasingly desperate humans keep trying and failing to make a buck. Their solution is pretty interesting, I'm not sure it would actually work, though. Super fun anthology, Greenberg and Asimov mostly Greenberg, from what I understand did it again!
I love these Great SF books, they're a really good introduction to stories from their era. Mar 14, Norman Cook rated it really liked it Shelves: retro-hugo-finalists.
Schuyler Miller Astounding, January - short story 4 Stars A human and an alien seek shelter from a storm in a cave. The alien turns out to have a truly alien way of thinking. The Halfling by Leigh Brackett Astounding, February - novelette 4 Stars With a bit of mystery, a bit of romance, and a bit of humor, this tale of a traveling space carnival keeps one's attention and ends with a bit of a surprise.
It's a whimsical tale about what happens when present day humans find a trove of far-future children's toys that have been accidentally sent back in time. What could go wrong? Nevertheless, this is a nice, somewhat amusing story. The character development of the protagonist is well done; he is a manly man going on one last mission before retiring to domestication with a submissive woman. But through his adventures on the seas of Venus, he learns some valuable lessons about himself.
Ostensibly an anti-war story, it nicely hovers on the fence and lets the reader decide if he makes the right decisions. Exile by Edmond Hamilton Super Science Stories, May - short story 5 Stars This very short story's only purpose is to subvert the reader's expectations with a neat twist at the end, and it carries this out admirably.
Daymare by Fredric Brown Thrilling Wonder Stories, Fall - novelette 3 Stars This is a nice combination of mystery and science fiction, but the solution, while inventive, was a bit preposterous. Moore Famous Fantastic Mysteries, September - short story 5 Stars This story is the most literate in this collection, belying its origin. It takes a little while to figure out what's going on, since the protagonist is quite alien, indeed. But this enigmatic character makes the reader think, and that's what a powerful story should do.
The writing is full of technobabble to try to fool us into thinking there's more to this story than there really is. Not the most politically correct story, but charming nonetheless.
Symbiotica by Eric Frank Russell Astounding, October - novelette 2 Stars A first-contact story filled with alien beasts fighting against a crew of humans. Frankly, I thought it was pretty boring and had a hard time concentrating on it. Moore [as Lewis Padgett] Astounding, December - short story 4 Stars This is a classic problem story; the protagonists have to figure out a way to earn money in a society with strict, yet Byzantine rules of commerce. The solution is clever, if complicated in its own way.
Tanto amore. Nov 05, Pete rated it it was amazing. Almost every story in this anthology is excellent, but the following are must-reads for fans of golden age SF. Moore [as Lewis Padgett] Almost every story in this anthology is excellent, but the following are must-reads for fans of golden age SF.
Dec 26, Jim rated it really liked it. Aug 10, Jeroen Nouwens rated it liked it. It definitely is a story that rocks. The short by Edmond Hamilton was predictable but quite good.
Fredric Brown's Daymare started off with a bang, but the ending was a bit of a clunker to me and felt rushed. They are fairly standard space opera, Clash being the better of the two and something of a classic, I believe Asimov wrote in his introduction to the piece.
Overall, I am not impressed, but it's interesting to read science fiction from the 40s for historical reasons. Of course, don't miss out on Mimsy. Unfortunately, Kuttner met an untimely demise in ' Peccato, ma non dubito che i volumi successivi torneranno in crescendo.
Apr 14, Jim rated it it was ok. Compared to the prior four volumes of this series covering the years to , I found this one a bit of disappointment. That's not to say that it didn't have some great stories. I loved "Mimsy Were the Borogroves" and "Exile" for instance. But it was something of a mixed bag overall. And then Compared to the prior four volumes of this series covering the years to , I found this one a bit of disappointment.
And then there were a few others that were entertainingly comical but just a bit too silly for my personal tastes like "The Proud Robot" and "Q. In short, there are a few gems here-- but some are still in the rough. And there are some clunkers too. Mar 10, Craig rated it really liked it. This is the fifth collection of Asimov and Greenberg's selections of the best of the golden age; this book is their choices for I didn't find it to be as strong of a selection as the previous volumes, but their are some good stories, such as Boucher's Q.
Moore dominates the contents, with one solo story and three written in collaboration with her husband, Henry Kuttner as Lewis Padgett , including the classic Mimsy Were the Borogoves. The book leads off This is the fifth collection of Asimov and Greenberg's selections of the best of the golden age; this book is their choices for The book leads off with a story by P.
Schuyler Miller, one of my favorites. Abby Wright rated it really liked it Feb 14, Robert James rated it it was amazing Dec 12, Tex rated it liked it Dec 09, Andrea Valente rated it it was amazing Apr 20, Bill rated it really liked it Feb 06, Bill Lockhart rated it it was amazing Oct 18, Don Sakrs rated it it was amazing Oct 29, Chewshark rated it really liked it Aug 16,
0コメント