The Best of Harry Harrison: The Street's of Ashkelon, Captain Honario Harpplayer,R.N., Rescue Operation, At Last, The True Story of Frankenstein, I always do what Teddy Says, Portrait of the Artist, Not Me, Not Amos Cabot, Mute Milton, A Criminal Act Etc

by Harrison Harry. Intro By Malzberg Barry N.

Contents of The Best of Harry Harrison1) The Streets of Ashkelon2) Capt. Honario Harpplayer, R.N.3) Rescue Operation4) At Last, the True Story of Frankenstein5) I Always Do What Teddy Says6) Portrait of the Artist7) Not Me, Not Amos Cabot!8) Mute Milton9) A Criminal Act10) Waiting Place11) If12) I Have My Vigil13) From Fanaticism, or For Reward14) By the Falls15) The Ever-Branching Tree16) Brave Newer World17) Roommates18) The Mothballed Spaceship19) An Honest Days Work20) Space Rats of the C.C.C.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, Fantasy, Anthologies

Mass Market Paperback

First published May 1, 1976

Reviews

[Jaagup · Rating 4 out of 5]

Päris viisakas kogumik lühkareid. Kes lugenud ainult "Surmailma", sellele võib tulla üllatusena, et Harrisonil on ka intellektuaalsemaid tekste ja võiks öelda et lausa läbinägelikke ja andekaid ideid. On paremaid, on kehvemaid tekste, aga enamuses siiski paremaid. Hämmastab toonaste kirjanike viitsimine iga neetud ühiskondliku probleemi või valupunkti (automatiseerumine, vaesus, keskkond, religioon, rassism jne jne) ümber jutte vesta.

[Johan Haneveld · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a trip through memory lane for me. I thought I would encoounter a lot of new (to me) stories, but a lot of these I remembered from collections I read as a teenager, often translated to Dutch (in the anthologies that my father had). A lot of them I had forgotten I'd read. This was not a drawback to me, as they were all great stories, and I liked finding out which of these I had read before. Harry Harrison is one of the greats of the SF-field and this collection makes it clear why. As one of the few of the SF-greats he likes to add humour to his stories, sometimes in wry asides, but he also likes to write parodies of the genre. He is well known from the humoristic series 'The stainless steel rat' and he has the 'ultimate space opera' on display here: 'Space rats of the C.C.C.' which had me grinning throughout. 'If' made me chuckle in its parody of the time travel tale. 'Captain Honario Harpplayer, R.N.' was fun too. Also Harrison was socially conscious. He has several stories about the wrongs of racism (one in a nominal utopia that still has biases in selecting which embryo's to cultivate - 'Brave Newer World'). The story 'Mute Milton' is a powerful little tale. Harrison was one of those authors that was at his best when he was angry at something, an injustice in particular. His passion then comes through in every word! He was also concerned about environmental topics, especially the problem of overpopulation. A couple of stories here touch on that subject, as does his well know work 'Make room! Make room!' that was filmed as 'Soylent Green'. The story 'Roommates' takes place in that universe and is suitably grim. 'A criminal act' takes more of a darkly humorous interpretation ... There are several stories here about the clash between reason and superstition. The opening story 'The streest of Ashkelon' is a hard hitting story, in which a priest lands on a planet with rational aliens, who want to put his beliefs to the test ... It has a tragic (but great) ending. The same theme comes to the fore in 'Rescue Operation', where an alien spacecraft is downed in the Mediterranean and the superstition of the locals means the pilot can't be saved. Very well written. 'I Always Do What Teddy Says' made a big impression on me as a teenager. I don't think morality is formed this way and morals are separated from each other in this way, but the story is powerful enough to still work. Chilling. 'The Mothballed Spaceship' was a fun tale in the 'Deathworld'-universe. Some stories didn't work that well. The metaphor in 'By The Falls' was labored and 'The Ever-Branching Tree' was a biology lesson in transparant disguise. Still, a fun collection for afficionado's of the SF-genre.

[James Swenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are several stories in this collection that I forgot as soon as I turned the page, but I'm glad I picked it up anyway, for the following, in order of increasing quality:

5) "From Fanaticism, or For Reward" -- a sociologist robot detective delivers the ultimate punishment;
4) "Not Me, Not Amos Cabot!" -- a dark joke regarding the futility of life;
3) "Portrait of the Artist" -- a dark joke regarding the automation of labor;
2) "Always Do What Teddy Says" -- a fable on political struggle and moral judgment;
1) "The Streets of Ashkelon" -- a classic of the science fiction canon.

[Philip Guy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harry Harrison wrote many books and short stories, mostly in the 1960s and 70s.
There are two Harry Harrisons - the first writes humorous parody science-fiction (e.g. the Stainless Steel Rat series, Bob the Galactic Hero), while the other writes dark, dystopian science-fiction (most famously Make Room! Make Room!, filmed as Soylent Green). This collection of short stories has examples of both.
Harrison had an amazing scope of imagination. He was able to write stories on an astounding range of topics. One topic that he repeatedly came back to was cautionary tales about environmental collapse and specifically over-population. In the introduction to one tale, I was shocked to learn that he was unable to sell it in the US in the 1970s because the protagonist was an atheist.
One of the most prolific and talented SF writers of the last century, he was friends with most of the greats - Clarke, Aldiss, Heinlein, Asimov.... That is what I call good company.

[Chris Sudall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unfortunately I had read the majority of the first half of the book in previous compilations.
I still read all the little forewords from Harry though which were a really nice touch.
A lovely collection of great stories and Harrison is great for not just parking all of his morbid dark stories in short format like so many science fiction authors too. There are a range of styles and subjects from humour to political commentary but all are a good read. There is one bit which is a bit sexist and very much of its time, but it's clear Harrison wrote this with good intent, it was just a different era. In general he's very good at including strong independent women, albeit as side characters in most cases.
Lovely old cover and a great read!

[Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed:

The streets of ashkelon

About a trader on a planet visited by religion

Rescue operation
A doctor and an alien

Mute Milton
Racism

A criminal act
Overpopulation - I liked this one, maybe the best

Waiting place
A prison in the universe an innocent man?

I have my vigil
Twisty ending, unsure on if it's a person alone believing they are a robot?

The wicked flee

Time travel done logically

Roommates

A nice well characterised short story

An honest days work

An amusing attempt at a working class hero

The mothballed spaceship

So 10 out of 21

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and kind of fun collection of short stories dating back to the 60s and early 70s. I liked most of them but didn't have any particular favorites. Some are a little grim and some are quite funny. This was my first introduction to Harry Harrison. I like his writing style and sense of humor. He was obviously obsessed with overpopulation, as this theme appears in several of the stories presented here. He also wrote the novel (Make Room! Make Room!) that inspired the film Soylent Green.

[Kev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like all vintage Sci-Fi novels, the contents of the stories sometimes fail the test of time. I'm not saying these are terrible stories, far from it, they're all delightful. But some of the dated science and habits of the characters have become "old."

[Vincent Hernot · Rating 2 out of 5]

I remembered him as one of the few comic writers in sf, like Sheckley, but this is not it and I only dutifully plowed through most of this. There are some inegnious ones, and good ones, but overall I found the quality of much of this a bit...second-rate.

[Mya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great science fiction writer! His stories hold up well even today.

[Norman Howe]

Science-Fiction