The Seedling Stars

by James Blish

The Seedling Stars is a collection of science fiction short stories by James Blish. It was first published by Gnome Press in 1957 in an edition of 5000 copies. The stories all concern adapting humans to alien environments. The stories all originally appeared in the magazine Fantasy & Science Fiction, If, Super Science Stories & Galaxy Science Fiction.
Contents:
"Seeding Program"
"The Thing in the Attic"
"Surface Tension"
"Watershed"

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Science Fiction Fantasy, Short Story Collection, Speculative Fiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1957

About the author

James Benjamin Blish was an American author of fantasy and science fiction. Blish also wrote literary criticism of science fiction using the pen-name William Atheling Jr.

In the late 1930's to the early 1940's, Blish was a member of the Futurians.

Blish trained as a biologist at Rutgers and Columbia University, and spent 1942–1944 as a medical technician in the U.S. Army. After the war he became the science editor for the Pfizer pharmaceutical company. His first published story appeared in 1940, and his writing career progressed until he gave up his job to become a professional writer.

He is credited with coining the term gas giant, in the story "Solar Plexus" as it appeared in the anthology Beyond Human Ken, edited by Judith Merril. (The story was originally published in 1941, but that version did not contain the term; Blish apparently added it in a rewrite done for the anthology, which was first published in 1952.)

Blish was married to the literary agent Virginia Kidd from 1947 to 1963.

From 1962 to 1968, he worked for the Tobacco Institute.

Between 1967 and his death from lung cancer in 1975, Blish became the first author to write short story collections based upon the classic TV series Star Trek. In total, Blish wrote 11 volumes of short stories adapted from episodes of the 1960s TV series, as well as an original novel, Spock Must Die! in 1970 — the first original novel for adult readers based upon the series (since then hundreds more have been published). He died midway through writing Star Trek 12; his wife, J.A. Lawrence, completed the book, and later completed the adaptations in the volume Mudd's Angels.

Blish lived in Milford, Pennsylvania at Arrowhead until the mid-1960s. In 1968, Blish emigrated to England, and lived in Oxford until his death in 1975. He is buried in Holywell Cemetery, Oxford, near the grave of Kenneth Grahame.

His name in Greek is Τζέημς Μπλις"

Reviews

[Metodi Markov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Като се замисли човек, има много повече смисъл, а и вероятно ще е далеч по-лесно и по-евтино, хората да се адаптират към различните условия за живот по планетите в Космоса, вместо да се опитват да ги тераформират дори частично.

Новелите в тази книга третират точно тези възможности, както и проблемите, които биха съпътствали подобен преход и усилена адаптация и модификация. Защото в хората има едно ядро, което те винаги носят в себе си и е безкрайно трудно то да се префасонира кардинално - колкото по-навътре се дълбае, толкова по-голяма вътрешна съпротива има. Както законът за противодействието във физиката, един от малкото които добре съм запомнил от училище. 😀

Блиш пише увлекателно и аз съм препрочитал този сборник многократно, винаги с голямо удоволствие. Жал ми е, че май няма нищо друго преведено от него на български за сега. Но пък нищо не ми пречи, да го подхвана на английски някой ден.

[Florin Pitea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this collection of interconnected stories back in the 1980s and it blew my mind with its vision of populating other planets with people redesigned to fit the environment. Recommended.

[Manny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another interesting example of Blish examining God's relation to Man. (Why isn't this author more well known?) Here, we have four novellas about men travelling the Galaxy and casually creating new humanoid species adapted for different environments.

Surface Tension has become an SF classic. Evidently, it's impossible: there are dozen reasons why you couldn't shrink people down to the size of unicellular organisms and still keep them more or less human. But the story really works, and the image of the tiny spaceship laboriously crawling the few feet from one puddle to the next is just terrific. Funny that it hasn't been filmed. Maybe James Cameron has it on his list, or Pixar?

The Thing in the Attic isn't as good, but it also has some fine moments. Here, monkey-like humanoids live in the treetops, while huge saurians roam the forest floor beneath them. Tradition holds that the whole monkey race was created by the mysterious Giants. But, as in Heinlein's Orphans of the Sky , sophisticated people have begun to doubt the existence of the Giants. Evidently, they're just a fable or allegory...

[Dalibor Dado Ivanovic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dobro piše Blish, onako se osjeti nešto drugačije u svemu tome, ali ne mogu definirat što

[Иван Величков · Rating 4 out of 5]

Донесе ми онова, чудесното чувство, когато изровиш стара фантастична книга, от непознат за теб автор, в кашоните за левче и няколко месеца по-късно и дойде редът, без да имаш каквито и да е очаквания, те прасне с винкела на времето право в главата и те върне в ученическите години, когато всяка една книга те е водила на ново пътешествие, изпълнено с приключения, нови идеи, емоции и размисли.
Книгата е от четири разказа, обединени около идеята за пантропия. Новаторска(за 50-те) идея, означаваща необратимо преструктуриране на човешкото тяло, за да отговаря на условията на неблагоприятни за оцеляването на човешката раса.

1. "Програма на поселване" - Първите пантрописти са обявени за незаконни от корпорациите управляващи земята, заради икономически причини. Земляните отглеждат собствен променен човек, който да послужи за агент в колонията на "адаптираните".
Бях много приятно изненадан да открия подобна антиглобалистична, почти социалистическа, настройка при един автор оттатък желязната завеса.

2. "Намереното на горния свят" - Една адаптирана колония, оставена на милостта на враждебен свят, наказва престъпниците си, като ги спуска в "ада", където не могат да оцелеят. Група такива индивиди минава през купища перипети, за да открие накрая истината за своята раса.
Типична приключенска фантастика с някой леки метафори показващи назадничавото мислене на човечеството. Нормална за годините, когато е писана и все пак с загатнати наченки на новата вълна във фантастиката, заляла ни 15тина години по-късно.

3. "Повърхностно напрежение" - Отново адаптирани хора, но този път с микроскопични размери, се борят да достигнат общочовешката мечта(през 50-те), а именно космоса или звездите, но така както те ги разбират.
Този разказ вече целият си е една алегория за стремежа на човечеството към космоса. Много е сладурски.

4. "Вододел" - По-скоро есе представено, почти като монолог от един пантропист, към "човешкия" екипаж на превозващият го до земята кораб. Разказът обобщава, в няколко страници, идеите разхвърляни из книгата и носи една кисело-сладка поука, набита прекалено силово за мая вкус. Също така отрича расизма, който 50-те, когато е писана книгата е нещо нормално в Америка.

Джеймс Блиш ме изненада много приятно с напредничавото си мислене и идеи. Засяга проблеми, като екология, расизъм, глобализация, за които ще започна да се говори масово 20-30 години по-късно. Стилът му на писане е между старата и новата вълна във фантастиката, едновременно насочен навън към звездите и навътре към човека. Социалните идеи също са смесица от западната и източната фантастика по онова време(и не само). Струва си да се прочете.

[Peter Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Early Blish (first published 1956) and crude in part. A fix-up novel. The best story is the remarkable “Surface Tension" (1952) still very readable today. Copy online: https://archive.org/details/galaxymag... Here's what Jo Walton had to say in 2019:
"Read for book club. I couldn’t remember whether I’d read it before or not, but I had, so I’ll call it a re-read. Very old fashioned, and with one examined assumption and one very unexamined one. The book is about panforming, genetically engineering “Man” for other planets, instead of terraforming the planets for humanity. The examined assumption is the racism of unchanged humanity towards their changed cousins, which Blish uses to consider racism in a way that definitely deserves kudos for 1956. The unexamined one is Man’s Manifest Destiny to conquer and colonize the whole galaxy, even the bits that have intelligent life of their own. (Also horribly sexist throughout, but hey.) It’s a fixup, and some parts are much better than others. The best part is the story “Surface Tension,” with which many people in book club had scientific issues, but which I think is extremely nifty. With all its flaws, a good book club book with much about it to discuss."

Read long ago. 3.5 stars for “Surface Tension," by memory. Consider a reread?

[Manuel Alfonseca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Four short stories or novellas with a common thread: the adaptation of human beings to live in very different environments, in the context of the dissemination of human beings all around the Galaxy.

The scientific basis of these stories is negligible. It is, for instance, impossible that a human being reduced to a size of 250 microns can maintain a working brain similar to ours. As impossible as the replacement of water by ammonia in our blood by means of genetic manipulations. The stories themselves, however, are readable as adventures and keep the attention of the reader.

[Rog Petersen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book of dense stories of the alteration of humans to settle alien planets. These tales are quite alien and, though Blish writes well, quite a difficult read. Blish is a detail obsessed writer, and every atom of every cell of every aspect of his pseudo-science is dissected and explained in minute detail. His presupposition that whatever changes are made to man, man he will remain is debatable.
Signet edition cover by Paul Lehr is pretty neat but I have no idea what it refers to.

[Reece · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review:
(I read this a month or two ago, and I am just now getting to this review)
I picked up The Seedling Stars at my all-time favorite bookstore: John K. King Used and Rare Books in Detroit, MI. It's a unique and magical spot where you can get lost in book exploration and discovery. While I should focus this review on the book rather than the bookstore (I’m getting there, I promise), I mention it because I find several gems to add to my collection every time I go. I highly recommend readers visit!

The Seedling Stars by James Blish is an incredibly fun book. Pondering the human settlement of the cosmos, it takes as its premise the biological adaptation of humans to suit different extraterrestrial planetary environments rather than the terraforming of planets to be more Earth-like and suit human biological needs (or limitations) to an extreme. Blish separates his story into four books (spanning only 158 pages in a 1959 copy) moving forward through time from the invention of pantrophy, the process of human adaptation, and the creation of Adapted Men through some of the earlier and later planet seeding program experiments, and forward enough through time that the Colonization Council has sent a seeding party back to a significantly environmentally changed Earth to seed it again with (Adapted) human life. (5/5)

Discussion:
Blish covers a lot of ground with this book:
In the context of the creation of pantrophy, Blish makes a villain out of the Authorities (as in the Port Authority of New York), which by the time of space travel had grown in their influence and monopolized the endeavor to continue collecting tolls for travel and transportation of materials associated with terraforming and further increase their influence. It was pretty funny.

Later, in the context of the seeding program, the Colonization Council leaves tablets to encourage their Adapted Men to look ever upward towards the stars. Through these examples, Blish deals, to some extent, with questions of faith, religion, interference with intelligent life, and meeting your creator.

My favorite book was book three, where a seeding team from the Colonization Council introduces Adapted Men in the small freshwater-filled lakes of a small island on what is otherwise a saltwater ocean planet. The seeding team decides these lakes are the only option, so the Adapted Men inhabiting them must be incredibly small. Here, Blish takes us on an exciting underwater, micro-sized, multi-generational journey through which the adapted men team up with different (what seem to be) single-celled (or very small multicellular) organisms to fight a war for safety and security against similarly sized enemies (I imagined them as viruses). With that security in hand, the mini Adapted Men then turn their focus to journey beyond their sky (the top of the lake), mirroring human space exploration. This book was a blast!

The last book, returning to Earth, brings things full circle. It deals with questions of prejudice. The original Earth human form, the primogenitors, from which all Adapted Men are descended and related despite their differences, still exist but can no longer call Earth home. Indeed, the broader human settlement of the stars is so great that it is somewhat specialized knowledge that Earth is where human life started in the first place. Furthermore, life that is not human (Adapted or not) also exists in Blish’s universe.

Nonetheless, for some reason, the original humans see themselves as superior to some extent to their Adapted kin. Yet, it is also a tipping point in the greater cosmic human family, as the number of Adapted Men has surpassed or will quickly surpass the number of those with the original human form who hold this prejudice. This prejudice relates to the initial fear of the Adapted Men and their difference, held by the Greater Earth Port Authority, which Blish outlined in the first book. In this way, I viewed the Adapted Men as a stand-in for almost any human difference that serves as the basis of prejudices that separate and divide us—leaving me with a renewed appreciation for human diversity and love for our human family.

[Gian Marco · Rating 5 out of 5]

The seedling stars is a collection of three novelettes and a short story set in the same universe (with a bunch of cross-references to some other works of the author, as usual mostly intended as cameos.

It's a somewhat uneven collection, whose centerpieces shine so brightly that I would't dare rate this as a less than perfect BLISH book.

Also, there is some merit in the first story acting as a prologue and the last as an epilogue of what might amount to a millenary saga - one in which you'll discover how good Blish can be when discussing the different perspectives applied by differently "sized" civilization.

I will keep the spoilers at a minimum as I loathe them, but I find it useful to discuss the four sections separately. The first three could be read on their own anyhow, much to one's enjoyment.

The Seeding Program is the more typically Blish of the four. An infiltration in a strange, quasi-human society by someone who doesn't quite feel human himself. The leitmotiv of the story is "nothing is quite what it seems", and there's some excellent work done in how the unwillingly infantile protagonist considers changing point of view as he gains more knowledge about the nature of his mission.

The Thing in the Attic is one of those little masterpieces that do not feel sci-fi, yet they are. A society of "humans" who don't quite look like humans lives above the branches of huge trees, and considers anything on the ground to be literal "Hell", and that's where they send their criminals, or their heretics. The only comparison I can make where a similar chess play of change of perspectives ends up happening at one point is Attack on Titan. Yep.

Surface Tension is a weirdly thrilling story about merfolk-like people. It's got a striking beginning, a beautiful ending, and some high points during the major plot twists. Won't say more about it.

Watershed is a brilliant epilogue, whose only fault might be that of being "simply" an epilogue. It still ends the saga on a fitting note, and makes looking back to what's happened all the bittersweet-er for it.

[Nicolas · Rating 4 out of 5]

J’ai lu pendant mes vacances cet excellent roman qui raconte comment l’humanité a conquis les étoiles en partant sur d’assez mauvaises bases, mais en passant à une humanité adaptée très rapidement. Comme sf.marseille, j’ai été tout à fait séduit par la poésie et la qualité qui se dégagent de ce roman, au point que certains aspects de la quatrième de couverture me paraissent réellement incroyables (le fait que la lecture de Blish soit "ardue", par exemple).
En effet, dans ce roman-mosaïque(1), même si certaines transitions sont assez délicates (le passage des ganymédiens aux petits hommes de la jungle, par exemple), la trame et le thème restent largement compréhensibles. le thème étant, d’une manière évidente, l’acceptation de la différence. Celui-ci est traité avec une maestria et une ironie finale qui font vraiment plaisir à voir pour tous les descendants d’éthiopiens que nous sommes. J’aimerais toutefois pointer un doigt interpellé sur un thème sous-jacent à ce roman, sans doute parce qu’à l’époque de l’écriture, cette question ne faisait pas partie de l’univers des possibles. il s’agit des problèmes éthiques suscités par l’apparition de ces humains adaptés.
Le premier problème est évident : pouvons-nous accepter de créer des enfants dans des éprouvettes qui ne soient pas couçus pour vivre sur Terre ? Est-il concevable pour nous d’envisager l’utilisation d’êtres humains comme outil de terraformation ? Pour ma part la réponse n’est pas vraiment tranchée. Je comprends le but de la manoeuvre dans le roman, et même dans une hypothèse d’ensemencement du système solaire, mais je ne crois pas que je puisse supporter l’idée qu’on crée des humains à ce point différents, et surtout, à ce point dépendants d’un environnement dans lequel nous ne puissions vivre.

(1) Malgré la longueur du débat entre les deux termes, je préfère toujours le terme français, et je considère que la nuance entre ces deux mots est de l’ordre de la querelle d’experts, dont je ne veux pas faire partie

[Joel J. Molder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four incredible thematic short stories all exploring the Blishian idea of Pantropy—modifying humans to survive in harsh, alien words. Each story explores a society of these Adapted Men and reveals their own unique struggle to survive in their planets and societies.

While the first story was a bit too uneven for my liking, the second and third stories really shined. Both are kind of pulp and reminded me fondly of Brian W Aldiss’s Hothouse. Both “The Thing in the Attic” and “Surface Tension” are loads of fun and chock full of imagination!

I think the final story capped off the book well, essentially revealing the book’s primary purpose: humanity is humanity no matter how it looks.

Prose-wise, I was hoping for a bit more of a flourish, but I suspect that this book is more “hard”, focusing on the ideas. The character work was merely functional too, though I guess that’s expected for short stories!

Being my first Blish book, I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but after this I am excited to read more of his work.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fixup novel that works extremely well and is also, quite unexpectedly, an argument for diversity in a surprisingly modern sense.

As tends to happen with fixups, the four parts are very different from one another, but each stays true to an overarching continuity that involves humanity taking more direct control over its own evolution and adapting itself in very radical ways to survive on hundreds of planets across the galaxy.

Blish gets a lot done in a few pages, and the writing will seem very dense at first. But stick with it, and you'll probably find yourself enjoyably immersed in the first three stories. The last then wraps things up in a way that may not be subtle but is very effective.

Highly recommended.

[William · Rating 2 out of 5]

Several short stories which share the premise that man must adapt to the stars rather than the stars to man, were we to expand beyond the Earth and into the galaxy. I disliked the pacing and the assumptions of knowledge and skill with which the protagonists were provided. Several times I felt the entire idea beyond absurd, but what do I know? Perhaps in a hundred years it will not be so. At the very least it's awakened a need for some good, solid space sci-fi which I haven't had in quite some time.

[Chelsea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I seriously loved this book. HOW IMAGINATIVE! Each story fits into the whole so well. It took me a bit to figure out what was going on, but, as soon as I finished the second story I was sold. Loved it.

[5greenway · Rating 4 out of 5]

The epilogue-y story was a bit message-heavy, but I liked this a lot. Nice spin on depictions of 'alien'. The tiny guys were my favourites.

[Joseph Carrabis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every story in here is a gem. "Surface Tension", in particular, is one I take out and read again and again and again. It never loses anything. Great reading from a master.

[Todd · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fix up novel of four separate stories implied to be in the same chronology and tied by a transhuman theme of adapting human biology to fit environments rather than teraforming the environment. This is an interesting premise that I feel is never fully realised. The book is typical of what I have read so far of Blish in that it features an interesting original idea, bogged down by lack of characterisation and depth to the story as well as unnecessary jargon (for example, is it really necessary to rattle off the exact longitudes of a sea on Ganymede?). The first story was interesting and I enjoyed the main character's gradual realisation of what was happening and where he fit in it (I won't go into too much detail, as that would be a spoiler). Surface Tension, the third story, ties with Seeding Program (the first). It details a fascinating microscopic world, but again, a good premise cannot carry a story on its own. The last story, Watershed, has a discussion of bigotry and racism which was pretty fair for when it was written (the 50's). However, another theme that is consistent throughout, and sits less comfortably, is the eradication of local wildlife for human benefit, which is played completely straight and portrayed as being right. Saying that, the last story seems to condemn the man made destruction of Earth's biome, putting it at odds with the earlier stories.

[j · Rating 3 out of 5]

Blish has a character produce a direct tip of the hat to Olaf Stapledon, whose earlier work detailing a "directed panspermia" set the precedent. Blish's version -- 'pantropy' -- is a delightful blend of wily idealism and curious body horror.

The Seedling Stars is an interesting fix-up work. Perhaps a radical restructuring of the original novelettes may have allowed the revelations to happen in a sort of tandem. As is, each of the sections contains reiterative expository information, but this isn't overly problematic. The only story that suffers for it is 'The Thing in the Attic', a strong work with a twist ending that is obvious and telegraphed due to information already presented to the reader in the book's opening section.

My favorite of the four sections is the last, and coincidentally the shortest, 'Watershed' (fun fact: this is where Blish coined the term 'gas giant'.) This is a really brief and brilliant piece of science fiction writing. In it the author balances a rendering of apocalyptic possiblity with a challenging depiction of humanity's tenacity. In addition, it is a confident and multi-layered exploration of mankind's prejudice. The preceding three sections aren't as fantastic (nor concise) but they each have their strong points.

[Joachim Boaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full review: https://sciencefictionruminations.com...

"James Blish’s The Seedling Stars is a collection of three novelettes (Seeding Program, The Thing in the Attic, Surface Tension) and a short story (Watershed). Each is loosely connected by internal chronology and subject matter: pantropy (the modifications of humans for live on other planets instead of terraforming). The quality of the stories––published between 1952-55––is somewhat uneven although they remain Blish’s most famous.

(4/5) Seeding Program

This story examines the beginnings of the the practice of Pantropy. Sweeney, an Adapted [...]"

[Roddy Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘You didn’t make an Adapted Man with just a wave of the wand. It involved an elaborate constellation of techniques, known collectively as pantropy, that changed the human pattern in a man’s shape and chemistry before he was born. And the pantropists didn’t stop there. Education, thoughts, ancestors and the world itself were changed because the Adapted Men were produced to live and thrive in the alien environments found only in space. They were crucial to a daring plan to colonise the universe.

The four related stories which make up this prescient and ambitious book include ‘Surface Tension’, widely recognised as one of James Blish’s best, and explore just what it is to be human. Thought-provoking, skilfully crafted and crammed with ideas, drama and suspense, The Seedling Stars demonstrates that Blish was one of the most intelligent and visionary of all SF writers.’

Blurb from the 2001 Gollancz SF Collectors’ Edition

One has to admire Blish in that he produces a ‘fix-up’ novel, assembled from other previously published short pieces and thus creates one of the most notable works of SF of the 20th Century.
The central premise of ‘TSS’ is pantropy, a process which today we would describe as genetic engineering. Pantropy is so called because it is a combination of complex processes and can only be effected on those yet unborn.
Blish sets up a political situation in which a future Earth is dominated by the Capitalist policies of the Port Authority, a global concern which derives its income from taxing traffic of any sort. Port has invested much money in research into terraforming, since it will be able to recoup its investment from taxing traffic between worlds.
Meanwhile, another school of thought holds that it would be cheaper to modify Man in order that humanity could live on Non-Earth type planets.
In Book I (first published as ‘A Time to Survive’ – Fantasy and Science Fiction – 1955) Sweeney, an adapted human, brought up in isolation in conditions poisonous to the ‘basic form’ is dropped on Ganymede in order to infiltrate an illegal colony of adapted humans tailored to exist on Jupiter’s moon.
His mission is to capture the adapted man Dr Rullman, an expert in pantropy, for which service Sweeney will be transformed into a normal human.
He learns that all he has been taught is lies and that Port’s aim is to discredit and crush the pantropic movement. So, he helps the Ganymedeans to pretend that he has initiated a civil war, which is actually a cover for the launch of a rocket to one of the nearer suns, where humans, tailored for life on a different world, can continue the process.
In Book II (First published in IF Worlds of Science Fiction – 1954) we move to a jungle world where a group of monkey-like humans with prehensile tails have built a culture in the canopy of a rain-forest. Some of them are exiled to the surface of the world for preaching heresy, i.e., they refuse to believe that a race of ‘giants’ created them and placed them in the trees.
In Book III (Originally published in vastly different form as ‘Sunken Universe’ in Super Science Stories – 1942, and in part as ‘Surface Tension’ in Galaxy Science Fiction, 1952) the award-winning ‘Surface Tension’ a seeding ship is marooned on the only continent of a waterworld. the continent is flat and marshy, consisting of little more than a network of ponds. The seeding crew, realising that they are likely to die on the planet, decide to colonise the world with copies of themselves, transmuted into minute specimens of pond-life.
It’s one of the classic shorts of the Twentieth Century, rich with detail and texture, and forces us to challenge our own perceptions about the Universe, since the ‘humans’ think of their pool as a world , and eventually design and build a craft capable of travelling above the ‘sky’ and into the next world.
the point of the entire novel, which Blish underscores in the final piece, is that although appearances may differ from environment to environment, we are all essentially human.
In Book IV (Published originally as ‘Watershed’ – IF Worlds of Science Fiction – 1955) a seal-like ambassador is aboard a seeding-ship crewed by ‘basic forms’ who show a marked degree of racism toward him.
The ambassador points out to them however, that the barren planet they are about to re-seed is the birthplace of humanity, Earth, and that ‘basic forms’ (if indeed the Rigellian are still basic forms) are very much the minority among the diverse species of humans now occupying the galaxy.
Perhaps today we see Blish’s idealism as a little naïve. His premise was that adapted humans would retain human emotions and values and still be essentially human despite their shapes or sizes. The ambassador points out that they do not seed (for instance) gas giants since that would be too great a departure from the human mind-set and besides other life-forms which have evolved within gas giants may want to pantrify their own species and colonise such worlds.
One could argue that a vastly different environment (such as a pond or the surface of Ganymede) would automatically alter one’s perceptions and that evolution would, in any case, continue in humans who were living within primitive societies. natural selection would take over and the species may well take a different course.
One might also argue that Blish (despite his attack on xenophobia in the final piece) places such importance on the integrity of the human mind that he is, in his own way, being as xenophobic as the system of thought he is attacking.

[Ayon Ibrahim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderfully imaginative collection of short stories centered around the premise of pantropy - engineering a human to fit an alien environment, as opposed to terraforming to suit regular human needs. Some of the science is arguably a bit outlandish/silly, but still a lot of fun to read. Surface Tension in particularly is excellent - I would happily read a whole book just expanding that short story.

For those who love world-building base don’t Big sci-fi ideas, this is definitely worth your time.

[Trevor McGuire · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice idea that was clearly of the serialized golden age of SF. Each of the three stories was unique and engaging, but I found the Hydrot story a bit of a stretch. Again, it was a product of the time, and I could enjoy it as such. It fell short of 5 stars because I really wish the novelization of the serial had included some sort of transition from story to story. At the end of the book, a couple pages were hastily written about some sort of pantropy council. It would have smoothed the book out nicely if the council was sprinkled throughout.

[John JJJJJJJJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

A classic from the author, along with A Case of Conscience. The "novel" is actually a collection of four consecutive short stories. Each is a distant sequel to the previous one.

Humanity, instead of terraforming other planets, has genetically modified humans to adapt them to their new homes: they are the Adapted Humans. Fur, seal heads, ..., such are the new humans (if we can still speak of humanity). But in this world where humanity no longer has anything human, Sweeny has a dream: to bring the Adapted Humans back to Earth, their true home.

[Hanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Из 4х рассказов прочла пока что первый, Программа Семя, до чертиков наивно, особенно "прилетел на планету, встретил первую женщину на своем пути, ого, пару месяцев, жена", но идея изменить человека в противоположность терраформированию для меня оказалось в новинку.
Честно, я раньше вообще не задумывалась о распространении человечества вглубь вселенной, каких жертв это потребует и у кого хватит смелости и отсаженности.

[Audrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

8/10
Loved it! This idea if pantropy was really cool, and I loved seeing how it was carried out in different environments. Blish did a really good job of making the different types of adapted men just seem really human.
And the way the last section sort of tied things back together and brought things back to “now” was pure gold.

[Kent · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story started out pretty decent, but I got a little bored with it in the third part. It centers around Earth developing a way to genetically alter people while they are still an embryo so that they can live in hostile environments on other planets. Each part has its own story about a planet they are colonizing and the situations the "adapted men" go through to live there.

[Tom Bechtel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don’t get me wrong, I really like Blish usually but, I could never get into this book. Three, basically, different stories that seemed very abstract. They were all related in the sense that they were connected by humans seeding the universe with human dna and adapting the new life forms to normally uninhabitable planets but, I just had a hard time getting traction and the book became a labor to read. Not my favorite Blish book.

[Jock Mcclees · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was fun but dated. I read it because Blish was the father of a friend and I was curious to see what he had written. Was amusing when they whipped out a slide rule to do a calculation on their space ship.

[AR bee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Problem is .... not available on the USA as an eBook.
The Blish family estate has limited its release to England and AusNZ only! Shame.

I have treasured an Original Signet S1622 paperback version I got from a high school buddy back in 1959.