What do you think?
Rate this book
50х50
В книгу вошли 50 рассказов, отобранных гран-мастером научной фантастики на свое пятидесятилетие, потому и «50х50». Почему он сделал выборку из рассказов, а скажем, не из знаменитого «Мира смерти» или из цикла о похождениях Стальной Крысы? Потому что, по словам Гаррисона, «именно на рассказах писатель овладевает своим ремеслом. Скупо, целенаправленно, жестко, плотно. Ни одного лишнего слова, никакого потакания своим слабостям. Пишите так, как нужно. Попадите в точку... Изумите читателя и одновременно развлеките его».
768 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2001
58 people are currently reading
142 people want to read
About the author
Harry Harrison
1,291 books1,041 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Harry Harrison (born Henry Maxwell Dempsey) was an American science fiction author best known for his character the The Stainless Steel Rat and the novel Make Room! Make Room! (1966), the basis for the film Soylent Green (1973). He was also (with Brian W. Aldiss) co-president of the Birmingham Science Fiction Group.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
Harry Harrison (born Henry Maxwell Dempsey) was an American science fiction author best known for his character the The Stainless Steel Rat and the novel Make Room! Make Room! (1966), the basis for the film Soylent Green (1973). He was also (with Brian W. Aldiss) co-president of the Birmingham Science Fiction Group.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 15, 2011
One fifth of the stories was excellent, several others - downright offensive, the rest was unbearable.
The excellent ones are not like humorous, risky adventures of Stainless Steel Rat, but serious, intelligent, complex topics of the times of Golden Age of science fiction.
For escapist reading, I would recommend to read the first tree books from Stainless Steel Rat and Death World series instead of this book.
The excellent ones are not like humorous, risky adventures of Stainless Steel Rat, but serious, intelligent, complex topics of the times of Golden Age of science fiction.
For escapist reading, I would recommend to read the first tree books from Stainless Steel Rat and Death World series instead of this book.
January 31, 2009
A great collection of stories, neatly categorized and labeled up. Some are better than others, but all show great insight into the sf field over the decades.
My favourites?The Streets of Ashkelon, At Last, the True Story of Frankenstein, Arm of the law, The Velvet Glove, Captain Bedlam, The Incident at Ind, and An Honest Days Work.
My favourites?The Streets of Ashkelon, At Last, the True Story of Frankenstein, Arm of the law, The Velvet Glove, Captain Bedlam, The Incident at Ind, and An Honest Days Work.
Read
May 19, 2025"The Streets of Ashkelon":⭐️⭐️⭐️: An ignorant atheistic rant on religion. God is in heaven because He is the Son, meaning Sun. Mercury is Gabriel, the messenger God, Mars is Michael, the marshal God, Lucifer is Venus the fallen God etc. DUH!!! And the resurrection is a priest's lie as there is no mention of it in either the unadulterated, original Mark, neither in the Gospel, nor the Book of Thomas; Thomas who was Jesus' twin brother, no less, BTW.
October 10, 2018
Harry Harrison "Captain Bedlam" story of 1957.
September 3, 2024
A fantastic collection of science fiction tales - many of them undisputed classics of the genre - from one of the great SF authors of the 20th Century (and creator of the hilarious Stainless Steel Rat adventures!) An absolute must-read for fans of the genre.
August 22, 2012
I downloaded it to read 'The Streets of Ashkelon' (which did not disappoint, even though I read an earlier version in Borges and a much later version in Simmons's _Hyperion_).
It's a fun collection of relatively light stories; in classic SF style, each story is usually short, punchy, with a single point or idea highlighted by the 'twist' or punchline-style ending.
This means that they are rarely subtle (eg. I see complaints online that 'Streets' is an unfair caricature and reveals Harrison's stock atheism, but it's hard to lay out the world, story, maintain a decent style, and also be subtle or fair in just a few pages), but that's a price I'm willing to pay. Also on the downside for a modern reader, Harrison shared the common SF preoccupation with the 'population bomb' and coming Peak Oil/great dieback; neither of which seem to have happened, thankfully, but they still irritate one to read just a little bit.
Hence, I couldn't give this a 4 or a 5, but I don't regret reading it since some were pretty good and I did laugh while reading some. So a 3 it is. RIP, Harrison.
It's a fun collection of relatively light stories; in classic SF style, each story is usually short, punchy, with a single point or idea highlighted by the 'twist' or punchline-style ending.
This means that they are rarely subtle (eg. I see complaints online that 'Streets' is an unfair caricature and reveals Harrison's stock atheism, but it's hard to lay out the world, story, maintain a decent style, and also be subtle or fair in just a few pages), but that's a price I'm willing to pay. Also on the downside for a modern reader, Harrison shared the common SF preoccupation with the 'population bomb' and coming Peak Oil/great dieback; neither of which seem to have happened, thankfully, but they still irritate one to read just a little bit.
Hence, I couldn't give this a 4 or a 5, but I don't regret reading it since some were pretty good and I did laugh while reading some. So a 3 it is. RIP, Harrison.
May 1, 2009
Nice sci-fi collection. Some great stories (not all of them, of course). It's set up in categories, so you can read all alien stories, or all fantastic inventions stories, etc.
February 13, 2011
Nice sci-fi short story collection, with some stories that make you think, and others that make you yawn. Overall it was a good read, and a welcome escape from everyday reality!
May 15, 2014
Listened to "By the Falls".
Read
August 22, 200850 in 50: Fifty stories for fifty years! by Harry Harrison (2002)
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews