What do you think?
Rate this book
The Folio Science Fiction Anthology
Science fiction has always been a fertile home for the short story. Brian Aldiss, award-wining author of science-fiction classics such as Non-Stop and the Helliconia trilogy, is also a master of the short story – Hothouse, his collection of novelettes, won the Hugo award for short fiction in 1962, while his ‘Super-Toys Last All Summer Long’ was the inspiration for the Steven Spielberg film A.I. Artificial Intelligence. A central figure in the genre for more than 60 years, and a hugely respected editor of numerous anthologies, Aldiss has selected and introduced each story in this special Folio collection. The result is a shining constellation of science-fiction stars, each story exemplifying the very best of the genre.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2016
4 people are currently reading
82 people want to read
About the author
Brian W. Aldiss
834 books673 followersPseudonyms: Jael Cracken, Peter Pica, John Runciman, C.C. Shackleton, Arch Mendicant, & "Doc" Peristyle.
Brian Wilson Aldiss was one of the most important voices in science fiction writing today. He wrote his first novel while working as a bookseller in Oxford. Shortly afterwards he wrote his first work of science fiction and soon gained international recognition. Adored for his innovative literary techniques, evocative plots and irresistible characters, he became a Grand Master of Science Fiction in 1999.
Brian Aldiss died on August 19, 2017, just after celebrating his 92nd birthday with his family and closest friends.
Brian W. Aldiss Group on Good Reads
Brian Wilson Aldiss was one of the most important voices in science fiction writing today. He wrote his first novel while working as a bookseller in Oxford. Shortly afterwards he wrote his first work of science fiction and soon gained international recognition. Adored for his innovative literary techniques, evocative plots and irresistible characters, he became a Grand Master of Science Fiction in 1999.
Brian Aldiss died on August 19, 2017, just after celebrating his 92nd birthday with his family and closest friends.
Brian W. Aldiss Group on Good Reads
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 19, 2020
Honestly this is a 2-star collection. About half of the stories are just bad, and most of the rest are solidly okay. The ones worth reading are H.G. Wells’s “The Star,” PKD’s “Recall Mechanism,” and James H. Schmitz’s “Grandpa.”
Part of the problem is how uniform and outdated the stories are. Nearly all of them were originally published in the 50’s, 60’s, and early 70’s, all of the authors are white, and all but three are men. Of the three women, one just seems to be a pseudonym for Aldiss himself. If this were an older collection it would make a little more sense, but this book came out in 2016! It’s just such a bizarrely narrow slice of the SF field, and the collection suffers for it.
But the book itself is gorgeous, especially the cover design and the PHENOMENAL illustrations by Florian Schommer, so I’m tacking on an extra star for that.
Part of the problem is how uniform and outdated the stories are. Nearly all of them were originally published in the 50’s, 60’s, and early 70’s, all of the authors are white, and all but three are men. Of the three women, one just seems to be a pseudonym for Aldiss himself. If this were an older collection it would make a little more sense, but this book came out in 2016! It’s just such a bizarrely narrow slice of the SF field, and the collection suffers for it.
But the book itself is gorgeous, especially the cover design and the PHENOMENAL illustrations by Florian Schommer, so I’m tacking on an extra star for that.
April 30, 2017
Given that the Folio Society is known for producing handsome hardback editions of classic books — everything from Chaucer to Aldous Huxley and beyond — it seems odd that they have also chosen to put out this relatively short collection of science fiction stories. It’s not so much that the selection is poor, though it is somewhat uneven; but I’m not sure exactly who or what they are trying to represent with this. If Folio books are supposed to represent a level of canonical status, it seems odd to have this slim volume represent science fiction in general. One would have thought that at this point we could afford do be a little more specific.
Still, it’s an entertaining collection as far as it goes. Things are arranged chronologically: it begins with Voltaire’s 'Micromegas', a terrifically entertaining philosophical sketch about giant visitors from another world who visit earth and are confounded by the erudition of denizens who are to them smaller than the tiniest insects. The only other representative from pre-twentieth century fiction is 'The Star' by H.G. Wells, a short but pleasingly atmospheric story that imagines a star crashing through our solar system on a collision course with the sun, causing catastrophic climate change all around the world. The scale is vast, and though writing is somewhat sentimental, it feels remarkably prescient in its vision of an interconnected world briefly united by something on an inconceivable scale:
‘And the streets and houses were alight in all the cities, the shipyards glared, and whatever roads led to high country were lit and crowded all night long. And in all the seas about the civilised lands, ships with throbbing engines, and ships with bellying sails, crowded with men and living creatures, were standing out to ocean and the north. For already the warning of the master mathematician had been telegraphed all over the world, and translated into a hundred tongues…“Earthquakes, volcanic outbreaks, cyclones, sea waves, floods, and a steady rise in temperature to I know not what limit” - so prophesied the master mathematician. And overhead, to carry out his words, lonely and cold and livid, blazed the star of the coming doom…’
There’s a certain Futurist resonance here that anticipates a globalised society, even as that society seems to be on the verge of collapse. A millennial, almost fin-de-siècle decadence is evident in this vision of the near future where science — in the form of the ‘master mathematician’, in this case — will become the ultimate arbiter of human fate. It becomes the church of churches to which everyone is attuned; cultural differences are suddenly irrelevant. Perhaps appropriately, it’s the only story here which displays anything approaching a faith in scientific materialism.
There is a slight lull in quality in the middle of the book. I found Asimov’s 'Bridle and Saddle' so dry as to be unreadable. The story by James Schmitz is a fun concept, but the writing has aged poorly. Tom Godwin’s 'The Greater Thing' from 1954 is more enjoyable, ambitious and concise, being the vision of a ‘thing in a dead city’ — a sort of vast networked intelligence, rooted in the grounds of a post-apocalyptic town — that develops a fascination with a couple on the run from the police. In its execution it’s a little pulpy, but that’s no bad thing, in its scope it could have been published yesterday. Philip K. Dick is well represented here too with an early story called 'Recall Mechanism', wherein a man is plagued by phobias caused not by things in his past but by things which are going to happen to him. It’s quite unsettling, and a perfect little encapsulation of the kind of atmosphere he came to be well known for: the idea that actually one’s own paranoia can be a window into deeper truths about one’s life.
It is odd that Robert Heinlein is only represented here by a very brief story called 'Searchlight'. It describes an example of how precisely directed audio carried over a light beam could be used from earth to search for someone on the moon. It’s a nice idea, sparsely executed through dialogue and almost nothing else, but it’s otherwise devoid of character. More interesting by far are the pair of stories representing the 1970s: there is 'Clarita' by Anna Kavan, a story so strange, dreamlike and horrifying that it barely has anything in common with anything else collected here; and a story by James Tiptree Jr, which takes a feminist angle at the idea of sexual relations between humans and alien species. Both of these had me noting them as two authors who I need to read more.
As a collection, this is perfectly fine. The best that can be said of it is that the curator has made some interesting, idiosyncratic choices that are really quite unusual for a Folio book; indeed, had they been picked by someone less famous than Brian Aldiss, I wonder if the book would have emerged in this form at all. It’s not necessarily so rich in interest that I would suggest rushing out to order a copy; it’s hardly a definitive introduction to the genre, but nor is it forgettable. All things considered, I think I probably prefer it that way.
Still, it’s an entertaining collection as far as it goes. Things are arranged chronologically: it begins with Voltaire’s 'Micromegas', a terrifically entertaining philosophical sketch about giant visitors from another world who visit earth and are confounded by the erudition of denizens who are to them smaller than the tiniest insects. The only other representative from pre-twentieth century fiction is 'The Star' by H.G. Wells, a short but pleasingly atmospheric story that imagines a star crashing through our solar system on a collision course with the sun, causing catastrophic climate change all around the world. The scale is vast, and though writing is somewhat sentimental, it feels remarkably prescient in its vision of an interconnected world briefly united by something on an inconceivable scale:
‘And the streets and houses were alight in all the cities, the shipyards glared, and whatever roads led to high country were lit and crowded all night long. And in all the seas about the civilised lands, ships with throbbing engines, and ships with bellying sails, crowded with men and living creatures, were standing out to ocean and the north. For already the warning of the master mathematician had been telegraphed all over the world, and translated into a hundred tongues…“Earthquakes, volcanic outbreaks, cyclones, sea waves, floods, and a steady rise in temperature to I know not what limit” - so prophesied the master mathematician. And overhead, to carry out his words, lonely and cold and livid, blazed the star of the coming doom…’
There’s a certain Futurist resonance here that anticipates a globalised society, even as that society seems to be on the verge of collapse. A millennial, almost fin-de-siècle decadence is evident in this vision of the near future where science — in the form of the ‘master mathematician’, in this case — will become the ultimate arbiter of human fate. It becomes the church of churches to which everyone is attuned; cultural differences are suddenly irrelevant. Perhaps appropriately, it’s the only story here which displays anything approaching a faith in scientific materialism.
There is a slight lull in quality in the middle of the book. I found Asimov’s 'Bridle and Saddle' so dry as to be unreadable. The story by James Schmitz is a fun concept, but the writing has aged poorly. Tom Godwin’s 'The Greater Thing' from 1954 is more enjoyable, ambitious and concise, being the vision of a ‘thing in a dead city’ — a sort of vast networked intelligence, rooted in the grounds of a post-apocalyptic town — that develops a fascination with a couple on the run from the police. In its execution it’s a little pulpy, but that’s no bad thing, in its scope it could have been published yesterday. Philip K. Dick is well represented here too with an early story called 'Recall Mechanism', wherein a man is plagued by phobias caused not by things in his past but by things which are going to happen to him. It’s quite unsettling, and a perfect little encapsulation of the kind of atmosphere he came to be well known for: the idea that actually one’s own paranoia can be a window into deeper truths about one’s life.
It is odd that Robert Heinlein is only represented here by a very brief story called 'Searchlight'. It describes an example of how precisely directed audio carried over a light beam could be used from earth to search for someone on the moon. It’s a nice idea, sparsely executed through dialogue and almost nothing else, but it’s otherwise devoid of character. More interesting by far are the pair of stories representing the 1970s: there is 'Clarita' by Anna Kavan, a story so strange, dreamlike and horrifying that it barely has anything in common with anything else collected here; and a story by James Tiptree Jr, which takes a feminist angle at the idea of sexual relations between humans and alien species. Both of these had me noting them as two authors who I need to read more.
As a collection, this is perfectly fine. The best that can be said of it is that the curator has made some interesting, idiosyncratic choices that are really quite unusual for a Folio book; indeed, had they been picked by someone less famous than Brian Aldiss, I wonder if the book would have emerged in this form at all. It’s not necessarily so rich in interest that I would suggest rushing out to order a copy; it’s hardly a definitive introduction to the genre, but nor is it forgettable. All things considered, I think I probably prefer it that way.
September 19, 2017
A somewhat bittersweet anthology - perhaps that's because Aldiss died last month but many of the stories have an air of doom and gloom about them. The cover reflects past glories - an intricate foiled design of a rocket that could have been designed by a Victorian printer - whicle the illustrations within gradually become imbued with deeper reds as we approach the present.
The stories, starting with one from Voltaire that I did not know, include most of the 'names' - HG Wells (another story I seem to have missed), Asimov, Heinlein (a blessedly brief story also new to me), Aldiss himself (not his best work but probably well known to many readers), plus Harry Harrison (uncharacteristically, perhaps, this is one of his more sombre stories - and a plot I'd misremembered as being by James Blish, not included), James Tiptree (again a story new to me); plus several others whose names will be mostly recognised. There's only one author I didn't know at all (Anna Kavan - and it may be that unfamiliarity causing it but this is the only story I didn't enjoy. Or understand... ) and one whose name is familiar but I can't place (Tom Goodwin). The book is rounded off by Aldiss writing the only tale from the current century under a thinly disguised pen name (which curiously, perhaps, or maybe deliberately) is close to that of a survivor of the Titanic.
There is a brief introduction by Aldiss, who also writes introductory notes to each story. (And I really need to reread some of his novels.)
A bit of a mixed bag but that's one of the charms of the Folio Society - they don't often do the logical or expected!
The stories, starting with one from Voltaire that I did not know, include most of the 'names' - HG Wells (another story I seem to have missed), Asimov, Heinlein (a blessedly brief story also new to me), Aldiss himself (not his best work but probably well known to many readers), plus Harry Harrison (uncharacteristically, perhaps, this is one of his more sombre stories - and a plot I'd misremembered as being by James Blish, not included), James Tiptree (again a story new to me); plus several others whose names will be mostly recognised. There's only one author I didn't know at all (Anna Kavan - and it may be that unfamiliarity causing it but this is the only story I didn't enjoy. Or understand... ) and one whose name is familiar but I can't place (Tom Goodwin). The book is rounded off by Aldiss writing the only tale from the current century under a thinly disguised pen name (which curiously, perhaps, or maybe deliberately) is close to that of a survivor of the Titanic.
There is a brief introduction by Aldiss, who also writes introductory notes to each story. (And I really need to reread some of his novels.)
A bit of a mixed bag but that's one of the charms of the Folio Society - they don't often do the logical or expected!
September 25, 2017
Ein wunderschönes Buch, wie man es von der Folio Society gewohnt ist: Ein illustriertes Hardcover im Schuber. Enthalten sind zwölf Geschichten, u.a. von Voltaire (!), Wells, Asimov, Aldiss, Dick, Harrison, Heinlein und Tiptree, eingeleitet vom Herausgeber. Brian W. Aldiss hat die Geschichten ausgewählt und - leider ziemlich kurz - eingeleitet. Dieses Buch ist 2016 erschienen, vielleicht war es eine seiner letzten Arbeiten.
Insgesamt bin ich mit der Auswahl der Geschichten nicht ganz glücklich geworden: Einerseits soll eine zeitliche Entwicklung gezeigt werden, beginnend 1752 mit Voltaire bis hin zu 2015 mit Alice B. Wilson und einer Geschichte mit der ich gar nichts anfangen konnte. Es fehlen allerdings Stories zwischen 1973 und 2014. Es sind große Namen vertreten, aber ich hatte oft das Gefühl, dass es von diesen Autoren auch Besseres gibt: Von Isaac Asimov lesen wir "Bridle and Saddle" einen Teil eines Foundation Romans. Ich kenne viele alleinstehende Asimov Kurzgeschichten, die ich überzeugender finde. "The Star" von H.G. Wells scheint im Umfeld von "War of the Worlds" entstanden zu sein, allerdings erklärt Aldiss dies nicht. Die Heinlein Geschichte ("Searchlight") wirkt wie eine nette Fingerübung und bei Philip K. Dicks "Recall Mechanism" (nein, dass ist NICHT die Vorlage zu "Total Recall") verrät der Herausgeber in seinem Vorwort zu viel.
Für DIE Folio Society SF Anthology ist es etwas zu wenig. Trotzdem ist das natürlich Mäkelei auf hohem Niveau, aber zu vier Sternen konnte ich mich nicht durchringen.
Insgesamt bin ich mit der Auswahl der Geschichten nicht ganz glücklich geworden: Einerseits soll eine zeitliche Entwicklung gezeigt werden, beginnend 1752 mit Voltaire bis hin zu 2015 mit Alice B. Wilson und einer Geschichte mit der ich gar nichts anfangen konnte. Es fehlen allerdings Stories zwischen 1973 und 2014. Es sind große Namen vertreten, aber ich hatte oft das Gefühl, dass es von diesen Autoren auch Besseres gibt: Von Isaac Asimov lesen wir "Bridle and Saddle" einen Teil eines Foundation Romans. Ich kenne viele alleinstehende Asimov Kurzgeschichten, die ich überzeugender finde. "The Star" von H.G. Wells scheint im Umfeld von "War of the Worlds" entstanden zu sein, allerdings erklärt Aldiss dies nicht. Die Heinlein Geschichte ("Searchlight") wirkt wie eine nette Fingerübung und bei Philip K. Dicks "Recall Mechanism" (nein, dass ist NICHT die Vorlage zu "Total Recall") verrät der Herausgeber in seinem Vorwort zu viel.
Für DIE Folio Society SF Anthology ist es etwas zu wenig. Trotzdem ist das natürlich Mäkelei auf hohem Niveau, aber zu vier Sternen konnte ich mich nicht durchringen.
Want to read
July 29, 2023Table of Contents
Voltaire, ‘Micromégas’ (1752)
H. G. Wells, ‘The Star’ (1897)
Isaac Asimov, ‘Bridle and Saddle’ (1942)
Tom Godwin, ‘The Greater Thing’ (1954)
James H. Schmitz, ‘Grandpa’ (1955)
Brian W. Aldiss, ‘Poor Little Warrior!’ (1959)
Philip K. Dick, ‘Recall Mechanism’ (1959)
Harry Harrison, ‘An Alien Agony’ (1962)
Robert A. Heinlein, ‘Searchlight’ (1962)
Anna Kavan, ‘Clarita’ (1970)
James Tiptree, Jr, ‘And I Awoke and Found Me Here on the Cold Hill’s Side’ (1972)
Alice B. Wilson, ‘The Day They Raised the Titanic’ (2015)
Voltaire, ‘Micromégas’ (1752)
H. G. Wells, ‘The Star’ (1897)
Isaac Asimov, ‘Bridle and Saddle’ (1942)
Tom Godwin, ‘The Greater Thing’ (1954)
James H. Schmitz, ‘Grandpa’ (1955)
Brian W. Aldiss, ‘Poor Little Warrior!’ (1959)
Philip K. Dick, ‘Recall Mechanism’ (1959)
Harry Harrison, ‘An Alien Agony’ (1962)
Robert A. Heinlein, ‘Searchlight’ (1962)
Anna Kavan, ‘Clarita’ (1970)
James Tiptree, Jr, ‘And I Awoke and Found Me Here on the Cold Hill’s Side’ (1972)
Alice B. Wilson, ‘The Day They Raised the Titanic’ (2015)
February 17, 2019
There are a few good tales in here, Micromegas, Recall Mechanism, Alien agony, but a few didn't land for me. Like all Folio society editions, the presentation is fantastic and provides a quality reading experience, the almost hieroglyphic imagery on this one is particularly enjoyable. All said though I wouldn't really recommend it.
June 24, 2022
I enjoyed several of these short stories. Some better than others but overall good. I feel like these were from the “roots” of science fiction literature and I was surprised to enjoy them as much as I did.
September 7, 2017
Some very good and interesting stories and a few that are difficult to either get into or to follow --the plots in some could be better however the language and broad coverage of some are excellent.
November 11, 2018
Very good selection of short stories.
March 13, 2023
This book is a fantastic collection of brilliant science fiction. As expected there were a couple of stories j didn't enjoy as much but I was surprised by how many I loved!
This book takes you planner hopping with a giant, a dwarf and microscopic humans. It fills you with fear at the prospect of our own planet being destroyed by an exploding star. You'll watch as two escaping false imprisonment are saved by a super intelligent blob, a king is out witted by an old man living on a space station, and finally the Titanic is rescued from the depths of the ocean.
Over all I would definitely recommend this collection for any science fiction fan. The illustrations and cover are amazing too!
This book takes you planner hopping with a giant, a dwarf and microscopic humans. It fills you with fear at the prospect of our own planet being destroyed by an exploding star. You'll watch as two escaping false imprisonment are saved by a super intelligent blob, a king is out witted by an old man living on a space station, and finally the Titanic is rescued from the depths of the ocean.
Over all I would definitely recommend this collection for any science fiction fan. The illustrations and cover are amazing too!
December 26, 2016
really great collection. especially loved the Asimov story tied to foundation series
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews