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Modern Classic Short Novels of Science Fiction
In a tribute to the science fiction novella, more than a dozen masterpieces from the past three decades feature the work of Poul Anderson, Samuel R. Delany, Lucius Shepard, Cordwainer Smith, and other masters of the genre.
657 pages, Hardcover
First published July 18, 1994
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180 people want to read
About the author
Gardner Dozois
646 books363 followersGardner Raymond Dozois was an American science fiction author and editor. He was editor of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine from 1984 to 2004. He won multiple Hugo and Nebula awards, both as an editor and a writer of short fiction.
Wikipedia entry: Gardner Dozois
http://us.macmillan.com/author/gardne...
Wikipedia entry: Gardner Dozois
http://us.macmillan.com/author/gardne...
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
April 30, 2009
Picked up this dated collection of “modern” SciFi classics to help familiarize myself with more of the English-language Science Fiction canon. Rather than write up the collection, I have short reviews for each novella. For aspiring writers in the genre, regardless of whether this sounds fun, this or something very similar should be mandatory reading. Admit it. You’ve never heard of half of these people, and you know you should. Editor Gardner Duzois has the knowledge to compile this sort of canon, and he did a great job of showing the emergence of SciFi from pulp and space opera into modernity, as well as pacing out the novellas such that you seldom feel like you’re reading two things in a row that are too similar.
“The Miracle Workers” by Jack Vance
The opening novella follows an army’s conquest against natives. They are natives themselves now, over a millennia having past since their ancestors arrived on the planet, but they are still unwelcome and neither side of the conflict is open to listening. There are essentially three divisions in the fantastic conflict: the first are the true natives, who rely on organic offense like giant beetles and trainable wasps that have evolved into symbiosis with them. On the other, conquering side, are miracle workers and Jinxmen, the latter of whom summon demons to inhabit their soldiers so that they will fight at peek efficiency. It all sounds like Fantasy for a good reason; Vance turns it in the direction of Science Fiction with the Jinxmen slowly revealing that their “magic” is psychosomatic, and featuring many conversations in which one element throws skepticism at another, attempting to analyze just how this world works. “Mystic” is a pejorative in this world. There are moments of seemingly unintentional hilarity, like a telepath calling someone else superstitious, but the conversations are so interesting and the battles so unusual and compelling, that “The Miracle Workers” should rightfully outlive any of its dated elements.
“The Longest Voyage” by Poul Anderson
A tantalizing premise about various cultures descended from “the fall,” some kind of star cruiser crash that resulted in human-like beings being spread across a few planets of the galaxy. Anderson winks at us that earth is just one of the many places that received a seed from “the fall,” but doesn’t ham it up too much, instead smartly focusing on political conflict between nations of the descendents who do not trust each other and might go to war at any time. Between a balance of aristocracy and aborigines, and the intriguing science-friendly religion of the cast, the cosmos Anderson establishes might be more interesting than what he did with it in this novella.
”On the Storm Planet” by Cordwainer Smith
”On the Storm Planet” is the kind of story people are thinking about when they make fun of space operas. A dashing hero with so much backstory that random references to his birthright, conquests and space-faring are completely ancillary to the plot, sexual tension with a local of this planet, and some absolutely absurd sci fi creatures (whales that evolved to fly because of frequent tornadoes) freckle this surprisingly action-free story. That space-farer is Casher O’Neill, cheesy down to his name, who is hired to kill someone who is at once a robot, a little girl and an ancient woman. Nearly the entire story is a series of conversations unraveling why they want her to die, why she can’t be killed, and his growing fascination with her. It’s sci fi pulp without the frequent gunfire.
“The Star Pit” by Samuel R. Delany
A strange novella, even for one in a collection of Science Fiction. It revolves around Vine, his employees and surrogate family on a distant planet, as some of them meditate upon and jockey for positions to leave for brighter futures. People can only travel at the faster-than-light speeds necessary to hop around the universe if they possess a special psychosis, one that allows them to handle the way time comes apart at the speed of light. As the story is an open thing that observes Vine’s life more than pushing a plot forward, the most interesting aspects are watching people develop this “golden” madness, or try to live under the pressure of knowing they can’t get it and thus can’t leave, developing their own eccentricities. Not that these dominate – what dominates is Vine going from conversation to conversation, giving us glimpses into their lives.
“Total Environment” by Brian W. Aldiss
I have nothing but compliments for how Aldiss executed the parts of this story that he actually wrote. It’s about a utopian plan to save India from poverty and overpopulation that is neither cloyingly idealistic nor dystopian. It handles Hinduism with interest instead of the ham-fisted ignorance most scifi writers take to any religion they can spell. In its giant tower of subsistence where so many survivors will live, power struggles play out but do not devolve into Lord of the Flies shock and social horror. He takes a foreign culture and several tropes, and manages to avoid offense and clichéd conventions, more interested in spinning a narrative of how life has been in the tower, what that life means, and curious cultural elements that crop up in the safety of the Total Environment. The problem comes when the internal and external conflicts come to no point of resolution, such that the entire novella is a setup. I’m almost uncomfortable how much I liked reading what was all setup and no delivery.
“The Merchants of Venus” by Frederik Pohl
Pohl creates, probably unintentionally, one of the great Shakespeare puns ever with this title. Unfortunately Pohl’s prose is severely lacking, stripping personality from the details and anecdotes of his Venutian world. Often it seems like he has no sense of basic storytelling, like just having the character come out and tell us a girl made him think about himself instead of what he thought about or showing us how that worked. The premise, of a Venutian tour guide taking people on risky digs to the ruins of an ancient civilization on that planet, is interesting, but Pohl takes too long to get us to a dig and tries too hard to give the guide a motive without developing his personal history. Normally a guy who is dying and has to work to save himself garners sympathy, but “Merchants of Venus” tries to build suspense around how he’ll pay for his operation, which is fumbled pretty badly considering the character is also the narrator – we know he lives because he’s talking to us. Without anything particularly appealing driving us forward we keep waiting for the setup to end, but even at the digs the scenes are so brief that nothing is accomplished, and soon we’re just waiting for the story to end.
“The Death of Doctor Island” by Gene Wolfe
Playing superficially on the left-brain/right-brain paradigm of neuroscience, Wolfe presents a boy who was either psychotic or a prophet, and to save him from his “episodes,” had left and right halves of his brain severed. Not that you could tell from the way he speaks – he sounds like every too-intelligent boy in science fiction and Literature. But it’s a pleasant play on that awkward intellect, and much of the best parts of the story are his conversations with the few strange people that populate the fiction. Instead of mounting action, the reclusive characters and bizarre conversation unravel the setting, where weather is directly related to emotions of those who experience it, and reveal it as a bizarre social experiment. Even when you are at the final revelation, it’s not Wolfe’s plot that drives you on. It’s the desire to read amazing exchanges as the models of recluses, the catatonic and our bifurcated boy define themselves, and then reflect on their circumstances in stabs at the real nature of humanity – or at least, of defective humanity.
“Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang” by Kate Wilhelm
So, life sucks. No food, rampant disease, rampant radiation, xenophobia, and the family we open the story with are bitchy towards each other. Wilhelm’s novella suffers from having too much go wrong, robbing anything from having a singularly strong negative impact. She hits many of the clichés of stressed and cynical fiction: mothers frightened for their children, moments of nudity to display the toll whatever horrible stuff the author is putting her characters through is taking, and even someone calling something cliché (in this case, observations on the “generation gap”). When this sadomasochistic approach to fiction is mixed with the SciFi trope of having characters talk about their plight for too long, it creates both a self-absorbed dystopia and a detachment from the natural emotional content of that dystopia. Something’s wrong when our genetically-designed savior babies are compromised in the womb and I still don’t care.
“Souls” by Joanna Russ
Set when Christianity was spreading through the Norse lands, "Souls" is not really Science Fiction at all, but a piece of Historical Fiction with a bit of Fantasy at the very end. Readers of the “Genre” ghetto will probably forgive it, especially if they give into the characters, who are spun more fully in this novella than in most full-length novels in the SciFi genre. Russ strives for an authenticity about her people, not to the period, but to their strife. It moves above mere themes and conflicts, properly realizing people in intercultural pressure, and the weight on the mind of a woman in power where no one particularly likes it. Russ was a feminist who turned from a target for Social Conservatives to a target for Social Liberals with this story, giving warm portrayals of women who loved patriarchal figures, were occasionally in jeopardy to the point of submission to men, and make great efforts and sacrifices for the sakes of male characters – all things that were plausible then and happen a lot today. But to paint this as anti-feministic would be ignorant. From the first scenes we get pictures of liberated people, especially a strange couple who have redefined their religious roles for them, and Russ is happy to throw out provocative theological challenges, like nuns only allegorically being married to Christ and abject scorn for the limitations and perversions of too literal an interpretation of this. There is an excellent monologue on what the Virgin Mary means, and how she presents a model of feminine empowerment in Christianity that is as holy and powerful as the masculine Christ archetype. By the time you get to one woman trash-talking a Norseman into not raping her, you have to let go of the fascination with anti-feminism. It is a story too well-told to be pigeonholed by issues, but one that still crosses gender, religion, multiculturalism and identity issues.
”A Traveler's Tale” by Lucius Shepard
”A Traveler’s Tale” begins with good voice, as one traveler relays a conversation he once had. Yet soon after the novella meanders around other characters, and even when it becomes fascinated with something, like an unusually old lady, it has little spark or point to it. Despite traveling, the narrative isn’t going anywhere. It’s not pell-mell fiction, not utilizing aimlessness to any entertaining effect, and has scant few imaginative details that couldn’t have been cannibalized for a more amusing short story.
“Sailing to Byzantium” by Robert Silverberg
Silverberg is a titan of Science Fiction and one of the most recognizable names in the collection, and so it’s surprising that his entry breaks the most fundamental rules of writing. He tells rather than shows, piling on paragraphs of exposition rather than describing what the characterly directions sees. The characters doesn’t do much but reflect on seeing a couple cities. In the future, you see, the super-rich recreate cities of ancient civilizations with dubious accuracy to amuse themselves. We never learn if their inaccuracy is by way of ignorance or willfulness because, while the main character wonders about it, he never tries to figure it out – never even asks anyone. He’s displaced from the relative present to this future as another of their larks, though the science of it is, and even its mechanics, is never explained, and bears no more repercussion on his psyche than that it lets him be the outside observer. Not that observes much, as there is almost no action in the novella, not even characters approaching each other to talk, as even dialogue is stripped down to make way for more of Silverberg’s pseudo-essay. The point is obviously an anti-human one, hollowly chastising our ignorance of history and other cultures to the point of extremity in a future that we know won’t come to pass. But considering how little is made or discussed of this, and how passive it is, you could have fit its insight onto a postcard.
“Mr. Boy” by James Patrick Kelly
Though many of the stories in this collection are high quality, this is was the most pleasant surprise. Kelly writes like no one else I’ve encountered before, able to rattle off immensely creative ideas in paragraphs, like they’re nothing, then pile them up into a world. Gene splicing is old hat; nowadays everybody can reshape themselves however like. Take Mr. Boy’s mom, who lives as an eleven-storey replica of the Statue of Liberty. Take Mr. Boy, the eternally youthful protagonist who lives in his emotionally distant mother. From that alone you can pick up the absurdity, humor and profoundness of Kelly’s design. He never pretends to work in hard science, instead playing with archetypes of the human experience, like two children of overbearing parents. Meet the “Realists,” fundamental humanists who demand people be just what they’re born to be. And the Realists, like religious conservatives of today, are looked down upon as backwards and sad, even though the new morals and new tricks aren’t making the world a grand place, just a crazier one. From there comes Kelly’s greatest trick: to juggle things that must be tragic or hilarious, and moderate them into a queer dignity. Even when we meet a guy who’s been reorganized to look like a dinosaur (or when we find out there’s a sport for dino-people fighting), it’s not literary slapstick. I’d like this as a comedy, but Kelly is bold enough to make it something different. Something quirky, sometimes melodramatic and even fearsome, but something quirky nonetheless.
“And Wild for to Hold” by Nancy Kress
A disappointing entry on which to close the collection. There are very few good stories about time travel, both in getting any decent Science Fiction explanation of how the heck it works in any given story, and in how convoluted any trans-time drama gets. The best are tongue in cheek, like the Back to the Future movies, using a little humor to temper one of the biggest absurdities in the SciFi cosmos. It’s funny, but time travel is a whole other magnitude of ridiculousness away from killer robots and alien invaders, and it shows in how authors are so clumsy in dealing with it. Here Kress makes no apologies for people being plucked out of time and put into prison to better the future, and with all that free space that would have gone to plot, you instead get a sad queen and a bunch of unanswered moral questions. It doesn’t build, the novelty of this powerful pacifistic organization wears off quickly, and you’re left with a novella which only has one appropriate part: when a character asks yet another unanswered tough question that somebody should address and deal with, then walks away hopelessly.
“The Miracle Workers” by Jack Vance
The opening novella follows an army’s conquest against natives. They are natives themselves now, over a millennia having past since their ancestors arrived on the planet, but they are still unwelcome and neither side of the conflict is open to listening. There are essentially three divisions in the fantastic conflict: the first are the true natives, who rely on organic offense like giant beetles and trainable wasps that have evolved into symbiosis with them. On the other, conquering side, are miracle workers and Jinxmen, the latter of whom summon demons to inhabit their soldiers so that they will fight at peek efficiency. It all sounds like Fantasy for a good reason; Vance turns it in the direction of Science Fiction with the Jinxmen slowly revealing that their “magic” is psychosomatic, and featuring many conversations in which one element throws skepticism at another, attempting to analyze just how this world works. “Mystic” is a pejorative in this world. There are moments of seemingly unintentional hilarity, like a telepath calling someone else superstitious, but the conversations are so interesting and the battles so unusual and compelling, that “The Miracle Workers” should rightfully outlive any of its dated elements.
“The Longest Voyage” by Poul Anderson
A tantalizing premise about various cultures descended from “the fall,” some kind of star cruiser crash that resulted in human-like beings being spread across a few planets of the galaxy. Anderson winks at us that earth is just one of the many places that received a seed from “the fall,” but doesn’t ham it up too much, instead smartly focusing on political conflict between nations of the descendents who do not trust each other and might go to war at any time. Between a balance of aristocracy and aborigines, and the intriguing science-friendly religion of the cast, the cosmos Anderson establishes might be more interesting than what he did with it in this novella.
”On the Storm Planet” by Cordwainer Smith
”On the Storm Planet” is the kind of story people are thinking about when they make fun of space operas. A dashing hero with so much backstory that random references to his birthright, conquests and space-faring are completely ancillary to the plot, sexual tension with a local of this planet, and some absolutely absurd sci fi creatures (whales that evolved to fly because of frequent tornadoes) freckle this surprisingly action-free story. That space-farer is Casher O’Neill, cheesy down to his name, who is hired to kill someone who is at once a robot, a little girl and an ancient woman. Nearly the entire story is a series of conversations unraveling why they want her to die, why she can’t be killed, and his growing fascination with her. It’s sci fi pulp without the frequent gunfire.
“The Star Pit” by Samuel R. Delany
A strange novella, even for one in a collection of Science Fiction. It revolves around Vine, his employees and surrogate family on a distant planet, as some of them meditate upon and jockey for positions to leave for brighter futures. People can only travel at the faster-than-light speeds necessary to hop around the universe if they possess a special psychosis, one that allows them to handle the way time comes apart at the speed of light. As the story is an open thing that observes Vine’s life more than pushing a plot forward, the most interesting aspects are watching people develop this “golden” madness, or try to live under the pressure of knowing they can’t get it and thus can’t leave, developing their own eccentricities. Not that these dominate – what dominates is Vine going from conversation to conversation, giving us glimpses into their lives.
“Total Environment” by Brian W. Aldiss
I have nothing but compliments for how Aldiss executed the parts of this story that he actually wrote. It’s about a utopian plan to save India from poverty and overpopulation that is neither cloyingly idealistic nor dystopian. It handles Hinduism with interest instead of the ham-fisted ignorance most scifi writers take to any religion they can spell. In its giant tower of subsistence where so many survivors will live, power struggles play out but do not devolve into Lord of the Flies shock and social horror. He takes a foreign culture and several tropes, and manages to avoid offense and clichéd conventions, more interested in spinning a narrative of how life has been in the tower, what that life means, and curious cultural elements that crop up in the safety of the Total Environment. The problem comes when the internal and external conflicts come to no point of resolution, such that the entire novella is a setup. I’m almost uncomfortable how much I liked reading what was all setup and no delivery.
“The Merchants of Venus” by Frederik Pohl
Pohl creates, probably unintentionally, one of the great Shakespeare puns ever with this title. Unfortunately Pohl’s prose is severely lacking, stripping personality from the details and anecdotes of his Venutian world. Often it seems like he has no sense of basic storytelling, like just having the character come out and tell us a girl made him think about himself instead of what he thought about or showing us how that worked. The premise, of a Venutian tour guide taking people on risky digs to the ruins of an ancient civilization on that planet, is interesting, but Pohl takes too long to get us to a dig and tries too hard to give the guide a motive without developing his personal history. Normally a guy who is dying and has to work to save himself garners sympathy, but “Merchants of Venus” tries to build suspense around how he’ll pay for his operation, which is fumbled pretty badly considering the character is also the narrator – we know he lives because he’s talking to us. Without anything particularly appealing driving us forward we keep waiting for the setup to end, but even at the digs the scenes are so brief that nothing is accomplished, and soon we’re just waiting for the story to end.
“The Death of Doctor Island” by Gene Wolfe
Playing superficially on the left-brain/right-brain paradigm of neuroscience, Wolfe presents a boy who was either psychotic or a prophet, and to save him from his “episodes,” had left and right halves of his brain severed. Not that you could tell from the way he speaks – he sounds like every too-intelligent boy in science fiction and Literature. But it’s a pleasant play on that awkward intellect, and much of the best parts of the story are his conversations with the few strange people that populate the fiction. Instead of mounting action, the reclusive characters and bizarre conversation unravel the setting, where weather is directly related to emotions of those who experience it, and reveal it as a bizarre social experiment. Even when you are at the final revelation, it’s not Wolfe’s plot that drives you on. It’s the desire to read amazing exchanges as the models of recluses, the catatonic and our bifurcated boy define themselves, and then reflect on their circumstances in stabs at the real nature of humanity – or at least, of defective humanity.
“Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang” by Kate Wilhelm
So, life sucks. No food, rampant disease, rampant radiation, xenophobia, and the family we open the story with are bitchy towards each other. Wilhelm’s novella suffers from having too much go wrong, robbing anything from having a singularly strong negative impact. She hits many of the clichés of stressed and cynical fiction: mothers frightened for their children, moments of nudity to display the toll whatever horrible stuff the author is putting her characters through is taking, and even someone calling something cliché (in this case, observations on the “generation gap”). When this sadomasochistic approach to fiction is mixed with the SciFi trope of having characters talk about their plight for too long, it creates both a self-absorbed dystopia and a detachment from the natural emotional content of that dystopia. Something’s wrong when our genetically-designed savior babies are compromised in the womb and I still don’t care.
“Souls” by Joanna Russ
Set when Christianity was spreading through the Norse lands, "Souls" is not really Science Fiction at all, but a piece of Historical Fiction with a bit of Fantasy at the very end. Readers of the “Genre” ghetto will probably forgive it, especially if they give into the characters, who are spun more fully in this novella than in most full-length novels in the SciFi genre. Russ strives for an authenticity about her people, not to the period, but to their strife. It moves above mere themes and conflicts, properly realizing people in intercultural pressure, and the weight on the mind of a woman in power where no one particularly likes it. Russ was a feminist who turned from a target for Social Conservatives to a target for Social Liberals with this story, giving warm portrayals of women who loved patriarchal figures, were occasionally in jeopardy to the point of submission to men, and make great efforts and sacrifices for the sakes of male characters – all things that were plausible then and happen a lot today. But to paint this as anti-feministic would be ignorant. From the first scenes we get pictures of liberated people, especially a strange couple who have redefined their religious roles for them, and Russ is happy to throw out provocative theological challenges, like nuns only allegorically being married to Christ and abject scorn for the limitations and perversions of too literal an interpretation of this. There is an excellent monologue on what the Virgin Mary means, and how she presents a model of feminine empowerment in Christianity that is as holy and powerful as the masculine Christ archetype. By the time you get to one woman trash-talking a Norseman into not raping her, you have to let go of the fascination with anti-feminism. It is a story too well-told to be pigeonholed by issues, but one that still crosses gender, religion, multiculturalism and identity issues.
”A Traveler's Tale” by Lucius Shepard
”A Traveler’s Tale” begins with good voice, as one traveler relays a conversation he once had. Yet soon after the novella meanders around other characters, and even when it becomes fascinated with something, like an unusually old lady, it has little spark or point to it. Despite traveling, the narrative isn’t going anywhere. It’s not pell-mell fiction, not utilizing aimlessness to any entertaining effect, and has scant few imaginative details that couldn’t have been cannibalized for a more amusing short story.
“Sailing to Byzantium” by Robert Silverberg
Silverberg is a titan of Science Fiction and one of the most recognizable names in the collection, and so it’s surprising that his entry breaks the most fundamental rules of writing. He tells rather than shows, piling on paragraphs of exposition rather than describing what the characterly directions sees. The characters doesn’t do much but reflect on seeing a couple cities. In the future, you see, the super-rich recreate cities of ancient civilizations with dubious accuracy to amuse themselves. We never learn if their inaccuracy is by way of ignorance or willfulness because, while the main character wonders about it, he never tries to figure it out – never even asks anyone. He’s displaced from the relative present to this future as another of their larks, though the science of it is, and even its mechanics, is never explained, and bears no more repercussion on his psyche than that it lets him be the outside observer. Not that observes much, as there is almost no action in the novella, not even characters approaching each other to talk, as even dialogue is stripped down to make way for more of Silverberg’s pseudo-essay. The point is obviously an anti-human one, hollowly chastising our ignorance of history and other cultures to the point of extremity in a future that we know won’t come to pass. But considering how little is made or discussed of this, and how passive it is, you could have fit its insight onto a postcard.
“Mr. Boy” by James Patrick Kelly
Though many of the stories in this collection are high quality, this is was the most pleasant surprise. Kelly writes like no one else I’ve encountered before, able to rattle off immensely creative ideas in paragraphs, like they’re nothing, then pile them up into a world. Gene splicing is old hat; nowadays everybody can reshape themselves however like. Take Mr. Boy’s mom, who lives as an eleven-storey replica of the Statue of Liberty. Take Mr. Boy, the eternally youthful protagonist who lives in his emotionally distant mother. From that alone you can pick up the absurdity, humor and profoundness of Kelly’s design. He never pretends to work in hard science, instead playing with archetypes of the human experience, like two children of overbearing parents. Meet the “Realists,” fundamental humanists who demand people be just what they’re born to be. And the Realists, like religious conservatives of today, are looked down upon as backwards and sad, even though the new morals and new tricks aren’t making the world a grand place, just a crazier one. From there comes Kelly’s greatest trick: to juggle things that must be tragic or hilarious, and moderate them into a queer dignity. Even when we meet a guy who’s been reorganized to look like a dinosaur (or when we find out there’s a sport for dino-people fighting), it’s not literary slapstick. I’d like this as a comedy, but Kelly is bold enough to make it something different. Something quirky, sometimes melodramatic and even fearsome, but something quirky nonetheless.
“And Wild for to Hold” by Nancy Kress
A disappointing entry on which to close the collection. There are very few good stories about time travel, both in getting any decent Science Fiction explanation of how the heck it works in any given story, and in how convoluted any trans-time drama gets. The best are tongue in cheek, like the Back to the Future movies, using a little humor to temper one of the biggest absurdities in the SciFi cosmos. It’s funny, but time travel is a whole other magnitude of ridiculousness away from killer robots and alien invaders, and it shows in how authors are so clumsy in dealing with it. Here Kress makes no apologies for people being plucked out of time and put into prison to better the future, and with all that free space that would have gone to plot, you instead get a sad queen and a bunch of unanswered moral questions. It doesn’t build, the novelty of this powerful pacifistic organization wears off quickly, and you’re left with a novella which only has one appropriate part: when a character asks yet another unanswered tough question that somebody should address and deal with, then walks away hopelessly.
February 22, 2020
Read sometime in the dim past: a nice anthology of classic novellas, just as you would expect from Dozois. Here's a good review, by Robert Day: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Marked for a reread sometime.
Marked for a reread sometime.
October 3, 2023
If science fiction is indeed fables for a technological world, then this collection meets the definition and then some: succinct fictional stories which contain not just an interesting narrative, but also a moral lesson.
All of the stories in this collection are at least good, with some being great. All invite reflection, through their narrative and their contrast to our own society.
Remarkable in particular were, in my opinion, Souls by Joanna Russ and And Wild for to Hold by Nancy Kress.
All of the stories in this collection are at least good, with some being great. All invite reflection, through their narrative and their contrast to our own society.
Remarkable in particular were, in my opinion, Souls by Joanna Russ and And Wild for to Hold by Nancy Kress.
March 21, 2025
Jesus Christ this shit took me forever. A collection of a bunch of novellas, some good, some mid, some just so awful.
The good: The Longest Voyage (fun space pirate world-building), The Star Pit (super weird), Merchants of Venus (classic fun adventure vibes), A Traveler's Tale (UFO type shit).
The bad: The Miracle Workers (just ass), Total Environment (kinda racist), The Death of Doctor Island (booooring), Souls (not even sci-fi).
The ugly: Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang (soooo much incest).
The good: The Longest Voyage (fun space pirate world-building), The Star Pit (super weird), Merchants of Venus (classic fun adventure vibes), A Traveler's Tale (UFO type shit).
The bad: The Miracle Workers (just ass), Total Environment (kinda racist), The Death of Doctor Island (booooring), Souls (not even sci-fi).
The ugly: Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang (soooo much incest).
November 4, 2021
This is a very solid anthology. Most of the stories are award finalists or part of award-winning series.
"The Miracle Workers" by Jack Vance (Astounding Science Fiction, July 1958 - novella) 1959 Hugo Award finalist
4 Stars
This long tale is definitely a product of its time, a science fiction adventure disguised as fantasy. Humans on an alien planet have been there for thousands of years and have reverted back to a feudal society with powerful magicians helping to keep the world stable. Most of the story involves a king and his knights fighting the indigenous population who are more capable fighters than they realize, using guerrilla tactics to overwhelm the humans. It's a fun story about how hubris can sabotage you.
"The Longest Voyage" by Poul Anderson (Analog, December 1960 - novelette) 1961 Hugo Award winner
4 Stars
Here's another pseudo-fantasy story where humans have lived on an alien world so long that they've forgotten all about space travel and are just starting to circumnavigate the world in sailing ships. One such expedition finds an island civilization in which the leaders claim lives a prophet who came from the stars. Thus begins an adventure of conquest and attempted colonization of a "superior" race over an aboriginal race, even though the natives have some technological tricks up their sleeves that complicate matters. Anderson manages to make the characters on both sides of the conflict well developed.
"On the Storm Planet" by Cordwainer Smith (pen name of Paul Linebarger) (Galaxy Magazine, February 1965 - novella) 1966 Nebula Award finalist
4 Stars
This is part of a series of stories featuring Casher O'Neill; it was later published as Part 2 of Quest of the Three Worlds. Here, Casher is hired by the Administrator of the storm planet Henriada to kill a girl—an order the Administrator has been issuing annually for the last eighty years, without result. It turns out that the girl is not really human but an animal turned into a servant for a rich old man. Why the Administrator wants her killed is one of the secrets Casher must learn, but will he succeed? The novella starts out slowly, but picks up considerably after Casher meets the girl. This is somewhat of a prototype for cyberpunk, as well as having some other imaginative aspects that must have been unusual in 1965.
"The Star Pit" by Samuel R. Delany (Worlds of Tomorrow, February 1967 - novella) 1968 Hugo Award finalist
4 Stars
The novella begins with the protagonist Vyme helping his procreation group's children take care of an ecologarium (a fancy ant farm with a variety of local lifeforms). The theme of life being like an ecologarium runs through the story—we may think we freely live, raise families, work, etc., but in reality we are caged by societal norms. Another interesting idea in the story is that faster-than-light space travel is limited to relatively short jumps because otherwise you will go mad or die, unless you are one of the very tiny fraction of the population considered "golden," able to withstand the rigors of space travel because you are already psychotic. The Star Pit is essentially a space garage where ships are repaired and maintained, and Vyme is a down-beaten, somewhat alcoholic mechanic who finds some redemption in his interactions with his apprentice and some goldens, always looking to break the cage he is in.
"Total Environment" by Brian W. Aldiss (Galaxy Magazine, February 1968 - novelette) 1969 Hugo Award finalist and 1969 Nebula Award finalist
3 Stars
The Total Environment is a sealed off social experiment within a massive tower in India that was built twenty-five years prior to the start of the story. It started with 1500 inhabitants, but now houses 75000 people. Thomas Dixit is an inspector who enters it from the outside world to assess whether it should close down or continue. What he finds are crowded, dirty living conditions ruled by dangerous despots. It's a cautionary tale using the microcosm of the Total Environment as a stand-in for Earth.
"The Merchants of Venus" by Frederik Pohl (Worlds of If, July-August 1972 - novella)
4 Stars
Desperate men do desperate things for wealth. In a prequel to Pohl's brilliant award winning Gateway (1977), featuring the first appearance of the Heechee (or more accurately, the remains of the Heechee), two men search Venus for alien artifacts they can sell. Each one has a different reason for needing the money, and as is typical of a story like this, their greed and need for secrecy cause dangerous friction between them. This is a fun adventure with a lot of twists.
"The Death of Dr. Island" by Gene Wolfe (Universe 3, October 1973 - novella) 1974 Hugo Award finalist and 1974 Nebula Award winner
4 Stars
After losing the 1971 Nebula Award for "The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories" to No Award, Wolfe came back with this twist on the previous story. A boy on a space station orbiting Jupiter is being counseled by an AI calling itself Dr. Island in a simulation of a tropical island. There are many allusions to classical poetry and mythology, as the psychosis of the boy is slowly revealed.
"Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang" by Kate Wilhelm (Orbit 15, October 1974 - novella)
3 Stars
This novella does not quite stand on its own; the ending clearly sets up a continuation, as this is only Part 1 of the novel of the same name that was published in January 1976 and won the 1977 Hugo Award (as well as being a finalist for the 1977 Nebula Award). Moreover, the basic plot is not terribly new; genetically modified children taking over the world from their parents is a variation of the likes of John Wyndham's The Midwich Cuckoos (1957), Nancy Kress's Beggars in Spain (1993), and others. This time the children are clones without overt modifications, although there are hints that they may have some sort of telepathy. The description of the apocalyptic Earth, destroyed by pollution and other manmade causes, is still quite relevant.
"Souls" by Joanna Russ (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, January 1982 - novella) 1983 Hugo Award winner and Nebula Award finalist
4 Stars
The fantasy element of this story only reveals itself near the end. Mostly, this is an emotional historical fiction about some 12th-Century Norse raiders invading a German abbey in search of treasure and slaves. The female abbess does her best to protect her people, but is not very successful, although ultimately she finds her true nature and converts the Norse leader into becoming more peaceful as a final act of revenge.
"A Traveler's Tale" by Lucius Shepard (Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, July 1984 - novella) 1985 Nebula Award finalist
3 Stars
An alien takes over a human body on an island near Honduras, causing grief and misunderstandings in the nearby village. It seems clear that Shepard must have spent some time in this region, for his descriptions are quite picturesque. The argot he uses for the natives seems off, though, reading like something out of a Mantan Moreland film from the 1930s. Maybe it's authentic, but it comes across as a racist depiction by a white writer. Still, there are some realistic characterizations that make this an interesting story.
"Sailing to Byzantium" by Robert Silverberg (Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, February 1985 - novella) 1986 Nebula Award winner and 1986 Hugo Award finalist
4 Stars
A 20th-Century man finds himself living among the citizens of the 50th Century, with no memory of how he came to be there or what his life was like beforehand. He falls in love with one of the citizens, but when she spurns him he travels the world to find her again. Whoever is running things behind the scenes only allows five ancient city simulacra to exist at any one time, tearing down old ones when new ones are built. What the man ultimately discovers is a society that is unlike anything else.
"Mr. Boy" by James Patrick Kelly (Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, June 1990 - novella) 1991 Nebula Award finalist
4 Stars
In a cyberpunk world, Mr. Boy is a 25-year-old who is genetically modified to physically remain 12. One of his best friends is genetically modified to appear as a dinosaur. His mother is genetically modified to appear as the Statue of Liberty (not actual size). Mr. Boy becomes attracted to a young woman who works at her family's business growing plants and flowers. It's all (and more) blended into a compelling coming of age story.
"And Wild for to Hold" by Nancy Kress (Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, July 1991 - novella) 1992 Hugo Award finalist
3 Stars
The Time Research Institute is granted a permit by the Church of the Holy Hostage to take Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII's second wife. The equations show a .798 probability that Anne's disappearance, just one month after the birth of her daughter Elizabeth, will prevent the English civil war one hundred years later. The Institute, however, underestimates Anne's ability to manipulate her captors by interfering with the other hostages: Helen of Troy, Tsarevitch Alekseï Nikolaïevitch, and Adolph Hitler. It's a fun story, but I didn't believe advanced time travelers would be so easily fooled.
"The Miracle Workers" by Jack Vance (Astounding Science Fiction, July 1958 - novella) 1959 Hugo Award finalist
4 Stars
This long tale is definitely a product of its time, a science fiction adventure disguised as fantasy. Humans on an alien planet have been there for thousands of years and have reverted back to a feudal society with powerful magicians helping to keep the world stable. Most of the story involves a king and his knights fighting the indigenous population who are more capable fighters than they realize, using guerrilla tactics to overwhelm the humans. It's a fun story about how hubris can sabotage you.
"The Longest Voyage" by Poul Anderson (Analog, December 1960 - novelette) 1961 Hugo Award winner
4 Stars
Here's another pseudo-fantasy story where humans have lived on an alien world so long that they've forgotten all about space travel and are just starting to circumnavigate the world in sailing ships. One such expedition finds an island civilization in which the leaders claim lives a prophet who came from the stars. Thus begins an adventure of conquest and attempted colonization of a "superior" race over an aboriginal race, even though the natives have some technological tricks up their sleeves that complicate matters. Anderson manages to make the characters on both sides of the conflict well developed.
"On the Storm Planet" by Cordwainer Smith (pen name of Paul Linebarger) (Galaxy Magazine, February 1965 - novella) 1966 Nebula Award finalist
4 Stars
This is part of a series of stories featuring Casher O'Neill; it was later published as Part 2 of Quest of the Three Worlds. Here, Casher is hired by the Administrator of the storm planet Henriada to kill a girl—an order the Administrator has been issuing annually for the last eighty years, without result. It turns out that the girl is not really human but an animal turned into a servant for a rich old man. Why the Administrator wants her killed is one of the secrets Casher must learn, but will he succeed? The novella starts out slowly, but picks up considerably after Casher meets the girl. This is somewhat of a prototype for cyberpunk, as well as having some other imaginative aspects that must have been unusual in 1965.
"The Star Pit" by Samuel R. Delany (Worlds of Tomorrow, February 1967 - novella) 1968 Hugo Award finalist
4 Stars
The novella begins with the protagonist Vyme helping his procreation group's children take care of an ecologarium (a fancy ant farm with a variety of local lifeforms). The theme of life being like an ecologarium runs through the story—we may think we freely live, raise families, work, etc., but in reality we are caged by societal norms. Another interesting idea in the story is that faster-than-light space travel is limited to relatively short jumps because otherwise you will go mad or die, unless you are one of the very tiny fraction of the population considered "golden," able to withstand the rigors of space travel because you are already psychotic. The Star Pit is essentially a space garage where ships are repaired and maintained, and Vyme is a down-beaten, somewhat alcoholic mechanic who finds some redemption in his interactions with his apprentice and some goldens, always looking to break the cage he is in.
"Total Environment" by Brian W. Aldiss (Galaxy Magazine, February 1968 - novelette) 1969 Hugo Award finalist and 1969 Nebula Award finalist
3 Stars
The Total Environment is a sealed off social experiment within a massive tower in India that was built twenty-five years prior to the start of the story. It started with 1500 inhabitants, but now houses 75000 people. Thomas Dixit is an inspector who enters it from the outside world to assess whether it should close down or continue. What he finds are crowded, dirty living conditions ruled by dangerous despots. It's a cautionary tale using the microcosm of the Total Environment as a stand-in for Earth.
"The Merchants of Venus" by Frederik Pohl (Worlds of If, July-August 1972 - novella)
4 Stars
Desperate men do desperate things for wealth. In a prequel to Pohl's brilliant award winning Gateway (1977), featuring the first appearance of the Heechee (or more accurately, the remains of the Heechee), two men search Venus for alien artifacts they can sell. Each one has a different reason for needing the money, and as is typical of a story like this, their greed and need for secrecy cause dangerous friction between them. This is a fun adventure with a lot of twists.
"The Death of Dr. Island" by Gene Wolfe (Universe 3, October 1973 - novella) 1974 Hugo Award finalist and 1974 Nebula Award winner
4 Stars
After losing the 1971 Nebula Award for "The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories" to No Award, Wolfe came back with this twist on the previous story. A boy on a space station orbiting Jupiter is being counseled by an AI calling itself Dr. Island in a simulation of a tropical island. There are many allusions to classical poetry and mythology, as the psychosis of the boy is slowly revealed.
"Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang" by Kate Wilhelm (Orbit 15, October 1974 - novella)
3 Stars
This novella does not quite stand on its own; the ending clearly sets up a continuation, as this is only Part 1 of the novel of the same name that was published in January 1976 and won the 1977 Hugo Award (as well as being a finalist for the 1977 Nebula Award). Moreover, the basic plot is not terribly new; genetically modified children taking over the world from their parents is a variation of the likes of John Wyndham's The Midwich Cuckoos (1957), Nancy Kress's Beggars in Spain (1993), and others. This time the children are clones without overt modifications, although there are hints that they may have some sort of telepathy. The description of the apocalyptic Earth, destroyed by pollution and other manmade causes, is still quite relevant.
"Souls" by Joanna Russ (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, January 1982 - novella) 1983 Hugo Award winner and Nebula Award finalist
4 Stars
The fantasy element of this story only reveals itself near the end. Mostly, this is an emotional historical fiction about some 12th-Century Norse raiders invading a German abbey in search of treasure and slaves. The female abbess does her best to protect her people, but is not very successful, although ultimately she finds her true nature and converts the Norse leader into becoming more peaceful as a final act of revenge.
"A Traveler's Tale" by Lucius Shepard (Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, July 1984 - novella) 1985 Nebula Award finalist
3 Stars
An alien takes over a human body on an island near Honduras, causing grief and misunderstandings in the nearby village. It seems clear that Shepard must have spent some time in this region, for his descriptions are quite picturesque. The argot he uses for the natives seems off, though, reading like something out of a Mantan Moreland film from the 1930s. Maybe it's authentic, but it comes across as a racist depiction by a white writer. Still, there are some realistic characterizations that make this an interesting story.
"Sailing to Byzantium" by Robert Silverberg (Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, February 1985 - novella) 1986 Nebula Award winner and 1986 Hugo Award finalist
4 Stars
A 20th-Century man finds himself living among the citizens of the 50th Century, with no memory of how he came to be there or what his life was like beforehand. He falls in love with one of the citizens, but when she spurns him he travels the world to find her again. Whoever is running things behind the scenes only allows five ancient city simulacra to exist at any one time, tearing down old ones when new ones are built. What the man ultimately discovers is a society that is unlike anything else.
"Mr. Boy" by James Patrick Kelly (Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, June 1990 - novella) 1991 Nebula Award finalist
4 Stars
In a cyberpunk world, Mr. Boy is a 25-year-old who is genetically modified to physically remain 12. One of his best friends is genetically modified to appear as a dinosaur. His mother is genetically modified to appear as the Statue of Liberty (not actual size). Mr. Boy becomes attracted to a young woman who works at her family's business growing plants and flowers. It's all (and more) blended into a compelling coming of age story.
"And Wild for to Hold" by Nancy Kress (Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, July 1991 - novella) 1992 Hugo Award finalist
3 Stars
The Time Research Institute is granted a permit by the Church of the Holy Hostage to take Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII's second wife. The equations show a .798 probability that Anne's disappearance, just one month after the birth of her daughter Elizabeth, will prevent the English civil war one hundred years later. The Institute, however, underestimates Anne's ability to manipulate her captors by interfering with the other hostages: Helen of Troy, Tsarevitch Alekseï Nikolaïevitch, and Adolph Hitler. It's a fun story, but I didn't believe advanced time travelers would be so easily fooled.
February 27, 2018
Being as it's a collection of Novellas, I thought it best to review each one by one:
Jack Vance - The Miracle Workers.
Loved the premise, the story, the way it was told and the all-too-real characters. Interesting and immersive from start to finish. Great start to the collection.
Poul Anderson - The Longest Voyage.
Sad story, but one with positive points, not to mention a wisdom that goes beyond what most of us now have. Prescient in the way that good science fiction must be but seldom is.
Cordwainer Smith - On the Storm Planet.
Clever little story about ... lots of things including longevity, humanity, longing, greed and selfishness. Ending could have been better, but an entertaining read nontheless.
Samuel R. Delany - The Star Pit.
Anguished tale about feeling trapped and, ultimately, how to be free. Love the variety of tech in this story. Felt up-to-date even though it's decades old. Psychologically adept.
Brian W. Aldiss - Total Environment
Engrossing little tale that covers, a couple of decades earlier, similar themes to the Helliconia books - isolation and observation; the effect of environment on people; and change over time/generations. Bit disappointed that it ended so soon. Would really have liked to know what happened next.
Frederik Pohl - The Merchants of Venus.
Getting more modern as the stories progress from the 1960s to the 1970s but this one still has some of the hardboiled detective noir feel of the 1950s, where men are men and women try not to get in the way. Still, it's a suspenseful tale that made me eager to find out how it would end (happily yet a little unfulfilled). Makes me want to read more about the Heechee.
Gene Wolfe - The Death of Doctor Island.
I can see the genre growing up as I progress through this chronologically ordered collection. Good story with an ending that was too enigmatic and mysterious for me. I like concrete endings that tie loose ends up and reveal the heart of the world. Still, the story was compelling enough - I only fell asleep once.
Kate Wilhelm - Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang.
Bittersweet tale about species, evolution, inclusion and, ultimately, exclusion. Told well in a modern style. Again, would have loved to know more about this world. It can be seen as a positive that the world is so compelling that it excites interest, but can also be seen as a negative in that it's a waste of a world if you are barred from exploring further.
Joanna Russ - Souls.
Viking tale turns into something else entirely, but maybe it would spoil it to tell you what. I don't believe the concluding statement - one who is conscious of the true nature of the world would be lifted, not punished.
Lucius Shepard - A Traveler's Tale.
Sci-fi tale or story if possession. The latter probably - it's in this book after all. I almost enjoyed it. I want to know more from a different perspective. Don't know what I really want to know, though.
Robert Silverberg - Sailing to Byzantium.
A deeply satisfying story. Bit of a slow burner to begin with and then, close to the end, it explodes into life. All the build-up was necessary, though - to paint the scene, ramp up the tension and take us to the launch-pad. What I've come to realise is what bugs me about all these stories: they are all like introductions to novels. Prefaces to worlds. There needs to be more.
James Patrick Kelly - Mr. Boy.
Best story so far. Modern, innovative and full of tech - just the way I like 'em. It's also a coming-of-age story, which is even better. I understand that there is a (kind of) follow up, but strangely - this is enough.
Nancy Kress - And Wild for to Hold.
Best of the stories in this book. Wanted a better ending, but the one it has is almost good enough. Very well told, and interesting at every turn. Enough happening to make compelling reading."
Jack Vance - The Miracle Workers.
Loved the premise, the story, the way it was told and the all-too-real characters. Interesting and immersive from start to finish. Great start to the collection.
Poul Anderson - The Longest Voyage.
Sad story, but one with positive points, not to mention a wisdom that goes beyond what most of us now have. Prescient in the way that good science fiction must be but seldom is.
Cordwainer Smith - On the Storm Planet.
Clever little story about ... lots of things including longevity, humanity, longing, greed and selfishness. Ending could have been better, but an entertaining read nontheless.
Samuel R. Delany - The Star Pit.
Anguished tale about feeling trapped and, ultimately, how to be free. Love the variety of tech in this story. Felt up-to-date even though it's decades old. Psychologically adept.
Brian W. Aldiss - Total Environment
Engrossing little tale that covers, a couple of decades earlier, similar themes to the Helliconia books - isolation and observation; the effect of environment on people; and change over time/generations. Bit disappointed that it ended so soon. Would really have liked to know what happened next.
Frederik Pohl - The Merchants of Venus.
Getting more modern as the stories progress from the 1960s to the 1970s but this one still has some of the hardboiled detective noir feel of the 1950s, where men are men and women try not to get in the way. Still, it's a suspenseful tale that made me eager to find out how it would end (happily yet a little unfulfilled). Makes me want to read more about the Heechee.
Gene Wolfe - The Death of Doctor Island.
I can see the genre growing up as I progress through this chronologically ordered collection. Good story with an ending that was too enigmatic and mysterious for me. I like concrete endings that tie loose ends up and reveal the heart of the world. Still, the story was compelling enough - I only fell asleep once.
Kate Wilhelm - Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang.
Bittersweet tale about species, evolution, inclusion and, ultimately, exclusion. Told well in a modern style. Again, would have loved to know more about this world. It can be seen as a positive that the world is so compelling that it excites interest, but can also be seen as a negative in that it's a waste of a world if you are barred from exploring further.
Joanna Russ - Souls.
Viking tale turns into something else entirely, but maybe it would spoil it to tell you what. I don't believe the concluding statement - one who is conscious of the true nature of the world would be lifted, not punished.
Lucius Shepard - A Traveler's Tale.
Sci-fi tale or story if possession. The latter probably - it's in this book after all. I almost enjoyed it. I want to know more from a different perspective. Don't know what I really want to know, though.
Robert Silverberg - Sailing to Byzantium.
A deeply satisfying story. Bit of a slow burner to begin with and then, close to the end, it explodes into life. All the build-up was necessary, though - to paint the scene, ramp up the tension and take us to the launch-pad. What I've come to realise is what bugs me about all these stories: they are all like introductions to novels. Prefaces to worlds. There needs to be more.
James Patrick Kelly - Mr. Boy.
Best story so far. Modern, innovative and full of tech - just the way I like 'em. It's also a coming-of-age story, which is even better. I understand that there is a (kind of) follow up, but strangely - this is enough.
Nancy Kress - And Wild for to Hold.
Best of the stories in this book. Wanted a better ending, but the one it has is almost good enough. Very well told, and interesting at every turn. Enough happening to make compelling reading."
November 8, 2017
One of the most lopsided anthologies I have come across. Contains two brilliant pieces (the Vance and the Silverberg), and only one so-and-so story, the remaining 10 ranging from poor to horrible.
Here's a breakdown:
- Jack Vance - "The Miracle Workers": 5 stars
Battles are fought in a science fantasy setting between factions of humans employing psychologic warfare and between humans and 'primitive' local aliens
Having previously read and not been impressed with Jack Vance, I was blown away by this very fast read that kept you turning pages.
- Poul Anderson - "The Longest Voyage": 2 stars
Another science fantasy setting with navigators trying to go all around the world
The writing style of P.A. is very diverse. Here I don't like it one bit.
- Cordwainer Smith - "On the Storm Planet": 1 star
This story begins okay-ish, with the main character wanting desperately to get off remote planet and is tasked with killing a woman, but the moment he knocks on the door and steps inside the entire narration changes and I was unable to follow (or care) about what was being talked.
- Samuel R. Delany - "The Star Pit": 2 stars
Interesting idea of only a limited group of humans being able to travel among the stars, typically treated with a style that I don't like one bit by S.R.D.. Neither was I able to finish it.
- Brian W. Aldiss - "Total Environment": 1 star
The usually clear Aldiss writes here a novella that I was simply unable to follow. Stopped after one third.
- Frederik Pohl - "The Merchants of Venus": 3 stars
The original prequel to the entire Heechee series is this novella where the mysterious Heechee typically do not appear. Venus guide leads wealthy(?) tourist on search for Heechee artifacts in ancient tunnels.
Nicely written, interesting setup, but nothing special.
- Gene Wolfe - "The Death of Doctor Island": 1 star
Almost skipped this story, based on previous experiences with Gene Wolfe, and that would've saved me one hour.
This looks like an attempt to write "The Blue Lagoon" in a sci-fi setting. Completely unintelligible, gave up mid-way through.
- Kate Wilhelm - "Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang": 2 stars
The near-future on-Earth semi-post-apocalyptic setting with cloning and assorted genetic manipulation leaves little room for useful characters, plot, or interesting situations.
- Joanna Russ - "Souls": 2 stars
How this can be treated as science-fiction is difficult to determine. Vikings attack an abbey and the head-nun talks them to death. Was okay-ish until the midpoint when the narration got really jumbled.
- Lucius Shepard - "A Traveler's Tale": 1 star
Skipped entirely as I got burned plenty of times with this supposedly science-fiction author.
- Robert Silverberg - "Sailing to Byzantium": 5 stars
Wow! Just wow! Silverberg delivers big time. This is superbly written, lyrical and very descriptive. Sometime in the deep future tourists are taken to visit ancient cities that have been rebuilt by robots.
- James Patrick Kelly - "Mr. Boy": 1 star
Was completely unable to determine what this one was about, or grasp its setting. The writing style is one of the worst I have ever seen. I simply couldn't progress after meeting this phrase: "Just ahead Satan was chatting with a forklift and a rhinoceros" wherein this was the first appearance of character(?) Satan.
- Nancy Kress - "And Wild for to Hold": 2 stars
Time adjustment team kidnaps one of Henry VIII's wifes and then debate with her whether the civil disorder in 17th century Britain really was avoided. Anne Boleyn is nicely penned, but the support cast and the setting are not one bit interesting.
Here's a breakdown:
- Jack Vance - "The Miracle Workers": 5 stars
Battles are fought in a science fantasy setting between factions of humans employing psychologic warfare and between humans and 'primitive' local aliens
Having previously read and not been impressed with Jack Vance, I was blown away by this very fast read that kept you turning pages.
- Poul Anderson - "The Longest Voyage": 2 stars
Another science fantasy setting with navigators trying to go all around the world
The writing style of P.A. is very diverse. Here I don't like it one bit.
- Cordwainer Smith - "On the Storm Planet": 1 star
This story begins okay-ish, with the main character wanting desperately to get off remote planet and is tasked with killing a woman, but the moment he knocks on the door and steps inside the entire narration changes and I was unable to follow (or care) about what was being talked.
- Samuel R. Delany - "The Star Pit": 2 stars
Interesting idea of only a limited group of humans being able to travel among the stars, typically treated with a style that I don't like one bit by S.R.D.. Neither was I able to finish it.
- Brian W. Aldiss - "Total Environment": 1 star
The usually clear Aldiss writes here a novella that I was simply unable to follow. Stopped after one third.
- Frederik Pohl - "The Merchants of Venus": 3 stars
The original prequel to the entire Heechee series is this novella where the mysterious Heechee typically do not appear. Venus guide leads wealthy(?) tourist on search for Heechee artifacts in ancient tunnels.
Nicely written, interesting setup, but nothing special.
- Gene Wolfe - "The Death of Doctor Island": 1 star
Almost skipped this story, based on previous experiences with Gene Wolfe, and that would've saved me one hour.
This looks like an attempt to write "The Blue Lagoon" in a sci-fi setting. Completely unintelligible, gave up mid-way through.
- Kate Wilhelm - "Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang": 2 stars
The near-future on-Earth semi-post-apocalyptic setting with cloning and assorted genetic manipulation leaves little room for useful characters, plot, or interesting situations.
- Joanna Russ - "Souls": 2 stars
How this can be treated as science-fiction is difficult to determine. Vikings attack an abbey and the head-nun talks them to death. Was okay-ish until the midpoint when the narration got really jumbled.
- Lucius Shepard - "A Traveler's Tale": 1 star
Skipped entirely as I got burned plenty of times with this supposedly science-fiction author.
- Robert Silverberg - "Sailing to Byzantium": 5 stars
Wow! Just wow! Silverberg delivers big time. This is superbly written, lyrical and very descriptive. Sometime in the deep future tourists are taken to visit ancient cities that have been rebuilt by robots.
- James Patrick Kelly - "Mr. Boy": 1 star
Was completely unable to determine what this one was about, or grasp its setting. The writing style is one of the worst I have ever seen. I simply couldn't progress after meeting this phrase: "Just ahead Satan was chatting with a forklift and a rhinoceros" wherein this was the first appearance of character(?) Satan.
- Nancy Kress - "And Wild for to Hold": 2 stars
Time adjustment team kidnaps one of Henry VIII's wifes and then debate with her whether the civil disorder in 17th century Britain really was avoided. Anne Boleyn is nicely penned, but the support cast and the setting are not one bit interesting.
July 1, 2016
Recently I went through a lot of sf short stories collections, I read everything, from journals to "best of the year" (or best of anything) collections. Usually they are plain bad, only a few stories are readable, one is good, others are plain junk. This collection, however, is great! Most of the stories are solidly good, some are more, others less interesting, but every one of them is worth its time.
October 20, 2021
Mixed bag - pretty typical for an anthology. The reader and the editor likely won't agree on what constitutes "classic." For that matter I'm sure many other readers won't agree with this reader. Where the Late Sweet Birds Sang, for example, is definitely a classic. The Brian Aldiss piece is also great. On the other end of the spectrum is the last story in the anthology, And Wild for to Hold, which features a barely plausible premise, characters that are poorly fleshed out, and an ending that is overwrought and unbelievable. Or the first story for that matter, The Miracle Workers, which is so ridiculous I could not engage with it at all. I will say this anthology has enough variety that it's likely you'll find something in it you enjoy.
April 23, 2018
More like 2.5 stars. This is a mixed bag of novellas for me, some really good and some not much more than readable, and only a couple I've read before.
September 1, 2020
Some very good stories, but most read as contemporary American fiction rather than high quality science fiction. Poor value for money. The authors may be "masters" but not these stories!
October 15, 2021
Too much fantasy for my taste. Total Environment and Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang were the best stories to me.
May 6, 2022
Enjoyed Jack Vance The Miracle Workers
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 26, 2020
Has the look of an important mid-length anthology.
The Miracle Workers by Jack Vance: Exotic hybrid of science fiction and fantasy, reasonably clear exposition followed by rapid-paced involvement in a dire situation put this in the plus column.
The Longest Voyage by Poul Anderson: Exposition slow, but smooth sailing afterward. Flawed conclusion.
On the Storm Planet by Cordwainer Smith: Diffuse, unemotional, carried by the author's dazzling bombardment of concepts, most unexplored.
The Star Pit by Samuel R Delany: Not especially suspenseful, but involving. Ultimately felt incoherent and pointless.
Total Environment by Brian Aldiss: Interesting sociological extrapolation as its basis. Intelligent plotting.
Merchants of Venus by Frederik Pohl: Dozois gives author a big buildup, we'll see how much support this entry provides. Surprisingly strong considering my impression from the title. Impressed with this, my first exposure to later Pohl, and a much more modern read for its time than expected.
The Death of Dr. Island by Gene Wolfe: My second reading of this perplexing "story", seemed more coherent, held my interest all the way through -- slightly more impressed with the writing, but what is raison d'etre? what is worth pondering?
Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm: A complete surprise, no preconceptions story- or author-wise coming in. Evokes for me the hopelessness of On the Beach. Hard to tear myself away after reaching last night's reading quota.
Souls by Joanna Russ: Ed. gave author/story the usual buildup, but I found the political aspects of the more recent Russ stories I'd read to be unappealing,so it was a major surprise to find them absent or largely tuned down in this thoroughly enjoyable subtle and absorbing piece. Contributing to that is the ambiguity of religious content.
A Traveler's Tale by Lucius Shepard: More accessible than my earlier Shepard readings, liking the language. Just misses my favorites here.
Sailing to Byzantium by Robert Silverberg: Intriguing welll-told idea. No inkling yet of where it's going (so to speak.) The author in top form.
Mr Boy by James Patrick Kelly: This is what I thought cyberpunk was like if I hadn't read numerous incoherent examples of it. Here I can tell what's going on. Moves along, but characters are unappealing.
And Wild for to Hold by Nancy Kress: Unusual time-travel based idea. Kress continues to rise in my esteem.
An anthology top-heavy with excellence.
The Miracle Workers by Jack Vance: Exotic hybrid of science fiction and fantasy, reasonably clear exposition followed by rapid-paced involvement in a dire situation put this in the plus column.
The Longest Voyage by Poul Anderson: Exposition slow, but smooth sailing afterward. Flawed conclusion.
On the Storm Planet by Cordwainer Smith: Diffuse, unemotional, carried by the author's dazzling bombardment of concepts, most unexplored.
The Star Pit by Samuel R Delany: Not especially suspenseful, but involving. Ultimately felt incoherent and pointless.
Total Environment by Brian Aldiss: Interesting sociological extrapolation as its basis. Intelligent plotting.
Merchants of Venus by Frederik Pohl: Dozois gives author a big buildup, we'll see how much support this entry provides. Surprisingly strong considering my impression from the title. Impressed with this, my first exposure to later Pohl, and a much more modern read for its time than expected.
The Death of Dr. Island by Gene Wolfe: My second reading of this perplexing "story", seemed more coherent, held my interest all the way through -- slightly more impressed with the writing, but what is raison d'etre? what is worth pondering?
Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm: A complete surprise, no preconceptions story- or author-wise coming in. Evokes for me the hopelessness of On the Beach. Hard to tear myself away after reaching last night's reading quota.
Souls by Joanna Russ: Ed. gave author/story the usual buildup, but I found the political aspects of the more recent Russ stories I'd read to be unappealing,so it was a major surprise to find them absent or largely tuned down in this thoroughly enjoyable subtle and absorbing piece. Contributing to that is the ambiguity of religious content.
A Traveler's Tale by Lucius Shepard: More accessible than my earlier Shepard readings, liking the language. Just misses my favorites here.
Sailing to Byzantium by Robert Silverberg: Intriguing welll-told idea. No inkling yet of where it's going (so to speak.) The author in top form.
Mr Boy by James Patrick Kelly: This is what I thought cyberpunk was like if I hadn't read numerous incoherent examples of it. Here I can tell what's going on. Moves along, but characters are unappealing.
And Wild for to Hold by Nancy Kress: Unusual time-travel based idea. Kress continues to rise in my esteem.
An anthology top-heavy with excellence.
Want to read
June 8, 202513 novellas:
(8/13 read)
*** The Miracle Workers (1958) • Jack Vance
The Longest Voyage (1960) • Poul Anderson
*** On the Storm Planet (1965) • Cordwainer Smith
**** The Star Pit (1967) • Samuel R. Delany
* Total Environment (1968) • Brian W. Aldiss
The Merchants of Venus (1972) • Frederik Pohl
***** The Death of Doctor Island (1973) • Gene Wolfe
**** Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang (1974) • Kate Wilhelm
***** Souls (1982) • Joanna Russ
A Traveler's Tale (1984) • Lucius Shepard
**** Sailing to Byzantium (1985) • Robert Silverberg
Mr. Boy (1990) • James Patrick Kelly
And Wild for to Hold (1991) • Nancy Kress
(8/13 read)
*** The Miracle Workers (1958) • Jack Vance
The Longest Voyage (1960) • Poul Anderson
*** On the Storm Planet (1965) • Cordwainer Smith
**** The Star Pit (1967) • Samuel R. Delany
* Total Environment (1968) • Brian W. Aldiss
The Merchants of Venus (1972) • Frederik Pohl
***** The Death of Doctor Island (1973) • Gene Wolfe
**** Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang (1974) • Kate Wilhelm
***** Souls (1982) • Joanna Russ
A Traveler's Tale (1984) • Lucius Shepard
**** Sailing to Byzantium (1985) • Robert Silverberg
Mr. Boy (1990) • James Patrick Kelly
And Wild for to Hold (1991) • Nancy Kress
September 14, 2014
I trust Dozois to find the best material for anthologies and this book does not disappoint. The stories in this book were all published before or in 1990, and most were well before that time. These are true classics. Several have images that I still think about. Notable are the stories by Vance, Aldiss and Silverberg. This tome should be on any SF fan's shelf.
September 14, 2016
A few brilliant gems. My personal favorites: Mr. Boy, Souls, And Wild For To Hold.
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