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Nova #1
Nova One
Libro usado en buenas condiciones, por su antiguedad podria contener señales normales de uso
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1970
2 people are currently reading
101 people want to read
About the author
Harry Harrison
1,279 books1,041 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Harry Harrison (born Henry Maxwell Dempsey) was an American science fiction author best known for his character the The Stainless Steel Rat and the novel Make Room! Make Room! (1966), the basis for the film Soylent Green (1973). He was also (with Brian W. Aldiss) co-president of the Birmingham Science Fiction Group.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
Harry Harrison (born Henry Maxwell Dempsey) was an American science fiction author best known for his character the The Stainless Steel Rat and the novel Make Room! Make Room! (1966), the basis for the film Soylent Green (1973). He was also (with Brian W. Aldiss) co-president of the Birmingham Science Fiction Group.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 1, 2025
Diving into Harrison's Nova series had me quite trepidatious. Mainly because editor Harry Harrison seems like a tightly-wound tart in a way (I read and watched interviews where he condemns the metaphysical in SF like an obstinate blowhard). However, this first volume is quite solid, on par with the early 70s American speculative remix.
The Big Connection • (1970) • short story by Robin Scott Wilson [as by Robin Scott] - two buddies who may be talking apes or bedraggled hippies (we're not quite sure) fumble about the epitomized drug-hazed, future-failing New York City like a vaudeville duo in the Catskills. Tepid.
A Happy Day in 2381 • [Urban Monad] • (1970) • short story by Robert Silverberg - perhaps the lone precursor to his novel 'The World Inside', Silverberg examines future high-rise living with his usual mockery of bumbling societies eating off the same dirty plate. Some intriguing concepts on free love and cohabitation, but it feels like a turgid walking tour of a world that somehow feels unfinished.
Terminus Est • (1970) • short story by Barry N. Malzberg - Malzberg kicks his readers in the nuts again. A moon settlement is in the throes of complete failure. One worker blames the lazy hippies who people the station and do absolutely nothing. A shocking banger of a climax, and perhaps, Mr. Misanthrope Malzberg may be the only writer who can find humor in mass shootings.
Hexamnion • (1970) • short story by Chan Davis - lots of floating scientists researching human behavior patterns in confinement. Rather opaque and dull, I'm not sure what Davis is telling us about human sexual coupling here.
And This Did Dante Do • (1967) • poem by Ray Bradbury - another short entry for Bradbury to get his name on the book cover. Typical.
The Higher Things • [Professor Manderpootz • 5] • (1970) • short story by John R. Pierce [as by J. R. Pierce] - Who is the great Manderpootz? Well, nobody really cares actually. An opaque entry with too much dialogue and too little direction.
Swastika! • (1970) • short story by Brian W. Aldiss - another entry into the 'If Hitler Lived' sub-sub-genre. Entertaining for its playful situation, but yet another talky expose that plays with expectations of comedy, but only delivers a mildly amusing one-off joke.
The Horars of War • (1970) • short story by Gene Wolfe - a fine tale where a human soldier infiltrates a cyborg military unit in a future war that may as well be Vietnam. Quite a glum outlook in this one, one covered in sweat fire and steel, and rather concise at playing with expectations of the soldier where their bones are made of iron.
Love Story in Three Acts • (1970) • short story by David Gerrold - nothing more than a pun. Failing married couple need a machine to 'get off' between the sheets. A low-rent story perhaps best suited for the back pages of Playboy.
Jean Duprès • (1970) • novelette by Gordon R. Dickson - another solid anti-war tale, but with Dickson's untarnished prose, this one tires itself at nearly 60 pages. The native aliens, Klahari, are what drives the novella. Emerald-skinned jungle warriors wearing the plumage of the Aztec Gods. Allegiances get tested, strongholds are destroyed, and the fates of failure run deep. Solid examination of ritualized war and xenophobic muscle.
In the Pocket • (1970) • short story by Barry N. Malzberg [as by K. M. O'Donnell] - not sure if this a precursor to his novel, 'The Men Inside', but yet again Malzberg delivers another kick to the privates. Here a crazed micro-scientist shrinks himself down, enters the bloodstream of his frazzled patients and zaps at cancer cells with his fine laser cutting system. Is he really helping them though? Or is he taking his nanotechnology and making himself a minuscule yet judgemental God, taking the piss out of science. Excellent parody of Asmiov's 'Fantastic Voyage.'
Mary and Joe • (1962) • short story by Naomi Mitchison - mildly amusing parable of Mary, Joseph and their child, Jaycee Christ.
Faces & Hands • (1970) • novelette by James Sallis (variant of Faces, Hands) - Successful in glimmers but so weighted down by its own New Wave sensibilities, it's like sludging through muck. Bird women and mortal human service men looking out long windows into the night. Yeah, it's that kind of story. There is a one-night stand, a stranded diplomat, and much evocation of the neo-imperialist take on Vietnam and leaving lovers behind. Frustrating but rather interesting.
The Winner • (1970) • short story by Donald E. Westlake - crime writer Westlake takes on SF with this simple brass-knuckled moral tale. A prison without borders or guards, a new inmate takes to the fields for his freedom, but implanted in his gut is a torture device that inflicts more pain with each step outside the wireless barrier. Nothing subtle about this one but it's quick, sharp and was a breath of fresh air in tone and delivery after the verbose muck of prior entries.
The Whole Truth • (1970) • short story by Piers Anthony - Not the Anthony eye-roll story I was expecting. A lone surveyor on an asteroid witnesses a human walking the landscape towards his watch station. Unsure if she's a phantom, a ghost, a deceptor, or killer, the surveyor finds his loneliness and desires at the crux of his desolate fate. A fine way to end the collection, sex and war and little else.
The Big Connection • (1970) • short story by Robin Scott Wilson [as by Robin Scott] - two buddies who may be talking apes or bedraggled hippies (we're not quite sure) fumble about the epitomized drug-hazed, future-failing New York City like a vaudeville duo in the Catskills. Tepid.
A Happy Day in 2381 • [Urban Monad] • (1970) • short story by Robert Silverberg - perhaps the lone precursor to his novel 'The World Inside', Silverberg examines future high-rise living with his usual mockery of bumbling societies eating off the same dirty plate. Some intriguing concepts on free love and cohabitation, but it feels like a turgid walking tour of a world that somehow feels unfinished.
Terminus Est • (1970) • short story by Barry N. Malzberg - Malzberg kicks his readers in the nuts again. A moon settlement is in the throes of complete failure. One worker blames the lazy hippies who people the station and do absolutely nothing. A shocking banger of a climax, and perhaps, Mr. Misanthrope Malzberg may be the only writer who can find humor in mass shootings.
Hexamnion • (1970) • short story by Chan Davis - lots of floating scientists researching human behavior patterns in confinement. Rather opaque and dull, I'm not sure what Davis is telling us about human sexual coupling here.
And This Did Dante Do • (1967) • poem by Ray Bradbury - another short entry for Bradbury to get his name on the book cover. Typical.
The Higher Things • [Professor Manderpootz • 5] • (1970) • short story by John R. Pierce [as by J. R. Pierce] - Who is the great Manderpootz? Well, nobody really cares actually. An opaque entry with too much dialogue and too little direction.
Swastika! • (1970) • short story by Brian W. Aldiss - another entry into the 'If Hitler Lived' sub-sub-genre. Entertaining for its playful situation, but yet another talky expose that plays with expectations of comedy, but only delivers a mildly amusing one-off joke.
The Horars of War • (1970) • short story by Gene Wolfe - a fine tale where a human soldier infiltrates a cyborg military unit in a future war that may as well be Vietnam. Quite a glum outlook in this one, one covered in sweat fire and steel, and rather concise at playing with expectations of the soldier where their bones are made of iron.
Love Story in Three Acts • (1970) • short story by David Gerrold - nothing more than a pun. Failing married couple need a machine to 'get off' between the sheets. A low-rent story perhaps best suited for the back pages of Playboy.
Jean Duprès • (1970) • novelette by Gordon R. Dickson - another solid anti-war tale, but with Dickson's untarnished prose, this one tires itself at nearly 60 pages. The native aliens, Klahari, are what drives the novella. Emerald-skinned jungle warriors wearing the plumage of the Aztec Gods. Allegiances get tested, strongholds are destroyed, and the fates of failure run deep. Solid examination of ritualized war and xenophobic muscle.
In the Pocket • (1970) • short story by Barry N. Malzberg [as by K. M. O'Donnell] - not sure if this a precursor to his novel, 'The Men Inside', but yet again Malzberg delivers another kick to the privates. Here a crazed micro-scientist shrinks himself down, enters the bloodstream of his frazzled patients and zaps at cancer cells with his fine laser cutting system. Is he really helping them though? Or is he taking his nanotechnology and making himself a minuscule yet judgemental God, taking the piss out of science. Excellent parody of Asmiov's 'Fantastic Voyage.'
Mary and Joe • (1962) • short story by Naomi Mitchison - mildly amusing parable of Mary, Joseph and their child, Jaycee Christ.
Faces & Hands • (1970) • novelette by James Sallis (variant of Faces, Hands) - Successful in glimmers but so weighted down by its own New Wave sensibilities, it's like sludging through muck. Bird women and mortal human service men looking out long windows into the night. Yeah, it's that kind of story. There is a one-night stand, a stranded diplomat, and much evocation of the neo-imperialist take on Vietnam and leaving lovers behind. Frustrating but rather interesting.
The Winner • (1970) • short story by Donald E. Westlake - crime writer Westlake takes on SF with this simple brass-knuckled moral tale. A prison without borders or guards, a new inmate takes to the fields for his freedom, but implanted in his gut is a torture device that inflicts more pain with each step outside the wireless barrier. Nothing subtle about this one but it's quick, sharp and was a breath of fresh air in tone and delivery after the verbose muck of prior entries.
The Whole Truth • (1970) • short story by Piers Anthony - Not the Anthony eye-roll story I was expecting. A lone surveyor on an asteroid witnesses a human walking the landscape towards his watch station. Unsure if she's a phantom, a ghost, a deceptor, or killer, the surveyor finds his loneliness and desires at the crux of his desolate fate. A fine way to end the collection, sex and war and little else.
September 10, 2020
Nova was an original anthology series edited by Harry Harrison that presented what was known as "New Wave" stories at the time, works that were more experimental and character-driven than what was found in the traditional digest magazines. Nova wasn't as successful, I believe, as Robert Silverberg's New Dimensions, Terry Carr's Universe, or Damon Knight's Orbit, but he did get some good stories. This inaugural volume has a pair of good Barry N. Malzberg stories (one as by K.M. O'Donnell, his just-as-well-known pseudonym), and good ones by Gordon R. Dickson, Donald E. Westlake (one of his rare sf genre appearances), Silverberg, and Gene Wolfe.
December 2, 2015
Not as great as the back cover blurb makes it out to be. In fact, quite a disappointment.
December 31, 2018
It's fun to read this kind of old school science fiction stories. This collection makes for easy reading, and the so-called up and coming writers include several who went on to fame. These stories almost all feel dated now, and some are influence by the "New Wave science fiction" genre of the 60s and 70s, as well as the Vietnam war.
April 14, 2023
The Big Connection - 3⭐️
A Happy Day In 2381 - 4⭐️
Terminus EST - 3⭐️
Hexaminion - 4⭐️
And This Did Dante Do - 3⭐️
The Higher Things - 5⭐️
Swastika - 3⭐️
The Horrars Of War - 3⭐️
Love Story In Three Acts - 4⭐️
Jean Dupres- 2⭐️
In The Pocket - 3⭐️
Mary And Joe - 3⭐️
Faces & Hands - 3⭐️
The Winner - 5⭐️
The Whole Truth - 4⭐️
A Happy Day In 2381 - 4⭐️
Terminus EST - 3⭐️
Hexaminion - 4⭐️
And This Did Dante Do - 3⭐️
The Higher Things - 5⭐️
Swastika - 3⭐️
The Horrars Of War - 3⭐️
Love Story In Three Acts - 4⭐️
Jean Dupres- 2⭐️
In The Pocket - 3⭐️
Mary And Joe - 3⭐️
Faces & Hands - 3⭐️
The Winner - 5⭐️
The Whole Truth - 4⭐️
March 20, 2024
Ordentliche Collection. Das Highlight ist die geniale Story von Silverberg "Ein glücklicher Tag im Jahre 2381" (wovon es auch eine Roman-Version gibt). Sie beschreibt ein Utopia, das dem Leser wohl eher horrend erscheint: die Erde ist mit 75 Mia. (überwiegend) glücklichen Menschen bevölkert, die in 3 km hohen Wohntürmen leben. Und ihr Lebensziel ist, noch mehr Kinder zu kriegen.
February 27, 2013
Bought this because my friend has Nova 4 on his shelf, which i wanted to read. I'm one of these people who has to read one, two and three before i could borrow his book. Glad i did because this has some really good stories in it. This was published in 1970 and from a distance of forty plus years, it is interesting to note that writers looking to the future in the sixties seem to be concerned mainly with free love and earths over-population. Typical hippies! The Gene Wolfe story has a bit of Terminator and Platoon ideas in it. Also thought Westlake was excellent but Dickson was the outstanding story.
November 8, 2011
Decent collection of science fiction stories read during winter break from school.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews