Great Science Fiction of the 20th Century

by Robert Silverberg (Compiler), Martin H. Greenberg (Compiler)

A collection of stories by the greatest names in the genre

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies

726 pages, Hardcover

First published August 12, 1987

About the author

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Robert Silverberg is a highly celebrated American science fiction author and editor known for his prolific output and literary range. Over a career spanning decades, he has won multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards and was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2004. Inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 1999, Silverberg is recognized for both his immense productivity and his contributions to the genre's evolution.
Born in Brooklyn, he began writing in his teens and won his first Hugo Award in 1956 as the best new writer. Throughout the 1950s, he produced vast amounts of fiction, often under pseudonyms, and was known for writing up to a million words a year. When the market declined, he diversified into other genres, including historical nonfiction and erotica.
Silverberg’s return to science fiction in the 1960s marked a shift toward deeper psychological and literary themes, contributing significantly to the New Wave movement. Acclaimed works from this period include Downward to the Earth, Dying Inside, Nightwings, and The World Inside. In the 1980s, he launched the Majipoor series with Lord Valentine’s Castle, creating one of the most imaginative planetary settings in science fiction.
Though he announced his retirement from writing in the mid-1970s, Silverberg returned with renewed vigor and continued to publish acclaimed fiction into the 1990s. He received further recognition with the Nebula-winning Sailing to Byzantium and the Hugo-winning Gilgamesh in the Outback.
Silverberg has also played a significant role as an editor and anthologist, shaping science fiction literature through both his own work and his influence on others. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, author Karen Haber.

Reviews

[TrumanCoyote · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title was a bit of a cheat (the original one was a lot more accurate). Anyway, it's got some good stuff, like the wondrously written "Angel's Egg" and Heinlein's "Zombies." "Unready To Wear" was better than I remembered it, and of course there was also the Leiber story and "Light of Other Days." Unfortunately though it also had Malzberg, and that thing by Aldiss was dreadful--overwritten New Wave hokum. The main problem was though that it featured quite a bit of stuff in the vein of the Jack Vance, Cordwainer Smith and Vonda McIntyre stories: all rather imponderable, with concepts I couldn't get a grasp on. Just these vague blurs of words going by. Which is pretty much the reason I stopped reading science fiction from the past 30 years or so.

[Keith Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic but long out of print anthology that I devoured when it first came out back in 1987. It inspired me to seek out more of the works of many of the authors included, particularly Avram Davidson, Theodore Sturgeon, William Tenn, and Henry Kuttner.