More Penguin Science Fiction

by Brian W. Aldiss (Editor)

Contents include: Intro / The Monkey Wrench by Gordon R. Dickson / The First Men by Howard Fast / Counterfeit by Alan E. Nourse / The Greater Thing by Tom Godwin / Build Up Logically by Howard Schoenfeld / The Liberation of Earth by William Tenn / An Alien Agony by Harry Harrison / The Tunnel Under the World by Frederik Pohl / The Store of the Worlds by Robert Sheckley / Jokester by Isaac Asimov / Pyramid by Robert Abernathy / The Forgotten Enemy by Arthur C. Clarke.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Fiction

236 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

Pseudonyms: Jael Cracken, Peter Pica, John Runciman, C.C. Shackleton, Arch Mendicant, & "Doc" Peristyle.

Brian Wilson Aldiss was one of the most important voices in science fiction writing today. He wrote his first novel while working as a bookseller in Oxford. Shortly afterwards he wrote his first work of science fiction and soon gained international recognition. Adored for his innovative literary techniques, evocative plots and irresistible characters, he became a Grand Master of Science Fiction in 1999.
Brian Aldiss died on August 19, 2017, just after celebrating his 92nd birthday with his family and closest friends.

Brian W. Aldiss Group on Good Reads

Reviews

[Paul Bryant · Rating 4 out of 5]

10 stories from the 50s plus 2 from the early 60s; a rocking great early sf collection which exploded my teenage brain way back when. In those days each story created entirely new types of thoughts in my brain. Now I’m lucky to get a new thought once every six years. My favourites here are :

- "The First Men" by Howard Fast. A tale full of naïve heartstopping optimism, a rare quality in science fiction. Psychologists create a community of orphan children (grabbed up from all over the world) with the idea of discovering what would happen if such kids were shielded from the toxic environments they usually grow up in and brought up with love. What happens is that they discover their innate mental abilities – telekinesis, telepathy, flying, whatnot – and seal themselves off from the rest of the world. As you would.

- "Build Up Logically" by Howard Schoenfeld.
Frank put his hand out in front of him and moved it back and forth a couple of times, inventing the rabbit. Getting to feel the creature’s fur, he built it up logically from the feel. It was the only animal that could have produced that particular feel, and I was proud of him for thinking of it.

- "The Tunnel Under the World" by Frederik Pohl. Starts off as a Groundhog style repeating day (stories (and movies) like that are a whole genre of their own), then gets wilder and crazier. Then more crazier.

In the 50s and 60 science fiction writers had cute ideas and wrote 30 page stories about them. Now they have vast complicated dreams and write 800 page novels about them.

[Rob Frampton · Rating 3 out of 5]

A compact little anthology from 1963, a time when Penguins were orange and the New Wave of SF a distant prospect. And it's a selection that's incredibly variable in quality; from clunkers like Alan E. Nourse's 'Counterfeit' and Isaac Asimov's 'Jokester', to Robert Abernathy's lesson in political economy 'Pyramid', and then the darkly comic 'The Liberation of Earth' by William Tenn and Arthur C. Clarke's wistful paen to disappearing civilization 'The Forgotten Enemy'. It is, perhaps, appropriate that the best story isn't even really SF at all; Howard Schoenfeld's 'Build Up Logically' is a laugh-out-loud-funny piece of meta-fiction that would grace a collection of short stories in all genres.
It's often difficult to be dispassionate about the quality of much 50-odd year old SF. Not only were these different times in socio-political terms, many writers were practising scientists unfamiliar with such subtleties as characterization and plot. Originality of ideas could often carry a story only so far. It's probably best to view "More Penguin Science Fiction" as a curate's egg, a historical curio, a nostalgia trip for those of us who were enthralled by these stories but are grateful that the writing got better, the plots more believable and the ideas more incredible.
The past's futures are another country.

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

This UK anthology, first published in 1964, has many fine stories, but it does have many things wrong with it. First off, the majority of these stories can be found in many other sci-fi anthologies. If this is your first sci-fi story collection, then great. You're in for a treat. But if you're familiar with the genre (and sub-genres within it), then there's very little, if anything, new.

Another problem, inherent with science fiction as a whole, is that science fact renders many classic sci-fi stories ridiculous. For example, there is a lot of smoking done in old sci-fi. Nuclear bombs go off like popcorn in a microwave. And a woman's place was in the home.

Readers who are hoping for a bunch of science fiction stories about penguins are going to be bitterly disappointed. Penguin was the publisher.

Selections:

* "Introduction" by Our Editor. Interesting intro, with nice bits like "Whatever SF does, it does with a vengeance." Notes how reading about suffering and destruction can actually make you feel good. Also answers a couple of criticisms of sci-fi, and does brief author bios.
* "The Monkey Wrench" by Gordon R. Dickson. This has appeared in several anthologies, for good reasons. However, it inspired so many imitators, that it lacks a punch.
* "The First Men" by Howard Fast. This is basically a retelling of Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke, first published in 1953. Fast wrote this kinder, gentler version three years later. Clarke apparently didn't find it worth his while to sue.
* "Counterfeit" by Alan E. Nourse. This is basically a Star Trek episode gone horribly wrong, written years before the first episode of Star Trek ever aired. Gotta laugh at all the cigarette smoking, even by the ship's doctor.
* "The Greater Thing" by Tom Goodwin. Rather overdramatic and oversentimental story of an intelligent blob, brought about by an atomic bomb, helping two Underground fighters overthrow an authoritarian State, which outlawed democracy, books, and religion. There is a dog, but amazingly, nothing happens to the dog.
* "Build Up Logically" by Howard Schoenfeld. I'm a failed writer, so I loved this genuinely amusing story about a writer who really writes stories ... science fiction or otherwise. This is found in other sci-fi anthologies.
* "The Liberation of Earth" by William Tenn/Philip Klass. This, also, is in several anthologies. It's an accurate and biting parody of governments "liberating" the natives from imaginary threats. Also has memorable slang.
* "An Alien Agony" by Harry Harrison. This, too, is in many anthologies. A world with intelligent animals that has never sinned gets its first human Christian priest.
* "The Tunnel Under the World by Frederick Pohl. A good American wakes up every day to discover it's always June 15 ... and nobody seems to notice but him. Just as pertinent today as when this was first published.
* "The Store of the Worlds" by Robert Sheckley. A man gets to spend a year in the alternative world he most desires ... for a very simple reason.
* "Jokester" by Isaac Asimov. A Grand Master of chess and a supercomputer try and discover the origin of humor. This interesting story is a bit out of date, since computers have changed, and it's been proven many times that humans are NOT the only animal that laughs.
* "Pyramid" by Robert Abernathy. The pyramids of the title have nothing to do with Egypt. Humans are imported to a planet to take care of a hamster population explosion. This is a promising story that has no resolution.
* "The Forgotten Enemy" by Arthur C. Clarke. This is a brief, sad sketch of a story about the last man left in London after a climactic disaster emptied most of the Northern Hemisphere. Dogs left behind starve, but not all animals are wiped out. This was a warning from Clarke that was ignored.

[Conor Bateman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frederik Pohl's The Tunnel under the World was the standout story in what was a very eclectic bunch of mid-century science fiction. William Tenn's brutally funny The Liberation of Earth, and Robert Sheckley's brutally abrupt The Store of the Worlds were also highlights.

For what it's worth, the Asimov struck me as the weakest; though fairly similar to the Dickson story that opens the book, in that it was fixated on a machine learning problem, Jokester felt tossed off, a trait that stood out in a book packed with wobbly, sprawling stories that, despite clunky endings, were interesting enough to keep up with (Fast, Schoenfeld, Abernathy).

[SpentCello · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of these stories were enjoyable but most of them were rather average or boring. I would have liked either a bit more variation in the anthology or a clear theme. I did enjoy Pohl's story in particular, but so many of the others were not overly well-written or interesting. I've read much better science fiction anthologies before.

[Rob Roy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of short stories written over 50 years ago by some of the Science Fiction greats. Each story is extremely well crafted and have a twist at the end that you rarely see coming. This is the golden age of science fiction at its best.

[Lucy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The best bit of this anthology was the introduction. It's a long while since I read any mid-century science fiction, and I'd forgotten how boring it could be.