The Williamson Effect

Berserker

by Roger Zelazny (Editor), David Brin (Introduction), Jeff Bredenberg (Contributor)

Acclaimed science fiction and fantasy writer Roger Zelazny has brings together some of today's greatest sci-fi writers to honor Jack Williamson, author of such classic and groundbreaking works as "The Legions of Space" and "The Humanoids", with terrific original stories either about Williamson or inspired by his works.

CONTENTS
A world in love with change - David Brin
The Mayor of Mare Tranq - Frederik Pohl
Before the legion - Paul Dellinger
Inside passage - Poul Anderson
Risk assessment - Ben Bova
Williamson's World (poem) - Scott E. Green
Emancipation - Pati Nagle
Thinkertoy - John Brunner
The bad machines - Fred Saberhagen
The human ingredient - Jeff Bredenberg
Child of the night - Jane Lindskold
A certain talent - David Weber
Nonstop to Portales - Connie Willis
No folded hands - Andre Norton
Darker than you wrote - Mike Resnick
Near Portales ... Freedom Shouts (poem) - Scott E. Green
Worlds that never were: The last adventure of the Legion of Time - John J. Miller

Genres: Science Fiction, Collections, Short Stories, Speculative Fiction, Anthologies

349 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1996

About the author

Roger Joseph Zelazny was an American fantasy and science fiction writer known for his short stories and novels, best known for The Chronicles of Amber. He won the Nebula Award three times (out of 14 nominations) and the Hugo Award six times (also out of 14 nominations), including two Hugos for novels: the serialized novel ...And Call Me Conrad (1965), subsequently published under the title This Immortal (1966), and the novel Lord of Light (1967).

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've never been a huge Williamson fan, although I've read some of his stories through the years. The Humanoids were definitely his most haunting invention. I read about them early on & they've colored my thinking ever since as our laws slowly constrict to make our own world safer. How much is too much?

His Legion of Space had more interesting science than the more popular & easier to acquire Lensman series & were more fun, but I haven't read either in decades, so I wasn't in any rush to read this anthology. I'm glad I got around to it, though. Zelazny got the project together & started editing it, then had the bad form to die. Others finished it & it was a fine job.

Normally I rate every story in a collection of this type, but I'm not going to do that this time. The stories are all good, written by some of the best in the business; LeGuin, Norton, Saberhagen, & more. These icons wrote in another's universe, merged it with theirs, & bared their hearts on how influential Williamson was on their own writing. The stories are great on too many different levels. There's SF & fantasy history, biographical info & anecdotes that are priceless, but they were also just a lot of fun.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to admit that I am not particularly familiar with Jack Williamson's work. I am aware of his work, but I don't think that I've ever read any of his books. So why buy and read this collection of short stories written in tribute to Williamson? Because it was edited by Roger Zelazny ... whose work I AM familiar with and greatly admire.

It shouldn't come as a surprise then that I found myself really enjoying this stories and now am looking forward to reading some Williamson work.

It has been awhile since I actually finished reading this collection, so the stories are not fresh in my mind, but I don't think that there are any obvious stand-outs for being excellent. Instead, unlike so many collections I read, nearly all the stories piqued my interest, touching on something which I assume is that talent of Jack Williamson.

Fred Saberhagen's story, "The Bad Machines," has made me want to read both Williamson's The Humanoids and Saberhange's 'Berserker' books. Poul Anderson's "Inside Passage" has got me looking for Jack's Darker Than You Think. And I'm very curious to read more of The Legion of Time, and see how much Giles Habibula really is like Falstaff. John Brunner is a fantastic writer, and his "Thinkertoy" was a delight.

All around, this is a fantastic collection. It's a book like this that has me really enjoying short fiction. I've read some great fiction and hopefully discovered a new author or two.

Highly recommended for any sci-fi fan.

[Shawn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just finished Darker Than You Think by Jack Williamson and Wikipedia told me that this tribute book to Williamson contained 3 "sequel" stories, so I figured I'd check them out via Inter-Library loan. I didn't read anything else in the book.

"Darker Than You Wrote" by Mike Resnick is a short "meta-sequel" in that it argues that the book is true, with some details changed to protect people and some details changed to make Will Barbee a more sympathetic character. It's cute, although I'll admit that I liked it more for the scant few seconds when I thought it was implying something more simple and less fantastic (that Barbee was actually just a sociopath) than what it actually was implying (that Barbee was actually killing and eating victims and that those details had been elided). Still, my assumption wouldn't really have been in the *spirit* of Williamson, and a bit too modern to boot, so I understand...

Jane Lindskold's "Child Of The Night" is a short sequel to the novel's ending, serving to tie up a few loose ends by taking the POV of harrowed archeologist and fall-guy Sam Quain's 5-year-old daughter Pat and following on the night of the climactic events of the book. On the one hand, it is nice to see a small plot-event in the novel (the killing of a family dog) blown-up into the importance such an event would have in the life of child (Jiminy Cricket, thou art avenged!), as well as some further behind the scenes machinations of the bad guys (for an evil being, Dr. Glenn sure runs an easily-escaped asylum!). On the other hand, while I appreciated the conception of Pat's nighttime sneaking and how it ties into one of the points of the book, I thought it didn't logically gel with her ability to gain comeuppance over the nasty men ((basically, if she is, like most of humanity, part-lycanthrope and unwittingly accessing her powers to sneak around the asylum - notice that she returns to the bedroom before rejoing her Mom - how can she even stand to handle the powerful stones that cause such pain to the lycanthropes, and use them as weapons?). Still, a fun little read.

Finally, and longest, Poul Anderson's "Inside Passage" is set in the same universe as the novel, but forty-odd years on. A research scientist has come up with a probability-wave viewing device which unwittingly allows him to see the true forms of the witch-people, who have just murdered his detective friend (Sam Quain puts in an off-stage appearance as a paranoid drifter that spills the beans). The scientist tracks some of the lycanthropes to Alaska to spy on their gathering, while reflecting on mankind's own destruction of nature. Not anything to write home about but not bad.

[A.R. Bredenberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was intrigued to find this collection of short fiction among my late father's books, then amazed to find the name of my brother, Jeff Bredenberg (1953-2010), among the list of authors. Puzzle pieces began to assemble when I noticed that the editor of this volume was the late Roger Zelazny. I remembered Jeff telling me back in the mid-1990s that Zelazny had recruited him to contribute to a volume of short fiction. I never heard what became of that project, but Jeff must have sent a copy of the book to my father when it was published.

"The Williamson Effect" is written as a kind of tribute to science-fiction legend Jack Williamson (1908-2006), who wrote many groundbreaking works in the genre. To produce this collection, Zelazny invited SF greats, such as Frederick Pohl, Poul Anderson, Ben Bova, Fred Saberhagen, John Brunner, Andre Norton to write pieces based on Williamson's work. He also invited Jeff, as he liked my brother's novels and short stories and wanted to encourage one whom he considered a promising newcomer to the SF genre.

I have to admit that I was not aware of Jack Williamson's body of work and its importance to science fiction. After reading this engaging tributary volume, I'm starting to read his works.

ARK

[colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

read 06.23.06