Voyages: Scenarios for a Ship Called Earth

by Rob Sauer

ix • Foreword • (1971) • Anne H. Ehrlich Paul R. Ehrlich
xiii • Zero Population Growth: A Statement • (1971) • uncredited
xix • Nigger of the Narcissus (Excerpt) • (1897) • Joseph Conrad
5 • Billennium • (1961) • J. G. Ballard
25 • The Other • (1966) • Katherine MacLean
31 • Pattern • (1954) • Fredric Brown
34 • The Purple Child • (1966) • Emilio S. Belaval
45 • All Summer in a Day • (1954) • Ray Bradbury
53 • Auto-da-Fé • (1967) • Roger Zelazny
63 • The Heat Death of the Universe • (1967) • Pamela Zoline
86 • The Food Farm • (1967) • Kit Reed
106 • Student Body • (1953) • F. L. Wallace
146 • Doctor Schmidt • (1952) • Moshe Shamir
170 • Golden Acres • (1967) • Kit Reed
197 • The Choice • (1952) • Wayland Hilton-Young
206 • The Big Flash • (1969) • Norman Spinrad
232 • Population Control, 1986 • (1970) • Horacio V. Paredes
239 • The Tunnel Ahead • (1961) •Alice Glaser
250 • Consumer's Report • (1955) • Theodore R. Cogswell
268 • Shark Ship • (1958) • C. M. Kornbluth
307 • A Letter to Those Who See No Threat • (1971) • Carl Pope
311 • Generalized Nonfiction Bibliography • (1971) • uncredited
313 • Charting a Better Voyage-ZPG • (1971) • essay by Norman L. Rogers

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories

316 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

Reviews

[Fabius]

Can't really give this a rating, since it is more of an object of historical interest than a book as such. Edited at the height of environmental concerns in the US being articulated as (largely racist, to be frank) overpopulation concerns due to the sudden popularity of Paul and Anne Ehrlich's The Population Bomb, the book collects a handful of great science fiction short stories with a lot of bad-to-mediocre ones and awful commentary at the hands of the editor. What is odd is how, despite the ostensible theme, many of the stories really aren't about overpopulation at all. The forced association makes many of these stories *worse*, too: Pamela Zoline's excellent feminist science fiction classic "Heat Death of the Universe" is great in any venue, but it does lose a little of its power when forcibly pulled into this context; the story really is not about overpopulation, or even environmentalism, at all.

[Chris Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

The short stories are just as most collection of stories are, one or two great, a handful of good, most alright with a handful of crap.

The commentary on the other hand is bull. The issue of a growing population is crap. Has been crap. The population of earth is expected to level out, we waste so much food now, the poor have more to eat than ever before, the earth provides more than ever. It is good. All is good. Life is good. Have children, provide for the future, allow innovation to take place, watch out for abuses and make people react. We can have a population of earth at 12 billion and provide enough sustenance and technology to live as richly as modern Americans or Europeans without ruining the world. Isn’t that a good thing?

[Tom Baker]

Most of the short stories in this book are just excellent short stories. Most of the editorial content is valid today as it applies to climate change and the environment. The population explosion is as valid now, as when this book was written (50 years ago). The population problem is not talked about anymore, but it should be. Look around you, and then compare it to 1970. The population has exploded and continues to do so. 7.5 billion and climbing?