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Science Fiction Showcase
This anthology contains:
Ticket to Anywhere by Damon Knight
That Low by Theodore Sturgeon
Or the Grasses Grow by Avram Davidson
The Man Who Ate the World by Frederik Pohl
The Long Remembering by Poul Anderson
The End of the Begining by Ray Bradbury
A Work of Art by James Blish
The Cold Green Eye by Jack Williamson
Med Service by Murray Leinster
Expendable by Philip K. Dick
Mantage by Richard Matheson
Nightmare Number Four by Robert Bloch
Ticket to Anywhere by Damon Knight
That Low by Theodore Sturgeon
Or the Grasses Grow by Avram Davidson
The Man Who Ate the World by Frederik Pohl
The Long Remembering by Poul Anderson
The End of the Begining by Ray Bradbury
A Work of Art by James Blish
The Cold Green Eye by Jack Williamson
Med Service by Murray Leinster
Expendable by Philip K. Dick
Mantage by Richard Matheson
Nightmare Number Four by Robert Bloch
- GenresScience Fiction
264 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1959
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38 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 15, 2024
Picked up to read my favorite authors and maybe try a new one or two...
Philip K. Dick's Expendable. What seems like a light and silly tale about a man at war with bugs turns bleak with a late twist. Dick definitely likes to play with hope, and often decides we don't deserve it. Oddly strong.
Robert Bloch's Nightmare Number Four. Bloch is another author that I've heard good things about but never sampled. This multi-page poem is probably not too indicative of his usual style (I think he wrote Psycho). Another complaint about capitalism and advertising. Meh.
Philip K. Dick's Expendable. What seems like a light and silly tale about a man at war with bugs turns bleak with a late twist. Dick definitely likes to play with hope, and often decides we don't deserve it. Oddly strong.
Robert Bloch's Nightmare Number Four. Bloch is another author that I've heard good things about but never sampled. This multi-page poem is probably not too indicative of his usual style (I think he wrote Psycho). Another complaint about capitalism and advertising. Meh.
July 11, 2024
Serviceable collection, some good authors here but the work is mostly middle of the road.
Highlights include Expendable by PKD - a very short story about ants uprising and Mantage by Matheson in usual T Zone-esque style, a Faustian wish that life is like the montages in films.
Highlights include Expendable by PKD - a very short story about ants uprising and Mantage by Matheson in usual T Zone-esque style, a Faustian wish that life is like the montages in films.
November 26, 2019
A tribute to SF writer C.M. Kornbluth, who died at the age of 34 in 1958, Science Fiction Showcase delivers eleven excellent speculative fiction tales edited by Kornbluth’s wife, Mary Byers. Contributing authors include Ray Bradbury, Damon Knight, Ted Sturgeon, Robert Bloch, Frederik Pohl, Avram Davidson, James Blish, Jack Williamson, Phil K. Dick, Poul Anderson, and Richard Matheson.
With a line-up like that, how could you go wrong? It’s a rare occasion when I enjoy every story in an anthology almost equally, but in this case, they were all brilliant. Were I forced to choose favorites, they would be…
Richard Falk, a fugitive from Earth, steals a space freighter and heads to Mars where an alien transportation device was long ago uncovered. Unable to live in a society brainwashed into complacency by the government, Falk intends to use the device to begin life anew on a distant world. There’s only problem—once you step inside, where you end up is anyone’s guess in “A Ticket to Anywhere” by Damon Knight.
Anderson “Sonny” Trumie grew up poor, practically raised by robots, in a society whose highest priority was to consume. Yet, time passed Sonny by and he failed to share in its enlightenment. He continued to consume, until he was too obese to move without assistance, and to construct robots to help him acquire his own island… and still he wanted more, for Anderson Trumie was “The Man Who Ate the World” by Frederick Pohl.
In “A Work of Art” by James Blish, 19th century German composer Richard Strauss is resurrected in a new body in the year 2161. Repulsed by what he considers the regression of music in this modern age, Strauss sets out to compose an opera based on Christopher Fry’s play, Venus Observed. Although his opera is wildly successful, Strauss comes to realize two awful truths about himself… and his fate.
The orphaned boy of two American explorers must leave his Tibetan upbringing and migrate to Kansas where he is to be raised by his intolerant Christian aunt who, glaring down at him with one eye brown and other a glassy green, will not bear the boy’s heathen faith and philosophy. Yet despite her chastisements and beatings, the boy holds true to his Tibetan teachings while his aunt learns a lesson in cruelty in Jack Williamson’s “The Cold Green Eye.”
“Mantage” by Richard Matheson – Alfred Hitchcock observed that “drama is life with the dull bits cut out,” but what if you were so eager to achieve your goals that you had the option to live your life without those dull bits? Heed the old adage, you can’t live your life in a day—unless you’re award-winning writer Owen Crowley who learns that the gaps between the accolades are just as precious.
With a line-up like that, how could you go wrong? It’s a rare occasion when I enjoy every story in an anthology almost equally, but in this case, they were all brilliant. Were I forced to choose favorites, they would be…
Richard Falk, a fugitive from Earth, steals a space freighter and heads to Mars where an alien transportation device was long ago uncovered. Unable to live in a society brainwashed into complacency by the government, Falk intends to use the device to begin life anew on a distant world. There’s only problem—once you step inside, where you end up is anyone’s guess in “A Ticket to Anywhere” by Damon Knight.
Anderson “Sonny” Trumie grew up poor, practically raised by robots, in a society whose highest priority was to consume. Yet, time passed Sonny by and he failed to share in its enlightenment. He continued to consume, until he was too obese to move without assistance, and to construct robots to help him acquire his own island… and still he wanted more, for Anderson Trumie was “The Man Who Ate the World” by Frederick Pohl.
In “A Work of Art” by James Blish, 19th century German composer Richard Strauss is resurrected in a new body in the year 2161. Repulsed by what he considers the regression of music in this modern age, Strauss sets out to compose an opera based on Christopher Fry’s play, Venus Observed. Although his opera is wildly successful, Strauss comes to realize two awful truths about himself… and his fate.
The orphaned boy of two American explorers must leave his Tibetan upbringing and migrate to Kansas where he is to be raised by his intolerant Christian aunt who, glaring down at him with one eye brown and other a glassy green, will not bear the boy’s heathen faith and philosophy. Yet despite her chastisements and beatings, the boy holds true to his Tibetan teachings while his aunt learns a lesson in cruelty in Jack Williamson’s “The Cold Green Eye.”
“Mantage” by Richard Matheson – Alfred Hitchcock observed that “drama is life with the dull bits cut out,” but what if you were so eager to achieve your goals that you had the option to live your life without those dull bits? Heed the old adage, you can’t live your life in a day—unless you’re award-winning writer Owen Crowley who learns that the gaps between the accolades are just as precious.
June 11, 2009
A memorial anthology of twelve decent science fiction dedicated to Cyril M. Kornbluth and edited by his wife Mary G. Byers.
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October 4, 2015Short Stories
April 16, 2017
The fact that these stories can hold their own 60+ years later speaks for itself.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews