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In Dreams Awake
About 20 science fiction stories from H. G. Wells to 1975 and J. G. Ballard, subtitled "A Historical--Critical Anthology of Science Fiction.
400 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1975
About the author
Leslie A. Fiedler
64 books42 followersLeslie Aaron Fiedler was an American literary critic, known for his interest in mythography and his championing of genre fiction. His work also involves application of psychological theories to American literature. He was in practical terms one of the early postmodernist critics working across literature in general, from around 1970. His most cited work is Love and Death in the American Novel (1960).
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 20, 2022
Some vintage SF here, that's for sure. Most stories are very bad, with a few highlights sprinkled throughout.
The introduction is nothing new - another case being made for SF's emergence from the ghetto of its genre. It's not bad though.
The Crystal Egg by H.G. Wells is a pretty well done piece and enjoyable. Saying too much would give away the ending.
Kipling's Unprofessional was nonsensical gobbledygook masquerading as a description of scientists doing science. It was horrible. Very hard to understand what the characters were trying to accomplish, although obvious that they were experimenting unethically on humans. Stupid stupid story.
Poe's story is pretty much all exposition and very dry and boring.
Melville's Tartarus of Maids is well-written, but just feels like a tour of a factory, which is exactly what it is. Not very illuminating or enjoyable.
It seems the editor really didn't pick the best examples from each era, which is odd.
The Twain excerpt is pretty good though, which was refreshing.
I know there are loads of Lovecraft fans out there, but I just don't see why. This story could hardly be considered "scary" when it's so obvious in the writing style that it's meant to be. He just hits you over the head with the "suspense" and the "weird" and "Oh my gosh! Alien yuckiness!" "Gray scenery" "weird colors." Yawn. No thanks.
The Golden Age intro was interesting. I'm going to have to look into Stanley Weinbaum, it's a shame he mentions something great, but can't seem to include it in this collection.
It is at this point in the collection where I got knocked over by a good story. Tom Godwin's The Cold Equations is just devastating. I have a feeling this one is probably collected in loads of anthologies because it just hits you in the gut.
Helen O'Loy is cute, albeit very old-fashioned. A quaint story about a female housekeeping robot.
It's a Good Life is the story that became the famous Twilight Zone episode with the little boy everyone is afraid of because he can do anything with his thoughts. If you've seen the episode, it's basically the same.
Resurrection is a cool little story of aliens that visit a scorched earth, but it's not what you expect. Van Vogt sure has a high opinion of the potential of humankind. He'd certainly be disappointed if he was alive today!
Heinlein's The Green Hills of Earth concerns Rhysling, the blind jetman troubadour. He's a great character and this story is short and sweet. A great golden age example.
Mother by Philip Jose Farmer is a pretty good tale of someone trapped by an alien on a faroff planet. It's easy to see how this could have been groundbreaking in its day. Farmer's imagination is just nuts, and a little bit gross too.
The Muse by Anthony Burgess is a grotesque exercise in what ifs. It got real obvious towards the end what was about to happen, and ultimately the payoff didn’t make the slog worth it.
Le Guin's Nine Lives is a pretty good story about clones among non-clone humans. Very well-written and with a lot of depth, but not too exciting. This one's more about people than anything.
Harlan Ellison's inclusion here is, fortunately, one of his best short stories. I'd already read it and it's pretty great. Especially since a lot of his stories can be dark and a major chore to get through. This one will probably stand the test of time longer than most of the rest of his work.
Samuel R. Delany's story Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones, besides having the best title in this bunch, is the best story here as well. Truly the Speculative stripe of SF that New Wavers were doing to provide a much needed shot in the arm to the genre in the late 60s. It's future-y but also just fun - with great characters, concepts and a smart arc. Definitely makes me want to read more of his work.
Joanna Russ's The Second Inquisition is such a boring waste of time that ends with less than a fizzle. It's really more proof that this collection is truly not a collection of the best eras it purports to collect. There was so much great new wave SF by 1975 it's surprising this story made the cut as it's a purposely dense purposeless dud. And long by short story standards too at 30+ pages. Ugh.
J.G. Ballard's story here is just schlock to shock. Again, why did this make the cut? Because it's only 3 pages and thus easy to squeeze in? It seems like a rough sketch of his novel Crash, it's a fictional "study" of the eroticism of car crashes and assassinations. I just don't get it. It's pointless trash. Maybe that's the point - "how trashy can I make something and fool people into think it's worth printing?"
Overall, with only a few stories in this collection worth reading, it’s not one I can recommend.
The introduction is nothing new - another case being made for SF's emergence from the ghetto of its genre. It's not bad though.
The Crystal Egg by H.G. Wells is a pretty well done piece and enjoyable. Saying too much would give away the ending.
Kipling's Unprofessional was nonsensical gobbledygook masquerading as a description of scientists doing science. It was horrible. Very hard to understand what the characters were trying to accomplish, although obvious that they were experimenting unethically on humans. Stupid stupid story.
Poe's story is pretty much all exposition and very dry and boring.
Melville's Tartarus of Maids is well-written, but just feels like a tour of a factory, which is exactly what it is. Not very illuminating or enjoyable.
It seems the editor really didn't pick the best examples from each era, which is odd.
The Twain excerpt is pretty good though, which was refreshing.
I know there are loads of Lovecraft fans out there, but I just don't see why. This story could hardly be considered "scary" when it's so obvious in the writing style that it's meant to be. He just hits you over the head with the "suspense" and the "weird" and "Oh my gosh! Alien yuckiness!" "Gray scenery" "weird colors." Yawn. No thanks.
The Golden Age intro was interesting. I'm going to have to look into Stanley Weinbaum, it's a shame he mentions something great, but can't seem to include it in this collection.
It is at this point in the collection where I got knocked over by a good story. Tom Godwin's The Cold Equations is just devastating. I have a feeling this one is probably collected in loads of anthologies because it just hits you in the gut.
Helen O'Loy is cute, albeit very old-fashioned. A quaint story about a female housekeeping robot.
It's a Good Life is the story that became the famous Twilight Zone episode with the little boy everyone is afraid of because he can do anything with his thoughts. If you've seen the episode, it's basically the same.
Resurrection is a cool little story of aliens that visit a scorched earth, but it's not what you expect. Van Vogt sure has a high opinion of the potential of humankind. He'd certainly be disappointed if he was alive today!
Heinlein's The Green Hills of Earth concerns Rhysling, the blind jetman troubadour. He's a great character and this story is short and sweet. A great golden age example.
Mother by Philip Jose Farmer is a pretty good tale of someone trapped by an alien on a faroff planet. It's easy to see how this could have been groundbreaking in its day. Farmer's imagination is just nuts, and a little bit gross too.
The Muse by Anthony Burgess is a grotesque exercise in what ifs. It got real obvious towards the end what was about to happen, and ultimately the payoff didn’t make the slog worth it.
Le Guin's Nine Lives is a pretty good story about clones among non-clone humans. Very well-written and with a lot of depth, but not too exciting. This one's more about people than anything.
Harlan Ellison's inclusion here is, fortunately, one of his best short stories. I'd already read it and it's pretty great. Especially since a lot of his stories can be dark and a major chore to get through. This one will probably stand the test of time longer than most of the rest of his work.
Samuel R. Delany's story Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones, besides having the best title in this bunch, is the best story here as well. Truly the Speculative stripe of SF that New Wavers were doing to provide a much needed shot in the arm to the genre in the late 60s. It's future-y but also just fun - with great characters, concepts and a smart arc. Definitely makes me want to read more of his work.
Joanna Russ's The Second Inquisition is such a boring waste of time that ends with less than a fizzle. It's really more proof that this collection is truly not a collection of the best eras it purports to collect. There was so much great new wave SF by 1975 it's surprising this story made the cut as it's a purposely dense purposeless dud. And long by short story standards too at 30+ pages. Ugh.
J.G. Ballard's story here is just schlock to shock. Again, why did this make the cut? Because it's only 3 pages and thus easy to squeeze in? It seems like a rough sketch of his novel Crash, it's a fictional "study" of the eroticism of car crashes and assassinations. I just don't get it. It's pointless trash. Maybe that's the point - "how trashy can I make something and fool people into think it's worth printing?"
Overall, with only a few stories in this collection worth reading, it’s not one I can recommend.
September 13, 2026
The key to "getting" this book is the subtitle ("A Historical-Critical Anthology of Science Fiction"). It's not a "best of," but rather a stab at collecting a representative set of stories demonstrating the development of science fiction from the 19th century up to the 1970s, assembled by a respected literary critic (Leslie A. Fiedler) who was, uncommonly, open to engagement with genre fiction.
Fiedler was probably as well-suited to assemble this anthology as anyone, but the results are mixed. The main issue, I think, is the lack of commentary: there's a good, perceptive introduction by Fiedler, but then only three brief (less than two pages apiece) introductions to the three segments the book is divided into, which doesn't allow for anything like concerted analysis of the state of the genre or what the stories represent as far as the development of science fiction goes.
The stories themselves are a mixed bag, too- as noted, they're meant to be representative, rather than strictly the best. Some are good to excellent: "The Colour Out of Space" is Lovecraft's best; "The Nine Billion Names of God" is of course a justified favorite of Clarke's stories; Philip Jose Farmer's "Mother" strikingly foreshadows the concerns with sexuality and psychology characteristic of the New Wave a decade early; "Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones" justly won both Hugo and Nebula, though it's admittedly more style than substance. "Nine Lives" isn't Le Guin's best work, but it's still rock-solid, and certainly representative of the New Wave; "Repent, Harlequin!" is wonderful but, at least today, frankly overexposed in a way that has sapped some of its power.
Then there are some duds. The Poe story featured here is "The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion"- one of his most overtly SF stories, but presented as a dull dialogue, with no real tension. Kipling's "Unprofessional" is too glib in a way that undercuts the central idea (that living cells operate according to "tides" like those of the sea). "The Cold Equations" (by Tom Godwin) was once feted, but is in fact a sad, grotesque little thing (something generally recognized today, I think, and something Fielder also seems to have realized, based on his comments in the introduction)- it deserves to be here in that it's certainly representative of its era, just not in a good way. Joanna Russ's "The Second Inquisition" never quite comes together.
Fiedler was probably as well-suited to assemble this anthology as anyone, but the results are mixed. The main issue, I think, is the lack of commentary: there's a good, perceptive introduction by Fiedler, but then only three brief (less than two pages apiece) introductions to the three segments the book is divided into, which doesn't allow for anything like concerted analysis of the state of the genre or what the stories represent as far as the development of science fiction goes.
The stories themselves are a mixed bag, too- as noted, they're meant to be representative, rather than strictly the best. Some are good to excellent: "The Colour Out of Space" is Lovecraft's best; "The Nine Billion Names of God" is of course a justified favorite of Clarke's stories; Philip Jose Farmer's "Mother" strikingly foreshadows the concerns with sexuality and psychology characteristic of the New Wave a decade early; "Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones" justly won both Hugo and Nebula, though it's admittedly more style than substance. "Nine Lives" isn't Le Guin's best work, but it's still rock-solid, and certainly representative of the New Wave; "Repent, Harlequin!" is wonderful but, at least today, frankly overexposed in a way that has sapped some of its power.
Then there are some duds. The Poe story featured here is "The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion"- one of his most overtly SF stories, but presented as a dull dialogue, with no real tension. Kipling's "Unprofessional" is too glib in a way that undercuts the central idea (that living cells operate according to "tides" like those of the sea). "The Cold Equations" (by Tom Godwin) was once feted, but is in fact a sad, grotesque little thing (something generally recognized today, I think, and something Fielder also seems to have realized, based on his comments in the introduction)- it deserves to be here in that it's certainly representative of its era, just not in a good way. Joanna Russ's "The Second Inquisition" never quite comes together.
January 25, 2018
Although I would maybe recommend a different collection for a first reader of sf, this is a very interesting anthology with a strong critical voice rounding out the stories.
The caution comes from Fiedler's critical focus on thematic representation of each "age" of science fiction, rather than just picking "the best" - hence, one might get the wrong impression of an author or even an entire few decades, if this was the first exposure. I think Ursula Le Guin (RIP) is especially poorly represented here, which is unfortunate given her titanic status in the genre. And the "new wave" section overall is a mixed effort, but as Fiedler points out, there was a lot of "new" techniques from older mainstream fiction brought in, so no surprise if it doesn't age well.
Four stars, solid and well recommended as an interesting step in a sf reading plan.
The caution comes from Fiedler's critical focus on thematic representation of each "age" of science fiction, rather than just picking "the best" - hence, one might get the wrong impression of an author or even an entire few decades, if this was the first exposure. I think Ursula Le Guin (RIP) is especially poorly represented here, which is unfortunate given her titanic status in the genre. And the "new wave" section overall is a mixed effort, but as Fiedler points out, there was a lot of "new" techniques from older mainstream fiction brought in, so no surprise if it doesn't age well.
Four stars, solid and well recommended as an interesting step in a sf reading plan.
March 22, 2016
I read this one slowly but gathered steam as I went along. I had read many of these stories long, long ago, as they are sci-fi standards. But a few of them I had missed along the way. From H.G. Wells and Edgar Allan Poe to Harlan Ellison and Arthur C. Clarke...guaranteed to provide a reliable tidbit of vintage (and antique!) science fiction insight. Sometimes the stories seem formulaic, but then again, there are only so many formulae out there in the science fiction of the past. It really was an enjoyable read that reminds me that the older sci-fi idea sparks are still relevant today.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews