Future Corruption

by Roger Elwood (Editor), Richard A. Lupoff (Contributor), Carolyn Gloeckner (Contributor)

Contents
Editor's Preface / Roger Elwood
Saltzman's Madness / Richard A. Lupoff
Andrew / Carolyn Gloeckner
Prelude to a Symphony of Unborn Shouts / Stephen Goldin
Heart Grow Fonder / R.A. Lafferty
Aurelia / J.J. Russ
On the Campaign Trail / Barry N. Malzberg
Paxton's World / Bill Pronzini
Feast / Roger Elwood
Streaking / Barry N. Malzberg as by K.M. O'Donnell
The Last Congregation / Howard Goldsmith
Before a Live Audience / Jerry Sohl
The Storm / Gardner Dozois

189 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Roger Elwood was an American science fiction writer and editor, perhaps best known for having edited a large number of anthologies and collections for a variety of publishers in the early 1970s. Elwood was also the founding editor of Laser Books and, in more recent years, worked in the evangelical Christian market.

Reviews

[Chris Aldridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mindwebs audiobook #14 Paxton’s World by Bill Pronzini from this 1975 book. A man who hates science happens to have the resources to explore beyond the asteroid belt and eventually finds and earth like planet replete with primitive humanoids to rule. He becomes their God , orders the destruction of the spacecraft that brought him. He trains the natives to create art in the form of a tapestry. As an old man he finds the females no longer pleased him, angry he insists that the natives no longer attempt to reproduce. They comply. He realises he is dying and asks them to continue his work and follow his commandments. They therefore became extinct. The next ship arrived about two hundred years later. The archeologist finds the tapestry but can’t understand how the natives ever evolved. The planets turns out to be crucial to the continued advancement of human expansion and science.
Weird irony seems to be the moral.

[S.j. Thompson · Rating 1 out of 5]

I gave up on this collection of short stories after the 4th or 5th one. What passed for super corrupt ideas in 1975 is laughably pedestrian in 2018. Just couldn't buy into the stories.

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a disappointing collection overall. The theme was intriguing, but not carried through, and the quality varies wildly. The shorter pieces mostly follow the formula "something bad happens, the end." That something bad may be the result of almost anything, but in a couple of cases it's about overpopulation, which has little to do with the apparent theme. At least one story is apparently about a man's growing mental instability, again not the theme. Most of the longer pieces are vaguely thematic, and better than the short ones, but not enough to make up for the short ones. A few would have made tolerable Twilight Zone episodes.
In addition, many of the social attitudes are dated, and the stories did not age well. Still, there is some craftsmanship in the stories by R. A. Lafferty, Richard Lupoff and a couple of others.
If you pick it up, just skip any story shorter than ten pages, and your reading experience will be improved.