H. Givens’s Reviews > Great Classic Science Fiction > Status Update

"The Missing Link" by Frank Herbert - Didn't get this one at all.

"The Defenders" by Philip K. Dick - Cool idea, but predictable, and I didn't like how human-centric it was. I was envisioning a majestic robot culture and I got weird baseless "everything will be fine for humans" assurances.

"The Winds of Time" by J.H. Schmitz - Vaguely sexist, but found it strangely like a twisted Doctor Who story and found it mesmerizing for that reason.

"Victory" by Lester del Rey - Interesting military space opera, but it's a novella, not a short story, and it should've just been a novel. It reads like a novel with huge chunks of narrative cut out of it. And in an audio collection of short stories it's just SO LONG.

"A Martian Odyssey" by Stanley G. Weinbaum - OMG I LOVE IT. The tone, the aliens that are completely alien, the turn at the end that doesn't really explain anything but made me laugh in surprise and made it somehow feel complete and satisfying. The narrator was perfect too, a perfect 1930s American accent and tone.

"All Cats Are Grey" by Andre Norton - Very short and didn't have the kind of plot impact I expected, the "twist" about the character's minor disability was very minor indeed.

"The Door in the Wall" by H.G. Wells - Brilliant. Basically an earlier formulation of Every Heart a Doorway and very affecting. The narrator is perfect, combining with the structure to make it seem very intimate and almost conspiratorial.