For a quick and mostly accurate summary of 20th Century Science Fiction, Orson Scott Card’s MASTERPIECES: THE BEST SCIENCE FICTION OF THE CENTURY does a nice job. Yes, not all these stories are masterpieces–but they are very good. My major quibble is the lack of inclusion of Jack Vance stories.
The section on “THE NEW WAVE” brings back a lot of memories because those years were heavy SF reading times for me. Those stories and those writers redefined the SF genre.
The impact of “THE MEDIA GENERATION” stories is more questionable. William Gibson and Michael Swanwick have had an impact. George R. R. Martin’s “Sandkings” sent reverberations throughout the SF world in 1979. But Martin’s biggest impact was Game of Thrones.
Do you remember these stories? Any favorites here? GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
INTRODUCTION — 1
The Golden Age
- “Call me Joe” by Poul Anderson (1957) — 7
- “All You Zombies” by Robert A. Heinlein (1958) — 36
- “Tunesmith” by Lloyd Biggle, Jr. (1957) — 47
- “A Saucer of Loneliness” by Theodore Sturgeon (1953) — 80
- “Robot Dreams” by Isaac Asimov (1986) — 91
- “Devolution” by Edmond Hamilton (1936) — 97
- “The Nine Billion Names of God” by Arthur C. Clarke (1953) — 110
- “A Work of Art” by James Blish (1956) — 116
- “Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed” by Ray Bradbury (1949) — 130
The New Wave
- “‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman” by Harlan Ellison (1965) — 145
- “Eurema’s Dam” by R.A. Lafferty (1972) — 156
- “Passengers” by Robert Silverberg (1968) — 166
- “The Tunnel under the World” by Frederik Pohl (1955) — 177
- “Who Can Replace a Man?” by Brian W. Aldiss (1958) — 203
- “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin (1973) — 212
- “Inconstant Moon” by Larry Niven (1973) — 218
The Media Generation
- “Sandkings” by George R.R. Martin (1979) — 243
- “The Road Not Taken” by Harry Turtledove (1985) — 276
- “Dogfight” by William Gibson and Michael Swanwick (1985) — 297
- “Face Value” by Karen Joy Fowler (1986) — 316
- “Pots” by C. J. Cherryh (1985) — 327
- “Snow” by John Crowley (1985) — 351
- “Rat” by James Patrick Kelly (1986) — 364
- “Bears Discover Fire” by Terry Bisson (1990) — 375
- “A Clean Escape” by John Kessel (1986) — 384
- Tourists” by Lisa Goldstein (1985) — 396
- “One” by George Alec Effinger (1995) — 408
So many fantastic stories – I just can’t say which I enjoyed most. They were all great – especially compared to the trivial SF we had in Germany in the 60s.
We were lucky that there were a few good translaters for this and later of course I read the originals.
A bit OT:
I really enjoyed the fabulous “Sandkings” and was very unhappy when George R. R. Martin switched to writing Fantasy, found it boring in comparison.
Not unsurprisingly I have read all of those in the Golden Age and New Wave sections, but very few in the Media Generation section. At least Card did not include “Ender’s Game.”
I really should read more of the latter. Some day. Maybe,