This is definitely an
interesting collection for most SF readers. However, I found the writing style
in the early stories to be ...well, what I might expect from a school magazine,
rather than a big name in fiction. And readers should be aware that these
stories can go back many decades, one's taste for SF of the 1940s and 1950s
will influence your appreciation. As one can see from the list of the stories,
it's a big comprehensive anthology (900+ pages).
Some of these stories also
were the first kernels on which novels were later developed. Readers who like
to explore origins will like this; other readers may say "why look at the
blueprint when you can visit the building?"
Most likely, if you like short SF, you'll find enough you like in here.
Contents:
Travel By Wire!
How We Went To Mars
Retreat From Earth
Reverie
The Awakening
Whacky
Loophole
Rescue Party
Technical Error
Castaway
The Fires Within Inheritance
Nightfall
History Lesson
Transience
The Wall Of Darkness
The Lion Of Comarre
The Forgotten Enemy
Hide-and-seek
Breaking Strain
Nemesis
Guardian Angel Time's Arrow
A Walk In The Dark
Silence Please
Trouble With The Natives
The Road To The Sea
The Sentinel
Holiday On The Moon
Earthlight
Second Dawn
Superiority
'If I Forget Thee, Oh earth ...'
All The Time In The World
The Nine Billion Names Of God
The Possessed
The Parasite
Jupiter Five
Encounter In The Dawn
The Other Tiger
Publicity Campaign
Armaments Race
The Deep Range
No Morning After
Big Game Hunt
Patent Pending
Refugee
The Star
What Goes Up
Venture To The Moon
The Pacifist
The Reluctant Orchid
Moving Spirit
The Defenestration Of Ermintrude Inch
The Ultimate Melody
The Next Tenants
Cold War
Sleeping Beauty
Security Check
The Man Who Ploughed The Sea
Critical Mass
The Other Side Of The Sky
Let There Be Light
Out Of The Sun
Cosmic Casanova
The Songs Of Distant Earth
A Slight Case Of Sunstroke
Who's There?
Out Of The Cradle, Endlessly Orbiting...
I Remember Babylon
Trouble With Time
Into The Comet
Summertime On Icarus
Saturn Rising
Death And The Senator
Before Eden
Hate
Love That Universe
Dog Star
Maelstrom II
An Ape About The House
The Shining Ones
The Secret
Dial F For Frankenstein
The Wind From The Sun
The Food Of The Gods
The Last Command
Light Of Darkness
The Longest Science-Fiction Story Ever Told
Playback
The Cruel Sky
Herbert George Morley Roberts Wells, Esq.
Crusade
Neutron Tide
Reunion
Transit Of Earth
A Meeting With Medusa
Quarantine
'siseneG'
The Steam-Powered Word Processor
On Golden Seas
The Hammer Of God
The Wire Continuum (with Stephen Baxter)
Improving The Neighbourhood