Stories by : Algis Budrys, Anthony Burgess, Brian W. Aldiss, Bruce McAllister, Frederik Pohl, J.G. Ballard, James Tiptree, John Hartridge, Joseph Wesley, Jr, Ken W. Purdy, P. g. Wyal, Paul Ehrlich, Philip K. Dick, Ursula K. Le Guin.
Stories by : Alfred Bester, George R. R. Martin, Gregory Benford, Melisa Michaels, David Lake, Dean Ing, Philip K. Dick, John Varley, James P. Girard, Vonda N. McIntyre, John Morressy, Rick Gauger, Tanith Lee, George Turner.
Stories by : Bob Shaw, Frederik Pohl, Gordon Eklund and Gregory Benford, Larry Niven, Michael Moorcock, Philip K. Dick, Robert Silverberg, Roger Zelazny, Ursula K. Le Guin, William Tenn.
Stories by : Charles L. Grant, Clifford D Simak, Howard Waldrop, Michael Swanwick, Philip K. Dick, Suzy McKee Charnas.
Eleven uniformly excellent stories, covering most topics you might expect to see : time travel, far future, virtual reality, New Wave, and fantasy. What is perhaps of note is the lack of ‘hard SF’, and the extent to which so many of the stories are fundamentally about humanity, about people.
But, all in all, a bit of a curate’s egg. The early stories, and the final story, don’t quite fit IMHO. And with the lack of a ‘real’ introduction, and story intros, the extra size that this volume offers over ‘Mirrorshades’ hasn’t really be used to the full. A missed opportunity.
A ‘How to Start Reading and Enjoying Classic Short SF’. Compulsive and required reading for anyone who wants to get into what makes short SF.
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