Teaser

Science fiction is the genre of change, and how we as a society handle that change. Here are fifty-nine stories of change from some of the biggest names in the genre, as well as some you’ve likely never heard of before . . .

Review

There are plenty of anthologies out there that claim to be ‘the best of X’ whether X is a year, a genre, a country, or something else altogether. Pretty much every anthology will advertise its contents as some of the greatest short fiction ever written. My experience with anthologies is somewhat less stellar than these claims would have you believe. Sure, I love a solo-author collection, and the presence of more than one author I like is enough to get me into an anthology, but rarely are they anything more than a mixed bag. That’s their nature, in a way. Any book collecting multiple stories from multiple authors will invariably have some content that’s more to my taste than the rest. And just about every anthology out there has an absolute clanger or two.

As you may suspect, it was Isaac Asimov’s involvement that led to me buying Science Fiction Masterpieces. Well, that and the fact it was only four dollars. Dollars may not be my native currency, but I even I can tell that’s a good price for a six hundred page hardback. As well as writing the introduction, Asimov also contributed four stories to the anthology. ‘Nothing for Nothing’, ‘How It Happened’, ‘The Missing Item’ and ‘Good Taste.’ It was the last of these that was the deciding factor in my purchase, as I was unsure if I had read it beforehand. It turns out that I have, but so long ago that it was essentially a fresh story to me, and definitely one of his best non-robot short stories. For those interested, by my most recent count, there are a mere seventy Asimov short stories I haven’t read, and I’m keen to track down every last one.

Other than the Good Doctor, this collection reads like a who’s who of science fiction. The stories predominantly come from the mid to late nineteen-seventies, and include such luminaries as Poul Anderson, Alan Dean Foster, Arthur C. Clarke, Larry Niven, and Roger Zelazny. This was actually my first encounter with Zelazny, despite his towering figure in the genre, and I have to say I’m not quite sure what to make of him. ‘The Last Defender of Camelot’ never really felt like a science fiction story to me, and at this stage I’m kind of over the Arthurian Mythos as a whole.

One author I thought I knew but didn’t was Jack C. Haldeman II. Initially I assumed it to be a pseudonym for Forever War author Jack Haldeman. No, turns out it’s his brother. I guess science fiction is a family business. Jack C. Haldeman II’s stories have the unique distinction of boasting the only pair of linked stories in the anthology. ‘Louisville Slugger’ and ‘Home Team Advantage’ both feature an alien conquest of Earth being resolved through sports rather than warfare, which is a great little concept. Unfortunately, that sport is baseball, about which I only understood every second reference. Coincidentally, I listened to a Stephen King short story about baseball at the same time as reading this. Whether or not this is an American cliché yet, I couldn’t possibly comment.

High points of the anthology include ‘Keepersmith’ by Randall Garrett and Vicki Ann Heydron, which is a great low-tech piece of science fiction that does an impressive amount of worldbuilding in a few dozen pages. ‘Heal the Sick, Raise the Dead’ by Jesse Peel dabbles nicely in the shared space of science fiction and horror, with an ending that’ll leave you wondering. ‘The Napoli Express’ by Randall Garrett (solo this time) is a wonderful alternative history piece that, while being among the longer stories here, left me wanting more of the setting. Keith Minnion’s ‘Ghosts’ is a story that took me completely by surprise with both concept and execution. I shan’t spoil it, as it’s best experience first-hand, but I highly recommend it. Finally, Patricia Nurse’s ‘One Rejection Too Many’ is an amusing story told through letters between a prospective author and a curmudgeonly editor that brought me to chuckle at the final lines. Very much a science fiction story for science fiction fans.

But what about the low points? I hear you ask. Well, my negative friend, there’s ‘The Small Stones of Tu Fu’ by Brian Aldiss which failed to inspire anything other than boredom in me. Paula Smith’s ‘African Blues’ and ‘Born Again’ by Sharon N. Farber both had very interesting concepts, but never used them to my satisfaction, with the latter aloes leaving me greatly confused as to the age of the protagonist. This turned out to be a feature, but there are still elements that left me less than happy.

But aside from a very small handful of duds, this anthology is firing on all cylinders. For once, it actually lives up the name. The stories may come from a very thin slice of time, but there’s plenty of variety. And that extends to the authors too. People often claim that female writers were excluded from the history of science fiction, but there’s a very good female presence in this book. Outnumbered by the men, sure, but it’s sill a touch better than people would have you expect for a book of this vintage. One author I’d desperately like to know more about is E. Amalia Andujar, who appears to have written no fiction other than the single story that appears in this volume. ‘Softly Touch the Stranger’s Mind’ is by no means my favourite in the anthology, but it’s tragic to think of all the authors who have fallen into obscurity in the decades since publication. Good on Galahad book for helping keep their stories alive.

So if you’re looking for an anthology of quality and quantity, you could do far worse than look for a copy of Science Fiction Masterpieces. A book that does exactly what it says on the tin.

Book Stats

• Contains 59 stories
• Published by Galahad Books in 1986
• Predominantly Hard SF
• 633 pages