The Science Fiction Century

Something of an introduction here by Hartwell to suggest that science fiction is the literature of the twentieth century, and stands in opposition to modernism. Sounds pretty dumb to see 'SF is anti-modern' of course, when he means it in the 'literature' sense. He mentions the beginning of this as an argument between H. G. Wells and Henry James about that sort of thing. Something like 'Hey, H. G., how dare you write something good that isn't all depressing and deathly', in a nutshell. Apparently Forster agreed with James, which may explain the extremely tedious nature of The Machine Stops. Apart from that and the junk C. S. Lewis story this is a high quality anthology. Pointing out that you used Clarke, Asimov etc. in a previous bigarse volume is one thing, but at least put something better in their place. I think the point might be to skip the most famous, most well known stories though, perusing this lineup. How Johnny Mnemonic snuck in then, not sure. A Century is correct though, from around 1890 to 1990, or Kipling to Kress if you prefer alpha to numeric. Still, a very nice volume and absolutely a major anthology, with a 3.73 average, over such a broad timespan, with some gems you aren't too likely to come across in other places. The other thing Hartwell has included is a smattering of non-English originally stories from Europe (although none from Asia, or South America or Africa) as other examples, and these are also pretty reasonable selections. He points out that the major centre of SF is America, something which is undeniable except maybe to some bizarre holdout extremely parochial poms perhaps. If you get a chance to pick this over 1000 page monster up, do so. Science Fiction Century : Beam Us Home - James Tiptree Jr. Science Fiction Century : Ministering Angels - C. S. Lewis Science Fiction Century : The Music Master of Babylon - Edgar Pangborn Science Fiction Century : A Story of the Days to Come - H. G. Wells Science Fiction Century : Hot Planet - Hal Clement Science Fiction Century : A Work of Art [Art-Work] - James Blish Science Fiction Century : The Machine Stops - E. M. Forster Science Fiction Century : Brightness Falls from the Air - Margaret St. Clair Science Fiction Century : 2066 Election Day - Michael Shaara Science Fiction Century : The Rose - Charles Harness Science Fiction Century : The Hounds of Tindalos - Frank Belknap Long Science Fiction Century : The Angel of Violence - Adam Wisniewski-Snerg Science Fiction Century : Nobody Bothers Gus - Algis Budrys Science Fiction Century : The Time Machine - Dino Buzzati Science Fiction Century : Mother - Philip Jose Farmer Science Fiction Century : As Easy as A.B.C. - Rudyard Kipling Science Fiction Century : Ginungagap - Michael Swanwick Science Fiction Century : Minister Without Portfolio - Mildred Clingerman Science Fiction Century : Time in Advance - William Tenn Science Fiction Century : Good Night Sophie - Lino Aldani Science Fiction Century : Veritas - James M

This wonderful collection offers a wide variety of the very best science fiction, not of the "square-jawed-heroes-and-beautiful-princesses" kind, but the kind of fiction that leads you to ponder about deep philosophical matters. I only do not rate it with the full rating of 5 stars because of a few rather uninspired choices, for example H.G.Wells's "A Story of the Days to Come." I like Wells but it is no mystery that some of his stories are not up to scratch, and this is one of them: preachy and curiously unvisionary (sometimes comically so, like, why on Earth did Wells believe that the quaint institution of the chaperone would survive so many years into the future? But then, probably all of Wells' good stuff has already been overanthologized). Others have apparently been included just for the sake of representing a particular author, rather than because of their quality. However, the selection has been mostly made based on excellence, and the few not-so-goods are largely compensated by the sterling quality of the rest of the stories, some of which are true masterpieces, like Poul Anderson's "Goat Song," a beautiful and haunting recreation of the myth of Orpheus, the deeply disturbing "Mother" by Philip José Farmer and "Consider Her Ways" by John Wyndham, the original and fairy-taleish "The King and the Dollmaker" by Wolfgang Jeschke, the poetic "Riding the Tide of Mourning" by Richard Lupoff, and many others, in fact too numerous to mention. Of special merit are the inclusions of modern classics like Gibson's "Johnny Mnemonic" and Ellison's "Repent, Harlequin!" and others which are excellent but hard to find, like the exquisite but out of print "The Rose" by Charles Harness. A truly indespensable item for the sci-fi serious fan.