The Science Fiction Century, Volume Two (ISBN 0765314924)

Amazon.com Review:
The Science Fiction Century is editor David G. Hartwell's ambitious attempt to create an anthology spanning 100 years of science fiction, beginning with stories from the 1890s. It is a veritable tome of science fiction that contains 45 tales in all, some from well-known genre authors such as Robert Silverberg and Jack Vance, and others from less science fictionally inclined writers such as Jack London and E. M. Forster. While Hartwell's selections will probably be seen as somewhat controversial (except for five stories, the anthology spans the period from 1950 onward, which is less than half a century at best), they all undeniably make for good--and more often great--reading.

Sci-fi for grownups:
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.

Where's Heinlein?:
I wrote my original review before I had finished reading this book and liked a couple of the stories. I was wrong. It is terrible. Just check out who is in there and who isn't. No Heinlein? Arguably the most significant sci-fi writer of the last century was left out, perhaps because he has been "anthologized too much". I almost always re-read a book I've read. This one, however, is going to become an important resource. It's pretty large so I'm going to hollow out the center and use it as an inconspicuous storage 'safe' for my bookcase. I used to use a 20-year old Guiness Book of World Records for that, but it's gotten too battered. This large, hard-cover monstrosity will be a welcome addition.

Where are the aliens?:
This book purports to survey the evolution of science fiction over the course of the twentieth century, and in this regard is a fairly educational tome. It's nice, for example, to know that E.M. Forster and Rudyard Kipling (!) wrote short stories that could fairly be called science fiction, and that there was a controversy among serious writers at the beginning of the century regarding whether inexorable technical progress would bring utopia or dystopia, and I feel richer for knowing that. However, this vast (>800 pages!) anthology baldly ignores stories which explore two favorite subjects of mine (and, I assume, many other readers): the implications of interstellar travel, and speculation on the nature of alien intelligence. There are a few stories here which investigate these topics, but only a few, and I was left with the suspicion that either (a) Hartwell simply doesn't like/"get" aliens and space opera, and likes time travel and noodlings on dystopia a whole lot more, or (b) there were serious copyright or reproduction problems with enough of the major short stories and novellas which classically treat these subjects that the entire subgenre was ignored...there's one particular example in which the introductory abstract for a story glows *about another story by the same author*, and then treats us to one of his lesser works. There are definitely some gems here which I haven't seen elsewhere (e.g. Farmer's "Mother"), and the works chosen are unquestionably among the best-written of the genre, but after plowing through the dozens of stories I found myself missing a treatment of the aspects of science fiction that I personally enjoy the most. It might be a good gift for that special someone whom you've never been able to turn on to SF -- these are good transition stories; some so good that you don't even know you're reading science fiction.

Not Free SF Reader:
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 Morrow Science Fiction Century : Enchanted Village - A. E. van Vogt Science Fiction Century : The King and the Dollmaker - Wolfgang Jeschke Science Fiction Century : Fire Watch - Connie Willis Science Fiction Century : Goat Song - Poul Anderson Science Fiction Century : The Scarlet Plague - Jack London Science Fiction Century : Drunkboat - Cordwainer Smith Science Fiction Century : Another World - J. H. Rosny-Aîné Science Fiction Century : If the Stars Are Gods - Gregory Benford and Gordon Eklund Science Fiction Century : I Still Call Australia Home - George Turner Science Fiction Century : Liquid Sunshine - Alexander Kuprin; trans. by Leland Fetzer Science Fiction Century : Great Work of Time - John Crowley Science Fiction Century : Sundance - Robert Silverberg Science Fiction Century : Greenslaves - Frank Herbert Science Fiction Century : Rumfuddle - Jack Vance Science Fiction Century : The Dimple in Draco - Philip Latham Science Fiction Century : Consider Her Ways - John Wyndham Science Fiction Century : Something Ending - Eddy C. Bertin Science Fiction Century : He Who Shapes - Roger Zelazny Science Fiction Century : Swarm - Bruce Sterling Science Fiction Century : Beggars in Spain (SS) - Nancy Kress Science Fiction Century : Johnny Mnemonic (SS) - William Gibson Science Fiction Century : Repent Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman - Harlan Ellison Science Fiction Century : Blood's a Rover - Chad Oliver Science Fiction Century : Sail the Tide of Mourning - Richard A. Lupoff Dogstar biowar ending. 4 out of 5 Space escort barrel scraping. 2.5 out of 5 An elderly survivor of some nuking lives in a museum, and one day comes across a couple of primitive kids, nascent musicians. 4 out of 5 Giving the past lifestyle a try. 3 out of 5 Vulcan solution. 3.5 out of 5 Composer impression. 4 out of 5 Can't do anything ourselves. 3 out of 5 Bird people buried. 3 out of 5 This is a job for eight of us man, Uncle Sam? 4 out of 5 This is a book about science and art, and how people view such things might have an impact on human evolution and the development of a new species, homo superior. Also sarcastic commentary on authorities that want to hamper or censor such things. 3 out of 5 Author's drug doom by dimension dogs. 4 out of 5 4.5 out of 5