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reddrabbbit's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This is a collection of virtually everything Kornbluth ever wrote, so there are, as you might expect, some big hits and big misses. That said, the hits are really incredible, and make it clear that if Kornbluth had lived even a little longer, he'd stand out as one of the all time greats. Some favorites from this collection include "Shark Ship," which feels like it's begging for an HBO series, and "With These Hands," a (deeply grim) story about the ethics and economics of AI art written in 1955.
markk's review
5.0
Despite his death at a tragically young age, Cyril M. Kornbluth was one of the greats from the "golden age" of science fiction. One of the members of the "Futurians" fan club of the 1930s (a group that counted Frederick Pohl, Isaac Asimov, and Damon Knight among its members), he went on to co-author the classic novel [b:The Space Merchants|392566|The Space Merchants (The Space Merchants, #1)|Frederik Pohl|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1407594017s/392566.jpg|953666] and write a number of short stories that are among the finest of the genre. These stories have been brought together in this collection, from his earliest work to such greats as "The Mindworm" and "The Marching Morons" (a sure influence on Mike Judge's more gentle take on a similar premise in Idiocracy). This is a must-have collection for fans of golden-age science fiction, one that captures the wonder of the works of the era.
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