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vraper's review
4.0
A hard-to-find anthology of Hugo-winning short fiction from 1963 to 1967. The stories include:
The Dragon Masters by Jack Vance
No Truce with Kings by Poul Anderson
Soldier, Ask Not by Gordon R. Dickson
Repent, Harlequin by Harlan Ellison
The Last Castle by Jack Vance
Neutron Star by Larry Niven
"The Dragon Masters" was a silly imaginative story about a war between two valleys-worth of dragon warriors, some off-worlders in space ships, and a strange race of unspeaking torc-wearing philosophers. Epically daft.
"No Truce with Kings" is a forgettable retelling of the American civil war.
The strongest in the collection was "Soldier, Ask Not", which concerns the ethics of intervention and unintended consequences. A journalist tries to destroy a race of religious fanatics, with disastrous consequences.
I'd previously heard of "Repent, Harlequin". I didn't see what the fuss was about, although it has the arch 'literary' style of later fiction.
"The Last Castle" is a tale of off-world humanoids on a far-future Earth whose technician slaves rebel against them and attack their castles. They try to fight back, somewhat stupidly, by recruiting the humans around the castle. Sufficiently silly to be memorable while pacy enough to remain interesting.
In "Neutron Star" a pilot is hired to investigate the damage to a spaceship hull from an expedition to a neutron star. The story delightfully combines space adventure with real physics. Short and sweet.
The Dragon Masters by Jack Vance
No Truce with Kings by Poul Anderson
Soldier, Ask Not by Gordon R. Dickson
Repent, Harlequin by Harlan Ellison
The Last Castle by Jack Vance
Neutron Star by Larry Niven
"The Dragon Masters" was a silly imaginative story about a war between two valleys-worth of dragon warriors, some off-worlders in space ships, and a strange race of unspeaking torc-wearing philosophers. Epically daft.
"No Truce with Kings" is a forgettable retelling of the American civil war.
The strongest in the collection was "Soldier, Ask Not", which concerns the ethics of intervention and unintended consequences. A journalist tries to destroy a race of religious fanatics, with disastrous consequences.
I'd previously heard of "Repent, Harlequin". I didn't see what the fuss was about, although it has the arch 'literary' style of later fiction.
"The Last Castle" is a tale of off-world humanoids on a far-future Earth whose technician slaves rebel against them and attack their castles. They try to fight back, somewhat stupidly, by recruiting the humans around the castle. Sufficiently silly to be memorable while pacy enough to remain interesting.
In "Neutron Star" a pilot is hired to investigate the damage to a spaceship hull from an expedition to a neutron star. The story delightfully combines space adventure with real physics. Short and sweet.
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