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4.1 AVERAGE
4.1 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
informative
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Some very good, but some of the later ones are not really SF. Interesting introductions by Orson Scott Card (the autor of Ender's Game).
The stories I liked the most:
Fredrik Pohl - The Tunnel Under the World (1955)
George R.R Martin - Sandkings (1979)
Lloyd Biggle Jr. - Tunesmith (1957)
Ursula K. Le Guin - The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas (1973)
Harry Turtledove - The Road Not Taken (1985)
The stories I liked the most:
Fredrik Pohl - The Tunnel Under the World (1955)
George R.R Martin - Sandkings (1979)
Lloyd Biggle Jr. - Tunesmith (1957)
Ursula K. Le Guin - The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas (1973)
Harry Turtledove - The Road Not Taken (1985)
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Loved this collection!
- Call Me Joe (4/5)
- Fascinating discussion on identity.
- "All You Zombies--" (3/5)
- Fairly typical time travel closed-loop shenanigans. The attitude of a person who "naturally" changes gender was very odd.
- Tunesmith (5/5)
- This is one of the best stories in the collection. It is largely about music, which I typically don't care much about, but it was so compellingly written.
- A Saucer of Loneliness (2/5)
- This story was quite odd, and a little depressing in its message.
- Robot Dreams (4/5)
- This seems to be the source of the dream plot in the I, Robot movie.
- Devolution (3/5)
- Quite fascinating. Explores the idea that single-celled organisms are actually the most Superior form of life and that our multi-celled evolution was a degenerate disease caused by too much radiation on our planet mutating near god-like human scale amoebas.
- The Nine Billion Names of God (3/5)
- I've listens to this one before and Arthur C. Clark collection. The collection had almost 50 hours of short stories by Clark, and this is not the one I would have picked.
- A Work of Art (4/5)
- Another story focusing on music, or at least a composer of music. Interesting reveal at the end that the title doesn't refer to the Opera the protagonist has been composing the whole story, but actually to the protagonist himself. He's not the artist, he is the art.
- Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed (3/5)
- Really powerful wording and great turns of phrase. Deep, though brief, philosophy on making a new land yours through names. Overall a very strange story.
- "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman (5/5)
- This is probably my favorite story in this collection. It starts with a quote from Walden by Thoreau that is incredibly deep. It then goes on to demonstrate the truth of the quote throughout the story, and eventually ends by harkening back to the quote in a cool way. I went and listened to three short story collections by Harlan Ellison (one of which included this story) and of all of those many stories, this was by far his best.
- Eurema's Dam (3/5)
- This story follows a man who believes himself to be bad at basically everything. To compensate, he constructs a machines for doing every task imaginable. Throughout the story he's constantly telling you how terrible he is at everything, but he's clearly this genius inventor who revolutionizes the world. Strange contrast.
- Passengers (2/5)
- This story was quite dark and a little depressing.
- The Tunnel under the World (3/5)
- Interesting twist at the end that I did not expect. I'm not sure about the physics of miniaturization of this type. I feel like there would be enough differences in gravitational effects that you would be able to tell something was off just by observing movements.
- Who Can Replace a Man? (3/5)
- Fun little story about what robots would do in a Post-Humanity world. Felt similar to Sea of Rust, but more upbeat.
- The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas (4/5)
- This story is likely to be one of the ones I remember most from the collection. There is a short story nominated for the Hugo Award this year called Why Don't We Just Kill the Kid In the Omelas Hole that explores a third option to the two presented in this story. There's also a story by NK Jemison called Those Who Stay and Fight that is inspired by this, that I intend to read soon.
- Inconsistent Moon (3/5)
- I'd read this one before, and quite enjoyed it. It's another very memorable one.
- Sandkongs (3/5)
- The Sandkings are interesting creatures. the protagonist is neurotypical of so many of Martin's characters in that he is the man we follow, but he's far from a hero of the story.
- The Road Not Taken (4/5)
- Absolutely fascinating! In this universe most alien species discover anti-gravity and hyperspace travel early on in their histories, and never go on to discover many of the "higher" technologies we have in real life. So, on alien race comes to invade Earth in their anti-gravity and hyperspace capable spaceships, but their ships are made of wood, and they're most advanced weapons are muskets! I want to read more by this author.
- Dogfight (2/5)
- This was my least favorite story in the collection. I don't understand the characters motivations at all. Why is this game suddenly so utterly consuming? Why is he willing to sacrifice so much to it? He proves to be so dark and almost evil in his pursuit and in what he's willing to do to achieve it.
- Face Value (2/5)
- I'm not sure what I was supposed to get out of this one. I was left confused, not enlightened or excited by interesting questions, just confused.
- Pots (4/5)
- Cool science versus dogma dilemma.
- Snow (2/5)
- Very engagingly written, but I just didn't care very much.
- Rat (3/5)
- I love that protagonist is a rat clearly interacting with humans as a person, and no one thinks that odd. It made for a very interesting read.
- Bears Discover Fire (3/5)
- Cute little story. reminds me of the cozy fantasy trend, but cozy sci-fi I guess?
- A Clean Escape (3/5)
- Starts with a quote asking if we admit there are evil people, is it our duty to destroy them? The story then proceeds to show us the last survivors in a post-apocalyptic world and the story revolves around the man responsible for ending the world who seems to have lost his memory of the last 30+ years. The dilemma: is he still responsible and should he be punished if he has no memory of any of the events surrounding the end of the world, or even for the decades prior?
- Tourists (3/5)
- A little bit of a silly story following a tourist in an unknown country and his struggle to get back home. Turns out there are prophecies involving his presence, and he ends up staying in the country for decades, though he never finds out what country he's in.
- One (4/5)
- Deep questions about life in the universe.
Absolutely brilliant collection, definitive sci-fi masterpieces here.
fantastic collection of science fiction through the years - my only wish is that they included release years with the stories to better place them in time.
Fantastic anthology of short stories from the greats of the genre.
Sometimes you read a book and emerge a different person. That's what this book did to me.
Favorites from this anthology: Tunesmith (!!!!!); "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"; Sandkings... actually you know what, if I keep going I'll just list the entire table of contents. All of them are my favorites.
Favorites from this anthology: Tunesmith (!!!!!); "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"; Sandkings... actually you know what, if I keep going I'll just list the entire table of contents. All of them are my favorites.
Un recorrido simpático por algunas de las historias representativas de la Ciencia Ficción. Para pasar el rato.
Tis <3 And this time I really only read a few select stories, because I still remember so many from last year's read through!
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A