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reasie's review
3.0
Some of these stories were true gems. Particularly the stories by Samuel Delaney and James Tiptree, Jr. Lots of "Wow" in both of those.
Lots of horrifying sexism and racism in other stories, and even some well-meaning tone-deafness in Editors' Forwards.
I was a little annoyed that over half of the book, ostensibly an overview of the best of the Nebulas from 1965-1985, is pre-1970. I suppose it's easier to accept earlier works as masterpieces - less controversial, perhaps.
Harlan Ellison's long, pompous 'author's forward' - the only author's forward so long it had to have 'continued on' at the end of its first two installments - generally not informative despite its length, but the laugh-out-loud funniest part was the line before "A Boy and His Dog" - a story about a serial rapist looking for a woman to rape, who finds one, rapes her, then decides he loves her, and through some brain-damage I guess she decides she loves her rapist back, he goes on an adventure with her, and then feeds her to his dog at the end - he says he trusts "you will not find the anti-female tone of the movie"!!! Now, the movie is true to the story! I mean it is hella misogynistic, but the only ways it differs from the story are actually its least misogynistic notes, so I do wonder what, exactly, he thought the source of the 'anti-female tone' was.
It still has me gaping in disbelief.
Lots of horrifying sexism and racism in other stories, and even some well-meaning tone-deafness in Editors' Forwards.
I was a little annoyed that over half of the book, ostensibly an overview of the best of the Nebulas from 1965-1985, is pre-1970. I suppose it's easier to accept earlier works as masterpieces - less controversial, perhaps.
Harlan Ellison's long, pompous 'author's forward' - the only author's forward so long it had to have 'continued on' at the end of its first two installments - generally not informative despite its length, but the laugh-out-loud funniest part was the line before "A Boy and His Dog" - a story about a serial rapist looking for a woman to rape, who finds one, rapes her, then decides he loves her, and through some brain-damage I guess she decides she loves her rapist back, he goes on an adventure with her, and then feeds her to his dog at the end - he says he trusts "you will not find the anti-female tone of the movie"!!! Now, the movie is true to the story! I mean it is hella misogynistic, but the only ways it differs from the story are actually its least misogynistic notes, so I do wonder what, exactly, he thought the source of the 'anti-female tone' was.
It still has me gaping in disbelief.
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