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A review by windchime79
Masterpieces: The Best Science Fiction of the 20th Century by Orson Scott Card
4.0
A very worthy collection of science fiction stories - most of which I'm slightly ashamed to say I hadn't read previously, given how many classics are present - ranging from 'The Golden Age' up to more contemporary stories. In any anthology, there are going to be hits and misses for most readers, and this was no exception for me, but the hits made it well worth the time invested, and there were definitely more hits than misses.
The stories are separated into three chronological sections: 'The Golden Age', 'The New Wave', and 'The Media Generation', allowing the anthology to serve as a kind of journey through the history of science fiction. The first section was my favourite of the three, while the section containing the most recent stories actually fell most flat for me - probably the opposite of what I'd expected. Which goes to prove, of course, that those stories are considered classics for a reason.
If you like science fiction and you're not averse to reading shorter-length stories, then this is a must read - unless you've read these stories before, of course!
A list of the included stories can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masterpieces:_The_Best_Science_Fiction_of_the_Century
The stories are separated into three chronological sections: 'The Golden Age', 'The New Wave', and 'The Media Generation', allowing the anthology to serve as a kind of journey through the history of science fiction. The first section was my favourite of the three, while the section containing the most recent stories actually fell most flat for me - probably the opposite of what I'd expected. Which goes to prove, of course, that those stories are considered classics for a reason.
If you like science fiction and you're not averse to reading shorter-length stories, then this is a must read - unless you've read these stories before, of course!
A list of the included stories can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masterpieces:_The_Best_Science_Fiction_of_the_Century