A review by sowalsky
Great Science Fiction Stories by Cordelia Titcomb Smith, Zenna Henderson, Isaac Asimov, Wilmar H. Shiras, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert A. Heinlein, P. Schuyler Miller, Poul Anderson, H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Nelson S. Bond

3.0

This is an inconsequential collection which was thrown in as a freebie with another used book purchase, and, having read it, I can understand why the seller was eager to unclog their shelves by passing it along to me for free. The handful of highlights here include Nelson Bond's "Vital Factor," an amusing vignette which cautions against hubris; "Pottage" by Zenna Henderson, which is a beautifully-written piece with a sub-text about cultural assimilation; Arthur C. Clarke's "History Lesson," one of those twist-ending gems which highlights his often understated sense of humor; "The Sands of Time" by P. Schuyler Miller, which is an inventive take on the standard time-travel trope; and "Into Space," a concluding fragment from Jules Verne which is one of the earliest scientifically plausible accounts of a manned projectile being launched to the moon. Somewhere in the middle are "In Hiding" by Wilmar Shiras, a tale of an extraordinarily precocious child which is marred somewhat by cliches which have worn thin since its original 1948 publication; and "The Martian Crown Jewels," in which author Poul Anderson attempts, with only middling success, to take up the mantle of Sherlock Holmes, albeit with a native Martian taking the place of that august literary persona. Perhaps the most disappointing piece here is "Nightfall," an early work by Isaac Asimov which is a bit too stilted and full of plot holes to be effective. Of the three remaining stories, one is by the insufferable Robert Heinlein, whose work is such a monument to toxic masculinity and colonialism I have to force myself through each page. The other two are even more dismissible, being the work of the notorious racist and anti-Semite H.G. Wells, whose biography forms one of the single biggest stains on the history of speculative fiction; if I could set a match to his collected works with my own hand, I would neither flinch nor hesitate for a moment. On the whole, the reader could do much better by way of a science fiction short story anthology than this lackluster volume.