I always enjoy these "little slice of history" anthologies... this one, while not dramatically outstanding for me, was good as always, as most of this series is...
I'd read the Cowper, Del Rey and Tiptree stories before, but long enough ago that I read them over...
Appearance of Life - Brian Aldiss
Holographic recordings of a long-dead couple lead to an insight(?) about the nature of our universe.
Overdrawn at the Memory Bank - John Varley
A futuristic 'vacation' technique involving transfer of consciousness leads to a man being stuck inside a computer system in this playful tale.
Those Good Old Days of Liquid Fuel - Michael Coney
A nostalgia-fest for the future - pretty original gimmick, actually. The 'classic' early spaceships are being phased out by new technology. A man remembers his boyhood watching the dramatic launches and landings with his best friend - who has grown up to be a very different person.
The Hertford Manuscript - Richard Cowper
Could H.G. Wells have been telling the truth when he wrote The Time Machine? Excellent recreation of the Victorian literary style.
Natural Advantage - Lester Del Rey
Humans are smart, and underestimated by some rather fatalistic aliens.
The Bicentennial Man - Isaac Asimov
A classic tale investigating the nature of humanity through the story of a robot who wants to be human. Won the Hugo and Nebula that year, but honestly, I thought the robot was way too whiny and frustratingly stupid. And WHY does he want to be human, anyway? Is it just pressure to conform and be like everyone else?
OK, so I haven't read it in many years, but I really thought "Pinocchio" did a better job with this same theme. (Did you know that in the original (1883), Pinocchio dies at the end? I didn't, until just now! Collodi apparently was pressured by publishers to write a 'happy ending.')
The Cabinet of Oliver Naylor - Barrington Bayley
The inventor of the 'thespitron' (a sort of automatic movie generator) is asked to transport (unbeknownst to him) a government agent in his spaceship in order to apprehend a petty criminal. Things go badly.
My Boat - Joanna Russ
I haven't been a huge Joanna Russ fan - I've sort of WANTED to like her work, but I've read Extra(ordinary) People and We Who Are About To, and neither of them really did it for me. But I liked this story quite a lot - featuring a couple of kids who escape the mundane misery of life in 1960s America into glorious history and the worlds of H.P. Lovecraft(!) - from the perspective of one who doesn't go. Really nice piece!
Houston Houston Do You Read - James Tiptree, Jr.
Also won the Hugo and Nebula.
Strangely, this story reminded me a lot of Joanna Russ' short story "When it Changed," which was retrospectively awarded the Tiptree award. "When it Changed" was written first (1972.) Both feature a situation where, due to a plague or epidemic, only women have survived, and have created a self-sufficient, peaceful all-female society. Men arrive, and don't get it.
I See You - Damon Knight
Shortlisted for the Hugo. Inventor creates a "far-seeing" machine which can view both through space and time. He disseminates these machines widely, and they become omnipresent, changing the nature of society radically.
I'd read the Cowper, Del Rey and Tiptree stories before, but long enough ago that I read them over...
Appearance of Life - Brian Aldiss
Holographic recordings of a long-dead couple lead to an insight(?) about the nature of our universe.
Overdrawn at the Memory Bank - John Varley
A futuristic 'vacation' technique involving transfer of consciousness leads to a man being stuck inside a computer system in this playful tale.
Those Good Old Days of Liquid Fuel - Michael Coney
A nostalgia-fest for the future - pretty original gimmick, actually. The 'classic' early spaceships are being phased out by new technology. A man remembers his boyhood watching the dramatic launches and landings with his best friend - who has grown up to be a very different person.
The Hertford Manuscript - Richard Cowper
Could H.G. Wells have been telling the truth when he wrote The Time Machine? Excellent recreation of the Victorian literary style.
Natural Advantage - Lester Del Rey
Humans are smart, and underestimated by some rather fatalistic aliens.
The Bicentennial Man - Isaac Asimov
A classic tale investigating the nature of humanity through the story of a robot who wants to be human. Won the Hugo and Nebula that year, but honestly, I thought the robot was way too whiny and frustratingly stupid. And WHY does he want to be human, anyway? Is it just pressure to conform and be like everyone else?
OK, so I haven't read it in many years, but I really thought "Pinocchio" did a better job with this same theme. (Did you know that in the original (1883), Pinocchio dies at the end? I didn't, until just now! Collodi apparently was pressured by publishers to write a 'happy ending.')
The Cabinet of Oliver Naylor - Barrington Bayley
The inventor of the 'thespitron' (a sort of automatic movie generator) is asked to transport (unbeknownst to him) a government agent in his spaceship in order to apprehend a petty criminal. Things go badly.
My Boat - Joanna Russ
I haven't been a huge Joanna Russ fan - I've sort of WANTED to like her work, but I've read Extra(ordinary) People and We Who Are About To, and neither of them really did it for me. But I liked this story quite a lot - featuring a couple of kids who escape the mundane misery of life in 1960s America into glorious history and the worlds of H.P. Lovecraft(!) - from the perspective of one who doesn't go. Really nice piece!
Houston Houston Do You Read - James Tiptree, Jr.
Also won the Hugo and Nebula.
Strangely, this story reminded me a lot of Joanna Russ' short story "When it Changed," which was retrospectively awarded the Tiptree award. "When it Changed" was written first (1972.) Both feature a situation where, due to a plague or epidemic, only women have survived, and have created a self-sufficient, peaceful all-female society. Men arrive, and don't get it.
I See You - Damon Knight
Shortlisted for the Hugo. Inventor creates a "far-seeing" machine which can view both through space and time. He disseminates these machines widely, and they become omnipresent, changing the nature of society radically.
