The End of the World (British Library Science Fiction Classics) ★★★☆☆

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: The End of the World
Series: British Library Science Fiction Classics
Editor: Mike Ashley
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 237
Words: 87.5K

Synopsis:

The End of the World

Helen Sutherland

three dooms of london: London’s Danger

C.J. Cutcliffe Hyne

The Freezing of London

Herbert C. Ridout

Days of Darkness

Owen Oliver

Within an Ace of the End of the World

Robert Barr

The Last American

John Ames Mitchell

The End of the World

Simon Newcomb

The Great Crellin Comet

George Griffith

Two by Two

John Brunner

Finis

Frank Lillie Pollock

The Madness of Professor Pye

Warwick Deeping

Created He Them

Alice Eleanor Jones

There Will Come Soft Rains

Ray Bradbury

My Thoughts:

Yeah, this wasn't half bad. Despite Ashley desperately trying to make this collection a CliFi oriented set of stories, seeing the world end over and over and over was pretty cathartic.

There were a couple of stories where the world didn't end and I have to admit they kind of made me feel sad, on the inside. There were also several stories where “The World” was encapsulated into London. Typical tribalism at its most petty and annoying.

The bar was super low so I don't really feel that saying this wasn't half bad is much of a compliment. This series has felt like the literary equivalent of eating fried vegetables. Not the best tasting and not even good for you. Just one more to go in this series. It's like the last leg in a marathon before crossing the finish line.

Go me!

★★★☆☆

Moonrise (British Library Science Fiction Classics) ★★☆☆☆

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Moonrise
Series: British Library Science Fiction Classics
Editor: Mike Ashley
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 258
Words: 99.5K

Synopsis:

Dead Centre

Judith Merril

A Visit to the Moon

George Griffith

Sunrise on the Moon

John Munro

First Men in the Moon

H.G. Wells

Sub-Satellite

Charles Cloukey

Lunar Lilliput

William F. Temple

Nothing Happens on the Moon

Paul Ernst

Whatever Gods There Be

Gordon R. Dickson

Idiot’s Delight

John Wyndham

After a Judgement Day

Edmond Hamilton

The Sentinel

Arthur C. Clarke

My Thoughts:

Boring, boring, boring. Many of these stories were more travelogues “in space” than any adventure story. I can imagine the moon just fine on my own thank you very much.

Yeah, not much else to say besides boring. I mentioned this in the Lost Mars review, but these stories are mostly in public domain and they are there because nobody cares enough to do the work to keep them punching out pennies for the author or their estate. If nobody is willing to do that minimal work, that should tell you a good bit about the stories themselves. Mainly forgotten stories that nobody will miss once they are completely forgotten.

So far, this series has felt like something thrown together by the editor to make a quick buck or to fill in some sort of hole in a publishing schedule. I will say, those vintage SF geeks will probably enjoy these, but I am not one of those people. I might enjoy old stories, but not because they are old, but because they are good. A vintage SF geek will enjoy the story because it is old, period.

★★☆☆☆

Lost Mars (British Library Science Fiction Classics) ★★★☆☆

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Lost Mars
Series: British Library Science Fiction Classics
Editor: Mike Ashley
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 222
Words: 84.5K

Synopsis:

The Crystal Egg - H. G. Wells

Letters from Mars - W. S. Lach-Szyrman

The Great Sacrifice - George C. Wallis

The Forgotten Man of Space - P. Schuyler Miller

A Martian Odyssey - Stanley G. Weinbaum

Ylla - Ray Bradbury

Measureless to Man - Marion Zimmer Bradley

Without Bugles - E. C. Tubb

Crucifixus Etiam - Walter M. Miller, Jr.

The Time-Tombs - J. G. Ballard

My Thoughts:

There's a reason most of these stories are in public domain and not held on by copyright shenanigans. They're unassuming and rather forgettable. Even with that statement, these stories were head and shoulders above the Moon stories. Ugh, now those were boring!

The one thing I have to keep in mind with reading this series is that these are foundational stories, something that other authors read and then built upon. You can't compare a foundation to a gilded staircase. But you can't have that staircase built solidly without the foundation.

One thing that stood out to me was the overall positive view of the authors. Even that weirdo Bradbury's story, while twisted and creepy, was still very light. Heck, even Ballard, that evil sentient who rivals the devil himself, his story wasn't depressing at all. Even saying that, I'll still be glad when I wrap up this series.

★★★☆☆

Menace of the Monster (British Library Science Fiction Classics) ★★★✬☆

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Menace of the Monster
Series: British Library Science Fiction Classics
Editor: Mike Ashley
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 266
Words: 98.5K

Synopsis:

From Isfdb.org

The War of the Worlds (abridgement) • (1920) • short story by H. G. Wells

The Cloud Men • (1911) • short fiction by Owen Oliver

The Dragon of St. Pauls • (1899) • short fiction by Reginald Bacchus and C. Ranger Gull

De Profundis • (1914) • short fiction by Coutts Brisbane

Dagon • (1919) • short story by H. P. Lovecraft

In Amundsen's Tent • (1928) • novelette by John Martin Leahy

King Kong • (1933) • short story by Draycot M. Dell and Edgar Wallace

The Monster from Nowhere • (1939) • short story by Nelson S. Bond

Discord in Scarlet • [Space Beagle] • (1939) • novelette by A. E. van Vogt

Monster • (1950) • short story by John Christopher

Resident Physician • [Sector General] • (1961) • novelette by James White

Personal Monster • (1955) • short story by Idris Seabright

Alien Invasion • (1954) • short story by Marcia Kamien

The Witness • (1951) • novelette by Eric Frank Russell

My Thoughts:

I went into this knowing that Ashley was going to blab before each story. Thankfully, there was a LOT less sociocultural BS than in the previous book. He actually talked about the stories and authors as stories and authors instead of as representative of this or that modern idea. I didn't want to stuff a sock down his throat and choke him to death so that was quite the improvement from last time :-)

With that being said, the stories here weren't quite as engaging, hence the 3.5star rating. The War of the Worlds abridgement was just too short. It did make me want to seek out the full version though, so that's something. King Kong was a short story based on the screen play and man, did it feel like it. I'll take Jackson's Director's Cut of the movie any day. I'd read several others of these throughout the years so that familiarity helped ease me along.

Overall, this series is exposing me to authors that have disappeared or fallen out of the knowledge of even the SF community and it is very interesting to read such things. I like the short story format, as I'm not getting bogged down because an author can't shut the feth up. I didn't even realize how much I am starting to hate modern authors because of their bleeding wordiness until I started reading more short stories and the distillation of an idea instead of an expansion of the idea. As much as I loved Sanderson when he started, I'm not sure I can read much more by him. And don't get me started on jackasses like Gwynne who think they're somebody and have the right to pen tomes as newbie authors.

To end, this one went MUCH better even while some of the stories weren't as good. I hope things can stay at this level.

★★★✬☆

• Menace of the Machine

Menace of the Machine (British Library Science Fiction Classics) ★★★☆☆

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Menace of the Machine
Series: British Library Science Fiction Classics
Editor: Mike Ashley
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 257
Words: 95.5K

Synopsis:

Table of Contents

Moxon’s Master

Ambrose Bierce

The Discontented Machine

Adeline Knapp

Ely’s Automatic Housemaid

Elizabeth Bellamy

The Mind Machine

Michael Williams

Automata

S. Fowler Wright

The Machine Stops

E. M. Forster

Efficiency

Perley Poore Sheehan & Robert H. Davis

Rex

Harl Vincent

Danger in the Dark Cave

J. J. Connington

The Evitable Conflict

Isaac Asimov

Two-Handed Engine

C. L. Moore & Henry Kuttner

But Who Can Replace a Man?

Brian W. Aldiss

A Logic Named Joe

Will F. Jenkins

Dial F For Frankenstein

Arthur C. Clarke

My Thoughts:

I had not read, or even heard of, 3/4's of these stories, so this was a good collection to expand my knowledge of classic SF. Considering that some them date back to the 1890's, that's as classic as you can get! Of course, there was also a reason I had not heard of most of these.

While not universally depressing, the tone is definitely set by the title. I had to remind myself several times that this was not a collection about the indomitableness of the human spirit but what humanity could let itself in for. It was interesting to see how almost every single author believed that man's creation was somehow greater than mankind and they blithely threw out statements about how complicated and wonderful the machines were and how simple and primitive the human body was. It really showed a complete lack of understanding about biology and an acceptance of the roar of evolution that was just coming into being then.

The biggest reason this got 3 stars from me and no higher was because of the fething editor sticking in his nose. Just like in the collection Worst Contact, this editor (Mike Ashley) has a little chat with the reader about the author of the upcoming story. Maybe that works for a lot of people but when I saw that on the first story I gritted my teeth and groaned. Then when I saw it for the second story I knew this was going to be the format. Unfortunately, I am not disciplined enough to skip them and besides, why should “I” have to skip them, why didn't the editor skip them? I believe I used a lot of words in my head like sycophant, lickspittle, buttkisser and useless sod. Instead of allowing me to read the stories and judge on their own merit, Ashley has to include a bunch of data that ruined the whole experience for me. Besides ruining the flow the collection! I've got 4 or 5 more of these British Library series edited by Ashley and I'm going to do my hardest to skip his idiotic blathering and useless drivel and generally disgusting toejam munching.

To summarize, the stories were enjoyable on a variety of levels but the editorializing ruined the whole thing for me.

★★★☆☆