Science Fiction Hall of Fame: The Great Novellas (Science Fiction Hall of Fame #2B) ★★★★☆

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Title: The Great Novellas
Series: Science Fiction Hall of Fame #2B
Editor: Ben Bova
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 743
Words: 202K

Synopsis:

Book includes:

The Martian Way - Isaac Asimov
Earthman, Come Home - James Blish
Rogue Moon - Algis Budrys
The Specter General - Theodore R. Cogswell
The Machine Stops - E. M. Forster
The Midas Plague - Frederik Pohl
The Witches of Karres - James H. Schmitz
E for Effort - T. L. Sherred
In Hiding - Wilmar H. Shiras
The Big Front Yard - Clifford D. Simak
The Moon Moth - Jack Vance

My Thoughts:

After the complete stinker that was the set of Novellas (Vol. 2A), I went into this read very trepidatiously. Thankfully, the first novella by Asimov set me at my ease, as I'd read the short story it was based on in one of his collections. Familiarity not only can breed contempt but it can also breed contentedness. I'd also read the full novel of Budry's Rogue Moon and Pohl's The Midas Plague.

With that, I experienced none of the “can we get this over this, please?!?!?” that I experienced in the previous volume. These novellas I found interesting and engaging and I kept on wanting to read them. I don't know why I enjoyed ALL of the novellas in this volume and none of the ones in 2A. Honestly, it baffles me.

If you want to experience SF in all its glory and all its stigma, read this series. The first volume of short stories is just sublime, Vol 2A is shamefully boring and this 2B volume brings things back to a more balanced view. I believe there are two more volumes (Volumes 3 and 4) but I think I'm going to pass since I doubt they're all on the level of Vol 1.

★★★★☆

• SF Hall of Fame Vol. 1
• SF Hall of Fame #2A

Science Fiction Hall of Fame: The Great Novellas (Science Fiction Hall of Fame #2A) ★★☆☆☆

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 Great Novellas
Series: Science Fiction Hall of Fame #2A
Editor : Ben Bova
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 790
Words: 216K

Synopsis:

Consists of the following novellas by these authors:

• Call Me Joe by Poul Anderson
• Who Goes There? By John Campbell Jr
• Nerves by Lester Del Rey
• Universe by Robert Heinlein
• The Marching Morons by C.M Kornbluth
• Vintage Season by Kuttner and Moore
• ...And Then There Were None by Eric Russell
• The Ballad of Lost C'Mell by Cordwainer Smith
• Baby is Three by Theodore Sturgeon
• The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
• With Folded Hands by Jack Williamson

My Thoughts:

The only reason this volume is getting 2stars instead of 1 is because of the story “Who Goes There?”, which has been turned into the various movies “The Thing” and is the basis for one of the X-Files episodes in Season One.

Part of my disappointment with this book was just how good Volume 1 was, which I read back in '18. That collection of short stories was everything I expected from the Golden Age of SF. These novellas on the other hand are boring, plain and simple.

Take “Nerves” for instance. It is about a Doctor working at an Atomic Plant because he used to be a brain surgeon but an operation went wrong years ago. It wasn't his fault and there was nothing he could do about it, but he couldn't face the fact that he wasn't perfect, so he ran away from his profession to become a “simple” general practitioner. Only something goes terribly wrong at the Plant and the only way to save the whole world is for him to do brain surgery on a wounded engineer. The lead up was too long and the tension just wasn't there. Most of these stories I simply found too long. I kept asking myself “when will this story be over already?!?”

On the other hand, you had some horrific ideas. “The Marching Morons” was about a salesman revived hundreds of years later. The world has become populated by morons because all the smart people stopped having kids a long time ago and the remaining thousand or so people with IQ's above X all live in the North Pole at a secret base. They secretly run the world but are tired of it, as the morons keep on multiplying and nothing the Clever People can do stops them. The Clever People tried to take a hands off approach but the war started by the Morons was too much for them to accept and so they stepped back in and began directing things again. The Salesman tells the Clever People to start a rumor of colonies on Mars or Venus or wherever and to hold a lottery for an entire city to go on rocket ships to this new colony. Then another city would be picked, etc, etc. The salesman puts together the ads and campaign and has the Morons clamoring to go to Venus. Of course, the rockets just go into the Sun and kill all the morons. The Salesman became Dictator of the World (that was what he wanted to give the Clever People his help) and the story ends with all the Morons gone and the Clever People throwing the Salesman into the last rocketship and sending it off. Now, whatever the author was trying to say went over my head, because this was just horrible. The Salesman was horrible, the Morons were horrible and the Clever People were horrible.

There is one more volume, Volume 2B (why they simply didn't call them Vol. 1, 2 and 3 is beyond me) and I'm going to read it. I am desperately hoping it is better than this. It is another collection of novellas though, so I am keeping my DNF gun handy and my finger on the trigger. I won't wade through another crapfest like this.

★★☆☆☆

• Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol. 1

The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol. 1: 1929-1964 ★★★★★

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 Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol. 1: 1929-1964
Series: The Science Fiction Hall of Fame #1
Editor: Robert Silverberg
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Science Fiction
Pages: 576
Format: Trade paperback

Synopsis:

A collection of short stories voted by members of the Science Fiction Authors Guild (or something or other like that) as the best of. A popularity contest of stories from the 30's to the 60's. No author had more than one story and the book was presented chronologically, so we as the readers could see how things progressed storywise in 30 years.

My Thoughts:

Danielle from Books, Vertigo and Tea reviewed this recently and brought it to my attention. What a fantastic read.

First off, this was originally published back in 1970, I believe. It was released again in 2005 and then just released digitally in 2018. Obviously not a new book. I read this at lunch beginning sometime in March and just finished it this past week. Short stories really lend themselves to no pressure reading and going at a slow pace. Sometimes you need that in a busy, hectic book life like mine.

I had read over ½ of these 26 stories, as growing up in the 80's and addicted to SF meant I was familiar with almost all of these authors, even if just by name. This was good stuff! If you've never read Vintage SF, this is a good place to start. Even if you don't like every story (and I didn't like every one either), you'll get the flavor of what those years produced and if an author strikes your fancy, you can then go on and investigate on your own.

In many ways, I think that Science Fiction shines through the short story medium. Ideas are presented and there is no extraneous fluff or junk to ruin it. And if your imagination isn't up to snuff to get you excited about ideas, then you probably shouldn't be reading SF in the first place.

I bought this used in trade paperback through Amazon but I think the stories are good enough that I'm going to have to put the hardcover on my wishlist. In terms of Short Story Collections, this falls squarely between Asimov's Complete Stories Vol 1 and Asimov's Complete Stories Vol 2. I do plan on buying, in used trade paperback again, Volumes 2 & 3, which are the best novella's of that time period. Hopefully they are as good as these stories.

★★★★★