1999-08-06 Terrific

This is a spectacular anthology. The selection ranges from terrific to good to awful, but the terrific and good stories far outweigh the three substandard stories. I suggest skipping over the bad stories, which are: "The Mathenauts" by Norman Kagan (selected by Greg Bear), "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell" by Cordwainer Smith (selected by Lois McMaster Bujold), and -- quite unexpectedly -- "A Martian Odyssey" by Stanley G. Weinbaum (selected by L. Sprague de Camp). Actually, the low quality of an occasional story is understandable, since the writer making the selection might be choosing based not on any inherent quality but on the impact it made on him/her. (In fact, Greg Bear suggests as much in his introduction to "The Mathenauts", and even admits the story's lack in that which is usually defined as quality.)

But aside from those three, the rest of the anthology is amazing. My personal recommendations are... too long to list here without lapsing into monotony, but here are are a few hints: Theodore Sturgeon's "The Man Who Lost the Sea" (selected by Arthur C. Clarke), Eric Frank Russell's "Diabologic" (selected by Andre Norton), Ward Moore's "Lot" (selected by Connie Willis), and Roger Zelazny's "The Engine at Heartspring's Center" (selected by Gregory Benford). Oops: listed more than I meant to. Just goes to show how many of the stories in this volume I enjoyed immensely.

And since not nearly all of the "name authors" available in SF have been exhausted, I look forward to future volumes constructed along the same scheme. I can't wait.