Customer Reviews

50 Short Science Fiction Tales

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you enjoy SciFi then this one's for you. These are obviously very short stories since 50 of 'em are crammed into such a small book - but many of them have a hidden depth that transcends their brevity. Some are deeply philosophical, and many contain clever Rod-Serling-esque twists at the end. Very highly recommended. Turn off the TV and read this instead.

This book was my first scifi short story collection. I was given it when I twelve by my great aunt. It is so incredibly classic and so powerful, it probably slanted me toward sciences even more than I had been.

If you enjoy Gardner Dozois (editor) anthologies, you'll love this. If you think Dozois' anthologies are sometimes weak, well... you've got Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, and Leiber to name a few in this 1963 packed paperback. The only regret you will have is that there are only 287 pages.

If you like really short SF stories then you should read this book. It contains a lot of them and they are good. They are also short. The book packs fifty stories plus introductions etc into less than 300 pages.

The collection was first issued in the early sixties and the stories themselves come from the forties and fifties. SF is a rapidly changing medium and, with an average age of half a century, many of these stories now show their age. But that does not really detract from their quality. After all, this collection features the greatest SF talents of the era.

If forced to pick a favourite from the collection, I'd choose "The Available Data on the Worp Reaction" by Lion Miller but there are so many good tales in here that naming one alone is an injustice to the others.

In an introduction to this collection of short-short science fiction stories, Isaac Asimov poses a question: How does the science fiction writer go about working the background of a story (which may involve a different futuristic society, scientific concepts, or different moral codes) into as compressed a form as the short-short story without damaging the tale? Put in this manner, it seems almost impossible to do. Asimov says that it is something that he can do better than he can describe. Fair enough. But we might note that one method is to appeal to certain story conventions. The monster horror story, the tavern or club story, the dystopian drama, the fabulous invention story, the Stepford wives tale, the incredible journey-- all have conventions that do not have to be spelled out in detail to the reader. The trick is to play on these conventions in fresh ways. For the most part, the stories in this book do just that. They are sometimes predictable, but they are always well-crafted. They range in quality from good to excellent.

The organization of this book is to use a poetic prologue and epilogue by Poul and Karen Anderson. (I prefer Karen's haiku to Poul's ballad.) In between are fifty short-short stories arranged in alphabetical order by author, from Asimov to Wright. This is convenient for the reader who wants to find a particular story quickly. But it also results in stories that are alike being placed back to back. Perhaps an arrangement by subject with an index might have been better.

Fredric Brown's "The Weapon" and S. Fowler Wright's "Obviously Suicide" have some biting things to say about the social responsibility of scientists. So does C.M. Kornbluth's "The Altar at Midnight," though it does so in a much more subtle manner.

Anthony Boucher's "The Ambassadors," Arthur Feldman's "The Mathematicians," and Walt Sheldon's "The Hunters" all hang on the same gimmick-- and a pretty worn gimmick, at that. They work as stories, but they would not work for an instant as dramatic pieces. They depend on what you don't see.

There aren't a lot of space stories in this collection. But there are two excellent yarns by two old pros: "The Haunted Space Suit" by Arthur C. Clarke and "Columbus Was a Dope" by Robert A. Heinlein. Maybe you have read them before. Take another look and watch how carefully these authors build up to the final twist.

Stories of pure horror are Idris Seabright's "An Egg a Month From All Over" and Theodore Sturgeon's "Talent". Also chilling in a comically amoral kind of way is Evelyn E. Smith's "The Martian and the Magician".

Peter Phillips' "Counter Charm" and Arthur Porges' "The Fly" have a similar subject. (They are also back-to-back.) Albert Hernhunter's "Texas Week" and John
D. MacDonald's "Spectator Sport" have similar endings. William Tenn's "Project Hush" and Ralph Williams' "Emergency Landing" are satires of military bureaucracy. The second story, in apropos of nothing, was printed in _Astounding_ twenty years before the first of the Dean Drive articles.

There are two stories set in rather grim futures-- Damon Knight's "Not With a Bang" and Fritz Leiber's "A Bad Day for Sales"-- and two set in underground utopias-- Mildred Clingerman's "Stair Trick" and Jack Finney's "The Third Level". All four are small gems.

I would also like to give a nod to Will Stanton's "Barney". Stanton is a writer who appeared sporadically in the fifties and sixties, mostly in _F&SF_, with a number of marvelously quirky short stories. He deserves more attention than he has recieved.

The gimlet-eyed reader will have noticed that I have not discussed all fifty stories in this collection. But I believe that I have discussed enough of a sampling to give a sense of what the anthology is like. Your favorites in this book will almost certainly not be exactly the same as mine. But I would be very surprised if you did not find anything in these pages to amuse and entertain you.

This is a very fun, brisk read. I was somewhat let down by the "climaxes" of some of the short stories because they either fizzled out or I didn't understand the references they were making. In other cases, the plot devices and themes have been recycled numerous times, making them all-too-predictable -- such as the Stepford Wife-isms of "The Perfect Woman". Not to blame this book, but that's what you can expect. Also, the typeface the book is presented in is kind of smeary, making it a little tough to read.

Nonetheless, the content shines through: sci-fi tales from an earlier age, a number of them not even a page long. Keeps my attention-depraved meter from pegging, and makes a suitable bathroom read too.

One of my faves is "Who's Cribbing?" by Jack Lewis, which seems to involve time travel and is told from the perspective of correspondence via snail mail.

Another gem is Idris Seabright's "An Egg a Month from All Over", which starts with a gloss of whimsy but soon descends into what I'd call the most gory moment in the mostly childsafe book.

50 Short Science Fiction Tales' ordering is unusually sensible, with elements at the end of one story (like a Geiger counter) figuring in the next. Overally, warmly recommended and a great insight into the imaginative minds of the early 50's!

This short story collection is more than I bargained for. I was looking for something that I could read every now and then, finish over time--something with girth that I can come back to. Only part of that's true--I come back to it regularly, but I finish it every time. These engrossing stories are delectably various, but an absolute joy to follow. No two are the same or even really cover the same area, but they all feel like they're on the same level of understanding. An absolute must-read for anyone that has ever liked a science fiction story. Get it.

I normally stay away from edited (multi-authored) short story collections, but after reading several of the stories while standing in the bookstore (yes, some are just ONE page), I had to purchase it. The stories are from the "old school" of sci-fi (rockets and pulp-style settings), but these stories rely more on message than science, so it's not really noticed. Do yourself a favor and grab it. I do have to disagree with Asimov's introduction, however...

50 Short Science Fiction Tales (1963) is an anthology of brief SF stories. Naturally, it contains 50 short-short stories, but it also includes separate introductions by the editors and a poetic prelude and postlude. These tales span the years from 1940 to 1962.

- Introduction No. 1 by Isaac Asimov discusses the importance of background in SF tales.

- Introduction No. 2 by Groff Conklin concerns the role of short-short stories in the publishing field.

- Prelude is the poem "Ballade of an Artificial Satellite" by Poul Anderson.

- Postlude is six Haiku by Karen Anderson.

The stories themselves are by a wide selection of SF writers, some of which are more famous in other genres. Obviously there is not enough room in this review to list all the stories and authors. But a few tales are particularly noteworthy.

- The Weapon by Fredric Brown is an indictment of the arms race.

- The Third Level by Jack Finney concerns a way to visit the past.

- Columbus Was a Dope by Robert A. Heinlein gives a jab at those who would prefer to live in the past.

- Tiger by the Tail by Alan E. Nourse tells of the discovery of a portal into another place.

- We Don't Want Any Trouble by James H. Schmitz relates the treatment of an alien by the army and the consequences.

- Project Hush by William Tenn exposes a secret project to reach the Moon.

The authors of the above tales were well-known in their time. Most of the others were also among the favorite authors of those times and some are even known to the present generation. Consider this a blast from the past.

Other reviews have warned of the poor quality of the printing. My copy has clear print, although the font size is small. I suspect that it is a later reprint.

All fifty tales have a message of some sort and a punchline to make that point. Some are depressing, but others are uplifting. Read and enjoy!

Highly recommended for fans of science fiction and fantasy.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Since I am a "bathroom reader", short stories always interested me. The short stories in this book are *very* short (about 5 or 6 pages each). It must take some talent to complete a whole story in such a space, and to do so so well. The editors did a great job of selecting stories that I consider classic science fiction. Pity they don't publish it anymore.

Being a collection of short-shorts, the emphasis is on the absurd, the punchline, the bait and reel. Some stories are clearly not science fiction (sorcerers, ghosts and shoulder-shrugging). As far as anthologies go, this one is one of the easiest to pick up and put down while reading another novel which isn't very good (for example, I'm reading Jack McDevitt's Deepsix and I HAD to take a break from it). I'm surprised no one else has listed and reviewed each and every story, so I'm at your service by doing so... and limiting each review to five words.

Asimov, Isacc - The Fun They Had - 3/5 - Paper book discovery wows children. 4pg
Bloch, Alan - Men Are Different - 4/5 - Men aren't quite like robots. 2pg
Boucher, Anthony - The Ambassadors - 5/5 - Lupus Mars needs werewolf ambassadors. 5pg
Brown, Fredric - The Weapon - 5/5 - Visitor dissuades scientist of weapon. 4pg
Caravan, T.P. - Random Sample - 5/5 - Abominable girl disgusts visiting aliens. 4pg
Cartmill, Cleve - Oscar - 2/5 - Mike sees the Unseen Thing. 5pg
Cartur, Peter - The Mist - 3/5 - Mister Brown houses shimmering disturbance. 4pg
Causey, James - Teething Ring - 4/5 - Alien student visits common housewife. 8pg
Clarke, Arthur C. - Haunted Space Suit - 3/5 - Space suited supervisor retrieves satellite. 6pg
Clingerman, Mildred - Stair Trick - 2/5 - Lonely bartender impresses regular customers. 6pg
Dee, Roger - Unwelcome Tenant - 4/5 - Gravity dwelling intelligence frees man. 6pg
Feldman, Arthur - The Mathematicians - 3/5 - Narrative emotional inbred aliens conquer. 4pg
Finney, Jack - The Third Level - 4/5 - Train to Galesberg, Illinois, 1894? - 5pg
Friedman, Stuart - Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful! - 4/5 - Boy #735 yearns girl #735. 4pg
Grendon, Edward - The Figure - 5/5 - Temporal scientists and cockroach infestation. 6pg
Grinnell, David - The Rag Thing - 4/5 - Mischievous oily rag survives winter. 5pg
Gross, Marion - The Good Provider - 4/5 - Single time/place time machine. 5pg
Heinlein, Robert A. - Columbus Was a Dope - 3/5 - Generation ship needs steel, braveness. 5pg
Hemhunter, Albert - Texas Week - 2/5 - Loco farmer sees valley mirage. 5pg
Hickey, H.B. - Hilda - 3/5 - Philanderer orders around robot maid. 5pg
Hilton-Young, W. - The Choice - 3/5 - Time traveler forgets his travels. 2pg
Knight, Damon - Not With a Bang - 4/5 - Last man on earth fantasizes. 6pg
Kornbluth, C.M. - The Altar at Midnight - 4/5 - Deformed `spacer' visits earth bars. 8pg
Leiber, Fritz - A Bad Day for Sales - 4/5 - Mobile robotic vendor sells indiscriminately. 8pg
Lewis, Jack - Who's Cribbing? - 5/5 - Wait now, who's plagiarizing who? 8pg
MacDonald, John D. - Spectator Sport - 5/5 - Time traveler find stimulant addicts. 6pg
Manhattan, Avro - The Cricket Ball - 5/5 - Removal of gravity ball persists. 4pg
Marks, Winston K. - Double-Take - 4/5 - Inventor and actress start craze. 5pg
McKnight, John P. - Prolog - 3/5 - Curious caveman discovers baby language. 5pg
Miller, Lion - Data on the Worp Reaction - 3/5 - Idiot boy builds levitating machine. 4pg
Nelson, Alan - Narapoia - 4/5 - Doctor treats man with Paranoia? 7pg
Nourse, Alan E. - Tiger by the Tail - 5/5 - The trans-dimensional aluminum eating pocketbook! 7pg
Phillips, Peter - Counter Charm - 2/5 - Unique gift for the king. 2pg
Porges, Arthur - The Fly - 5/5 - Geiger carrier observes spider's web. 5pg
Reynolds, Mack - The Business, As Usual - 4/5 - Time traveler barters shirt, pants. 4pg
Robinson, Frank M. - Two Weeks in August - 4/5 - Office man lists Mars itinerary. 7pg
Robles Jr., Edward G. - See? - 4/5 - Idiosyncratic hobos cower from garbage. 5pg
Russell, Eric Frank - Appointment at Noon - 2/5 - Two till twelve meeting planned. 4pg
Schmitz, James H. - We Don't Want Any Trouble - 5/5 - Abrupt alien interview turns tragic. 8pg
Schoenfeld, Howard - Built Down Logically - 4/5 - Infant genius becomes logically non-existent. 3pg
Seabright, Idris - An Egg a Month from All Over - 4/5 - Anti-social egg collector hatches oddity. 8pg
Sheckley, Robert - The Perfect Woman - 3/5 - Modern Women unlike Primitive Women. 4pg
Sheldon, Walt - The Hunters = 3/5 - Hunted in forest, couple flee. 4pg
Smith, Evelyn E. - The Martian and the Magician - 4/5 - Martian lizards stalk sorcerer's son. 7pg
Stanton, Will - Barney - 4/5 - Island intelligence experiment turns foul. 3pg
Sturgeon, Theodore - Talent - 3/5 - Farm boys can do anything. 9pg
Tenn, William - Project Hush - 5/5 - Army launches secret moon base. 7pg
van Vogt, A.E. - The Great Judge - 4/5 - Condemned man considers brain transference. 5pg
Williams, Ralph - Emergency Landing - 2/5 - Navy ghost submarine airfield landing. 5pg
Wright, S. Fowler - Obviously Suicide - 4/5 - Thirty scientists discover simple apocalypse. 4pg