Microcosms (Daw Book Collectors) [Paperback]

Gregory Benford (Editor), Martin H. Greenberg (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Daw Book Collectors | Publication Date: January 6, 2004

Award-winning author and scientist Gregory Benford has collected all-new, hard-science stories about miniature universes of every imaginable kind. These 13 stories will open portals into unforgettable universes that exist within or outside our own.

With stories by Stephen Baxter, Paul Levinson, Pamela Sargent, Robert J. Sawyer, Robert Sheckley, George Zebrowski, and other masters.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Editor Benford challenged sf scribes to write about just what the title suggests, and they came up with interesting stories that run the gamut of possible responses, including, in Howard V. Hendrik's "Once out of Nature," a surprisingly thoughtful piece concerning the death of the main character's father. Geoffrey A. Landis provides an unnerving, if familiar, take on infinitely recursive computer simulations in "Ouroboros." Pamela Sargent contributes "Venus Blooms at Night," about employing virtual technology to further the dream of making another world habitable. Mike Resnick and Dean Wesley Smith's collection closer, "A Moment of Your Time," more or less neatly solves the familiar time-travel hitch of changing the future by interfering in the past by keeping those traveling from the future within a single moment of the past, free to move around but not to change anything. As Benford points out, sf writers have used microcosms for years, which accounts for why the quality of these works is so high. Regina Schroeder
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: DAW (January 6, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0756401712
• ISBN-13: 978-0756401719
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,764,685 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A satisfyingly fascinating read, February 7, 2004

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Microcosms (Daw Book Collectors) (Paperback)

Contributions by Jack McDevitt, Stephen Baxter, Sheckley and other notables in the field provide a powerful collection which examines basic concepts of hard science physics in considering futures in which worlds have been created by man. The thirteen stories comprising Microcosms range from accounts of physicists who act as God in a variety of small microcosmic worlds to a God who decides to put a stop to man's creation efforts. A satisfyingly fascinating read.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good anthology, January 7, 2004

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Microcosms (Daw Book Collectors) (Paperback)

Fans of movies like Fantastic Voyage or The Incredible Shrinking Man/Woman will appreciate this collection of thirteen tales set in a wide variety of microscopic realms. Each tale is unique, but share in common that the perspective of micro is in the eye of the beholder. Using advances in physics that make the previously mentioned movies seem dated; the anthology furbishes the audience with delightful tales that run the gamut from micro-creator to sentient atoms. Besides strong interesting tales, the key to the collection is that these tiny worlds seem real due to physical symmetry in their design, no mean feat for any contribution let alone a Baker's dozen. Fans of existing acceptable state of the science in their fiction will appreciate each contribution that not only provides effective insight into current theories and knowledge of inner space, but also does so within powerful tales that makes these realms seem so real.

Harriet Klausner

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good but not great, March 19, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Microcosms (Daw Book Collectors) (Paperback)

This anthology was mixed. There were a couple of very good stories in it, and some that lacked enough imagination to give more than a quick read before moving on to the next one. If you're looking for some escape fiction to pass the time, interspersed here and there with noteworthy ones, get this volume. But be warned ahead of time that the quality is not consistent.