Modern Classics of Science Fiction [Hardcover]

Gardner R. Dozois (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1992

An anthology of frequently neglected science fiction tales includes stories by William Gibson, Pat Murphy, Cordwainer Smith, Joanna Russ, Gene Wolfe, Roger Zelazny, and twenty-one other writers.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This new collection from the editor of The Year's Best Science Fiction and Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine generally lives up to its billing. Deliberately avoiding oft-anthologized stories, Dozois serves up a wide variety of SF from 1955 to 1989, offered here chronologically and ranging from the disturbing settings characteristic of Damon Knight, Richard McKenna and Ursula K. Le Guin, to touching character studies from Samuel R. Delaney, Roger Zelazny and Connie Willis, to the complex futures of James Tiptree Jr., Pat Cadigan and William Gibson. A highlight is Jack Vance's brilliant tale of alien anthropology, "The Moon Moth." The collection's weak link is Keith Roberts's "The Lady Margaret," which moves too slowly toward an uninteresting climax. Readers might enjoy Bruce Sterling's "Dori Bangs," but only if they're familiar with rock critic Lester Bangs and with cartoonist Dori Seda. Dozois's introductions tend toward hyperbole (many contributors are labeled "giants" or "masters"). Also included are tales by L. Sprague de Camp, Cordwainer Smith, Theodore Sturgeon, R. A. Lafferty, Gene Wolfe, Joanna Russ and eight others.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

GARDNER DOZOIS has won the Locus Award for best anthology editor twenty two times. He has won the Hugo Award fourteen times. The editor of Asimov's SF magazine since 1985, he lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 672 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr (February 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312072384
• ISBN-13: 978-0312072384
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,030,360 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome, October 10, 2001

By 

Glenn McDorman (Denver) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Modern Classics of Science Fiction (Paperback)

It is very rare for me to enjoy more than half of any anthology, but I loved 75% of this one. The stories in here, although by "classic" authors, are rare and fun. This volume knocks the socks off of any "Year's Best ..." I can't praise it enough.

Here are the three best stories:

The Fifth Head of Cerberus -- Gene Wolfe
This Moment of the Storm -- Roger Zelazny
The Edge of the World -- Michael Swanwick

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Some superb stories, some simply good, October 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Modern Classics of Science Fiction (Paperback)

This collection of modern classic sci-fi novels by well-known authors is highly recommended. The authors represented include, amoung others, Robert Siverberg, Poul Andreson, Brian Aldiss and Gene Wolfe.

The quality of the stories ranges from the "just" very good (Nancy Kress' AND WILD TO HOLD, for example) to the superb (Aldiss' TOTAL ENVIORMENT and Silverberg's SAILING TO BYZANTIUM) to the extremely odd but brilliant (Cordwainer Smith's ON THE STORM PLANET and and James Kelly's MR. BOY).

If you like science fiction - and do not already have most of these previously-published short stories from other sources - buy this book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dozois Does the Classics, May 16, 2011

By 

John M. Ford "johnDC" (near DC, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Modern Classics of Science Fiction (Paperback)

Gardner Dozois stands in 1991, surveys the previous thirty years of science fiction stories, and chooses these twenty-six. He makes it clear in the introduction that he isn't trying to trace the genre's history, isn't choosing stories to represent different subgenres, and isn't trying to showcase any of his favorite authors. He picked stories he enjoyed reading. It's a good thing to be an editor.

Here are my favorite four of the editor's favorite twenty-six.

Damon Knight's "The Country of the Kind" examines the life of a lonely man who keeps reaching out for others. Something always gets in the way. This story may have influenced Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange.

Gene Wolf's "The Fifth Head of Cerberus" "echoes of Proust and Dickens and Kipling and Chesterton." It's a family history of a closer-than-usual family in business together.

Howard Waldrup's "The Ugly Chickens" follows an investigator trying to prove that an extinct bird may still be alive. What he finds makes him truly thankful.

Lucius Shepard's "Salvador" puts us inside the head of a soldier fighting the enemy in a South American jungle--with a little help from his little friends.

Gardner Dozois' taste in science fiction works for me. These stories are all interesting and most are fun to read. A couple of them take you to a dark place. So watch out for that.