Customer Reviews

Modern Classics of Science Fiction

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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

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.

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.

I really like Gardner Dozois' taste in anthologies. This one tends towards works that are creative and unusual: some fun, some quiet and thoughtful, all but a few character-driven rather than than suspense stories with surprise revelatory endings. He works hard to dig up somewhat overlooked authors and stories, and each one comes with a short essay on the author and their influence on the field. Some stories that have particularly stayed with me: Damon Knight's "The Country of the Kind", L. Sprague De Camp's "Aristotle and the Gun", Edgar Pangborn's "The Golden Horn", Michael Swanwick's "The Edge of the World", and Bruce Sterling's "Dori Bangs".

For nearly 30 years, Gardner Dozois has been editing annual "best of" sci-fi collections. In the early 1990s he was asked by his publisher to pull together a volume of "classics". In selecting his slate of classics, Dozois limited himself to stories published after the "Golden Age" of sci-fi (late 1930s to mid-1950s) and, according to his preface, attempted to minimize overlap with existing anthologies.

The biggest strength of this collection is that the stories are remarkably timeless. This is partly a result of preferring stories set anywhere other than our near future, including alternate pasts and presents, after the Apocalypse, in the far future, or on other worlds. It is also a result of selecting character-driven, sociological, and philosophical pieces over technology-driven and starships-and-rayguns pieces. Only one of the stories seems truly dated -- Joanna Russ' 1972 story "Nobody's Home", featuring a future Earth where people get news through "the computer" (nicely anticipating the Internet) and (almost) everybody lives in a 1960s vision of group marriages.

Most of the stories are quite good, although the best, like Jack Vance's "The Moon Moth" and Gene Wolfe's "The Fifth Head of Cerberus", are ones that older readers like myself will have seen collected elsewhere. Some of the stories are most noteworthy for being quirky, like Howard Waldrop's "The Ugly Chickens", which describes a graduate student's frantic search for evidence of dodos that survived long after the species' supposed extinction, and R. A. Lafferty's "Narrow Valley," written in the style of a Native American trickster folktale. Others, like Richard McKenna's "Casey Agonistes", a strikingly perverse tale about facing death in a hospital ward, or Connie Willis' "Chance", a poignant story about a woman's struggles with past decisions, may leave readers wondering what qualifies them as science fiction.

Dozois falters somewhat in his selection of stories from the 1980s, possibly because of a lack of critical distance. The volume features more stories from the 1980s than any other decade (9, compared to 7 from the 70s, 8 from the 60s, and 4 from the 50s), which seems odd for a book of "classics". Also, while he includes work from a reasonable slate of authors, the specific stories do not strike me as their best or most representative. In particular, Pat Cadigan's "Pretty Boy Crossover" is notable mainly for what it captures of the cyberpunk spirit, not as a powerful story, and while Bruce Sterling's "Dori Bangs" showcases many of his strengths as a writer, it will leave most readers asking "so what?"

This volume will be most valuable to readers who have read relatively few stories published before the mid-1980s. Those who have read more widely should still find some gems they had not previously encountered along with reminders about the quality of authors they have not read in some time.

great selection and commentaries on books, highly enjoyed the book

Dozois picks some of his favorites from recent decades, and avoids some of the stories that have been very commonly published. He also gives an intro for each author.


Modern Classics of Science Fiction : The Country of the Kind - Damon Knight
Modern Classics of Science Fiction : Aristotle and the Gun - L. Sprague de Camp
Modern Classics of Science Fiction : The Other Celia - Theodore Sturgeon
Modern Classics of Science Fiction : Casey Agonistes - Richard M. McKenna
Modern Classics of Science Fiction : Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons - Cordwainer Smith
Modern Classics of Science Fiction : The Moon Moth - Jack Vance
Modern Classics of Science Fiction : The Golden Horn - Edgar Pangborn
Modern Classics of Science Fiction : The Lady Margaret - Keith Roberts
Modern Classics of Science Fiction : This Moment of the Storm - Roger Zelazny
Modern Classics of Science Fiction : Narrow Valley - R. A. Lafferty
Modern Classics of Science Fiction : Driftglass - Samuel R. Delany
Modern Classics of Science Fiction : The Worm That Flies - Brian W. Aldiss
Modern Classics of Science Fiction : The Fifth Head of Cerberus - Gene Wolfe
Modern Classics of Science Fiction : Nobody's Home - Joanna Russ
Modern Classics of Science Fiction : Her Smoke Rose Up Forever - James Tiptree Jr.
Modern Classics of Science Fiction : The Barrow - Ursula K. Le Guin
Modern Classics of Science Fiction : Particle Theory - Edward Bryant
Modern Classics of Science Fiction : The Ugly Chickens - Howard Waldrop
Modern Classics of Science Fiction : Salvador - Lucius Shepard
Modern Classics of Science Fiction : Pretty Boy Crossover - Pat Cadigan
Modern Classics of Science Fiction : The Pure Product - John Kessel
Modern Classics of Science Fiction : The Winter Market - William Gibson
Modern Classics of Science Fiction : Chance - Connie Willis
Modern Classics of Science Fiction : The Edge of the World - Michael Swanwick
Modern Classics of Science Fiction : Dori Bangs - Bruce Sterling


Violent man gets odiferously ostracised.

4 out of 5


Time travel meddler discovers things don't go as planned, conquering-wise.

4 out of 5


Skinbag girl.

4 out of 5


Death preparation.

3.5 out of 5


Old North Australia's mutant mad mink secret defense doesn't pussyfoot around with thieves and murderers. Or, Stop, You'll Eat Yourself.

5 out of 5


Masked music men have roles to play.

3 out of 5


Mutant farming even less fun with spider bites.

3 out of 5


Shipmaster shot down by vessel's female namesake bangs the pedal to the metal.

4 out of 5


Weather watcher's sweetheart shooting.

4 out of 5


Ditch illusion psychic projection projectile fun.

3.5 out of 5


Hairy-chested busted fishman watches it happen again.

4 out of 5


Immortal stone record.

3 out of 5


Cheap clone kid chops clone dad, convict time done proves chip off the old research block.

4.5 out of 5


Only smart girls at parties, please.

4.5 out of 5


Frack. Duck off, girl off, publication off, death off.

4 out of 5


Priest killing provokes change of attitude.

2.5 out of 5


Pion prostate pounding not a patch on what a sudden supernova or three can do.

4 out of 5


If dodos weren't finger lickin' good, saying would need revision.

4 out of 5


The voyage of the Titanic, as adventure tourism and suicide mechanism.

4 out of 5


Spooked Special Forces pill popper's spinout.

3.5 out of 5


Nancy dancers a dime a dozen. Data dude? Now, that's new.

4 out of 5


Nasty tricks.

3 out of 5


Diseased girl disappearance upload.

3 out of 5


Unwise excursion can get a bloke absolutely lost.

3.5 out of 5


Uni meetings.

3 out of 5


Unwise excursion can get a bloke absolutely lost.

3.5 out of 5


Art and music maybes.

3.5 out of 5

All anthologies run the risk of being to broad or to narrow in its choice of selections of a particular writer or genre. Dozois readily admits that his selections are highly personalized choices of works that he likes. He eliminates time lines, political correctness and other superficial criteria which would get in his way. He is to be praised for his individual taste but with a title that implies a broad selection, he falls very short of the task.

Modern Classics contains stories of known and not so well known science fiction writers (with the latter predominating). Many of the stories you will not find in similar anthologies. In fact some are very quirky (The Ugly Chickens) and you wonder how in the world did the editor decide it was a classic. Each story presented is preceded by a brief introduction of the author's publishing history and his or her standing in the science fiction community. Some of the writers have fallen into the web of obscurity while others have slowed down in their output.

One of the most disappointing aspects of this work is its poor representation of African-Americans, women and other ethnic groups who are writing in this field. Sure, Dozois is entitled to his own partisen tastes but is science fiction still the ghetto for white males with a few tokens here and there? On a positive note, the fact that it intoduces us to writers that are obscure is good. A recovery of their works will bring a deeper appreciation for the genre.