Customer Reviews

The Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories

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

 

 

The Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories edited by Tom Shippey is a very representative collection of some of the best short stories of the genre written between 1903 and 1990 and collecting stories form such luminaries in the field as H.G. Wells, Ursula K. LeGuin, and George R. R. Martin. As you read each story, you are on a linear progression throughout the last century, watching the genre evolve and you get a good representation of the various forms of science fiction, from extraterrestrial exploration to time traveling. Shippey also does a good job of choosing stories that reflect the social conditions of the time each story was written letting us see how the world turned out despite the warnings given by the author's tale. The introduction is also a wonderful accounting of science fiction and its eras written by Shippey, which is a great read. This book should definitely be on the shelf of every science fiction aficionado.

A collection of Science-Fiction stories that tries to follow the genere from it's earliest days of H.G. Wells to the modern Gibson and Brin. Some of the stories are already famous, but a surprising number of them are excelent, yet mostly unknown to the average reader. In my opinion it's good both as an excelent collection as an historic collection.

As you would expect from an anthology of this sort, there is a historical and/or critical if you like introduction to the field of science fiction, of some reasonable length, before getting to the stories.

Then, you have a chronological progression of tales, or various types chosen by the editor to be presumably representative. He appears to have done a rather good job, too, averaging 3.73 over a wide range of eras. Should be able to, though, if taking your pick. Pretty minor Wolfe and Le Guin stories, and a useless Disch tale drag it down a little.

With that, and the intro, probably a 4.75 anthology I think, definitely excellent.

Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories : The Land Ironclads - H. G. Wells
Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories : Finis - Frank L. Pollock
Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories : As Easy as A.B.C. - Rudyard Kipling
Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories : The Metal Man - Jack Williamson
Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories : A Martian Odyssey - Stanley G. Weinbaum
Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories : Night - John W. Campbell, Jr.
Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories : Desertion - Clifford D. Simak
Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories : The Piper's Son - Lewis Padgett
Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories : The Monster - A. E. van Vogt
Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories : Second Night of Summer - James H. Schmitz
Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories : Second Dawn - Arthur C. Clarke
Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories : Crucifixus Etiam - Walter M. Miller
Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories : The Tunnel Under the World - Frederik Pohl
Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories : Who Can Replace a Man? - Brian W. Aldiss
Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories : Billenium - J. G. Ballard
Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories : The Ballad of Lost C'Mell - Cordwainer Smith
Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories : Semley's Necklace - Ursula K. Le Guin
Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories : How Beautiful with Banners - James Blish
Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories : A Criminal Act - Harry Harrison
Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories : Problems of Creativeness - Thomas M. Disch
Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories : How the Whip Came Back - Gene Wolfe
Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories : Cloak of Anarchy - Larry Niven
Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories : A Thing of Beauty - Norman Spinrad
Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories : The Screwfly Solution - Raccoona Sheldon
Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories : The Way of Cross and Dragon - George R. R. Martin
Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories : Swarm - Bruce Sterling
Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories : Burning Chrome - William Gibson
Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories : Silicon Muse - Hilbert Schenck
Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories : Karl and the Ogre - Paul J. McAuley
Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories : Piecework - David Brin


Give tanks a try.

3.5 out of 5


Flame on, lights out.

4 out of 5


Air travel advancing control.

4 out of 5


Amazing scientifiction.

3 out of 5


Interplanetary interpersonal communication.

4 out of 5


Showing your flight age.

3.5 out of 5


Altered man mission adds a mutt.

4.5 out of 5


Dead race destruction discovery toasting.

3 out of 5


Grandma has a pony. All the better to help her defeat alien invastions.

4 out of 5


Composite Mind War accomodation.

3.5 out of 5


Martian labor aeration.

4 out of 5


Brain capacity reduction circuit.

3 out of 5


Human lack machine chaos conflict.

4 out of 5


Population space premium.

4 out of 5


Underpeople Lord assisted capital punishment escapage.

4.5 out of 5


Dowry delay death.

3 out of 5


Bubble suit Titan tearaway.

4 out of 5


Breeding punishment volunteer.

4 out of 5


Classification.

2.5 out of 5


Slave vote.

3.5 out of 5


Free Park experiment not bright.

4 out of 5


Got a bridge to sell you.

4 out of 5


S8x and violence.

4 out of 5


Betrayer Star Knights.

3.5 out of 5


Interspecies business shocks.

4 out of 5


Cracking victim charity.

4 out of 5


Total access story program plan.

4 out of 5


A whole generation of children with enhanced intelligence wipe out all the adults via bacteria, and these superbright changelings go hunting the remnants that haven't been killed outright.

3.5 out of 5


Dropping your bundle and bundle.

4 out of 5

That fact that this collection would get produced again after about 10 years is a sign that this book is selling well enough that it deserves a re-release with a different cover. I'd always been a fan of science fiction, but never really tried to get into it until I read most of the stories in it. With only 30 pages left to read, I'm interested in finishing the rest of the book now.

Shippey's selection of stories is excellent whether you are a science fiction fanatic or an amateur. What's good about short stories is that they are short enough so that if you don't like them, you can move on to the next one, and if you really like it, you can look for longer works by that particular author. The book is thick enough to include a span of stories which vary in plot and complexity greatly. More general ideas such as how the world may be like in the future, whether the world will end or not, how a part of the future may be like in the future, government policies, religion, standardized tests, alien invasions, sickness, the afterlife, and even sex are a few big concepts in the science fiction stories presented. At least one of these stories may even bring some disgust or creative joy to your taste buds. More specific plot stories which are not necessarily tuned in to a social global theory are also included such as search for treasure and visiting alien planets. Something for everyone pretty much in the science fiction genre.

These stories are selected with the cerebral reader in mind---that reader who will slog through static, atmospheric, literary stories without ever skipping ahead to see if anything ever happens (it doesn't). They probably ate all their brussels sprouts as kids, too. If you read books because they are good for you, you'll love these.

If, on the other hand, like me, you read SF because you want to empathize with characters facing fascinating problems and you want to be thrilled by what happens next, then there are few stories here to thrill you.

The pick of the litter:

The Screwfly Solution is subtly perverse, dark, wonderfully told and scary as hell (is it happening now?).

Desertion is, though predictable, sweetly satisfying, especially to dog lovers.

The Monster is the cleverest Van Vogt ever wrote, mind blowing and will have you cheering for the human hero for a change.

The Swarm is such a vivid visit to a hive that it will have your skin crawling, and the twist is gut-wrenching.

Second Night of Summer is a fine heartwarming tale of evil aliens, a boy and a simpler time.

The others are snoozers only an Oxford English major (or the author's mother) could love.

But don't take my word for it...

It is difficult to choose from among the myriad science fiction anthologies currently on the market; their lurid, garish covers demand the consumer's equal attention and purchase. The cover of Shippey's anthology is markedly nonchalant and spare in comparison to the aforementioned, but as one of the best SF anthologies in existence today, it is worth a second (and third and fourth) look.

Shippey was wise to avoid the second-rate and overly anthologized work of Heinlein and Asimov, and to choose just one of Clarke's better stories. The rest of the anthology he reserves for SF's more literary, and occasionally more obscure, authors - Cordwainer Smith's luxuriant "The Ballad of Lost C'mell" and Frank L. Pollack's fuliginous "Finis" can compete with the most profound of traditional literary fiction. Other works like A.E. van Vogt's "The Monster" - so illogical that it becomes charmingly surreal, Raccoona Sheldon's artfully acidic "The Screwfly Solution", and David Brin's poignantly lambent "Piecework" reveal the thought processes and weltanschauungen which make SF so fascinating.

There are a few middling stories in the anthology - these were likely chosen by Shippey to demonstrate an evolution of the genre. Harry Harrison's "A Criminal Act" has homophobic dialogue and a clunky exposition (the 'ah, but first I will tell you...' syndrome of mid-century SF), and Gene Wolfe's "How The Whip Came Back" loses credibility when it makes the Catholic Church a guarantor of personal freedom. (Walter Miller's "Crucifixus Etiam" and George R.R. Martin's "The Way of Cross and Dragon" demonstrate more insightful takes on the muddled collisions of faith, religion, science fiction, and society.)

Oxford and Shippey have rendered a voluminous, cogent collection - if you appreciate the history and the potential of science fiction, I urge you to consider it.

This is a history of sci-fi kind of anthology. We start early, then we move upwards through the 1980s. As a history, this is a fine collection, very enjoyable, as it makes it possible for one to trace the development of the genre alongside what was happening in the world it has its roots in.
But as a history, sometimes, I fear, quality has to be sacrificed. Not all these short stories are optimal for the genre.

There's a certain je ne sais quoi about the work of the earliest sci-fi writers by which they draw the reader into a richly painted world that scarcely allows him to come up for breath. This may sound trite, but, as one recalls, the ultimate objective of all strongly crafted fiction is to dissolve the delineation between the reader's universe and the story's universe. Perhaps I should except the trite--even silly--works of the likes of H. G. Wells and Rudyard Kipling (I have difficulty getting into a story where "high-tech" battles between opposing forces are fought on horseback!), but the majority of the stories are very finely textured. Ironically, as we leave the Golden Age and progress toward modern times, the "tightness" of the individual story as a complete, conceptual unit is lost: frankly, I'd prefer if sci-fi never advanced past the '70s. But that's not the fault of this book, but, rather, of the "writers" who are too concerned with glitz and pseudo-technique than with telling an enrapturing story. Also on the downside, there are some editing problems, and I'd have been happier if the British editors hadn't insisted on forcing British orthographic conventions upon American text. Kudos to the editors of this absorbing volume for doing just about the best that could be done with the hundred-plus-year panoply of science fiction literature in the English language.

SF readers grew up on, and invariably cherish, the writers included. However, The book appears to omit Heinlein, Bester, Leiber, and Asimov, to mention only a few, and to greatly under-represent Mr Clarke. Perhaps it should be re-named "The Oxford Book of British Science Fiction". The book is needlessly chauvinistic; especially since the genre was brought to full maturity in the 20th century by American writers. A new, appropriately inclusive edition would be wonderful. One fails to underderstand Oxford's relentless and needless British bent.