Customer Reviews

Platinum Pohl: The Collected Best Stories (Tom Doherty Associates Books)

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Fred Pohl has been writing and/or editing science fiction since 1939, and he's still at it. That's a career of 68 years -- so far. This collection shows why he was voted the title "Grand Master." Most of these thirty stories, actually, were first published in the 1970s or later; the most recent in 1996. And among his later stories are some of his best. Keeping the best for last is the Hugo-winning "Fermi and Frost," a somberly realistic and very engrossing nuclear war story. (Who else would have thought to point out that Iceland is the best equipped place in the world to survive a nuclear winter?) Also very, very good is "The Gold at the Starbow's End," about politics and the basic mechanism of intellectual creativity, and "The Greening of Bed-Stuy," about a future New York City. Just below those, in my opinion, is "Saucery," a rather gentle yarn about two con men dealing with an interplanetary threat to their livelihoods. On the other hand, "The Day the Icicle Works Closed" has always been popular but I don't regard it as one of Pohl's stronger efforts. "Some Joys Under the Star" is another swipe by the politically astute Pohl at American political realities -- very on-topic when it first appeared at the end of the Nixon Administration and getting that way again. Pohl does great adventures, too, and one of the best of those is "The Merchants of Venus," an early Heechee story. Of course, some stories don't age as well as others, and foremost among those -- in this collection, anyway -- are "The Celebrated No-Hit Inning," "The Middle of Nowhere," and "Servant of the People," all of them affected badly by the ways in which the world actually has changed since they were published. By and large, though, this is a collection of very high quality, showing off the author's stylistic elegance and ingenious plotting. Nor does he worry overmuch about whether something he wants to say is technically "science fiction" or not. Younger readers especially, those who didn't grow up with Pohl's stuff in the 1950s and `60s (I remember reading _The Space Merchants_ a few years after it appeared in 1954), will profit from it.

Frederik Pohl has been writing sci fi for a LONG time. Thus, it should come as no surprise that he has written many, many short stories, novellas, and books. We all have our favorites. For me, it is Gateway, hands down. I'm not sure Pohl would agree. Sometimes the favorite of the fan is not the same as the favorite of the author.

Platinum Pohl: The Collected Best Stories, is, obviously, a collection of stories. The hardback version is 464 word-packed pages of adventure. For Heechee fans, the opening story, "The Merchants of Venus," is a must... a prelude to Gateway. For the remainder of the book, it is a mixed bag.

Pohl has a style, and you sense it throughout. He focuses on people and behavior, and many of his stories tend to have an odd twist at the end. I like it, and find his stories very readable. However, a number of these stories seem not to fit the "sci fi" label. They are not bad, they're just not... "out there." A minor complaint.

Here's where it counts. I've read a number of his books. And when I saw this book in the library, BAM! I had to grab it and put it at the top of the reading pile.

How could a Pohl fan do anything else?

There are some good SF stories here. "Merchants Of Venus" being the best. But---and it's a big one---if you're hoping to find some exciting science fiction here you may be disappointed.

"Greensleaves" is a story about prison life.
"The Kindly Isle" is about a widower meeting a new friend.

Anything science fiction like in these stories are incidental and might easily have been tacked on rather than being integral to the stories.

Even the science fictiony stories---those about space travel and aliens---are really very tame and mundane in the telling.

"The Middle of Nowhere" is an example. Though it's subject is hostile aliens, life and death struggle and the hostile Mars environment, there is very little real conflict in it.

Pohl may be a giant, but he's not for this reader.

I'm happy to see a new printing of Pohl's short fiction, but it difficult to understand the exclusion of widely acclaimed stories like "The Tunnel Under the World," "The Midas Plague," and "The Man Who Ate the World."

Frederick Pohl truly is one of science fiction's Grand Masters in a career that has provided us with some of the most beloved novels (The Gateway/Heechee series) and short fiction as well. This collection gathers some of his finest works of the past 5 decades and gives a good taste of the wide range of plots, characters and world-building that has made him a master of his craft. A few of my personal favorites include the cautionary tale "Growing Up in Edge City," which was a Nebula finalist in 1975, and the 1955 tale "The Mapmakers" about navigating hyperspace--which lead to my own exploration's of Einstein's theories when I was a younger man... Highly recommended.

For all fans of Science Fiction, here's a master collection! Pohls stories, well written, original and with the charachrteristic Pohl 's sharp style are a delight to read!

Selecting only thirty tales from the fifty year career of Grand Master Frederik Pohl had to seem impossible as you want representation from the five different decades to show trends as well as quality. Obviously with a science fiction hall of famer like Mr. Pohl several editions of his best stories could easily be produced. No one will have any negative comments on the chosen thirty though some might feel a personal favorite was left out. As he has done throughout his career, most of the selections warn humanity about excesses that lead to a dark catastrophic future using hyperbole to make the case that there is no inclusive in extremism only a deadly future. Personal favorites include the "The Greening of Bed-Stuy" and "The Merchants of Venus". All the contributions are terrific, but stories like "Let the Ants Try" written in 1949 but set in 1960 has an eerie nuclear war time twist that make the audience think what if. A superb collection (based on last week in Montreal - probably banned in the White House as anti-patriotic), science fiction fans will appreciate that the greatness mantle fits Mr. Pohl; as demonstrated by these entertaining thought provoking cautionary tales.

Harriet Klausner