Customer Reviews

The Road to Science Fiction #3 From Heinlein to Here

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

 

 

Excerpts. Bad Editor. Papa spank.

When you have put together a retrospective and analytical anthology of good to outstanding stories, why spoil it with not meant to be chopped out bits of novels? Sure, maybe they are that authors best work. As a novel. Just say so, choose another bloody story and move on. Or choose other authors and one of their stories, not like there is a shortage.

That being said, the rest is really good, from intros to authorial analyses, to the stories which average 3.85. About half the worst ratings come from excerpts, so you could consider that to be higher. Without those, the book would be pushing 5 stars.

This volume is subtitled from Heinlein to here, Here being the late 70s in this case. Or post Golden Age (everyone pretty much knowing what this means at the time, in general, apart from Norman Spinrad's delusionally self-involved definition of 1966-70, which Gunn mentions.)

Anyway, a fine, and highly readable work in a nice compact little paperback, and likely the volume of these Road To... books that people will like the most, in general. Also the longest, as you can probably tell from the 36 story count.

Road To Science Fiction 3 : All You Zombies - Robert A. Heinlein
Road To Science Fiction 3 : Reason - Isaac Asimov
Road To Science Fiction 3 : Desertion - Clifford D. Simak
Road To Science Fiction 3 : Mimsy Were the Borogoves - Lewis Padgett
Road To Science Fiction 3 : The Million-Year Picnic - Ray Bradbury
Road To Science Fiction 3 : Thunder and Roses - Theodore Sturgeon
Road To Science Fiction 3 : That Only a Mother - Judith Merril
Road To Science Fiction 3 : Brooklyn Project - William Tenn
Road To Science Fiction 3 : Coming Attraction - Fritz Leiber
Road To Science Fiction 3 : The Sentinel - Arthur C. Clarke
Road To Science Fiction 3 : Sail On! Sail On! - Philip José Farmer
Road To Science Fiction 3 : Critical Factor - Hal Clement
Road To Science Fiction 3 : Fondly Fahrenheit - Alfred Bester
Road To Science Fiction 3 : The Cold Equations - Tom Godwin
Road To Science Fiction 3 : The Game of Rat and Dragon - Cordwainer Smith
Road To Science Fiction 3 : Pilgrimage to Earth [Love Incorporated] - Robert Sheckley
Road To Science Fiction 3 : Who Can Replace a Man? - Brian W. Aldiss
Road To Science Fiction 3 : Harrison Bergeron - Kurt Vonnegut
Road To Science Fiction 3 : The Streets of Ashkelon - Harry Harrison
Road To Science Fiction 3 : The Terminal Beach - J. G. Ballard
Road To Science Fiction 3 : Dolphin's Way - Gordon R. Dickson
Road To Science Fiction 3 : Slow Tuesday Night - R. A. Lafferty
Road To Science Fiction 3 : Day Million - Frederik Pohl
Road To Science Fiction 3 : We Can Remember It for You Wholesale - Philip K. Dick
Road To Science Fiction 3 : I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream - Harlan Ellison
Road To Science Fiction 3 : Aye and Gomorrah - Samuel R. Delany
Road To Science Fiction 3 : The Jigsaw Man - Larry Niven
Road To Science Fiction 3 : Kyrie - Poul Anderson
Road To Science Fiction 3 : Masks - Damon Knight
Road To Science Fiction 3 : Stand on Zanzibar [short story] - John Brunner
Road To Science Fiction 3 : The Big Flash - Norman Spinrad
Road To Science Fiction 3 : Sundance - Robert Silverberg
Road To Science Fiction 3 : The Left Hand of Darkness [short story] - Ursula K. Le Guin
Road To Science Fiction 3 : When It Changed - Joanna Russ
Road To Science Fiction 3 : The Engine at Heartspring's Center - Roger Zelazny
Road To Science Fiction 3 : Tricentennial - Joe W. Haldeman


Self-seduction time.

4 out of 5


Robot curiosity of philosophy.

3.5 out of 5


Altered man mission adds a mutt.

4.5 out of 5


A technology discovery is beyond the adults, but definitely not the children, with unforeseen results.

4.5 out of 5


Mealtime archaeology.

3.5 out of 5


With everything nuked, limitation, hope and waiting is all that can be done.

4.5 out of 5


Don't know baby.

2.5 out of 5


Past alterations pseudopocryphal.

4 out of 5


Strange social fashions.

4 out of 5


Moon machine.

4 out of 5


Angel radio.

4 out of 5


Rocky swimming.

3.5 out of 5


Hot for crime android.

4 out of 5


Kid is a waste of oxygen.

5 out of 5


Another actual use for a live cat. Fight you little bastich.

4 out of 5


Time Enough For Love. Briefly. If you pay.

3.5 out of 5


Human lack machine chaos conflict.

4 out of 5


Handicap gravity uplift termination.

4 out of 5


Native superstition addition.

4.5 out of 5


The centre has a hold.

3 out of 5


Interspecies communication has much wider importance.

5 out of 5


There really are Morning People. Whenever you sleep, get rich quick.

4 out of 5


Stored love.

3.5 out of 5


Brain alteration badness.

4 out of 5


AM modelled slave.

4 out of 5


Gender altered space workers provide exotic rough trade on shore leave.

3 out of 5


Organlegging escape.

4 out of 5


Supernova human alien telepathic communication ending prolonged.

4 out of 5


Everything cut off.

4.5 out of 5


Instablity or urbanity.

3 out of 5


"To make a long story short and sweet, I gave the network the royal screw. I signed the Horsemen to a contract that made me their manager and gave me twenty percent of their take. Then I booked them into the American Dream at ten thousand a week, wrote a check as proprietor of the American Dream, handed the check to myself as manager of the Four Horsemen, then resigned as a network flunky, leaving them with a $10,000 bag and me with 20% of the hottest group since the Beatles.

What the hell, he who lives by the fine print shall perish by the fine print."

Apocalypto Rock and Rollo.

4 out of 5


Genocidal possibility is troubling, even if not real.

3.5 out of 5


Karhide parade.

3 out of 5


Separation anxiety.

3.5 out of 5


Bork Bork borked.

3 out of 5


SETI success spurs space dwellers to sneaky space mission.

4 out of 5





4.5 out of 5