Platinum Pohl: The Collected Best Stories (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Spanning the five decades of SFWA Grand Master Pohl's career, these 30 stories stand out for their gritty, straightforward style and for their insightful ideas about our political, social and ecological future. The opener, "The Merchants of Venus," is an old-fashioned SF adventure yarn, but most of the rest are cautionary tales of environmental and ideological catastrophes. Stories such as "My Lady Green Sleeves" and "Spending a Day at the Lottery Fair" take social attitudes to the extreme and explore what horrible places we might end up and find normal. "The Greening of Bed-Stuy," in which New York City has crumbled to all but dust, shows how a child could still call it home and love it. Not every selection has a point to make. In "The Mapmakers," "Shaffery Among the Immortals" and other "what if" stories, the idea is all that matters. Pohl has won Hugo, Nebula and other major SF awards many times. (Dec.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Since beginning his writing career as a teenager in the early 1930s, Pohl has produced so steadily and well that corralling his finest short fiction into one volume is a daunting proposition. Platinum Pohl solves this dilemma by concentrating on award winners and nominees as well as stories out of which his most popular novels were born. The first and longest entry, "The Merchants of Venus," introduces the mysterious, artifact-producing aliens called the Heechee, who became the focus of Pohl's Hugo and Nebula Award--winning novel Gateway (1977). Other particular standouts include "My Lady Green Sleeves," an account of a bizarre prison rebellion on a world of strictly divided social classes; "The Middle of Nowhere," a quaint Bradbury-like tale penned in 1955 that describes humanity's first encounter with Martians; and the 1986 Hugo winner, "Fermi and Frost," a chilling vision of Earth's final hours during a nuclear war. An essential treasury for every Pohl fan and every sf collection. Carl Hays
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Orb Books (January 23, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765301458
• ISBN-13: 978-0765301451
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #850,843 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A bleak glance into the future., November 25, 2007

By	Christian McCallister "dr dolphin" (The waters of the Great Lakes) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This is an anthology of Frederik Pohl's best short stories. Before reading this anthology, I had heard of Frederik Pohl, but the only story of his that I had read was "Creation Myths of the Recently Extinct" in "Analog", and that is an extremely short piece that does not give a reader much of a sample of the author's style.

The stories included in this anthology are:

"The Merchants of Venus", Worlds of If, July/August 1972.
"The Things That Happen", Asimov's, October 1985
"The High Test", Asimov's, June 1983.
"My Lady Green Sleeves", Galaxy, February 1957.
"The Kindly Isle", Asimov's, November 1984.
"The Middle of Nowhere", Galaxy, May 1955.
"I Remember a Winter", Orbit 11, Damon Knight (ed.), 1972.
"The Greening of Bed-Stuy", F&SF, July 1984.
"To See Another Mountain", F&SF, April 1959.
"The Mapmakers", Galaxy, July 1955.
"Spending a Day at the Lottery Fair", F&SF, October 1983.
"The Celebrated No-Hit Inning", Fantastic Universe, September 1956.
"Some Joys Under the Star", Galaxy, November 1973.
"Servant of the People", Analog, February 1983.
"Waiting for the Olympians", Asimov's, August 1988.
"Criticality", Analog, December 1984.
"Shaffery Among the Immortals", F&SF, July 1972.
"The Day the Icicle Works Closed", Galaxy, February 1960.
"Saucery", F&SF, October 1986.
"The Gold at the Starbow's End", Analog, March 1972.
"Growing Up in Edge City", Epoch, Roger Elwood and Robert Silverberg (eds.), 1975.
"The Knights of Arthur", Galaxy, January 1958.
"Creation Myths of the Recently Extinct", Analog, January 1994.
"The Meeting" (in collaboration with C.M. Kornbluth), F&SF, November 1972.
"Let the Ants Try", (as by James MacCreigh) Planet Stories, Winter 1949.
"Speed Trap", Playboy, November 1967.
"The Day the Martians Came", Dangerous Visions, Harlan Ellison (ed.), 1967.
"Day Million", Rogue, February/March 1966.
"The Mayor of Mare Tranq", The Williamson Effect, Tor, 1996.
"Fermi and Frost", Asimov's, January 1985.


Plus, there is an Introduction by James Frenkel and an Afterword called "Fifty Years and Counting". Each story comes with a very brief (one paragraph) introduction.

I will not comment on each of them, but will point out a few pieces that stood out in some way, plus talk about the overall quality of the work, and its style.

I guess I will get my griping out of the way first, as there is little griping to do. The cover of the book lists the sub-title as "The Collected Best Stories" and does not specify a genre, although the book is part of Tor's "Sc-Fi Essential Book" serie. The introduction at least implies that the reader can expect science fiction, fantasy, and the broader supra-genre of speculative fiction. Almost all of the stories are either clearly science fiction are very close kin to it. The one definite exception is "I Remember a Winter" and, in the introduction to that story, it raises the question of whether the story can be called science fiction. I would answer that question with a resounding negative. While it is a good story, it does not fit with the other stories, as far as I am concerned. It tells the story of a World War Two veteran, as he ponders all the decisions and events that led his life to turn out as it did. I guess it could be called speculative fiction, although it is completely retrospective speculation. The story is written well, it is interesting, and the narrator has led a life worth introspective study. But, as I said, it seems quite out of place in this anthology.

Now, on to the stories that stood out in more positive ways. "My Lady Green Sleeves" is an unusual prison story, that turns bigotry upside-down and sideways, giving the reader the chance to look at stereotypes, biases, and prejudices from a different perspective.

"The Greening of Bed-Stuy" gives us a picture of a future where I hope that never have to live. Amidst the urban deterioration, crime problems, and the impending death of one (or more) of the main characters, the issue of moral character tries to rise above all the surrounding decay.

Many stories have dealt with the fine line between brilliance and insanity, but "To See Another Mountain" takes the fine line and puts it under a microscope, to let us contemplate the costs of preserving sanity in those who teeter on the edge of madness, and the possible gains of letting some people take that one step over the line. I wanted to cheer at the end of this one. It was the most upbeat story of the collection.

"The Day the Icicle Works Closed" is in the tradition of Robert Heinlein's many space-as-the-next-frontier stories, and is very nicely done. Sometimes, the bad guys get exactly what they have coming to them.

Frank Herbert would love "Servant of the People" as it fits right in with the basis for his "Butlerian Jihad", and Isaac Asimov would see it as fitting in right beside his robot stories. When do we know that we have gone too far with robots?

"Growing Up In Edge City" was an excellent story, kind of an adult variation on Lois Lowry's The Giver. The end of Pohl's version, though, wanted me to find the protagonist and run him over with a steam-roller. Any story that can rouse that much vehemence has something going for it.

"Let the Ants Try" would be a tale that Gene Roddenberry, Captain Kirk, Captain Picard, and Mr. Spock would love, as it shows how dangerous it really can be, when one tinkers with the space-time continuum and violates the Temporal Prime Directive.

In two ways, the writing of Frederik Pohl reminds me of Ray Bradbury. First, they are both technically very good, with a real skill at rapidly making a character seem real, and building a universe around that character to give the story a context that is coherent. This rapid world-building and character development is essential for short stories and novellas, and Pohl does it as well as Bradbury, and as well as anyone else.

Secondly, the emotional tone of Pohl's stories, at least in the collection being reviewed, bears some similarity to the melancholy tone of much of Ray Bradbury's writing. Both authors tend to create stories where there is a definite wistful sadness or pessimism. One difference between the two is the direction of that sadness. Whereas Bradbury tends to look backward and mourn what we have lost, Pohl looks forward, peering into a future that is often bleak and rife with deterioration.

As to the content of the tales, if I compare "Platinum Pohl" with the Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales that I recently read, I would have to give the edge to Bradbury. I see his stories as having a touch more depth and humanity and warmth to them. However, if you read either of these collections, and like the one you read, I think that you will very likely appreciate the other collection.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If you like Pohl's style, you'll be in heaven..., July 12, 2006

By	Robert Schmidt (Honolulu, HI & Logan, UT USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Platinum Pohl: The Collected Best Stories (Tom Doherty Associates Books) (Hardcover)

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?

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pohl is a national resource, March 9, 2007

By	Michael K. Smith (Gonzales, Louisiana) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

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.