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The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume I: The Greatest Science Fiction Stories of All Time, Chosen by the Members of the Science Fiction Writers of America (Hardcover)

~ Robert Silverberg (Editor)
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If you own only one anthology of classic science fiction, it should be The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume One, 1929-1964. Selected by a vote of the membership of the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA), these 26 reprints represent the best, most important, and most influential stories and authors in the field. The contributors are a Who's Who of classic SF, with every Golden Age giant included: Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, John W. Campbell, Robert A. Heinlein, Fritz Leiber, Cordwainer Smith, Theodore Sturgeon, and Roger Zelazny. Other contributors are less well known outside the core SF readership. Three of the contributors are famous for one story--but what stories!--Tom Godwin's pivotal hard-SF tale, "The Cold Equations"; Jerome Bixby's "It's a Good Life" (made only more infamous by the chilling Twilight Zone adaptation); and Daniel Keyes's "Flowers for Algernon" (brought to mainstream fame by the movie adaptation, Charly).

The collection has some minor but frustrating flaws. There are no contributor biographies, which is bad enough when the author is a giant; but it's especially sad for contributors who have become unjustly obscure. Each story's original publication date is in small print at the bottom of the first page. And neither this fine print nor the copyright page identifies the magazines in which the stories first appeared.

Prefaced by editor Robert Silverberg's introduction, which describes SFWA and details the selection process, The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume One, 1929-1964 is a wonderful book for the budding SF fan. Experienced SF readers should compare the table of contents to their library before making a purchase decision. Fans who contemplate giving this book to non-SF readers should bear in mind that, while several of the collected stories can measure up to classic mainstream literary stories, the less literarily-acceptable stories are weighted toward the front of the collection; adult mainstream-literature fans may not get very far into The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume One, 1929-1964. --Cynthia Ward



Review

"A basic one-volume library of the short science fiction story."-Kirkus

"Quibbling about the choice of the prize winners would be like arguing with the pros who vote on the Academy Awards."-Publishers Weekly

"The first definitive modern anthology of top science fiction stories."-Newark Sunday News
-- Review
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 576 pages
  • Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (February 22, 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0765305364
  • ISBN-13: 978-0765305367
  • Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.5 x 1.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #844,727 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

12 Reviews
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The single must-have science fiction anthology., September 7, 2004
By Thornwell Simons (Columbia, SC United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
I first picked up the original printing of this anthology when I was a small child, around ten years old, and the first story in it ("A Martian Oddyssey") was so good that I put the book back down and didn't read the rest of it for another year because I was afraid none of the other stories in there could possibly be as good.

Almost all of them were. That's not the only reason you should read this collection, though. Beyond the stunning quality of the stories in this collection, many of these stories have, by now, what amounts to historical importance within the sci-fi field; these are the best of the best first stories, the bones that the modern great SF writers gnawed on in their childhoods, the building-block stories of the genre. You really haven't read science fiction if you haven't read Asimov's "Nightfall," if you haven't read "The Cold Equations" or "Arena" or "Twilight" or "Flowers for Algernon." Understanding modern sci-fi without a knowledge of these stories would be like trying to understand modern fantasy without having read Tolkien.

I am unaware of a better or even a comparable science fiction anthology (apart, perhaps, from the subsequent volumes in this same series). There couldn't be. These are the stories that built the genre. Any collection that was comparable would have to collect all the same tales.

Edit: I figured it would be good to add a list of all the stories in this anthology.

Stanley G. Weinbaum "A Martian Odyssey" 1934
John W. Campbell "Twilight" 1934
Lester del Rey "Helen O'Loy" 1938
Robert A. Heinlein "The Roads Must Roll" 1940
Theodore Sturgeon "Microcosmic God" 1941
Isaac Asimov "Nightfall" 1941
A. E. van Vogt "The Weapon Shop" 1942
Lewis Padgett "Mimsy Were the Borogoves" 1943
Clifford D. Simak "Huddling Place" 1944
Fredric Brown "Arena" 1944
Murray Leinster "First Contact" 1945
Judith Merril "That Only a Mother" 1948
Cordwainer Smith "Scanners Live in Vain" 1948
Ray Bradbury "Mars is Heaven!" 1948
Cyril M. Kornbluth "The Little Black Bag" 1950
Richard Matheson "Born of Man and Woman" 1950
Fritz Leiber "Coming Attraction" 1950
Anthony Boucher "The Quest for Saint Aquin" 1951
James Blish "Surface Tension" 1952
Arthur C. Clarke "The Nine Billion Names of God" 1953
Jerome Bixby "It's a Good Life" 1953
Tom Godwin "The Cold Equations" 1954
Alfred Bester "Fondly Fahrenheit" 1954
Damon Knight "The Country of the Kind" 1955
Daniel Keyes "Flowers for Algernon" 1959
Roger Zelazny "A Rose for Ecclesiastes" 1963
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Ultimate Introduction to Science Fiction, November 24, 2004
By Dave Deubler (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
This book collects short story masterpieces from the genre's first four decades. All of the major sci-fi writers are represented, and quite of few of the stories are simply unforgetable. Never has one volume collected more thoughtful meditations on humanity's relationship to technology. Devotees of more modern science fiction (i.e., cyberpunk, etc...) may not be impressed, but for fans of Old School sci-fi, it doesn't get any better than this.

Of course many devoted fans will already have many of these stories in their collections - how could it be otherwise? The cream always rises to the top. So some might wish to forgo purchasing this volume, and use the table of contents as a reading list instead.

As is typical of the genre during this period, there's little here that will shock the youngsters, and the reading is pretty easy overall. So this is an excellent book for those just discovering the genre, or trying to understand what all the excitement is about. Be forewarned, however, that the volume begins with some of the older and consequently weaker entries, so those for whom this book represents an exploration into unknown territory might be better served by skipping the first 3 to 5 stories and starting with either Heinlein's exciting "The Roads Must Roll" which features next week's travel technology, or Theodore Sturgeon's amazing "Microcosmic God" which looks at creating life, or if you're very picky about what you read, going straight for Isaac Asimov's famed "Nightfall". Another alternative is to start at the back and read forward. There are some very powerful pieces loaded into the back end, including a couple of tear-jerkers, Tom Godwin's "The Cold Equations" and Daniel Knight's "Flowers for Algernon".

Regardless of how you read it, these stories, more than any other work, represent what science fiction is really about: the human condition remains the same, even as the world around us changes. Watch and learn. And enjoy!
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Pure Gold, May 7, 2007
My Mom had a dog eared paperback copy of this book from her college days. I remember reading and rereading it as a young boy. It, more than any other book, ignited my passion for science fiction. Every story is a winner and each serves as a jumping off point to explore the author's further work. Of all the SF anthologies, this is the best and is an essential part of any SF fan's library.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Tag line does not exaggerate
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Published on May 8, 2007 by TFTDguru

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4.0 out of 5 stars mostly for science fiction buffs
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