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Not of Woman Born

Robert Silverberg, Joe Haldeman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Rating: overall "A" -- best original anthology I've seen thi 4 out of 5 stars.
13 of 15 people found this review helpful.

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Theme anthologies sometimes suffer from too narrow a focus and/or carbon-copy stories. Not this one -- the authors interpreted the theme loosely enough so that I didn't lose interest. Walter Jon Williams takes a killer look at cybernetic family values in "Daddy's World", and Jack McDevitt delivers the most interesting look at gengineering one's progeny since Greg Egan's wonderfully sly "Eugene," in "Dead in the Water." McDevitt's mother-to-be is particularly well-drawn. A+ stories both; look for them on the award ballots next year. "A" stories: Silverberg's 1957 "There Was an Old Woman" is an amazingly fresh look at cloned lives, even 40 years on. Nina Kiriki Hoffman takes a sharp look at future retail clerks in "One Day at Central Convenience Mall." New author Janni Simner cleverly inverts bringing up baby in "Raising Jenny", and Richard Parks takes a close look at cloning's impact on showbiz in "Doppels." Plus "A-" (= flawed but very good) stories by Sage Walker, Susan Palwick, Patricia McKillip, Wm. F Wu, Doyle & Macdonald, and Kara Dalkey. Curiously, the only weak story in the bunch is by the editor. Overall: 2 "A+", 4 "A", 6 "A-", 1 "B+", and 1 "B" story.

The best original anthology I've seen this year. Highly recommended.

Happy reading--
Peter D. Tillman

Editorial Review:

Since the 1970s, many of SF's original theme anthologies have been filled with flimsy toss-offs by the editor's pals. However, there are exceptions. In Not of Woman Born (theme: conscious evolution a.k.a. reproductive technology), editor Constance Ash has collected 13 original stories and one reprint that are strong, well-written, imaginative, highly diverse, and excellent. This is no surprise when you consider the amazing list of contributors, including Patricia A. McKillip, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Jack McDevitt, Robert Silverberg, Debra Doyle and James D. MacDonald, and Walter Jon Williams. --Cynthia Ward

The Man Who Melted

Jack Dann

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Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Introduction by Robert Silverberg

The Man Who Melted is a warning for the future. It is the Brave New World and 1984 for our time, for it gives us a glimpse into our own future—a future ruled by corporations that control deadly and powerful forms of mass manipulation. It is a prediction of what could happen...tomorrow.

The Man Who Melted examines how technology affects us and changes our morality, and it questions how we might remain human in an inhuman world. Will the future disenfranchise or empower the individual? Here you’ll find new forms of sexuality, new perversions, new epiphanies, and an entirely new form of consciousness.

Would you pay to "go down" with the Titanic?

In this dystopia the Titanic is brought back from the bottom of the sea and refurbished, only to be sunk again for those who want the ultimate decadent experience. Some passengers pay to commit suicide by "going under" with the ship.

The Man Who Melted has been called "one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time" by Science Fiction Age and is considered a genre classic. It is the stunning odyssey of a man searching through the glittering, apocalyptic landscape of the next century for a woman lost to him in a worldwide outbreak of telepathic fear. Here is a terrifying future where people can gamble away their hearts (and other organs) and telepathically taste the last flickering thoughts

The Positronic Man

Isaac Asimov, Robert Silverberg

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A tale of ambition and societal backlash 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

The story of a mechanical creature who wishes to become human is an old one, appearing in many forms over the centuries. In this superb story, a robot, named Andrew by the children who adore it, begins to exhibit human characteristics, due to the unpredictability of its' positronic memory circuits. Slowly, through a series of step-wise modifications, Andrew is altered so that his functions become more human. Throughout the tale, Andrew exhibits many of the characteristics of being human, although his human society is currently exhibiting a backlash against robots doing anything to appear as anything other than robots.
This is also a tale about human politics, emotions and insecurities. Some of the prejudices exhibited against robots are strikingly similar to those humans have against other humans not of the appropriate type. Asimov and Heinlein are masters at describing the consequences of technology and in this book, they are at their best. I have always considered Asimov's robot stories to be the best of all his science fiction works. They deal with limits placed on technology, through the hard-wired laws of robotics to the social restrictions placed on robots so that they do not appear too human. And yet, he also presses the envelope, in that he has humans becoming intimate with robots, even to the point of suggested sexual contact.
I consider this to be one of the two best science fiction books that Isaac Asimov wrote, with the other being Nightfall. It is an old tale, but told with emotional entanglements, such as having Andrew being treated not as a monster but as a member of a human family as he pursues his quest to be declared legally human.

Editorial Review:

Andrew Martin, a standard housekeeping robot, allows the unique capabilities of his experimental brain to lead him to become an artist, businessman, and crusader, in a novel based on Asimov's short story, ""The Bicentennial Man."" 35,000 first printing. $35,000 ad/promo.

Omega: The Last Days of the World (Bison Frontiers of Imagination)

Camille Flammarion

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Mary Shelley was the founding mother of science fiction. Was French astronomer Camille Flammarion (1842-1925) the founding father? Over 40 years before John W. Campbell took the helm of Astounding SF, Flammarion was extrapolating fiction from the most advanced science of his day (flavoring it occasionally with transcendental fantasy, a practice not unknown to modern hard SF). He wrote several works of science fantasy, most notably an apocalyptic, visionary novel, Omega: The Last Days of the World (1893), that clearly influenced SF pioneers Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. Four decades before Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men was published, Omega unfolded a future history that traversed millions of years to the end of the earth and beyond. But Omega received only two English-language printings.

Now Flammarion's seminal novel has been rescued from oblivion, and it deserves a place in the library of every serious student of SF. But whether modern SF fans will enjoy reading Omega is another matter. Flammarion writes in a leisurely, expository 19th-century style, and he is no Charles Dickens. His opening chapter threatens a comet strike that isn't delivered for more than half the book! However, the pace does pick up considerably in chapter 6 (to which bored readers should immediately turn), and the remainder of his future history is interesting and inventive. --Cynthia Ward

Sailing To Byzantium

Robert Silverberg

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Beautiful prose from the master of short science fiction works 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

The other short works here, I'm not going to review. This is because "Sailing to Byzantium" is worth reading and owning on its own. I re-read this novella from time to time just to remind myself how WELL Robert Silverberg crafts this genre of story.

The story centers around Charles, a time-traveling visitor from 1984 to the 50th century. Life is one long vacation, with immortal "citizens" traveling from one Disney-esque recreation of history to another. Asgard, Rio, Timbuctoo, Chang-An, Alexandria and Mohenjo-daro (a prehistoric brick walled city in what is now Pakistan) are all destinations for a leisure-loving and careless group of people who now sparsely populate a very changed Earth. Charles, however, is disturbed by the casualness of life, the lack of depth and he finds love with a very different citizen, Gioia, who lacks the placid ease of the friends in her set and for a tragically secret reason. The entire work is based on the poem by the same name of Yeats, a beloved work often quoted by other writers. (No Country for Old Men, for example.) Well worth reading, and one of my favorite books by Silverberg, along with the hauntingly depressed "Born with the Dead" and "The World Inside." (Neither in this volume.)

Editorial Review:

The world's most distinguished author of fantasy presents his most extraordinary stories of world lost and dreams fulfilled.

Phases of the Moon: Stories of Six Decades

Robert Silverberg

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

One of the best science fiction writers of all time.... 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Robert Silverberg is one of my favorite authors. He is also one of the most honored in the history of science fiction, having won 5 Hugos and 5 Nebula awards during his fifty year career. He's probably written nearly one hundred science fiction books, but this collection of short stories is a great place to start.

The introductions in this book are quite amusing and informative, describing his relationships with such figures as Frederik Pohl (who played an important role in his career). But beware! A few of these introductions contain spoilers for the stories that follow. I would suggest that you read the story first, and then the introduction.

The stories from the 1950s are good, but it's in the 60s that Silverberg really hits his stride. The classic story To See the Invisible Man (adapted for an episode of The Twilight Zone in the 1980s) is as fresh as if it had been written yesterday. One of the stories from the 1960s, Flies, is somewhat unpleasant, although it contains important philosophical themes. I think it could be skipped.

You might start out your reading with Sundance, which is considered by many to be among the top ten or twenty science fiction short stories of all time. Other equally great classics include the novellas Nightwings, Born with the Dead, and Sailing to Byzantium.

This book is a bargain at the price, giving you 600 pages of great science fiction. More information about the author can be found at www.majipoor.com, and there's an Yahoo online chat group at theworldsofrobertsilverberg where once in a while the author himself drops by.

If you like science fiction at all (and even if you don't) you owe it to yourself to buy this fine collection by one of the greatest science fiction authors of all time.

Editorial Review:

Now ibooks proudly presents a collection of Silverberg's best short fiction, as selected by the author. The 1950s: The Road to Nightfall, The Macauley Circuit, Sunrise on Mercury, Warm Man. The 1960s: To See the Invisible Man, Flies, Passengers, Nightwings, Sundance. The 1970s: Good News from the Vatican, Capricorn Games, Born with the Dead, Schwartz Between the Galaxies. The 1980s: The Far Side of the Bell-Shaped Curve, The Pope of the Chimps, Needle in a Timestack, Sailing to Byzantium, Enter a Soldier. Later, Enter Another. The 1990s: Hunters in the Forest, Death Do Us Part, Beauty in the Night. The 2000s: The Millennium Express, With Caesar in the Underworld.

SCIENCE FICTION HALL OF FAME,VOLUME ONE

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Editorial Review:

THE GREATEST SCIENCE FICTION STORIES OF ALL TIMES CHOSEN BY THE MEMBERS OF THE SCIENCE FICTION WRITERS OF AMERICA

Born With the Dead

Robert Silverberg

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Three stories of people dealing with unique death issues. 4 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

This consists of 3 short stories. The first bears the title of the book, and concerns a man's attempts to continue a relationship with his dead wife, who has been rekindled into a new life. He notices disturbing differences in her personality, but continues to seek his old relationship with her. A horrible end to his efforts is the consequence. The second story, "Thomas the proclaimer", concerns an evangelist who decides to prove to everyone that God is still watching over them by asking for a sign from Him. After the sign is apparently received, Thomas expects the people of the world to come together in peace. Things do not go as expected, however. The third story, simply titled "Going", tells an emotional tale of a 135 year old man dealing with a decision to end his life. The custom of the day allows the man to retire to a sort of nursing home, where he is allowed as much time as needed to prepare for and determine the exact day of his death. The process is completely voluntary. Upon entering the home the man believes he is ready. But as, one by one, others in the home depart from their lives, the man copes with many mixed feelings. The story is so absorbing for many reasons, the least of which is the story itself. The words quietly and softly spoke volumes about the issues of aging and quality of life, and about the journey each of us must eventually face. This story alone earns the book a place at my home. While the other two are also interesting, they did not grip me on a personal level the way "Going" did. The strong feelings that it brought me are the reasons I enjoy good science fiction, and the reasons I find myself constantly amazed with the writings of Robert Silverberg.

Editorial Review:

His wife was among the rekindled dead now. He'd heard that she was on a plane to Zanzibar with five other rekindled dead. As a "warm" he was not really allowed to make contact with her. The dead liked to stay in their cold-cities. But he'd loved her so much when she was alive, he just had to try. Science Fiction Hall of Fame Pick, Nebula Award(R) Winner, Locus Poll Award Winner, Hugo Award Nominee

Robert Silverberg's Worlds of Wonder: Exploring the Craft of Science Fiction

Robert Silverberg

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Truly original Science Fiction. 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I borrowed this book from the library, and now I have to have it. Not only do the ideas behind the stories capture my imagination, but the actual writing is wonderful. I'm interested in the craft of writing fiction, science fiction in particular. The critic's look that Robert Silverberg gives with each short story really made me think about what I was reading. This is a must-have if you are even remotely interested in the writing of science fiction.

The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Vol I (1)

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Bought for "Mimsy Were the Borogoves" 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book is truly a collection of great stories from between the years of 1929 and 1964. I am glad they reprinted this book because my older version is yellowing. I hope one day they will reprint a new hard back copy and I will buy it also.

Even though this book is packed from cover to cover with intriguing stories, I bought it for one story in particular "Mimsy Were the Borogoves" by Lewis Padgett. First published in 1943 ("Lewis Padgett" was a pseudonym employed by Henry Kuttner and his wife, C. L. Moore)

My first encounter with this story was a vinyl record recording with William Shatner later it is replaces with a cassette tape. I believe this book is the only surviving form of the story.

Unthahorsten is experimenting with time travel and sends two black boxes back into the past. He had to put something in them so as a last minute thought places his old toys in them. They do not return so he forgets them. It is too late the mischief is done. One is found by children in 1942. The other well look at the title for a clue.

The Last Mimzy (Widescreen Infinifilm Edition)

Editorial Review:

Chosen by the members of the Science Fiction Writers of America. #51201. All edges red.