This is a big anthology, including one full-length novel, several novellas and novelettes, and dozens of short stories, written between the 1870s and the 1960s. The overall quality is very high.
Technically, the Halcyon folks have done their usual good job-- good navigation, few if any typos. My only quibble is that I wish there were some bibliographical information as to the date or place of original publication.
The first work in the anthology is a full novel, James DeMille's "A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder," apparently written in the 1870s. Despite its age, it is quite readable. It starts out as a Jules Vernian piece of hard sci-fi, with dinosaurs surviving in a hidden tropical country near the South Pole. It later becomes more of a social satire in the model of "Erewhon," depicting a society whose values are the opposite of ours. It even has a bit of postmodernism, as the sailors who find the manuscript in the frame story interrupt the narrative to debate whether it is true, a hoax or a satire.
The bulk of the anthology consists of stories published in science fiction magazines from the 1930s to the 1960s. A host of great writers are represented (Poul Anderson, Ben Bova, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Algis Budrys, John W. Campbell, Philip Jose Farmer, Frank Herbert, Fritz Leiber, Murray Leinster, Andre Norton, Frederick Pohl, Kurt Vonnegut, Jack Williamson, H.G. Wells, etc.) and, while the stories may not be the writers' best, they are mostly quite good. There are a few clunkers (if Jules Verne wrote anything else as bad as "In the Year 2889," I'm glad I never read it, and "Subspace Survivors" is sub-par E.E. Smith), but they are vastly outnumbered by the good stories. There are relatively few famous stories here (the only ones which are frequently anthologized are Fredric Brown's "Arena" and Edmond Hamilton's "The Man Who Saw the Future"), so most of these were new to me.
Among the real stand-outs, to my taste, are Leigh Brackett's thrilling "A World Is Born," Charles W. Diffin's eerily prophetic "The Power and the Glory," Carl Jacobi and Clifford Simak's genuinely strange "The Street that Wasn't There," Laurence Janifer's clever "Hex" and Anthony Gilmore's exciting, if dated, piece of pulp fiction, "Four Miles Within." But for any science fiction fan, there is a lot of good reading here at a low price. Highly recommended. The Golden Age of Science Fiction: An Anthology of 50 Short Stories (Unexpurgated Edition) (Halcyon Classics)
The stories are listed above and are at least of historical significance and often very good reading as well. Because of the excellent navigation, including links back to the table of contents at the end of each short story, you can hop around a bit based upon titles or authors that sound interesting whenever you have a little spare time.
The stories in this collection are really good and fun to read. I liked " A World is Born" and "Dead World" in particular. Reading is effortless and the stories say a lot about the authors' creativity. The theme in the Dead World pricked my mind like "The Verdict of Hades" in the The Usurper and Other Stories. Overall, the stories in this collection are well developed. It deserves the 5.
This volume, the first in a lengthy series, contains 50 short science fiction stories from the genre's "golden age" between roughly 1930 and 1960. These "Halcyon Classics" are from a mixture of well-known and relatively unknown authors. Each story is introduced by a sentence from the story--not usually a particularly interesting one. There is no further introduction to the story, nor is there a general introduction to the collection. This is unfortunate, as many readers could benefit from some help placing the stories in their historical context.
Five of the fifty stood out a little:
Peter Baily's "Accidental Death" is the survivor's account of a mission to an alien planet where nearly everything goes badly. Fortunately he has made it back to Earth with his insights about why.
Frederic Brown's "Earthmen Bearing Gifts" could have been a Ray Bradbury story about human exploration of Mars. Brown's Martians have not yet revealed their existence and wait for Earth's first contact with their planet. Location, location, location.
Lester Del Ray's "Dead Ringer" follows Dane Phillips as he tries to prove the existence of hidden aliens among us with amazing powers of physical regeneration. If he only had proof...
Ben Bova's "Next Logical Step" shows how a well-designed combat simulation can work out the implications of any battle scenario. That's a good thing, right?
Marion Zimmer Bradley's "Year of the Big Thaw" is about the survivor of a spacecraft crash learning to adapt to Earth's customs and culture--with a little help from his family.
This collection well represents the style of Golden Age science fiction. Many plots have become clichés by reuse in the years since these stories were published. And much of the science is dated. The narrative style is straightforward with sometimes a single plot twist at story's end. The heroes are heroic and there is a clear character difference between good guys and bad guys. For the most part, women take a supporting role. When they don't, a big fuss is made about how novel this is. It's the good old stuff--a little hokey, but enjoyable as a trip to the past.
This book is recommended for those interested in science fiction's early form. It shouldn't be mistaken for the current currents in the genre's forward flow. If you like these stories forge ahead into the second volume, The Golden Age of Science Fiction Volume II.
Great multi-volume anthologies, 50 stories in each of the 13 volumes. Authors range from the great to the unheard of, but they are all very well chosen and entertaining. My only complaint? How can a compendium from the golden age of science fiction leave out Heinlein and Clarke? Otherwise, well worth the $1.99 per edition times thirteen. That's a lot of sci fi, folks! - Space Opera - Fritz Leiber - Anthology - Ben Bova'
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