Reviews

Nebula Award Stories Nine by Harlan Ellison, Kate Wilhelm, Vonda N. McIntyre, Gene Wolfe, Edward Bryant, Ben Bova, Damon Knight, Norman Spinrad, George R.R. Martin, Carol Emshwiller, James Tiptree Jr.

quoththegirl's review

3.0

Very, very mixed bag, as these collections usually are. Interesting mainly for a short scifi story written by a very young George R.R. Martin, a solid desert fantasy by Vonda McIntyre, and a very alien romance/death story by James Tiptree. "Shark" was truly awful and should've been a comedy (Dude's girlfriend wants to be a shark for inexplicable reasons, dude agrees to help her transplant her brain into a shark, girlfriend--predictably--eats dude). Harlan Ellison's "Deathbird" was intriguing but so bizarre that I couldn't enjoy the process of disentangling some sense from it.

tome15's review

4.0

It is surprising how fresh most of these stories from the early ‘70s are. It just goes to show that good writing ages very slowly. Stories like Harlan Ellison’s “Deathbird” and James Tiptree’s “Love Is the Plan, the Plan Is Death” alone make this collection worth picking up. The collection is also a strong reminder that science fiction at the time was in the midst of its New Wave movement.