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chloekg's review against another edition
4.0
The average of ideas in this collection I'd rate at three-stars. Ballard's sculptors are no more substantial than their clouds. Wright's cold adrenaline masculinity is something of a future's Jack London sports report. Moorcock's Christ is exhausting, a wandering through my own forty days of desert. Delaney's Nebula-crowned short story, "Aye... and Gomorrah," wins at revealing something, but I would need someone else's analysis to really get it and it might churn my stomach.
Where this book earns its four stars is the prose. Zelazny's introductions elevate these works from a collection to a community and a commentary. What a time and place to have personally known each author and spoken from a literary heart to the excellence of their works. His introduction to Harlan Ellison I found especially pointed, the rawness of autobiography is inescapable in the hard living Las Vegas of "Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes." Calling out the lyric blues of Fritz Leiber, "Gonna Roll the Bones" plays out an apocalyptic-neon, desperate-glory night. Again, the ideas are "just fine" as far as sci-fi goes. It is their putting the words together that lingers, lingers.
Where this book earns its four stars is the prose. Zelazny's introductions elevate these works from a collection to a community and a commentary. What a time and place to have personally known each author and spoken from a literary heart to the excellence of their works. His introduction to Harlan Ellison I found especially pointed, the rawness of autobiography is inescapable in the hard living Las Vegas of "Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes." Calling out the lyric blues of Fritz Leiber, "Gonna Roll the Bones" plays out an apocalyptic-neon, desperate-glory night. Again, the ideas are "just fine" as far as sci-fi goes. It is their putting the words together that lingers, lingers.
nwhyte's review against another edition
5.0
http://nhw.livejournal.com/265528.html[return][return]The cover image on my edition seems to show a reclining female figure behind a much smaller spectral cyclist, above whose head an equally spectral top hat appears to be levitating. The artist's name is unknown.[return][return]It ties into my fascination with Roger Zelazny, who had won two of five Nebula awards the previous year, and was only thirty; and as Zelazny himself writes in one of the introductions here, "Consider the fact that everything a man writes is really only a part of one big story, to be ended by the end of his writing life. Consider that, as so many have said, everything a man writes is, basically, autobiographical... I tell you these things because every writer who has ever lived is unique."[return][return]Zelazny seems to have taken the job of editing this collection seriously, and though his introductions are as mere postscripts to those of Harlan Ellison in the near-contemporaneous Dangerous Visions, they do give evidence of his commitment to the project, including lengthy quotations from Antoine de Saint-Exup
bookwyrmknits's review against another edition
2.0
At this point, I am just reading the Nebula- (or Hugo-) Award-Winning Stories. I will make notes on them as I read them.
Aye, and Gomorrah... by Samuel R. Delany ~ Nebula Award for best short story
A short story that on the surface deals with one possible way of getting around (one of) the dangers of space. It also has some sexual and societal implications that are still relevant today. I like it in that it makes me think, though I have no real interest in learning more about the characters presented. The characters seem to be there solely for the purpose of presenting the situation. Definitely a plot-driven story, not a character-driven one. (This was by far my favorite story of the three I read.)
Gonna Roll the Bones by Fritz Leiber ~ Hugo and Nebula Awards for best novelette
I'm not a fan. Maybe because I don't know the flow of a craps table, maybe because I didn't connect with the characters, but this one was a struggle to get through. In a sense it's a morality tale, and has a bit of "religion saves the day" feel, but I didn't particularly care if the main character redeemed himself or not.
Behold the Man by Michael Moorcock ~ Nebula Award for best novella
Interesting idea, though I didn't really enjoy the story. It was crafted well, and the idea behind it is a fun thought-experiment, but I didn't connect with any of the characters or the motivation.
Weyr Search by Anne McCaffrey ~ Hugo Award for best novella
I've read this before, and decided not to re-read it this time. It's enjoyable, but in many ways is a product of its era. I've mostly decided that I'm going to leave a lot of McCaffrey's work as pleasant memories with no need to revisit them.
Aye, and Gomorrah... by Samuel R. Delany ~ Nebula Award for best short story
A short story that on the surface deals with one possible way of getting around (one of) the dangers of space. It also has some sexual and societal implications that are still relevant today. I like it in that it makes me think, though I have no real interest in learning more about the characters presented. The characters seem to be there solely for the purpose of presenting the situation. Definitely a plot-driven story, not a character-driven one. (This was by far my favorite story of the three I read.)
Gonna Roll the Bones by Fritz Leiber ~ Hugo and Nebula Awards for best novelette
I'm not a fan. Maybe because I don't know the flow of a craps table, maybe because I didn't connect with the characters, but this one was a struggle to get through. In a sense it's a morality tale, and has a bit of "religion saves the day" feel, but I didn't particularly care if the main character redeemed himself or not.
Behold the Man by Michael Moorcock ~ Nebula Award for best novella
Interesting idea, though I didn't really enjoy the story. It was crafted well, and the idea behind it is a fun thought-experiment, but I didn't connect with any of the characters or the motivation.
Weyr Search by Anne McCaffrey ~ Hugo Award for best novella
I've read this before, and decided not to re-read it this time. It's enjoyable, but in many ways is a product of its era. I've mostly decided that I'm going to leave a lot of McCaffrey's work as pleasant memories with no need to revisit them.
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