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sassmistress's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
5.0
I see why you can't find a reasonably priced copy of this book anywhere. Fantastic collection from the greats in the Golden Age of Science Fiction - McCaffrey, Clarke, Nye, Heinlein, and others I didn't know but will be looking them up! I DNF'd 2 stories, and found one to be confusing, but the rest were an absolute delight. Generally hopeful, as this subgenre generally is. One got annoyingly philosophical 😅 but most were just a grand adventure, some quite tense planet-side or ship-side danger, and several were pretty funny. Ended with a real banger!
Several did a masterful job of developing alien races and cultures, creative "space jobs", and one (Well Worth the Money) was a fun new AI take. I was excited to see another brainship story from McCaffrey; not her best one but I can't get enough of those.
Bullhead was an oddball; very little sci-fi and more black magic fantasy in a wild west/pioneer setting. It also... barely mentioned a cat being around. So this one was a pretty weird inclusion for this anthology.
Alas, there were several typo errors in this library ebook that I suspect are due to poor OCR of the original.
Definitely read this if you like classic sci fi and get the chance. I'm not planning to spend the hundred-plus dollars on a hard copy, but I'm definitely going to keep watching the market and hopefully get this for my personal library some day.
Several did a masterful job of developing alien races and cultures, creative "space jobs", and one (Well Worth the Money) was a fun new AI take. I was excited to see another brainship story from McCaffrey; not her best one but I can't get enough of those.
Bullhead was an oddball; very little sci-fi and more black magic fantasy in a wild west/pioneer setting. It also... barely mentioned a cat being around. So this one was a pretty weird inclusion for this anthology.
Alas, there were several typo errors in this library ebook that I suspect are due to poor OCR of the original.
Definitely read this if you like classic sci fi and get the chance. I'm not planning to spend the hundred-plus dollars on a hard copy, but I'm definitely going to keep watching the market and hopefully get this for my personal library some day.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pregnancy, Classism, Panic attacks/disorders, Infidelity, Child abuse, and Mental illness
Moderate: Blood, Drug use, Racial slurs, War, Sexual content, Ableism, Death, and Gore
Minor: Addiction
Bullhead gives off serious black magic-y vibes. Several n-words. Sexual content in the form of a closed-door affair and non-explicit description ofOrdeal in Space - PTSD/agorophobia, heavy focus on its experience
Space-Time for Springers has a "retarded" daughter in the family.
Black Destroyer is more graphic than usual for that era, with the monster basically liquifying bodies after a quick gory death.
The Pride contains childbirth, described with blood and umbilical cord. Also attempted murder, the perpetrator being immediately attacked and killed with a sword, though several of these stories contain similar content.
The Ballad of Lost C'Mell has a godlike figure and brief possession by such.
The Man Who Would Be Kzin has just enough womanizing to give you an intentional distaste for the MC, and an implied three-way, though it can't get much vaguer. A race is described as having a subass of citizens with an addiction that confers tactical benefits, as well as societal derision.
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