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dee9401's review
4.0
I picked this up due to a tweet from a great Sci-Fi review site, Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations. It’s run by Joachim Boaz. Do check it out. As usual with collections, there are some great stories, some good ones, some okay ones and some awful ones. This volume is no different. I’ll go through the stories in order.
I didn’t like Frederik Pohl’s “We Purchased People”. It felt a little disgusting on a couple of levels. Poul Anderson’s “The Voortrekkers” was just okay.
Kit Reed’s “Great Escape Tours, Inc.” was pretty good even though it was sad. Old age and thoughts of youth seem so good, but nostalgia isn’t always what you thought it was if you get to go back to it. Interesting, this was the first story in the collection I liked and it was a woman sci-fi writer. 1960s and 70s sci-fi, especially the New Wave, had some fantastic women writers that I never heard of even though I was a hardcore addict of sci-fi growing up in the 70s and 80s. I’m glad I’m able to read them now but so sad that I missed some of these woman who died only in the last 5-10 years.
Brian Aldiss’s “Diagram for Three Enigmatic Stories” felt like a pre-MFA MFA entry. It read a little “too cool for school”, at least for me.
I was surprised I liked Isaac Asimov’s “That Thou Art Mindful of Him!”. I loved Asimov growing up and still re-read The Foundation Trilogy from time to time, but I figured that once I dove into the New Wave, especially the social sci-fi (as opposed to hard sci-fi), I wouldn’t enjoy him as much. But, Asimov is a great story teller. He’s like Stephen King for me, in that I don’t always like the subject matter, but both are great at writing and telling a story. This Asimov story was also darker than his normal work. I enjoyed it.
Dean R. Koontz’s “We Three” had some interesting ideas with a bit of a creepy plot. Once I remembered that Koontz wrote the novel Demon Seed, I was able to adjust to it. I think of him as your sick, weird uncle in a trench coat who has some really good ideas for a story.
Joanna Russ delivers as usual. “An Old Fashioned Girl” is unusual but beautifully written, really making you think. It’s amazing she did it in such a short story; it’s only 5 pages long.
Harlan Ellison irks me. He is very cocky but he does have good chops. “Catman” is a good, and twisted, story. It reminded me of the types of pieces he chose for his own anthology, “Again, Dangerous Visions”.
Harry Harrison’s “Space Rats of the CCC” is an hilarious parody that nails space opera sci-fi. It’s even more tongue in cheek than his Stainless Steel Rat series. I loved space opera growing up but don’t enjoy it now. However, this parody of it was perfect. Nicely skewered. His afterword is excellent and basically notes all the tropes of space opera that I was thinking of as I read his story.
I didn’t care as much for Robert Silverberg’s “Trips”. I really enjoyed his novel “Dying Inside”, but this short story is more of a clever exercise that a good story.
“The Wonderful, All-Purpose Transmogrifier” by Barry N. Malzberg is full of his typical Malzbergian insights. As I read it, I wondered if today’s Transmogrifier is the mobile phone or binging streaming shows. Malzberg includes his usual sex and violence bits, but with a twist as the end that can’t undo the violence but shifts the understanding of it. It’s classic Malzberg. Definitely check out his novels “The Falling Astronauts”, “Beyond Apollo”, and “Revelations”. But, be warned.
James Tiptree, Jr. (aka Alice Bradley Sheldon) has given us a good but not her best work with “Her Smoke Rose Up Forever”. It started slow but did pick up.
Finally, I turn to Philip K. Dick’s "A Little Something for Us Tempunauts”. This is actually the first Dick piece I’ve ever read. I’ve seen adaptations in movies and heard about his work, but never actually read any. This piece is excellent. It reads like Malzberg but without the profanity and violence. This was a perfect story to end the Final Stage anthology.
I didn’t like Frederik Pohl’s “We Purchased People”. It felt a little disgusting on a couple of levels. Poul Anderson’s “The Voortrekkers” was just okay.
Kit Reed’s “Great Escape Tours, Inc.” was pretty good even though it was sad. Old age and thoughts of youth seem so good, but nostalgia isn’t always what you thought it was if you get to go back to it. Interesting, this was the first story in the collection I liked and it was a woman sci-fi writer. 1960s and 70s sci-fi, especially the New Wave, had some fantastic women writers that I never heard of even though I was a hardcore addict of sci-fi growing up in the 70s and 80s. I’m glad I’m able to read them now but so sad that I missed some of these woman who died only in the last 5-10 years.
Brian Aldiss’s “Diagram for Three Enigmatic Stories” felt like a pre-MFA MFA entry. It read a little “too cool for school”, at least for me.
I was surprised I liked Isaac Asimov’s “That Thou Art Mindful of Him!”. I loved Asimov growing up and still re-read The Foundation Trilogy from time to time, but I figured that once I dove into the New Wave, especially the social sci-fi (as opposed to hard sci-fi), I wouldn’t enjoy him as much. But, Asimov is a great story teller. He’s like Stephen King for me, in that I don’t always like the subject matter, but both are great at writing and telling a story. This Asimov story was also darker than his normal work. I enjoyed it.
Dean R. Koontz’s “We Three” had some interesting ideas with a bit of a creepy plot. Once I remembered that Koontz wrote the novel Demon Seed, I was able to adjust to it. I think of him as your sick, weird uncle in a trench coat who has some really good ideas for a story.
Joanna Russ delivers as usual. “An Old Fashioned Girl” is unusual but beautifully written, really making you think. It’s amazing she did it in such a short story; it’s only 5 pages long.
Harlan Ellison irks me. He is very cocky but he does have good chops. “Catman” is a good, and twisted, story. It reminded me of the types of pieces he chose for his own anthology, “Again, Dangerous Visions”.
Harry Harrison’s “Space Rats of the CCC” is an hilarious parody that nails space opera sci-fi. It’s even more tongue in cheek than his Stainless Steel Rat series. I loved space opera growing up but don’t enjoy it now. However, this parody of it was perfect. Nicely skewered. His afterword is excellent and basically notes all the tropes of space opera that I was thinking of as I read his story.
I didn’t care as much for Robert Silverberg’s “Trips”. I really enjoyed his novel “Dying Inside”, but this short story is more of a clever exercise that a good story.
“The Wonderful, All-Purpose Transmogrifier” by Barry N. Malzberg is full of his typical Malzbergian insights. As I read it, I wondered if today’s Transmogrifier is the mobile phone or binging streaming shows. Malzberg includes his usual sex and violence bits, but with a twist as the end that can’t undo the violence but shifts the understanding of it. It’s classic Malzberg. Definitely check out his novels “The Falling Astronauts”, “Beyond Apollo”, and “Revelations”. But, be warned.
James Tiptree, Jr. (aka Alice Bradley Sheldon) has given us a good but not her best work with “Her Smoke Rose Up Forever”. It started slow but did pick up.
Finally, I turn to Philip K. Dick’s "A Little Something for Us Tempunauts”. This is actually the first Dick piece I’ve ever read. I’ve seen adaptations in movies and heard about his work, but never actually read any. This piece is excellent. It reads like Malzberg but without the profanity and violence. This was a perfect story to end the Final Stage anthology.
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