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A review by jimbus
Born of the Sun: Adventures in Our Solar System by Mike Ashley
3.0
This review was also posted to my blog here.
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I’d read Science Fiction off and on, but it wasn’t until I had to study for a module on SF during my English Literature undergraduate days that I really got into it. In particular, I really enjoyed The Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories, edited by Tom Shippey. I remember distinctly the moment I realised this was a literature I was seriously interested in; it was when I finished Frederik Pohl’s The Tunnel Under the World. Between that mind-blowing story, my first encounter with Ballard’s short fiction in Billenium, also in the same collection, and the sheer breadth of the other stories. I knew this was something I needed to investigate further.
One of the first things I did was read some of PKD’s short fiction. Up until then I was only familiar with his major novels, but it was the short fiction where his ideas are most concentrated and effective, in my opinion. The intense blasts of paranoia and weirdness these stories aimed directly at my brain encouraged me to start writing my own weird short fiction (some of which I published and are available here).
I’d been meaning to read more SF short stories for a while as a kind of long term, free form project, partly for enjoyment and partly for research purposes, because if you intend to write good fiction, you should read a lot of the kind of fiction you intend to write.
Browsing in the library, I discovered a series from The British Library called Science Fiction Classics, themed anthologies of SF stories, edited by Mike Ashley, who I hadn’t encountered before, but who apparently also edits the Mammoth Book of… series. There were a few of these British Library anthologies in the library, I borrowed them and will be making my way through them as and when I can. I also had a lot of fun reviewing each story in the form of a single tweet, #onetweetreviews, like I did for the first volume of Ballard’s short fiction. I have copied the tweets below, but if you’d rather read them in a twitter thread, you can find it here.
The first anthology I had a look at was Born of the Sun: Adventures in our Solar System. There’s a story for every planet in our solar system, and a couple of interesting additions to fill it out. Each story is introduced by Ashley, fitting the story into its proper context both within SF as a whole and among other stories about the same planet. These introductions might be old news to a lot of hardcore SF fans, but they probably wouldn’t be looking at these anthologies. To interested newcomers like me, who might have heard of Robert Silverberg and read one of his stories in another anthology but otherwise know little, these introductions are great.
I could say the same thing about this anthology that you can say about any anthology; there are a few dull stories, a few that blew my mind. I did enjoy Ashley’s focus on stories that haven’t been anthologised before, I suppose that’s him flexing his knowledge as a historian of popular fiction. I’d never heard of E.R. James for example, but if I see his name in another anthology at some point, I’ll know to be excited.
I liked this anthology a lot. I look forward to reading the other ones.
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Sunrise on Mercury by Robert Silverberg
Mercury
There's nothing quite like a touch of Space Madness. SF and horror are often very close. Have you seen Event Horizon?
The Hell Planet by Leslie F. Stone
Vulcan
An anti-colonial SF story from 1931 with some horrifying Ancient Mariner elements. Enjoyable but overlong, imo.
Foundling on Venus by John and Dorothy De Courcy
Venus
Who knew a story where a little alien man tears off his human child skin costume could be so heartwarming?
The Lonely Path by by John Ashcroft
Mars
A first contact and time travel story rolled into one. If you ever wondered how the aliens who sent down the monolith in 2001 felt about Earth, this story will intrigue you.
Garden in the Void by Poul Anderson
Asteroid Belt
There are some environments you don't want to adapt to.
Desertion by Clifford D. Simak
Jupiter
And some environments that you just might. What a beautiful story in its way. And also, wow, Avatar was even less original than I'd thought.
How Beautiful with Banners by James Blish
Venus
You just can't trust single celled organisms.
Where No Man Walks by E.R. James
Uranus
There's always a new market. Space as resource to be extracted regardless of cost.
A Baby on Neptune by Clare Winger Harris & Miles J. Breuer
Neptune
A story for those who've ever wondered about the damage they wreak on the ants by walking across grass.
Wait It Out by Larry Niven
Pluto
Reminds me of Ubik, do wonder if Dick read this while he was writing it. As much as I like a space adventure, I do love a story that acknowledges how easy it is for everything in space to go totally wrong.
-
I’d read Science Fiction off and on, but it wasn’t until I had to study for a module on SF during my English Literature undergraduate days that I really got into it. In particular, I really enjoyed The Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories, edited by Tom Shippey. I remember distinctly the moment I realised this was a literature I was seriously interested in; it was when I finished Frederik Pohl’s The Tunnel Under the World. Between that mind-blowing story, my first encounter with Ballard’s short fiction in Billenium, also in the same collection, and the sheer breadth of the other stories. I knew this was something I needed to investigate further.
One of the first things I did was read some of PKD’s short fiction. Up until then I was only familiar with his major novels, but it was the short fiction where his ideas are most concentrated and effective, in my opinion. The intense blasts of paranoia and weirdness these stories aimed directly at my brain encouraged me to start writing my own weird short fiction (some of which I published and are available here).
I’d been meaning to read more SF short stories for a while as a kind of long term, free form project, partly for enjoyment and partly for research purposes, because if you intend to write good fiction, you should read a lot of the kind of fiction you intend to write.
Browsing in the library, I discovered a series from The British Library called Science Fiction Classics, themed anthologies of SF stories, edited by Mike Ashley, who I hadn’t encountered before, but who apparently also edits the Mammoth Book of… series. There were a few of these British Library anthologies in the library, I borrowed them and will be making my way through them as and when I can. I also had a lot of fun reviewing each story in the form of a single tweet, #onetweetreviews, like I did for the first volume of Ballard’s short fiction. I have copied the tweets below, but if you’d rather read them in a twitter thread, you can find it here.
The first anthology I had a look at was Born of the Sun: Adventures in our Solar System. There’s a story for every planet in our solar system, and a couple of interesting additions to fill it out. Each story is introduced by Ashley, fitting the story into its proper context both within SF as a whole and among other stories about the same planet. These introductions might be old news to a lot of hardcore SF fans, but they probably wouldn’t be looking at these anthologies. To interested newcomers like me, who might have heard of Robert Silverberg and read one of his stories in another anthology but otherwise know little, these introductions are great.
I could say the same thing about this anthology that you can say about any anthology; there are a few dull stories, a few that blew my mind. I did enjoy Ashley’s focus on stories that haven’t been anthologised before, I suppose that’s him flexing his knowledge as a historian of popular fiction. I’d never heard of E.R. James for example, but if I see his name in another anthology at some point, I’ll know to be excited.
I liked this anthology a lot. I look forward to reading the other ones.
-
Sunrise on Mercury by Robert Silverberg
Mercury
There's nothing quite like a touch of Space Madness. SF and horror are often very close. Have you seen Event Horizon?
The Hell Planet by Leslie F. Stone
Vulcan
An anti-colonial SF story from 1931 with some horrifying Ancient Mariner elements. Enjoyable but overlong, imo.
Foundling on Venus by John and Dorothy De Courcy
Venus
Who knew a story where a little alien man tears off his human child skin costume could be so heartwarming?
The Lonely Path by by John Ashcroft
Mars
A first contact and time travel story rolled into one. If you ever wondered how the aliens who sent down the monolith in 2001 felt about Earth, this story will intrigue you.
Garden in the Void by Poul Anderson
Asteroid Belt
There are some environments you don't want to adapt to.
Desertion by Clifford D. Simak
Jupiter
And some environments that you just might. What a beautiful story in its way. And also, wow, Avatar was even less original than I'd thought.
How Beautiful with Banners by James Blish
Venus
You just can't trust single celled organisms.
Where No Man Walks by E.R. James
Uranus
There's always a new market. Space as resource to be extracted regardless of cost.
A Baby on Neptune by Clare Winger Harris & Miles J. Breuer
Neptune
A story for those who've ever wondered about the damage they wreak on the ants by walking across grass.
Wait It Out by Larry Niven
Pluto
Reminds me of Ubik, do wonder if Dick read this while he was writing it. As much as I like a space adventure, I do love a story that acknowledges how easy it is for everything in space to go totally wrong.