I just recently picked up a book edited by Mr. Card, and am enjoying it tremendously, since love sci-fi short stories.
The name of the thread is the name of the book: Masterpieces: The Best Science Fiction of the Twentieth Century, published by Ace Books, NY.
I only had one problem with this book and was wondering if anyone else who has read it has had this impression too.
All the stories were selected by OSC, and they are great, I can think of a few more to add, but there is just too much great stuff out there as it is, so I understand how things get overlooked. But on that very note, there is a story in the book by F. Pohl called "The Tunnel Under the World". This is one the longest in the whole collection and is very poor in my opinion to be considered a 'masterpiece'. I found it slow and boring, and felt like I could predict it's outcome. I did read all of it despite the temptation to skip it and go on to next selection, but I am a 'cover to cover' type personality and must read EVERYTHING!
Honestly, I fail to see how this Pohl story made it into this compilation. Has anyone else thought so too?
This whole book is otherwise excellent and has some choise short stories that we all have read and enjoy re-reading. I would recommend it.
[ November 08, 2005, 10:51 PM: Message edited by: Orson Scott Card ]
Posts: 3 | Registered: Nov 2005
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I liked "Tunnel Under the World" but thought "Devolution" was boring. So maybe it just wasn't quite the story for you.
Posts: 1903 | Registered: Sep 2003
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Glad to hear others have read this book too, I find that I am often alone in my love for sci-fi, esp. the short stories.
I also thought "Devolution" was not terribly exciting, but I think that is more because of when it was written as compared to the year we are presently in. Sometimes these works are dated, and it's only the truly great writers that are able to overcome this obstacle of time.
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The nice thing about short story anthologies is that you have more options than a novel. Which means that since everyone has different tastes, it is far more probable that *everyone* will like something in them. Which you did. So hooray!
[edit because I'm smrt]
Posts: 866 | Registered: Dec 2003
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It's a problem - stories that truly are masterpieces can be dated, and you rather have to recover the sense of the time in order to value the story. Maybe I should have gone with Space Merchants in order to represent Pohl. But everything that's there is there because, in its time (and in MY time!) it was truly wonderful and revelatory.
However, I am teaching from that book in my class at SVU this semester, and let's just say that my students were not universally thrilled with some of the older ones. Can't please everybody <grin>.
Posts: 2005 | Registered: Jul 1999
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Gee. Most of my favorites were older ones, but then I've always been a bit old-fashioned in my sci-fi tastes. I don't remember that Pohl story specifically though. I guess it didn't leave as much an impression as some others. Could someone jog my memory (and I'm not asking anybody to hit me on the head!!)?
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