"Absorbing anthology"
This latest "best ... of the century" actually consists
of twenty-six tales from the second half of the twentieth
century and one story from the 1940s. Either that means
science fiction matured considerably after World War II,
the editor is too young to appreciate the early years, or
the anthology should be labeled differently. In either
case, the contributions are all aces and represent the wide
gamut of the genre divided into three classifications: "The
Golden Age, "The New Wave", and "The Media Generation". Though I enjoyed the other two periods, my favorite
stories are from "The New Wave" because I cut my molars on
several of these including having read some while working
on a masters thesis involving science fiction. Regardless
of nostalgia or other reasons for personal taste, each
entry is powerful and shows how enlightening the genre can
be when written by masters like those who rendered entries
to MASTERPIECES: THE BEST SCIENCE FICTION OF THE CENTURY. Harriet Klausner
Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted October 15, 2001
|
