The Greatest Science Fiction Stories of All Time Chosen by the Members of the Science Fiction Writers of America

This was an excellent set of science fiction short stories from the past. I came back to science fiction after a 40+ year hiatus, and the stories were as wonderful and full of enchantment as I remembered. I recommend the book for the thought provoking ideas and for the link to the present day world. The themes of the stories and the problems of the world do not change.

I came to this site looking for this book *specifically* to find "The Cold Equations" short story that another reviewer mentions above. I haven't read these stories since the first time when the book was new. This book is a MUST READ for people interested in quality science fiction

Galactic spanning civilizations that distribute news on bulky, printed papers! Moral quandaries about inflexible physical rules as they apply somehow differently to Women (capital W!). The 1940's and 1950's were a different time. Unbounded optimism about man's (maybe not Women's) place in the universe coupled with oddly anachronistic views of technology (let's 'go find a phone' in this space station!) is just plain fun. Time to grab my fedora and fly to Mars!

This is my all time favorite book and inspired years of reading by many authors. It was amazing what these writers were able to project at the time and it would be very interesting to see what they'd be up to today.

One of the best collection of short stories of science fiction!Each of the 26 stories is a gem.

It contains stories of most of the masters of science fiction of that time -- Asimov, Clarke, del Rey, Simak, and so on.

A must have for any SF fan.

This is a great book, if you are a sci fi fan. The vendor was first rate. The book arrived quickly and in excellent condition. There are some true sci fi classics in this volume, and the authors from the "Golden Era" of Sci Fi are all represented here. I intend to keep this book on my shelf forever.
Myron

This series of Novellas is old school SF (no cyber, no political statements, nor any "green" themes). Could not help smiling a bit at the plots which were by any description light fun, best described as "Camp SF". As a SF reader for 50 years+, the collection was a bit nostalgic, easy reading, and pure amusement.

0 Stars Bad
1 Star * Not Bad
2 Stars ** OK
3 Stars *** Good
4 Stars **** Very Good
5 Stars ***** Great

Any Star is worth a read. The more Stars, the more enjoyment you will have.

Disappointing. The majority of the stories are so dated that they are no no longer classics - they are simply relics. The writing styles and content are so mired in their era that they don't have the 'timeless' quality I was expecting. It has been a chore sifting through these to find the gems. There are a few in here. I purchased it for Tim Matheson's "Born of Man and Woman". That one stands the test of time. The rest.....not so much. If you are into retro Buck Rogers type stuff you might enjoy it.

Some great stories here... but collections like these should strive to bring obscure writers who deserve to be read to our attention and this book earns a "D" as one third of its pages are wasted in that respect.

Included are some real gems like And Then There Were None, a superb story demonstrating the fallacy of our supposed "freedom." It should be read in every high school.

Who Goes There by Campbell is as good as it gets. Carpenter's The Thing was made from this single most terrifying story ever written. Some great collections of Campbell out there: A New Dawn: The Complete Don A. Stuart Stories (Nesfa's Choice Series, Volume 22).

Vintage Season is the story upon which the film: Grand Tour was based, and also very good and brings an obscure writer to much deserved attention. Now THAT is what collections like this should be about.

Baby Is Three is also great. (Don't give up while slogging through the first few pages...it's worth it) This was later expanded into More Than Human. This story led me to buy many of his collected stories in 11 volumes like this one: Slow Sculpture: Volume XII: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon. Mostly out of print but good used copies are available here.

But... really now, The Time Machine??? Why? because it was free? Sure it's great, but everyone over twelve has read it.

And Nerves by del Rey? Wordy, outdated, static and boring... never has a story so deserved obscurity.

There's 150 pages gone that might have held 5 other superb stories deserving inclusion.

I'd advise skipping this mediocre compilation and going straight to the source to glean what is best as with the above links.

This book is truly a collection of great stories from between the years of 1929 and 1964. I am glad they reprinted this book because my older version is yellowing. I hope one day they will reprint a new hardback copy and I will buy it also.

Even though this book is packed from cover to cover with intriguing stories, I bought it for one story in particular "Mimsy Were the Borogoves" by Lewis Padgett. First published in 1943 ("Lewis Padgett" was a pseudonym employed by Henry Kuttner and his wife, C. L. Moore)

My first encounter with this story was a vinyl record recording with William Shatner later it is replaces with a cassette tape. I believe this book is the only surviving form of the story.

Unthahorsten is experimenting with time travel and sends two black boxes back into the past. He had to put something in them so as a last minute thought places his old toys in them. They do not return so he forgets them. It is too late the mischief is done. One is found by children in 1942. The other well look at the title for a clue.

Clocking in at over 28 hours, The Science Fiction Hall of Fame was an incredibly easy listen that seem to fly by over the course of a few days. Offering a wider range of stories accompanied by varying narrators, I quite enjoyed my time with this collection.

While it is always difficult to review anthologies (particularly of this size) I did want to share a few thoughts on this one, as many have been such a miss for me lately. When I discover a collection that feels well-balanced and overall rewarding, I want to hand it the spotlight for a few.

With that stated, I do feel it is important to mention that Volume 1 is not without flaws. As to be expected, there are times the narration missed the mark or the true age of the material was inevitably felt. Also, I received an MP3 file from the publisher, so there was a lot of information that was not accessible in terms of biographies. Several stories that were multiple files in length, actually downloaded out of order. This was a frustration to work through and I fear I missed some titles. But none of this was enough to take away from the enjoyment of a fantastic collection of sci-fi classics.

Supplied in easily digestible chunks, this anthology takes the reader on a journey that begins in 1929 and end in 1964. There are the notorious tales of androids and psychic abilities gone bad to space craft stowaways that challenge our moral obligations and stories where protagonists face situations with universal ramifications. Each story feels unique and challenges the reader (listener) on some varying emotional level. And as good science fiction does, there are many subtle and not so subtle messages contained throughout that explore humanity on a multifaceted spectrum.

A few of my favorites included:

A Martian Odyssey by Stanley G. Weinbaum
Helen O’Loy by Lester del Rey
The Quest for Saint Aquin by Anthony Boucher
The Nine Billion Names of God by Arthur C. Clarke
It’s a Good Life by Jerome Bixby
The Cold Equations by Tom Godwin
Fondly Fahrenheit by Alfred Bester

Even with the obstacles I encountered, I can easily say that this a collection of great value for all fans of science fiction! I will definitely be picking up a physical copy of this anthology for my shelves at first opportunity and look forward to exploring later volumes.

*I would like to thank audiojukebox and the publisher for my copy. The above review is my own, unbiased and honest opinion.

I have been burned by anthologies and collections that promote one or two high end come-ons and then are padded out with uninspired but easily secured second choices. That is not the case here. Apart from a little fine tuning and rearranging, (explained in a foreword by Silverberg), these are the top stories as voted for by the Science Fiction Writers of America. This, (1968), was well before the voting for awards became political and dubious, and represents the honest opinions of the 300 top professional writers in the field at the time. The ballot included 132 stories written between 1929 and 1964, the work of 76 different writers. If you want a sampler of the best of the best, this is it.

Essential science fiction short story collection of the decades 1920s thru 1960s. An incredible collection of some of the most famous, ground-breaking and influential sci-fi stories ever written, most of which were originally published in magazines and/or short story collections. Robert Silverberg explains the culling process in the brief introduction. The only deficiency is a lack of blurb before each story explaining who/what/when about the author (and thanks to the internet, that is no longer a problem). Quintessential collection, highly recommended.
The stories are as follows:
A Martian Odyssey - Stanley G. Weinbaum
Twilight - John W. Campbell
Helen O'Loy - Lester Del Rey
The Roads Must Roll - Robert A. Heinlein
Microcosm God - Theodore Sturgeon
Nightfall - Isaac Asimov
The Weapon Shop - A. E. van Vogt
Mimsy Were the Borogoves - Lewis Padgett
Huddling Place - Clifford D. Simak
Arena - Frederic Brown
First Contact - Murray Leinster
That Only a Mother - Judith Merril
Scanners Live in Vain - Cordwainer Smith
Mars is Heaven! - Ray Bradbury
The Little Black Bag - C. M. Kornbluth
Born of Man and Woman - Richard Matheson
Coming Attraction - Fritz Leiber
The Quest for Saint Aquin - Anthony Boucher
Surface Tension - James Blish
The Nine Billion Names of God - Arthur C. Clarke
It's a "Good" Life - Jerome Bixby
The Cold Equations - Tom Godwin
Fondly Fahrenheit - Afred Bester
The Country of the Kind - Damon Knight
Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes
A Rose for Ecclesiastes - Roger Zelazny

I bought the Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume 1 for one reason, to read “It’s a Good Life” by Jerome Bixby. “It’s a Good Life” was the basis for an amazing and horrifying Twilight Zone episode of the same name. It’s regarded as one of the best if not THE best episode ever and having now read the short story I can say I wasn’t disappointed. The story is even creepier and scarier than the television episode which was an excellent and very faithful adaptation. This collection also features the well-known “Flowers for Algernon” along with stories by Isacc Asimov, Ray Bradbury and Arthur C. Clarke. The stories were published between 1934 and 1963 but I have to admit that I’m partial to the later stories. Some of the early stories seem a little dated, for instance “The Roads Must Roll” by Robert A. Heinlein where future transportation is dominated by enormous moving roads like conveyor belts.

Although the stories are all unique they do share the quality that each is intelligently and thoughtfully written which is probably exactly why they were chosen for inclusion. The stories were chosen by Science Fiction writers so there is probably a focus on stories with some intelligence. “The Country of the Kind” asks the simple question, what would happen on a world where violence was simply inconceivable if one person learned to kill. Two stories, “Mimsy Were the Borogoves” and “The Little Black Box” deal with common objects from the future travelling back in time and the effect they have on people from the present time (circa when these stories were written). Stories like “Microcosmic God”, about a scientist who creates a miniature society that evolves at hyper speed, and “The Weapon Shop” are incredibly inventive and like nothing I’ve ever read before. In fact “The Weapon Shop” is so out there I won’t even attempt to describe it but it’s still a great read. “Scanners Live in Vain” is perhaps the weirdest of all the stories but tremendously enjoyable.

A lot of these stories feel like they would be perfect for a half hour Twilight Zone episode and as mentioned above one was. “Mars Is Heaven!” by Ray Bradbury was made into an episode of Ray Bradbury Theater. There was an episode of Star Trek called “Arena” that was similar enough to the story of the same name that Fredric Brown got writing credit to avoid legal problems. Some stories like “Helen O’Ley” and “Huddling Place” made very little impact on me and I had to skim them a second time to even remember what they were about. “First Contact” and “The Cold Equations” were great concepts that the writers somewhat beat to death but even the weakest stories in this collection tend to be decent. Regardless of the few forgettable stories there were no stories that I actively disliked and overall this collection is well worth the time and money. I heartily recommend this to science fiction readers if for nothing else than its two most well known stories.

The "Science Fiction Hall of Fame" (Volume IIA), edited by Ben Bova, is another volume of science fiction, similar but yet different than the first volume. This volume was published in 1973, and as with the previous volume, there were a set of criteria for which stories were selected. In this case the stories that were voted on had to be published prior to 1966, and there could be no more than one entry per author, although this limitation did not include authors who were published in Volume I. Both volumes IIA and IIB are for works which are longer novelettes and novellas.

Not surprisingly, with the longer stories, there is a shorter table of contents than for Volume I, with just 11 stories in Volume IIA. Nevertheless, there are some all-time classics here:

* Call Me Joe by Poul Anderson - novelette
* Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell, Jr. - novella
* Nerves by Lester del Rey - novella
* Universe by Robert A. Heinlein - novella
* The Marching Morons by C. M. Kornbluth - novelette
* Vintage Season by Henry Kuttner & C. L. Moore - novella
* ...And Then There Were None by Eric Frank Russell - novella
* The Ballad of Lost C'Mell by Cordwainer Smith - novelette
* Baby Is Three by Theodore Sturgeon - novella
* The Time Machine by H. G. Wells - novella
* With Folded Hands... by Jack Williamson - novelette

This volume does a little better job of balancing out the different eras of Science Fiction than Volume I did. At the same time, the quality of the collection remains at the highest level, with classic stories from start to finish. In addition to the stories themselves, there is an introduction by Ben Bova, who goes into more detail on how the stories were chosen for Volume IIA and IIB. This is definitely one to pick up if you have the chance, especially if you don't have these stories in another collection.

In Volume I of The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, we read twenty-six short stories published between 1929 and 1964. The editor made the most of that book's limited space by including only relatively short stories. The novella-length classics in this book and in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume 2B were too long for the first volume, but too good to ignore.

My three favorites from these eleven novellas are:

Poul Anderson's "Call Me Joe" explores the relationship between Joe, a hardy creature gengineered to thrive in the hostile environment of Jupiter, and Edward Anglesey, a wheelchair-bound remote operator who links with Joe to direct his daily activities. A question emerges of who is in charge.

John Campbell's "Who Goes There?" shows us how a group of Antarctic researchers deal with an alien visitor awakened from the ice. A creature that insinuates itself into their group in an unexpected way. This story is a must-read for fans of The Thing.

Robert Heinlein's "Universe" is the prototypical generation spaceship story. The Ship has been traveling for a long time--long enough for the original crew's descendants to begin pursuing dreams of their own.

The Science Fiction Writers of America who selected these novellas have done their job well. Not only are the stories entertaining in their own right, but it is fascinating to see the roots of many of science fiction's now-oft-used themes. Highly recommended.

This is a treasure trove of older science fiction classic novellas. Authors here include such worthies as Poul Anderson, John Campbell, Jr., Lester del Rey, Robert Heinlein, C. M. Kornbluth, Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore, Eric Frank Russell, Cordwainer Smith, Theodore Sturgeon (progenitor of Sturgeon's Law, "90% of everything is crud," if I recall accurately), H. G. Wells, and Jack Williamson. This volume was published originally in 1973 (the version, in fact, that I have).

Let's look at a couple examples. Kornbluth's work is a lugubrious application of eugenics to humans. With the reduction in accidents, war, illness, fewer ungifted people were "weeded out." The end result? As a character says, "The average IQ is now 45." Why not just let the ungifted die out through stupidity? One of the "gifted" who were around to keep the world going on mentioned that they had--but the "marching morons" were too dense to know that anything was wrong, as they began to die by large numbers. So, the gifted continue to keep the species alive. When I read this, I have mixed emotions indeed! I am not a fan of eugenics, but the novella lays out an interesting scenario.

Another favorite is Russell's "And Then There Were None." A sort of libertarian work, in which residents of a planet had seen their society evolve in a very different path from a galactic state. The central government decided to reassert authority over "The Gands" (residents of the planet, followers of the ideas of Gandhi). The society of the Gands is libertarian, with people having no right to define the duties of another. The ship's crew, when interacting with the Gands, decide they like their way of life better. Many desertions follow, before the officers and some crewmen lift off, to escape the society.

H. G. Wells' "The T8ime Machine" is here. So, too, Campbell's "Who Goes There?", the source for two different versions of a movie known to us as "The Thing." As other reviewers note, the novella is appropriately creepy.

Anyhow, if you don't like the style of classic science fiction, this may be unsatisfying. But for those of us who grew up with these authors, the book is a glorious reminder of our experiencing sci-fi in our younger days!

This collection of the best science fiction stories between 1929 and 1964 was assembled by the Science Fiction Writers of America and has the high quality that results from an expert-driven selection process. The twenty-six stories are all good and all by name authors, although they weren't all "names" when they wrote them.

My favorite six--and this wasn't easy--are:

Frederic Brown's "Arena" was made into a Star Trek episode which pitted William Shatner against an unknown stunt man in a rubber reptile suit. This original story of a human versus a well-rounded alien in a fight to the death is better.

Murray Leinster's "First Contact" named an entire SF sub-genre. The aliens and humans meet, learn to communicate, and then need to figure out a way to get home without endangering both of their worlds.

C. M. Kornbluth's "The Little Black Bag" hints at a future where many people aren't too bright. One of them loses a bag of medical instruments all the way into the past. And somebody finds it.

Tom Godwin's "The Cold Equations" illustrates the danger of taking along just enough of everything--air, fuel, mass--on a space trip. There is always the unexpected.

Damon Knight's "The Country of the Kind" examines the life of a lonely man who keeps reaching out for others. Something always gets in the way. This story may have influenced Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange.

Daniel Keyes' "Flowers for Algernon" introduces Charlie Gordon, a mentally handicapped man whose life changes when he participates in a surgical experiment designed to improve intelligence. The experiment succeeds, and Charlie quickly develops first ordinary, and then extraordinary intelligence. This short story was later expanded into the novel Flowers for Algernon.

Some of the science in these stories is dated, but that doesn't make them harder to read than stories set in unfamiliar cultures or in the past. Some plots have become cliché, but it is still worthwhile to read the originals. Whether your reading voyage is one of discovery or rediscovery, it is worth taking. Highly recommended.

I first picked up the original printing of this anthology when I was a small child, around ten years old, and the first story in it ("A Martian Oddyssey") was so good that I put the book back down and didn't read the rest of it for another year because I was afraid none of the other stories in there could possibly be as good.

Almost all of them were. That's not the only reason you should read this collection, though. Beyond the stunning quality of the stories in this collection, many of these stories have, by now, what amounts to historical importance within the sci-fi field; these are the best of the best first stories, the bones that the modern great SF writers gnawed on in their childhoods, the building-block stories of the genre. You really haven't read science fiction if you haven't read Asimov's "Nightfall," if you haven't read "The Cold Equations" or "Arena" or "Twilight" or "Flowers for Algernon." Understanding modern sci-fi without a knowledge of these stories would be like trying to understand modern fantasy without having read Tolkien.

I am unaware of a better or even a comparable science fiction anthology (apart, perhaps, from the subsequent volumes in this same series). There couldn't be. These are the stories that built the genre. Any collection that was comparable would have to collect all the same tales.

Edit: I figured it would be good to add a list of all the stories in this anthology.

Stanley G. Weinbaum "A Martian Odyssey" 1934
John W. Campbell "Twilight" 1934
Lester del Rey "Helen O'Loy" 1938
Robert A. Heinlein "The Roads Must Roll" 1940
Theodore Sturgeon "Microcosmic God" 1941
Isaac Asimov "Nightfall" 1941
A. E. van Vogt "The Weapon Shop" 1942
Lewis Padgett "Mimsy Were the Borogoves" 1943
Clifford D. Simak "Huddling Place" 1944
Fredric Brown "Arena" 1944
Murray Leinster "First Contact" 1945
Judith Merril "That Only a Mother" 1948
Cordwainer Smith "Scanners Live in Vain" 1948
Ray Bradbury "Mars is Heaven!" 1948
Cyril M. Kornbluth "The Little Black Bag" 1950
Richard Matheson "Born of Man and Woman" 1950
Fritz Leiber "Coming Attraction" 1950
Anthony Boucher "The Quest for Saint Aquin" 1951
James Blish "Surface Tension" 1952
Arthur C. Clarke "The Nine Billion Names of God" 1953
Jerome Bixby "It's a Good Life" 1953
Tom Godwin "The Cold Equations" 1954
Alfred Bester "Fondly Fahrenheit" 1954
Damon Knight "The Country of the Kind" 1955
Daniel Keyes "Flowers for Algernon" 1959
Roger Zelazny "A Rose for Ecclesiastes" 1963

The "Science Fiction Hall of Fame" (Volume I), edited by Robert Silverberg, was first published in 1970. The stories were selected by the Science Fiction Writers of America through a system which Robert Silverberg describes in his introduction, which includes some limiting factors such as the stories had to be published prior to 1965, no more than one entry per author, and the stories had to be 15,000 words or fewer. The result was an amazing collection of 26 short fiction stories all of which are extraordinary works in their own right.

The table of contents is a wonder in and of itself:

* A Martian Odyssey by Stanley G. Weinbaum - Novelette
* Twilight by John W. Campbell, Jr. - Short Story
* Helen O'Loy by Lester del Rey - Short Story
* The Roads Must Roll by Robert A. Heinlein - Novelette
* Microcosmic God by Theodore Sturgeon - Novelette
* Nightfall by Isaac Asimov - Novelette
* The Weapon Shop A. E. van Vogt - Novelette
* Mimsy Were the Borogoves by Lewis Padgett - Novelette
* Huddling Place by Clifford D. Simak - Short Story
* Arena by Fredric Brown - Novelette
* First Contact by Murray Leinster - Novelette
* That Only a Mother by Judith Merril - Short Story
* Scanners Live in Vain by Cordwainer Smith - Novelette
* Mars Is Heaven! by Ray Bradbury - Short Story
* The Little Black Bag by C. M. Kornbluth - Novelette
* Born of Man and Woman by Richard Matheson - Vignette
* Coming Attraction by Fritz Leiber - Short Story
* The Quest for Saint Aquin by Anthony Boucher - Short Story
* Surface Tension by James Blish - Novelette
* The Nine Billion Names of God by Arthur C. Clarke - Short Story
* It's a Good Life by Jerome Bixby - Short Story
* The Cold Equations by Tom Godwin - Novelette
* Fondly Fahrenheit by Alfred Bester - Novelette
* The Country of the Kind by Damon Knight - Short Story
* Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes - Novelette
* A Rose for Ecclesiastes by Roger Zelazny - Novelette

If one wants to search for weaknesses, then perhaps one could say that only 6 of the 26 stories were written outside of the years 1940 - 1954, with nothing before 1934 and only one story in the 60's, but despite this, clearly every story included is one of the great stories from the history of the genre. Another very modest criticism is that some of these stories have been reprinted numerous times, but this collection was never intended to be one of lost treasures, although some of the stories probably fit that description. Instead, it was to be a collection of those works which are the best the genre has to offer, and in that, it clearly succeeds.

This single volume contains more of the very best, outstanding science fiction stories of the 20th century than any other anthology I've seen. Included are The Roads Must Roll by Robert A. Heinlein; A Martian Odyssey by Stanley G. Weinbaum; Microcosmic God by Theodore Sturgeon; Nightfall by Isaac Asimov; The Weapon Shop by A.E. Van Vogt; Mimsy Were The Borogoves by Lewis Padgett (basis for The Last Mimzy (Widescreen Infinifilm Edition); Arena by Fredric Brown (basis for one of the most popular classic Star Trek episodes of the same title, Star Trek - The Original Series, Vol. 10, Episodes 19 & 20: Arena/ The Alternative Factor); Mars Is Heaven! by Ray Bradbury (part of The Martian Chronicles); Surface Tension by James Blish (one of my favorites, really amazing!); The Cold Equations by Tom Godwin, which has been adapted several times for TV and radio!; Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (basis for the Oscar winning Charly); and many more by such great authors as the late Arthur C. Clarke, Richard Matheson, Murray Leinster, John W. Campbell, Lester Del Rey, C. M. Kornbluth, Fritz Leiber, Roger Zelazny, Alfred Bester, and even several more! This is truly the best of the best and most highly recommended for anyone wanting to sample the best SF reading available.

This book takes you on a journey through the Golden Age of science fiction, and into the first steps of the New Age. It isn't true that this contains the "greatest science fiction stories of all time," because it only contains work prior to 1963 (this anthology was first published in 1970).
A few of the stories will seem campy by today's standards. "Martian Odyssey," by Stanley Weinbaum (1934) will show you just how far today's authors have come in terms of storytelling and prose styling. From those humble beginnings, the genre takes off like a rocket.
John Campbell's "Twighlight" (1934) show many of the themes and ideas--alienation, wonder, potential misuse of science--that would often define the Golden Age. "Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov (1941) is probably the best of the early stories, showing perfect plotting and construction, combined with scientific ideas and thinking. As time marches on, we encounter such stories as "Scanners Live in Vain," by Cordwainer Smith (1948) which shows us a future society without burying us under the type of exposition that previously weighed-down other work; by 1954, we have "Fondly Fahrenheit," by Alfred Bester, a head-spinning, poetic, tour de force of a tale. "Flowers for Algernon" (1959) is one of the best-plotted, most poignant tales of the Golden Age. The book ends with "A Rose for Ecclesiastes," rife with the poetic, experimental style that would become a theme for much of the science fiction literature of the New Wave.
Unfortunately, a few of the stories don't age that well--and it is necessary for readers to realize that science fiction has continued to evolve in the decades since this book's publication. Nevertheless, it contains a large number of wonderful stories and--and serves as a schematic for the genre's development over four decades.

I first discovered this book in a Junior High School library about 1975. I was thirteen. I had already discovered science fiction, but this book I believe cemented my love for the form. It had everything: "hard" SF, adventure, horror, humor, wonderment, morality tales, etc. I've read it over and over. It was out of print for a long time. I was forced to buy it from a used book dealer. I'm very glad to see it is back in print. My favorite stories list from this book is quite long: First Contact; Microcosmic God; Arena; Mimsy were the Borogoves; The Little Black Bag; The Cold Equations; Flowers for Algernon. There's not a BAD story in it.

Yes, we've come a long way, and some of these stories show their age, but these works are what today's authors stand atop. This is a must-read if you love SF.

The Science Fiction Hall of Fame is a classic, one-volume library of works from the so called Golden Age of Science Fiction. These stories are from the 30's, 40's, 50's and 60's, when science fiction was booming. This volume contains the works of some of the biggest and most well known authors in the field, such as Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clark, Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, Theodore Sturgeon and James Blish, among many others.
Don't get this volume mixed up with the pulp science fiction thats out there. The stories within are among some of the most famous out there. Nightfall, Surface Tension and Flowers for Algernon are in here, some of the classic stories out there.
Each and every one of the twenty-six stories in this book are exciting, thoughtful, interesting and are at the edge of imagination. They cover everything from bioengineering, first contact, mutations, god, robots, Mars and space travel, all the things that come with science fiction.
One of the most interesting things about these stories is that they were written seventy, sixty, fifty or fourty years ago, yet the ideas and writing are just as vivid as they would be written today. Some of the things that are being written about had not been invented or conceived by science, but are now the forefronts of science now. Bioengineering and robotics are the big ones. First contact and space travel still remain in science fiction for the most part, but who knows what will happen, expecially if some of those ideas were correct?
This is a must for any science fiction fan out there.

An amazing collection. Ben Bova really showed some class here. Beyond the popular Who Goes There?, and Call Me Joe, this volume contains 3 "stealth" novellas: Baby Is Three (by Sturgeon: you should read the whole thing: More Than Human, but Baby Is Three will knock your socks off); With Folded Hands(have robots made humans obsolete?) and the creepy little "period piece" Vintage Season, worth the price of admission almost by itself.

I picked this collection up on a whim at my local used book store, mostly to get an idea of which other Sci-fi writers I might be interested in collecting from. This collection turned out to be a goldmine of Science Fiction. In fact, this is one of the only books I will not lend out to friends; and I own an old, ratty-looking paperback Copyright 1970! There are many great stories here, but there are a few I must mention as bona-fide masterpieces. "Microcosmic God" by Theodore Sturgeon is fantastic; the plotting for this story reminded me of the 1995 cable pilot episode for the film "The Outer Limits: Sandkings." Even the creators of South Park use similar ideas in one of their episodes. This collection also contains the sparkling jewel "Nightfall" from Issac Asimov. "Surface Tension" from James Blish is superb in every way. "The Nine Billion Names of God" finds Arthur C. Clarke is fine form. "The Cold Equations" from Tom Godwin is arguably the most intense and sad of all the stories here, packing an emotional wallop not ordinarily seen in Sci-fi. And of course, "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes. I believe that last one is my favorite here, showing a retarded man's ascension to genius, 'childhood' to a wise and intellectual human being. This story was later expanded into a novel which, in fact, I am reading right now. However, I prefer the original short story version, if only slightly. There are so many stories here ranging from good to marvellous that I simply had to write a review praising this incredible collection. This book is easy to recommend.

This book collects short story masterpieces from the genre's first four decades. All of the major sci-fi writers are represented, and quite of few of the stories are simply unforgetable. Never has one volume collected more thoughtful meditations on humanity's relationship to technology. Devotees of more modern science fiction (i.e., cyberpunk, etc...) may not be impressed, but for fans of Old School sci-fi, it doesn't get any better than this.

Of course many devoted fans will already have many of these stories in their collections - how could it be otherwise? The cream always rises to the top. So some might wish to forgo purchasing this volume, and use the table of contents as a reading list instead.

As is typical of the genre during this period, there's little here that will shock the youngsters, and the reading is pretty easy overall. So this is an excellent book for those just discovering the genre, or trying to understand what all the excitement is about. Be forewarned, however, that the volume begins with some of the older and consequently weaker entries, so those for whom this book represents an exploration into unknown territory might be better served by skipping the first 3 to 5 stories and starting with either Heinlein's exciting "The Roads Must Roll" which features next week's travel technology, or Theodore Sturgeon's amazing "Microcosmic God" which looks at creating life, or if you're very picky about what you read, going straight for Isaac Asimov's famed "Nightfall". Another alternative is to start at the back and read forward. There are some very powerful pieces loaded into the back end, including a couple of tear-jerkers, Tom Godwin's "The Cold Equations" and Daniel Knight's "Flowers for Algernon".

Regardless of how you read it, these stories, more than any other work, represent what science fiction is really about: the human condition remains the same, even as the world around us changes. Watch and learn. And enjoy!

First of all, my memories of some of the stories in this book are not entirely clear, as I have read it off & on over the course of the last 6 or 7 years.
Basically, this is a collection of the greatest SF stories of all time, as chosen by the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1968. Their cut-off date was December 31, 1964, so you're not going to read anything in here that's less than 35 years old.
The problem with this is obvious: science fiction, more than any other genre, does not always age well. What is gloriously new & exciting in 1930 or 1940 is old news in 2001. Some of the early stories (they're arranged chronologically), while probably great fun to read when they were first published, now have a kitschy, dated quality that's hard to get past.
Having said that, the best stories in this book (my nominees include Isaac Asimov's "Nightfall", Jerome Bixby's "It's A GOOD Life", and Daniel Keyes' heartbreaking "Flowers For Algernon") have a resonance & a timelessness that mark the best stories, SF or otherwise.
If you're looking for a good capsule history of the SF of this era, warts & all, you could do a lot worse than to pick this up. I'm certainly glad it's on my bookshelf.

I'd buy this book for one story alone: Tom Godwin's The Cold Equations. I have never read this story without tears leaking down my cheeks. The fundamental tragedy is so inescapable, yet instead of turning away from each other, the people turn towards each other. A story about "mathematics" vs. the heart. Only Flowers for Algernon is as tear-jerking (also conveniently included here in its original, short-story version).
Jeremy Bixby's Its a GOOD Life! is another sleeper classic...eerie and disturbing.

An anthology of stories chosing by the SFWA, from the sixties and earlier. A pretty good bunch, but given the age of some may not appeal as much now, with the stories set in closer to the present time, like the del Rey example, or Williamson. Even includes Wells' Time Machine, which most people will think of as a novel. The standouts are Campbell's Who Goes there and the ageless Cordwainer Smith's The Ballad of Lost C'Mell.

Still, another book worth having for the SF story fan's collection.

Science Fiction Hall of Fame 2A : CALL ME JOE - Poul Anderson
Science Fiction Hall of Fame 2A : WHO GOES THERE? - John W. CampbellJr.
Science Fiction Hall of Fame 2A : NERVES - Lester delRey
Science Fiction Hall of Fame 2A : UNIVERSE - Robert A. Heinlein
Science Fiction Hall of Fame 2A : THE MARCHING MORONS - C. M. Kornbluth
Science Fiction Hall of Fame 2A : VINTAGE SEASON - Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore
Science Fiction Hall of Fame 2A : AND THEN THERE WERE NONE - Eric Frank Russell
Science Fiction Hall of Fame 2A : THE BALLAD OF LOST C'MELL - Cordwainer Smith
Science Fiction Hall of Fame 2A : BABY IS THREE - Theodore Sturgeon
Science Fiction Hall of Fame 2A : THE TIME MACHINE - H. G. Wells
Science Fiction Hall of Fame 2A : WITH FOLDED HANDS - Jack Williamson

"Psibeams are persnickety"

3 out of 5

A discovery of a lifeform buried in the Antarctic ice causes serious problems for an isolated research team.

5 out of 5

Atomic accident surgery improvisation.

3.5 out of 5

Outside discovery ship mutiny conflict.

3.5 out of 5

Unfrozen average bloke's lemming solution lack of life lesson.

4 out of 5

Past holiday.

4 out of 5

Antigand-a be any authority around here, you crazy people.

4 out of 5

Underpeople Lord assisted deadly punishment escapage.

4.5 out of 5

Gestalt growth.

3.5 out of 5

It will come as no surprise that the protagonist in this story, the traveller, invents a time machine and uses it to venture into the future.

The society that he ends up in seems amazing for a brief time, then he realises that all is not as it seems. There is a large underclass that is terribly exploited to produce all this for the eloi, as they are called.

The underclass are named Morlocks, and it is here that the Time Traveler's sympathies reside.

3.5 out of 5

Robot home help useless.

2.5 out of 5

4.5 out of 5

Long out of print, these 26 stories include classics from the big names of the second third of the 20th century - Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Roger Zelazny. Playful, speculative or cautionary, they home in on the futuristic preoccupations of their day. Robert Heinlein?s ?The Roads Must Roll? explores the flaws inherent in a perfectly mechanized society, Theodore Sturgeon?s ?Microcosmic God,? posits a scientist who creates a new life form for his own edification and the only woman represented, Judith Merrill, has a cautionary tale about radiation, ?That Only A Mother.?
Isaac Asimov?s ?Nightfall,? imagines a dire fate for a planet that plunges into night only once every 2,500 years, Ray Bradbury?s ?Mars Is Heaven!? describes a fateful first contact for hapless Americans, and Roger Bixby?s ?It?s a GOOD Life? gives us the mortal fear of powerful children.
The earliest stories are mostly of historical interest ? their encounters with aliens and thinking robots are a bit heavy handed in the prose department ? but most are still fresh and timeless. These are stories that inspired a generation of writers and readers, spawning imitations and movies and Twilight Zone episodes. A must for genuine sci-fi fans.

Here are four good reasons for picking up this collection: Clifford Simak's "The Big Front Yard" (Hugo winner, Best Novelette, 1959); Algis Budrys' "Rogue Moon" (Hugo nominee, Best Novel, 1961); the 1949 version of James Schmitz's "The Witches of Karres" (expanded to novel length in 1966, and nominated for a Best Novel Hugo in '67); and James Blish's "Earthman, Come Home" (winner of the 2004 Retro Hugo, Best Novelette).

My personal favorite here, Isaac Asimov's "The Martian Way," may not have garnered any awards, but it's a perfect example of what hard sf does best: it confronts its characters with a seemingly insoluble problem, and then allows them to solve it, with both elegance and tough-minded determination.

A lot has been said of this volume, and most of it excellent, but I would like to add some new thoughts to this list of reviews, if I may:

The truest beauty of this book is the casual way it allows the "non sci-fi fan" to lose themselves quickly and easily in any of the wonderful stories contained herein. You can (if you so desire) simply open a page at random and start reading that story. This makes this text an excellent bridge into the fantastic realms of futuristic stories that have been shunned by many a fiction reader as being "too nerdy." each of these stories is engrossing, but all of them are quick, and to the point. They capture your imagination and then send you on your way forever touched by their visions of the world around you.

Great fiction is just that: a great story, whether it is about a North-Going Zax meeting his nemesis, an orphan boy in an abusive home learning of his secret magical powers, or a genius who invents a machine to travel time only to find the hideous fate of humanity that looms in our future. We need more books like this, books that bridge the gap between reading cultures, to allow more avid readers to expand their awareness of great tales.

I strongly recommend this book as a gift to any reader of fiction, as it provides easy access to a variety of new authors (albeit giants in the industry) without much time commitment on the part of the reader. This book is most definitely one that will be passed on several times, from one reader to the next - and that is the very best compliment any author could ever receive.

The old purple and blue version of this book - the purple was on the edge of the pages, the way some older books have velvety green sides - was my first introduction to the Golden Age of science fiction. The inventiveness and the creative audacity of these stories was always enough to overcome what I felt would have been a cripplingly antiquated "Gee golly" 1950s vernacular... except that the writing almost never has that black and white Leave it to Beaver sitcomish feel that, for some reason, was always attached to the Golden Age in my mind. Stylistically the collection is all over the place. The Connecticut Yankee anachronism of Roger Zelazny in "Lord of Light" is nowhere to be found in "A Rose for Ecclesiastices". Clarke's famous "The Nine Billion Names of God" isn't even a science fiction story until, basically, the last sentence. And describing anything written by Cordwainer Smith with "genre", "usual" or even "describable" is not applicable. I love this collection and, impossibly, every story in it - though some more than others.

I won't dwell on the weakest. Instead I'll highlight what I consider to be the best:

Sturgeon's "Microcosmic God" has the creepy, jealousy tinged atmosphere of nerds watching another nerd who is better at being a nerd than anyone else. This is what I would've been doing with my adolescent years if only mind and matter would've allowed, so reading it brings the distinct pleasure of reliving childhood fantasies. I'm also pretty sure it's the inspiration for a Simpsons Halloween episode involving Lisa and her tooth, which became a South Park nod to both the story and the Simpsons.

Asimov's "Nightfall" is rightly considered one of the best science fiction short stories ever. I've read the longer form and this is superior in pretty much every way: it's already one of the longer stories in this collection but it still benefits from the shorter form with its building stress and, yes, horror during the final pages. Many would disagree but I think "Nightfall" is one of the least creative stories in the collection in terms of sheer inventiveness. Despite that it's still incredible.

Cordwainer Smith is just amazing. As prosaic as that sounds it's about all I can say. "Scanners Live in Vain" is one of the weirdest stories in the collection and it might arguably be one of Smith's most "mundane". Reading a Smith story is like opening the pages of the Book of Revelations as interpreted by the grandson of cartoonist Gary Larson, the painter Francis Bacon, a very wise female clown and Joan of Arc - and you're on acid. This is all an endorsement, by the way.

James Blish's "Surface Tension" is as good an "adventure" story as you'll find here. It's got a fairly linear plot and isn't hard to follow. It isn't simplistic, per se, but it hasn't got the style of some of the other pieces in this collection. It's one of my sentimental favorites, though, for its ability to impart - at least somewhat - a finer sense of proportion than pretty much any description of the vastness of the universe, including Doug Adams'.

And, finally, my absolutely favorite: "Mimsy Were the Borogroves". I'm not doing to describe it. I'm going to simply agree with another commentator that purchasing this book is worth it if only for this one story.

This is by far and away the master work off all that science fiction anthologies has given us.
Here is a complete list of the titles included.
A Martian Odyssey
Twilight
Helen O' Loy
The Roads must Roll
Microcosmic God
Nightfall
The Weapon Shop
Mimsy Where the Borogoves
Huddling Place
Arena
First Contact
That only a Mother
Scanners live in Vain
Mars is Heaven!
The Little Black Bag
Born of Man and Woman
Comming Attraction
The Quest for Saint Aquin
Surface Tension
The Nine Billion Names of God
It's a Good Life
The Cold Equations
Fondly Fahrenheit
The Country of the Kind
Flowers for Algernon
A Rose for Ecclesiastes
If you can find this book then buy it. It's awsome. Science Fiction only truly shined back in the 30's and up through the 60's and some of the 70's. This collection encompasses for the first time most of those great short-fiction works.
Enjoy!

This is the book that started me reading science fiction. I remember my father reaching up way over my head to a library shelf and pulling down an orange and yellow book that I needed both hands to hold. "I think you'll like these," he said to me. And indeed I did. These stories stayed with me, laying a great foundation for a typically nerdy adolescence spent reading SF. If you want to see the where the genre came from, in the short form where it's best, you must read this collection.
Consider these titles:
Stanley G. Weinbaum, "A Martian odyssey." Frederic Brown, "Arena." Asimov, "Nightfall." John W. Campbell, "Who goes there?" Alfred Bester, "Fondly Fahrenheit." Murray Leinster, "First Contact." Lewis Padgett, "Mimsy were the borogoves." Jerome Bixby, "It's a *good* life." James Blish, "Surface tension." And (unfortunately) Tom Godwin's "The cold equations," but there's no such thing as perfection.
I am overjoyed to learn this book has been reissued. Buy it, read it yourself, give it to your kids the way my father gave it to me. Help a new generation of readers learn to love SF.

I bought a copy of this book (a much earlier edition, of course) when I was in my early teens. I read it so many times that the pages fell out and I had to scour used bookstores until I could find a replacement.

The stories in this collection are all gems, and all classics. The collection represents most of the strongest Science Fiction authors of the Golden Age of Science Fiction, and includes representatives of the most popular sub-genres from the time as well.

If you are looking for an introduction to the Golden Age authors, this is your book.

I borrowed this book from a friend in college (1977), and regretted ever giving it back. Of course, I still had the friend (thanks, Howard), but I had been looking for SFHF VOL1 ever since. This book contains many of the most familiar and influential SF stories of the 1st half of the 20th century. You've seen lot of them in the movies and on TV. For example, "Arena" became a Star Trek episode, "Flowers for Algernon" (BTW, one of the best short stories I have ever read, only incidentally a SF story) became the movie "Charlie" in the '60s, and "Mimsy were the Borogroves" was a recent movie featuring Rainn Wilson. And who could forget the "It's a Good Life" episode of the Twilght Zone, featuring creepy Billy Mumy as the Boy who is God? There may be more such adaptations, but these are the ones I can come up with from the top of my head.
So why read the book if you have seen it before? Well, as the cliche' goes, the book is better. Way better. And there are many, many other stories that are as good or better that these. My favorites (in no particular order):

The Nine Billion Names of God, by Arthur C. Clarke. -Talk about a Purpose Driven Life!
Nightfall, by Isaac Asimov. -The stars have pretty much this effect on me anyway.
Born of Man and Woman, by Richard Matheson. -THE. CREEPIEST. STORY. EVER. Fantastic!
First Contact, by Murray Leinster. -What WOULD you talk about with an alien, after all?
The Search for St. Aquin, by Anthony Boucher. -Machines as both Accuser and Evangelist. Gotta love it.

Not to slight any of the other stories in this collection, either. Any one of them is worth a read, so having them together in one volume is a treat. But I warn you, the stories are all thought provoking, if for no other reason, than that they open up a doorway on the psyche of the 20th century and its obsession with space travel (especially life on Mars, which seems like such a barren rock now), its dealing with global warfare (have we reached any conclusion? I don't think so), and its reflection upon the dehumanizing aspects of technology (before widespread application of robotics or even computers had taken place).
Some reviewers have commented that this book isn't the best compilation. Not what they could come up with. I guess that means not THEIR personal favorites. Whatever. The book is a great introduction to Science Fiction literature, and proof that SF is GREAT Literature, not just one dimensional fluff.
Read, Ponder, and Enjoy!

Any newcomer to sf looking for a place to start could do no better than `The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume I.' The collection includes some of the very best sf stories from 1929 to 1964, as nominated by members of SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America) and chosen by editor Robert Silverberg. They include such classics as:
"Nightfall" Isaac Asimov (perhaps the most famous sf story ever)
"Scanners Live in Vain" Cordwainer Smith
"The Nine Billion Names of God" Arthur C. Clarke
"Flowers for Algernon" Daniel Keyes
"A Rose for Ecclesiastes" Roger Zelazny
just to name a handful
So many other powerhouse writers are also represented: Ray Bradbury, John W. Campbell, Robert A. Heinlein, Clifford Simak, Theodore Sturgeon, James Blish, Alfred Bester, Damon Knight...the list goes on and on and on.
If I could only have one book of sf stories, this would be the one. A classic.
672 pages

This is a reprint of a classic 1970 work in which The Science Fiction Writers of America members voted on what selections should be included in The Greatest Science Fiction Stories of All Time anthologies. The first volume includes twenty-six tales from 1929 through 1964 from some of the genre?s greatest authors, a who?s who. The criteria used were not the author?s fame but instead, the most important and influential stories and that, in spite of the votes, an author would appear only once.
Though three decades have passed, most of the contributors remain highly renowned even outside the genre, but a few are less famous except among long time purists. Thus the lack of a one-page biography hurts when a virtually unrecognizable name has authored a famous work especially when other media mainstreamed the tale. Still each story is well written and affirms why the ASFWA selected them thirty years ago. This is a winner mostly for science fiction buffs and the nostalgic amongst the boomers.
Harriet Klausner

The Greatest Science Fiction Novellas of All Time: Titles as follows for Vol. 2A: Anthology Titles SF Hall of Fame, The: Vol Two A

Anderson, Poul Call Me Joe

Campbell, John W. Jr. Who Goes There? *** Movie "The Thing"

del Rey, Lester Nerves ** Nuclear power disaster 1956

Heinlein, Robert A. Universe

Kornbluth, C.M. Marching Morons, The

Kuttner, Henry & Moore, C.L. Vintage Season

Russell, Eric Frank ...And Then There Were None

Smith, Cordwainer Ballad of Lost C'Mell, The

Sturgeon, Theodore Baby Is Three

Wells, H.G. Time Machine, The **** Supreme masterpiece

Williamson, Jack With Folded Hands

This book is BY DEFINITION the best of the best. The stories were chosen by a vote of the Science Fiction Writers of America. The only way someone could give this anthology less than five stars is if he/she did not read it. I bought my copy over 40 years ago and I pull it out from time to time to savor it again. Nightfall... Microcosmic God... The Little Black Bag... Weapon Shops of Isher... what a treasure chest!!

I was about seven years old when this collection was first published. I had the paperback edition and I kept it so long it was battered into oblivion; it's that good.

Now it's available in a hardcover reprint that will presumably stand up under much greater battering. That's good, because this one is absolutely a keeper.

This volume collects the absolute cream of short SF from 1929 to 1964 and it is, to this day, still THE single finest such collection extant. There's still nothing to touch, e.g., the bone-chilling mojo of Tom Godwin's 'The Cold Equations' or the majestic hubris of the title character in Ted Sturgeon's 'Microcosmic God'.

If you have any interest in classic SF, this book undoubtedly deserves a prominent place on your shelf. Consider the hardcover an investment; it will pay off.

If you ever had an interest in science fiction, you simply must go out and find these books. Classic, defining stories from the days of science fiction when giants walked the earth and there were no special effects, just ideas and the need to tell a story in less then 5000 words.
Read classics like "Flowers for Algernon" and "The Cold Equations" and see what visionaries some of these authors were. Read "Nightfall" and see Isaac Asimov in his prime, or "Mimsy Were The Borogroves" and muse on the time when sci-fi wasn't written to fit on a Taco Bell cup.

Any one of these stories is worth the price of the book. Nothing else to say. Find it, buy it, read it, keep it.

The Greatest Science Fiction Novellas of All Time: Titles as follows: SF Hall of Fame, The: Vol Two B

Asimov, Isaac Martian Way, The

Blish, James Earthman, Come Home

Budrys, Algis Rogue Moon - Psychological thriller

Cogswell, Theodore Spectre General, The

Forster, E.M. Machine Stops, The

Pohl, Frederik Midas Plague, The

Schmitz, James H. Witches of Karres, The

Sherred, T.L. E For Effort

Shiras, Wilmar H. In Hiding

Simak, Clifford D. Big Front Yard, The - a clever tale

Vance, Jack Moon Moth, The

E For Effort (perhaps the best SF novella ever) is the best reason to buy this, but there are many others: In Hiding and Rogue Moon in particular. (Note that In Hiding was expanded into the exciting Children of the Atom, my copy of which is disintegrating from rereading, and that there is a novel-length version of Rogue Moon, probably one of the best SF novels ever.) Plus other appealing works, including E. M. Foster's Nostradamus-like The Machine Stops (from 1928!)
E for Effort is probably the most overlooked SF piece ever. Its descriptions of two well-meaning genius' with a sort-of time machine on their hands...masterful. But, like Rodney Dangerfield, it "don't get no respect". I reread this ever couple of years. Talk about a "sense of wonder"!

This really is the definitive book of early sci fi short stories. Must-reads are Nightfall (Asimov), Microcosmic God (Sturgeon), Flowers for Algernon (Keyes), A Rose for Ecclesiastes (Zelazny), The Nine Billion Names of God (Clarke), The Weapon Shop (Van Vogt). There is a reason these guys are famous. What great stories. I searched used book stores for years to find this (in the days before the internet, the store and Ebay). It was definitely worth the wait.

The Science Fiction Hall of Fame is an essential for any science fiction fan. Each of the twenty-six stories in it are all consitered classics in the field, by classic authors such as Arthur C. Clark, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury and many more.
Some of the stories stand out more than the rest. Nightfall, Surface Tension, Microcosmic God, The Nine Billion Names of God, Flowers for Algernon, and The Roads must roll are just a few of these.
The period that the stories cover is consitered the Golden Age of Science Fiction, when the field was the most popular. These stories are the best that there are in the field. It is like having a small library on your book shelf.

This is another great introduction to science fiction for the "non sci-fi fan." This compilation (as noted in the title) features novellas rather than short stories, so the "commitment" to dive into these stories is a bit more of a factor than something Volume One (of the same series title). Be that as it may, the stories you will find here are highly intriguing and quickly draw you into the drama of their world, which is really your world just a little down the road. "Who Goes There" is on of the more popular titles of this collection, but far from the ONLY story here that will capture your interest. Each of these are stories you can read several times over, and still get goosebumps. This is a great collection bound up in one volume, carefully assembled by an expert editor, who knows to let the stories tell themselves without any excess interference.

You'd never guess from looking at the bookstore shelves today, but collections of short works like these used to be the mainstay of science fiction. Tor Books deserves kudos for bringing this collection of classic novellas from sf's Golden Age back into print, and in hardcover, too, with Volume 2B presumably still to come.

The novella, longer than a short story, shorter than a full novel, is the ideal length for science fiction, providing enough room for an author to present an idea and work through all its implications, without the padding that often seems obligatory for marketing purposes today.

This book includes key works by some of the field's biggest names from the 1940s and 50s. Most will probably be new to anyone who started reading science fiction after the 1980s, including Campbell's "Who Goes There", filmed twice as "The Thing" but much creepier in print, and Lester del Rey's "Nerves", which pre-dated Three Mile Island and Chernobyl by decades.

While the science may have dated, these are still terrific stories.

The follow up to Volume Two A, which also like this anthology, contains eleven novellas published from 1929 to 1964, is a strong selection; however in fact Volume Two B is a boomer era collection containing one tale from 1928 (close enough for government and sci fi collections), three from the forties, five from the fifties, and two from the sixties. The authors for the most part remain famous, a virtual who's who to include Asimov, Blish, Budrys, Cogswell, Forster, Pohl, Schmitz, Sherrod, Shiras, Simak, and Vance. Some of the entries like "The Martian Way", "The Midas Plague" and "The Witches of Karres" remain popular. The choices are solid as none are bad though some handle the test of time better. This reviewer especially enjoyed "Earthman Come Home by James Blish having remembered reading it in high school. The key to this anthology and its predecessor are that it is just about all story; in this case 526 pages of stories with no padding except for a brief two and half page introduction to explain the voting process. Great look back at some of the pre Nebula Awards age, The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume Two B is a strong enjoyable compilation that validates how entertaining science fiction was especially from 1947-1961.

Harriet Klausner

I bought this book when it first came out in 1970 when I joined the Science Fiction Book Club, and it is my favorite collection to this day. Sure the stories are dated, some of them, and the style is old fashioned sometimes, but they are all excellent stories. Even re-reading them is a joy. If you are serious about sci-fi this is truly a must-have volume. There were several volumes that followed (2a and 2b for example) but this book remains my favorite. I am grateful for the chance to get it in a better hardback quality than the book club version. BUY THIS BOOK!

These short stories were written in the 30's through the 60's, but remain absolutely captivating. They are untainted by modern ideas about space, time and technology, so the stories remain fantastic rather than burdened with the mundane realities found in so many modern science fiction stories. The tone of the stories range from comical to creepy, heroic to tragic.

I got this book when it was still relatively new and find myself going back to it time after time.

My only disappointment is that I must keep reading the book itself rather than having a Kindle version. It has become a favorite and I want to preserve it for my kids, so a Kindle version would be most welcome.

A great collection of stories that should be a catalyst for readers to further explore the works of those included. But, how could the members of the SFWA leave out the noteworthy works of SF giants Philip Dick and Jack Vance? Volume size must have been an issue; or could it be the case that Dick and Vance are more appreciated by the cognoscenti? Any "greatest" volume should include these two names as masters of the genre, in my opinion and readers not familiar with their work should reward themselves with an excursion into their richly crafted worlds.

This book is an amazing read and a must for all sci-fi fans and a possible entry into the genre for the uninitiated. The stories were selected by the science fiction writers of America and represent the stories they feel have shaped science fiction from the 1920s-1960s. Some of these are classics that the average person may have come across in high school english class, like 'Flowers for Algernon', while others are relatively unknown to today's average sci-fi reader.
If you are a sci-fi fan and haven't read the stories contained in this book, then you owe it to yourself to either buy this book or borrow it from your library, because these stories have laid the foundation for all the sci-fi that has followed. If you want to get your teenager into reading, buy them this book...the stories are short, but they are extremely enjoyable which makes it great for teenagers.

If you are a sci fi buff, this is a must have. It is a definitive collection of some of the most important science fiction ever written. It spans works from the late 30's into the earlys 60's with a good portion coming from the 40's (arguably the most pivotal era for sci fi). I had to read this book as a requirement for a class in high school and somehow, I "accidentally" failed to turn it back in (oops!). Some of my personal faves: "Arena," "Helen O'Loy," "The Little Black Bag"... heck! I love the whole book!

I am currently reading this book and am loving it. Not only does it have the story that inspired the movie The Thing, it has The Marching Morons which inspired Idiocracy. If you like scifi, read this book. The stories range from 1895-1962 and while I am only half way through, I have loved every story so far.

If you want the best SF short stories ever written [seriously], then this collection is a must. Asmiov, Smith, Blish, Merril, Bixby and others have their best stories here. If you skip even one story you are missing a new experience. While I would have picked a diffrent Bradbury story to add, the collection is a true gem nontheless. There is something to like in every story.

In mid-seventies, I joined the Science Fiction Book Club and this was one of the first books that I received, and I thought that this was a great book then. And Silverberg was always one of the best anthologists that sf ever had. After thirty years I decided to re-read the book, but after thirty years, things change, people change, and times change, and some of the stories here have dated badly.

I haven't seen much in the way of any reviews of most of the stories themselves, so here goes, arranged by loosely by some of the themes to be found here. One of the most prominent themes is the quest story. There are three stories here that clearly fall into the quest theme.

--The first is "The Quest For Saint Aquin" by Anthony Boucher, the original editor of "Fantasy & Science Fiction". Like most quests, this story starts out as a quest for something external (St. Aquin) and ends up a quest for something internal (faith). Set in the near future where the religious is persecuted, a neophyte priest secretly looks for the legendary St. Aquin in an effort re-start Christianity. This story was written during McCarthyism's beginning, and as a quest through ideological territories, it has not lost its relevancy. Five stars.

--Another quest for faith is the gimmick story "The Nine Million Names Of God" by Arthur C. Clarke, a story that won out over his "The Star" (?). "Nine Million" is a hokey, forgettable, by-the-numbers gag story with a telegraphed ending. Some monks are making a religious quest to find and note all of the nine million names of God, then the world will end. Guess what? Once read, there is no desire to ever re-read the story. One star.

--The last quest story is James Blish's classic sf adventure "Surface Tension" in which some genetically engineered micro-humans must learn to co-operate amongst themselves, and learn to refine and reinvent basic technology so that they can make a quest beyond their own small pond, it is a quest story, an adventure, a metaphor, and a coming of age story with an exotic local. Five stars.

There are two stories here that are gimmick stories that actually give their twists out in their beginnings.

--Never being a fan, the "bad seed" story often makes the child smarter than they really could be. While Jerome Bixby's "The Good Life" may superficially be a bad seed horror story, or a metaphor about society's fear of its youth, it is also so much more. It transcends its pulp origins by also being a morality tale about how absolute power corrupts absolutely. Five stars.

--Tom Godwin's "The Cold Equations" is a sfnal treatment of Jack London's "To Build A Fire", and has always been a source of much discussion. Having been raised by, and having been a factory rat, my take on this story is different than most. Godwin's story is a scathing indictment on the type of the interminable corporate greed and utter cheapness that pervades most industries. Godwin states that physics rule space travel, but, as we have recently seen, bottom-line economics rule more than anything else. The story is about a stowaway that finds that a life saving mission will fail if she is left alive, and the struggle to save her and the mission. There is no doubt that the girl could have been saved if a nickel's worth of pre-planning had taken place, but the corporate idea of placing money over life is clearly what's being portrayed here. I originally liked this story, then hated it, and not because of the story's politics, but, because the story is so shamelessly manipulative. But, in the end, I guess I like it after all. Four stars.

--Richard Matheson's "Born Of Man And Woman" was not only his first published story, but is still one of his best. It also deals with family betrayal; a child is born horribly deformed during the conformitist fifties, and like his later stories "Mute" and "The Faces", it's about child abuse. While shallowly a mere horror story, and only a half a dozen pages long, Matheson's story deals with the pain, and confusion of abuse from the child's point of view. While the sfnal content is tangential, this story still deserves its fame, has not dated since 1950, and shows why Matheson would go on to influence people like Stephens King and Spielberg, and be an influence in the horror, science fiction, and fantasy genres, and be an influence in both prose and film. Five+ stars.

--The third story is Judith Merrill's "That Only A Mother", and while this could have been a story about a mother's blind love, the father's shock at being kept in ignorance, and how the family as a whole has to pull together and rise above adversity, it's not. Maybe it's because we get a saccharine build-up, then the child's disability is revealed in the same manner as a Lovecraftian monster, EVEN with italics. While I don't have any children, and I don't know how I would react in the same situation; being handicapped, I found the story offensive. While the story comes from the conformatist fifties, it dates horribly. Zero stars.

America was at war during the early forties and its influence comes through in four war stories reprinted here:

--Merrill's story also falls into this category and is dealt with above, leaving three others, the first being A. E. van Vogt's "The Weapon Shop". Again, it is a story whose theme hasn't dated. A clandestine organization is fighting the good fight against a corrupt dictatorship, by selling weapons, and while a thinly veiled bit of fifth columnist war propaganda, the story ends up still being a good relevant cautionary story. Four stars.

--Fred Brown earned his reputation, by being a writer of the gag story. Still, when he got down to business, like in "Arena", he took a back seat to nobody, and "Arena" is a superior war-adventure story about a man against an alien. It has been filmed (movies and episodic tv), and while "Arena" may be predictable, it has the power of good heroic storytelling. The lead character is an everyman, the alien is really alien, the landscape is truly hostile, and the stakes are high, as this everyman must fight for the destiny of human race. Five stars.

--Murray Leinster really was one of the great ones, but, unfortunately, "First Contact" wasn't one of his best. It's pure war paranoia about two space ships of two civilizations who meet, and have to decide how to, and whether to trust or kill each other. An impossible situation, Leinster gives us two solutions, one barely believable, and the other truly lame and having to do with telling dirty jokes. This story does Leinster no service, and the plot has been done better on tv. Two stars.

Science fiction wouldn't be science fiction with some serious social commentary, and the first two deal with unions.

--Robert Heinlein's "The Roads Must Roll" is about the work stoppage of a future highway by a union. This story is an anti-union tirade, and deserves a tirade in response. Here all the unionists are greedy, self-serving, cold-blooded, sociopathic, whining murderers, while the man that represents the "establishment" is a good, family oriented, empathic, organized, natural leader. Bah! Zero stars.

--Cordwainer Smith's "Scanners Live In Vain" is the story that made Smith's reputation, and is also anti-union. Here scanners are cyborgs who ferry humanity around space, but, unfortunately, somebody has come up with a refined method of space travel. The possibility is that scanners might become obsolete, so the scanners then do what all "subversive" union groups do, they become assassins. However, one scanner "comes to his senses", realizes that his brother scanners are wrong, turns them in to the establishment, they see the light, become "good" citizens, and start devoting themselves to the betterment of society. Propaganda. Zero stars.

These two stories where written back in, ah, who the Hell cares. Both stories are horribly dated, conservative, anti-union propaganda in that the "establishment" is portrayed as always good, and good for you, but unionists are bad, subversive, greedy malcontents, and are only in it for their own self-serving purposes. Both authors have done much better work that should have been recognized.

--Another story that uses sf for the purpose of social commentary is Fritz Leiber's dark "Coming Attractions", and Leiber's story is more relevant today than it was back when it was first published. This is because, I think, that the situations described are more acknowledged today than they were then. This was one of sf's first experiments with decadence. It broke new ground by mentioning a nasty form of joyriding, nude dancing, underground knife fights, unmarried sex, techno musik of some kind, and how this all seems to exist in a type of puritanical society that exists in many religiously conservative nations. Leiber also nastily rips apart the whole "boy-meets-girl" theme, in what was perhaps sf's first story to seriously examine the symbiotic/parasitic relationship that exists between one abusive person and their submissive partner. Truly a "dangerous vision" in its time. Five stars.

--"Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov was voted the best sf story of all time, and is about the death of a civilization due to a 2500 yearly nightfall. The story seems to date because of too many scientific implausibilities to list here, and that the civilization is too much like ours. I kept wondering just what WOULD a society in which there has been no darkness REALLY be like, and what WOULD their physiology be like if they had evolved in total sunlight. Asimov has done so much better. Three stars.

Three stories deal with time travel:

--"Twilight" by John Campbell, Jr., is about a man from the future who finds himself in the past, our present, telling about the eventual eclipse of mankind. "Twilight" doesn't quite work for me, it's too talky; some of this may just be my fault. Three stars.

--Despite it being a scathing satiric tirade, "The Little Black Bag" by C. M. Kornbluth unfortunately seems to be better known for its O. Henry ending than for the story itself. Kornbluth had little use for humanity, and it shows here as a medical bag from the future is accidentally transported into the hands of an unlicensed drunken doctor, who transforms his life, and helps others. While this could have been a story about the salvation, and, rebirth of a man into a better human being, while saying a few things, good and bad, about medicine, the story sadly ends up as being nothing more than yet another vehicle for one of Kornbluth's rants of superiority and intellectual nazism. The story fails, because in the end, the characters are all cliché, and the supersmart end up being no smarter than the superstupid. That may be the point, but, the story could have been better. Three stars.

--"Mimsey Were The Borogroves" by Henry Kuttner & C. L. Moore is easily the best of the three, and while promoting nurture over nature, Kuttner & Moore speculate on what is the basis of intelligence. This story deals with the same theme as Kornbluth's, this time some disposable toys are transported back into the past, are picked up by some "modern" children, the toys then transform the children's way of thinking. The story also focuses on the relationship between the children and their parents, who are fairly clueless as to the toys eventual impact. Right or wrong, the story contains some serious speculation on the origins of, and the formation of intelligence, with a truly heartbreaking ending. Five+ stars.

There are two just plain people stories with an sfnal bent:

--"Helen O'Loy" is a marriage of the romance and robot genres to good effect by Lester Del Rey, and it proves that the sf romance genre is nothing new. Just an old-fashioned sf story about love, it is reminiscent of some of Theodore Sturgeon's later stories, while interesting for its time, the story's plot is fairly commonplace now. Four stars.

--"Huddling Place" by Clifford Simak is one of his inter-related "City" stories, makes a point that seems more and more valid, in dealing with how mental illness, in this case agoraphobia, slowly develops. A surgeon is required to save his best friends life in an emergency, but, he can't leave his "Huddling Place". The ending is predictable, but still has power, and like in Fred Pohl's story "The Man Who Ate The World" we see how the effects of mental illness can make even the powerful and intelligent helpless. Five stars.

Mental illness also figures in the next two stories, which are also classic sf crime stories.

--The first is dazzling, "Fondly Fahrenheit" by Alfred Bester will be a real surprise to anyone who thinks of Bester as merely a humorist. This is because it is a mean, vicious, chilling psychological horror story in which a man is cursed with owning a psychotic android that keeps committing sadistic murders. The story constantly blurs the line between the android's and the master's identity, from the first person to the third person, all sometimes in the same paragraph, so in the end we are never sure as who the killer really is, or who is really the master, or the slave. The story also seems to feature an almost sexual symbiotic/parasitic to the relationship of the man and android. Five+ stars.

--Bester's story is immediately followed by "The Country Of The Kind", in which Damon Knight writes of a future where sociopath criminals are set free into society. They are however, altered so that they cannot commit interpersonal violence, and their bodies are altered so that their body odors force them to be ostracized by the other members of society. These criminals may commit whatever property crimes they wish, but this is an empty act, as nobody will acknowledge either their offenses or their presence. Five stars.

There are two stories here dealing with research and science:

--The first being Theodore Sturgeon's "Microcosmic God", and is about a man's pure unadulterated love of research and what happens when the man meets and underestimates another man with an equal amount of passion, this time for power and money. Sturgeon is in excellent form here as he examines the amorality of both sides, and the self-divorcing of their own humanity, and of two men who, in the end, were more alike than they were different. Still, I didn't care for this story as much as I do for much of Sturgeon's other works, but this is my fault. Four stars.

--Daniel Keys knocked about sf for a fair amount of time as an editor and writer, but before finding mainstream fame, he published "Flowers For Algernon" an emotional gem about Charlie Gordon, a retarded man whose ambition is merely to be smart, and to be normal. Charlie's brain is operated on, and we see his rise and fall in the form of a personal diary. Rarely has such a stylistic device been used so effectively, and we are torn apart by the ending, which is one of sf's true emotional highpoints. Five+ stars.

What about that good ol' fashioned sense of wonder? The romance of adventure, the exotic, the very thing that made most of us want to read sf in the first place? COINCIDENTLY, the book is bracketed by two of these, one published about thirty years after the other, and showing it, but with neither showing the worse for the wear as far as imagination goes.

--The first, and the anthology's opener, is Stanley Weinbaum's "A Martian Odyssey", and with its non-exploitive, non-sensationalistic title, it set itself apart from the typical sf of its day. While the characters are cliché Hollywood stock characters, and the telling is dated, with peripheral characters constantly interrupting the protagonist to "to keep the story moving", the story itself is still grand early world building. Told in a semi-documentary mode, it's the story of an astronaut who crashes on Mars, treks across an alien landscape, and makes first contact with three very different types of alien creatures, none of which were much like anything else in the adventure pulps of its day. Sadly, Weinbaum died of cancer before he could see this printed. What a writer he could have been. Three stars, only because of the dated storytelling style.

-- The anthology's ender is Roger Zelazny's " A Rose For Ecclesiastes" shows not only a more mature writing style than Weinbaum's, but shows us a much more mature, although just as impossible, Martian civilization. This may also have been the first serious sf story to seriously use linguistics as a science, as a scholar must learn the Martian language so that our civilization are the Martian's can interact. This story is notable in that it is one of the very few stories that I have read over the last forty years to accurately portray the sheer JOY that one can experience while doing research.

The lead character is a snotty, self-superior, linguistic genius, but despite his age, he has yet to reach maturity. Eventually though, we sympathize with him as he gradually realizes that the others on the expedition to Mars nearly aren't as DUMB as HE thinks they are, and HE isn't nearly as smart as HE thinks he is.

This is a pure classic about love, growing up, and the love of a chosen scientific endeavor. It took me thirty years to re-read this story, to understand what I originally missed. For this I should be flogged, but, thankfully I have lived long enough to rectify my ignorance, and for this I am grateful. "A Rose For Ecclesiastes" is a story that should be mandatory reading for everybody in sf. Five+ stars.

In the end however, looking back at these stories, very few would fit into just one pre-fab niche, or even genre, as all good fiction is more than just the marketing genre they are published as. Are these really the best sf stories published from the years 1934-1963? Probably not, I know I would have picked some, and not some others, but then, I wasn't asked. All-in-all though, this truly is one of those "essential" volumes that we keep hearing about.

Most of the stories in hear are fantastic. The intro also includes a listing of the 20 best voted scifi short stories, which I found myself refering to to see if I could relate to the 'experts' opinions. There are a few stinkers in the bunch, which I'm sure is inevitable, but probably not as many as you'd find as in other collections.

I have the Avon paperback first edition from 1971, it's falling apart from re-readings over the years. While not all the styles may be to all tastes, there are no duds in this collection. It's great to see it's available again. Highly recommended. By the way, if you don't mind paying a small fortune, I think this and the two companion volumes (edited by Ben Bova and out of print elsewhere) are available as a leather-bound set from Easton Press.

Silverberg gives a short intro on how he chose these. I would give this collection 4.5 out of 5, if that was possible.

Science Fiction Hall of Fame Vol One Silverberg : A Martian Odyssey - Stanley G. Weinbaum
Science Fiction Hall of Fame Vol One Silverberg : Twilight - John W. Campbell
Science Fiction Hall of Fame Vol One Silverberg : Helen O'Loy - Lester del Rey
Science Fiction Hall of Fame Vol One Silverberg : The Roads Must Roll - Robert A. Heinlein
Science Fiction Hall of Fame Vol One Silverberg : Microcosmic God - Theodore Sturgeon
Science Fiction Hall of Fame Vol One Silverberg : Nightfall - Isaac Asimov
Science Fiction Hall of Fame Vol One Silverberg : The Weapon Shop - A. E. Van Vogt
Science Fiction Hall of Fame Vol One Silverberg : Mimsy Were the Borogoves - Lewis Padgett
Science Fiction Hall of Fame Vol One Silverberg : Huddling Place - Clifford D. Simak
Science Fiction Hall of Fame Vol One Silverberg : Arena - Fredric Brown
Science Fiction Hall of Fame Vol One Silverberg : First Contact - Murray Leinster

Interplanetary interpersonal communication.

4 out of 5

Future science dwindling.

3.5 out of 5

Metal woman's family.

3 out of 5

A master engineer and others work to stop industrial action from stopping massively engineered mass transit.

3 out of 5

Genius idea factory proves impenetrable.

4.5 out of 5

Media and religion struggle with science. Still.

4 out of 5

Technological resistance to a repressive empire via some shops.

3.5 out of 5

A technology discovery is beyond the adults, but definitely not the children, with unforeseen results.

4.5 out of 5

Homebody scaredy-cats.

3.5 out of 5

Forced xenophobic conflict unconscious breakthrough.

4 out of 5

Conflict avoidance transport swap.

4.5 out of 5

Back in the 1970's, while in my early teens, someone handed me this book - my very first SF. To this day I fondly remember many of the stories... They were quite eye-opening and exciting for my young self.
While the material is dated by today's standards, the quality and diversity of this volume dominates the experience. As well, it serves as a showcase for many (now) recurring themes in SF.
I cannot think of a better book to introduce someone to SF.
If I remember correctly, the publisher followed-up with a 2-volume set of novellas. All three books belong in any serious collection.

This anthology includes my personal favorites: The tale of a dumbed down society in "The Marching Morons" by C.M. Kornbluth, and "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell, Jr. "Who Goes There" is beyond excellent ~ I still get nightmares ~ and was the basis for both films titled "The Thing." Isaac Asimov opines in his biography "I, Asimov" that "Who Goes There?" is the finest science fiction story ever written. I tend to agree.

Classic science fiction is always of interest, but you do have to remember that the stories in this collection are from another era. The 21st century reader is going to encounter plots and storytelling that was fresh and daring 50, 60 or 70 years ago. Some of them have aged better than others.

That said, if you are curious about what professional science fiction writers consider the best stories from when the art form was still forming, this book, and the other books in this series, should count as essential reading.

A treasury of classic sci-fi that's a must buy for all serious SF fans. A fun read that brings back nostalgic memories (for me at least) of growing up reading sci-fi born of pulp classics, and how it has matured since then. A timely re-issue. Buy it now!

I've checked it out of the library more than once, but this is such a good book to own. If you want to see how science fiction is done, or learn how to write it yourself, this is the collection for you. It's a who's who of the grandmasters at the top of their game. There isn't a single story here that won't provoke or haunt you in some way shape or form.

I read this book many years ago and to this day several of the short stories stick in my mind. So when looking for a good book for my wife to read, I thought this was the perfect choice. Unfortunately, I didn't have a copy. So I was overjoyed to see this book being reprinted and eagerly ordered a copy.

Look for "Who Goes There" which is the short story the movie "Thing" was based upon.

Got this for Christmas. If you're into SF and want the perfect overview, start here. I finished the Science Faction Hall of Fame in three days. But that's okay, when there this much good stuff in one package I'll read it again.

I was new to some of these stories. And I was sorry I had not read them years before.Since they date back to the 1950s in many cases, you would think they would seem dated. And some are...but there are so many gems that are worth reading, and reading again. They have aged well. What is a good yarn, written well, will never go out of style.

I've read a lot of SF over the years, including stories by many of the authors featured in this anthology. Obviously I'm in the minority here but I found of the selected works to be dated, overly long, and dull. The ending of at least one story (That Only A Mother) made no sense at all. There are of course some exceptions, like Bradbury's Mars Is Heaven. A no-brainer for any collection. And a little tale called It's A Good Life will give you the chills. Star Trek fans will of course recognize the premise of the story Arena, which was adapted into a Trek episode of the same name. But all in all, the selections were mostly a letdown.

This is without a doubt the worst collection of science fiction stories - and the most wretchedly written - that I have ever encountered.

Who the hell are these people who have collectively given this book a five star rating? I suppose they must be members of the editor's extended family.