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The Norton Book of Science Fiction: North American Science Fiction 1960-90
In the tradition of other groundbreaking Norton anthologies, Ursula K. Le Guin and Brian Atteberry's Norton Book of Science Fiction provided the first truly comphrehensive and cohereent look at the best of contemporary science fiction. Its 67 stories, all published since 1960, offer compelling evidence that science fiction is the source of the most thoughtful, imaginative...more
Hardcover, 869 pages
Published
October 1st 1993
by W.W. Norton & Company
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This kind of collection is a terrific antithesis to the perception of science fiction as a less-than-literary, nerd-wish-fulfillment genre. Instead, we get a number of stories that span such diverse writing styles, morals, plots, and moods, that one might at first be at a loss to find the common thread — what defines “science fiction?” — until you realize that more than anything, all of these authors use fantastically creative fictional devices (future worlds, strange abilities, alien characters...more
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Jan 16, 2011
Lisa
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
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This is a book I would like to own one day. It's a packed-full treasure of short stories from many authors I was familiar with with but hadn't read and others whom I didn't know existed but well in love with. I initially picked it up from the library because it contained an Octavia Butler story I hadn't' yet read (she did not disappoint) but I was surprised by how many other stories pulled me in. I know I like sci-fi as a genre (and Le Guin's introduction to how and why the stories were chosen g...more
This collection kicks off with a favourite of mine, "The Handler" by Damon Knight. Pete, the big man, steps into a room where a showbiz apres-show party is in mid-swing and everyone lights up like neon, now he's here. The whole place is really jumpin and jivin, Pete is ladling out the praise for everyone involved and they're all loving him right back. He was the star of the show and it's a hit. The love is flowing like the champagne. Then he says "Now, I'd like you to meet my handler" and he .....more
Back in 2002 or 2003, when I was interested in developing a college course in science fiction, I borrowed this book by interlibrary loan to examine it as a possible textbook, knowing that Norton had a reputation for producing quality anthologies. This one was a distinct disappointment, however. Le Guin, who apparently dominated the editing process though she did have assistance from a couple of academics, confined her selection to American and Canadian works written after 1960 (the period of the...more
Variable, with sudden gusts.
It was difficult to see how some of the stoires in the anthology could be called Science Fiction.
Some were simply poor.
However, some fine examples of the genre from this time and place.
Of much greater interest is Attebury's 'Teacher's Guide to Accompany the Norton Book of Science Fiction'. Recommended to teachers!
It was difficult to see how some of the stoires in the anthology could be called Science Fiction.
Some were simply poor.
However, some fine examples of the genre from this time and place.
Of much greater interest is Attebury's 'Teacher's Guide to Accompany the Norton Book of Science Fiction'. Recommended to teachers!
This was okay, but there is a clear feminist slant to the stories chosen, so it isn't a fair cross-section of the best science fiction of the given period.
Just randomly pick one and read it: some are funny, and some are sick. Read as a bedtime snack for the dream world.
It took me nearly two years to finish this book. I rated this book highly because of the shear expanse of it. It has short stories from 1960 until 1990, and while I did not enjoy all of them, I found having the author information present to be very helpful. This actually made the reading a bit slower because I would put down the book for awhile to read some of the books I found in the author descriptions. Some of the stories hardly qualify as science fiction but it is ok. There is a large variat...more
Oct 01, 2010
Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides
marked it as maybe-read-sometime
Shelves:
anthologies-and-collections,
science-fiction
This was the text for a class I ended up dropping a couple weeks in.
One of my FAVORITE reads.
It has a wide range of stories, but the book is hard to get through. I skipped about a handful of them that I just couldn't get into. I'm fairly certain some of the stories weren't even in the science fiction genre.
If caught I recommend Tandy's Story by Theodore Sturgeon, Balanced Ecology by James Schmitz, For the Sake of Grace by Suzette Elgin, and Tauf Aleph by Phyllis Gotlieb.
If caught I recommend Tandy's Story by Theodore Sturgeon, Balanced Ecology by James Schmitz, For the Sake of Grace by Suzette Elgin, and Tauf Aleph by Phyllis Gotlieb.
I though the majority of these stories were quite good, though a few I didn't think fit very well into sci-fi, even the way the editors defined it. But overall I liked it a lot and now I need to track down more stories by some of the authors I liked the best.
Some great, great stuff is contained in these pages. Even better the second time around—seven years later! Part of what made it fun this time was the notes I’d written about the stories last time—and how different my perspective was on them now.
The Norton Book of Science Fiction: North American Science Fiction, 1960-1990 (Norton Book Of...) by Ursula K. Le Guin (1999)
i read many (most?) but not all, i prefer novels.
Worth a read merely for the robust introduction by Le Guin. Like many anthologies, not every story is equal in quality. Le Guin, Atteberry, and Fowler's definition of "science fiction" is more in line with mine than Dozois.
Apr 24, 2013
John
marked it as to-read
Apr 19, 2013
Sherri
marked it as to-read
Apr 17, 2013
Oana Chitu
marked it as to-read
Mar 30, 2013
Lit Bug
marked it as to-read
Mar 28, 2013
Amanda
marked it as to-read
Mar 14, 2013
Igraine
marked it as auf-gar-keinen-fall
Mar 13, 2013
Hestia
added it
Mar 06, 2013
Liv Lansdale
marked it as to-read
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As of 2011, Ursula K. Le Guin has published twenty-one novels, eleven volumes of short stories, four collections of essays, twelve books for children, six volumes of poetry and four of translation, and has received many awards: Hugo, Nebula, National Book Award, PEN-Malamud, etc. Her recent publications include the novel Lavinia, an essay collection, Cheek by Jowl, and The Wild Girls. Forthcoming...more
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