What do you think?
Rate this book
Best SF #2
Best SF 2
"As the popularity of science-fiction increases, so inevitably does the volume of clownish imprecation against it." Edmund Crispin introduces stories from Alfred Bester, Brian Aldiss and many others, beginning with "The Altar at Midnight" by C.M. Kornbluth.
296 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1956
About the author
Edmund Crispin
109 books211 followersEdmund Crispin was the pseudonym of (Robert) Bruce Montgomery (1921-1978). His first crime novel and musical composition were both accepted for publication while he was still an undergraduate at Oxford. After a brief spell of teaching, he became a full-time writer and composer (particularly of film music. He wrote the music for six of the Carry On films. But he was also well known for his concert and church music). He also edited science fiction anthologies, and became a regular crime fiction reviewer for The Sunday Times. His friends included Philip Larkin, Kingsley Amis and Agatha Christie.
He had always been a heavy drinker and, unfortunately, there was a long gap in his writing during a time when he was suffering from alcohol problems. Otherwise he enjoyed a quiet life (enlivened by music, reading, church-going and bridge) in Totnes, a quiet corner of Devon, where he resisted all attempts to develop or exploit the district, visiting London as little as possible. He moved to a new house he had built at Week, a hamlet near Dartington, in 1964, then, late in life, married his secretary Ann in 1976, just two years before he died from alcohol related problems. His music was composed using his real name, Bruce Montgomery.
source: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/philipg/...
He had always been a heavy drinker and, unfortunately, there was a long gap in his writing during a time when he was suffering from alcohol problems. Otherwise he enjoyed a quiet life (enlivened by music, reading, church-going and bridge) in Totnes, a quiet corner of Devon, where he resisted all attempts to develop or exploit the district, visiting London as little as possible. He moved to a new house he had built at Week, a hamlet near Dartington, in 1964, then, late in life, married his secretary Ann in 1976, just two years before he died from alcohol related problems. His music was composed using his real name, Bruce Montgomery.
source: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/philipg/...
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 3, 2024
A mixed bag, as these things are wont to be. In short, this collection made me want to read more by Kornbluth and Wyndham, and explore the robot stories of Asimov.
Details:
"The Altar at Midnight" by C. M. Kornbluth (****)
Sentimental in the good way (unlike "Angel's Egg" further down), which is to say delving properly into the emotions of well-realized human characters. There isn't much plot here, no proper twist, but the world and its people are well-realized and the prose excellent enough to really grab me and make me believe in this world and the people inhabiting it. I should read more Kornbluth.
"Hobson's Choice" by Alfred Bester (**)
This collection includes a lot of stories along the line of "some curious person notices and investigates strange happenings which have been written off as unimportant or coincidences by the larger public", making me think that was a trend of sci-fi at one point? This one is not good but not awful either, quite didactic.
"Outside" by Brian W. Aldiss (***)
Doesn't overstay its welcome although the twist is easy to see. Very interesting thought experiment on a non-human POV.
"Angel's Egg" by Edgar Pangborn (*)
Sentimental trash. Wish-fulfillment for middle-aged men who consider themselves underappreciated intellectuals by the public? Descriptions of alien world uninteresting and unbelievable. Would have been improved slightly by a cynical twist, and I kept hoping it would come, but no. I suspect Hoshi Shin'ichi's "The Fairy Distributing Company" is a twist on this story, maybe, and pulls off a much more interesting variation of it.
"Placet is a Crazy Place" by Fredric Brown (*)
Utter crap. I don't actually mind short stories that hinge on a single joke or pun (Fujiko F. Fujio has pulled off some amazing ones), but this one is not clever or funny, and the world building could have been intriguing but is instead nonsensical, not to mention the character dynamics aged poorly.
"Little Lost Robot" by Isaac Asimov (***)
I'm of so many minds about this. I like Asimov's thought experiments on robotics, the premise of a robot "becoming lost" because its human master told it to "get lost" as a throwaway line is interesting, the solution to the problem posed in the premise is well-thought-out and clever, and all in all this is a good read. But I just have this mental block when sci-fi assumes that if you create a robot, or an AI more specifically, and if only you make it intelligent enough it will also develop, somehow, feelings and (more importantly) intent. I don't buy it without you explaining it to me or, alternatively, just hand-waving it away as "well, it kind of just happened, please roll with it". But that's my personal mental block. I think maybe I should read more of Asimov's robot stories to see if he can convince me.
"The Copper Dahlia" by Gerald Kersh (**)
Interesting idea, I guess? I can't tell if this idea was novel and shocking at the time of writing, so it's hard for me to judge this objectively. Another that's not great, not awful.
"When You're Smiling" by Theodore Sturgeon (**)
Overstays its welcome. Neither the writing nor the idea is engaging enough to be dragged out for this long until the reveal. I do commend Sturgeon for how accurately he writes in the POV of an absolute awful person, though! It was a dread to read and intentionally so. Should have been paced better. Another entry in the "one person notices and investigates something weird" trope.
"Zero Hour" by Ray Bradbury (***)
I feel like I've read this somewhere before, or else the twist was just that easy to see coming, and this lands in "Interesting idea, I guess?" territory for me.
"Worrywart" by Clifford Simak (**)
Another installment of "one person notices and investigates something weird". I think this could have been interesting, but doesn't really take its premise of "What if someone who shouldn't have omnipotence gained it?" far enough, and it's just kind of a cozy story rather than properly scary.
"Una" by John Wyndham (****)
Hilarious. My favorite story to read in this collection, and it's obvious Wyndham knows the craft of writing and storytelling really, really well, because it's exactly as long as it needs to be to explore the topic, perfectly deadpan funny, and with exactly the right amount of didactic to tie its theme together. In other words, this story doesn't have any earth-shattering ideas or anything, but a lot of the things the other writers in this collection failed at, Wyndham pulls off perfectly in execution. Made me want to read more by him. Also I somehow misread this as having a female narrator, and I kept imagining it as a comedy episode of The X-Files which was a great mental image.
"Blowups Happen" by Robert Heinlein (**)
DNF. This starts off with paragraphs upon paragraphs describing the workings of a fission reactor, and my reaction was "zzzz" and also "methinks that's not how quantum mechanics work", and it didn't get much more interesting from there. I went and read a bit about this story, to see if I missed anything, and apparently Heinlein wrote this before any fission reactors had actually been created and before the public knew exactly how such a thing might work, which is impressive to say the least. I didn't find anything about the actual story or characters interesting, however, so to me this is an entry in the "historical curiosity" list of sci-fi.
"Imposter" by Philip K. Dick (***)
Very typical Dick. I don't know how I'd have felt about it if I didn't already know Dick's favorite themes and tropes, so it's difficult for me to judge this properly. The writing is exciting and well-paced though, quite cinematic and very Total Recall (one of my favorite movies).
"The Nine Billion Names of God" by Arthur C. Clark (*)
I think I've heard that this is highly regarded, and I assume that's why it closes this collection, but I thought it was kind of bad. Buddhists don't believe in supreme beings, and I know that's a silly pedantic criticism, but even aside from that there's just too much contrivance in here to make me believe the narrative or for it to have any impact on me, because I don't believe in it in the slightest.
Details:
"The Altar at Midnight" by C. M. Kornbluth (****)
Sentimental in the good way (unlike "Angel's Egg" further down), which is to say delving properly into the emotions of well-realized human characters. There isn't much plot here, no proper twist, but the world and its people are well-realized and the prose excellent enough to really grab me and make me believe in this world and the people inhabiting it. I should read more Kornbluth.
"Hobson's Choice" by Alfred Bester (**)
This collection includes a lot of stories along the line of "some curious person notices and investigates strange happenings which have been written off as unimportant or coincidences by the larger public", making me think that was a trend of sci-fi at one point? This one is not good but not awful either, quite didactic.
"Outside" by Brian W. Aldiss (***)
Doesn't overstay its welcome although the twist is easy to see. Very interesting thought experiment on a non-human POV.
"Angel's Egg" by Edgar Pangborn (*)
Sentimental trash. Wish-fulfillment for middle-aged men who consider themselves underappreciated intellectuals by the public? Descriptions of alien world uninteresting and unbelievable. Would have been improved slightly by a cynical twist, and I kept hoping it would come, but no. I suspect Hoshi Shin'ichi's "The Fairy Distributing Company" is a twist on this story, maybe, and pulls off a much more interesting variation of it.
"Placet is a Crazy Place" by Fredric Brown (*)
Utter crap. I don't actually mind short stories that hinge on a single joke or pun (Fujiko F. Fujio has pulled off some amazing ones), but this one is not clever or funny, and the world building could have been intriguing but is instead nonsensical, not to mention the character dynamics aged poorly.
"Little Lost Robot" by Isaac Asimov (***)
I'm of so many minds about this. I like Asimov's thought experiments on robotics, the premise of a robot "becoming lost" because its human master told it to "get lost" as a throwaway line is interesting, the solution to the problem posed in the premise is well-thought-out and clever, and all in all this is a good read. But I just have this mental block when sci-fi assumes that if you create a robot, or an AI more specifically, and if only you make it intelligent enough it will also develop, somehow, feelings and (more importantly) intent. I don't buy it without you explaining it to me or, alternatively, just hand-waving it away as "well, it kind of just happened, please roll with it". But that's my personal mental block. I think maybe I should read more of Asimov's robot stories to see if he can convince me.
"The Copper Dahlia" by Gerald Kersh (**)
Interesting idea, I guess? I can't tell if this idea was novel and shocking at the time of writing, so it's hard for me to judge this objectively. Another that's not great, not awful.
"When You're Smiling" by Theodore Sturgeon (**)
Overstays its welcome. Neither the writing nor the idea is engaging enough to be dragged out for this long until the reveal. I do commend Sturgeon for how accurately he writes in the POV of an absolute awful person, though! It was a dread to read and intentionally so. Should have been paced better. Another entry in the "one person notices and investigates something weird" trope.
"Zero Hour" by Ray Bradbury (***)
I feel like I've read this somewhere before, or else the twist was just that easy to see coming, and this lands in "Interesting idea, I guess?" territory for me.
"Worrywart" by Clifford Simak (**)
Another installment of "one person notices and investigates something weird". I think this could have been interesting, but doesn't really take its premise of "What if someone who shouldn't have omnipotence gained it?" far enough, and it's just kind of a cozy story rather than properly scary.
"Una" by John Wyndham (****)
Hilarious. My favorite story to read in this collection, and it's obvious Wyndham knows the craft of writing and storytelling really, really well, because it's exactly as long as it needs to be to explore the topic, perfectly deadpan funny, and with exactly the right amount of didactic to tie its theme together. In other words, this story doesn't have any earth-shattering ideas or anything, but a lot of the things the other writers in this collection failed at, Wyndham pulls off perfectly in execution. Made me want to read more by him. Also I somehow misread this as having a female narrator, and I kept imagining it as a comedy episode of The X-Files which was a great mental image.
"Blowups Happen" by Robert Heinlein (**)
DNF. This starts off with paragraphs upon paragraphs describing the workings of a fission reactor, and my reaction was "zzzz" and also "methinks that's not how quantum mechanics work", and it didn't get much more interesting from there. I went and read a bit about this story, to see if I missed anything, and apparently Heinlein wrote this before any fission reactors had actually been created and before the public knew exactly how such a thing might work, which is impressive to say the least. I didn't find anything about the actual story or characters interesting, however, so to me this is an entry in the "historical curiosity" list of sci-fi.
"Imposter" by Philip K. Dick (***)
Very typical Dick. I don't know how I'd have felt about it if I didn't already know Dick's favorite themes and tropes, so it's difficult for me to judge this properly. The writing is exciting and well-paced though, quite cinematic and very Total Recall (one of my favorite movies).
"The Nine Billion Names of God" by Arthur C. Clark (*)
I think I've heard that this is highly regarded, and I assume that's why it closes this collection, but I thought it was kind of bad. Buddhists don't believe in supreme beings, and I know that's a silly pedantic criticism, but even aside from that there's just too much contrivance in here to make me believe the narrative or for it to have any impact on me, because I don't believe in it in the slightest.
September 14, 2025
A mixed bag. Some better than others. Worth reading and because they are short stories you can dip in as and when you fancy a sci fi hit.
April 8, 2026
This is a review of the 1960 UK Faber & Faber paperback edition. The cover is cute, since it prominently features the words "paper covered" as if that's a major selling point. I have no idea if, besides the cover, this edition is any different from the original 1956 edition.
This has some great stories ... and some absolute turkeys. In other words -- a typical 1950s sci-fi anthology. It abounds with Cold War paranoia, misogyny, racism, men in suits, speciesism ... all wreathed with cigarette smoke.
Selections:
* "Introduction" by Our Editor. He's ticked off at those who put down sci-fi. Basically, it's safe to skip this and get right to the stories.
* "The Altar at Midnight" by C. M. Kornbluth. Awesome start. The story is like a Tom Waits song. Nice joke about The Sons of the Pioneers.
* "Hobson's Choice" by Alfred Bester. This story is one of the reasons that Bester is one if my favorite sci-fi authors. This takes two overdone tropes -- post-nuclear war society and time travel -- and knocks them on their heads. Darkly humorous, but in the end, sobering. Like a dash of cold water when you need to wake up.
* "Outside" by Brian W. Aldiss. I have to wonder if David Bowie read this. Anyway, a small group of people are stuck inside if a large house for four years while war with an alien menace is going on.
* "Angel's Egg" by Walter Pangborn. This was a sickly sweet look at an alien's egg being blooded by an old hen on Our Protagonist's place. It hatches into an angel. The story begins in a slightly sinister way, but then spirals into nothing. Although it's rare for a sci-fi story to end optimistically, this optimism wasn't good.
* "Placet is a Crazy Place" by Frederick Brown. This appears in several other sci-fi anthologies. It's a product of it's time -- a workplace comedy set on another planet. It was considered wonderful in the 1950s but has not aged well.
* "Little Lost Robot" by Isaac Asimov. This is one of his many robot stories, touching on his Three Laws of Robotics. I'm not 100% positive, but I think there ard two stories of Asimov's with the same title. Anyway, this was one of the weakest of Asimov's Robot stories. One positive is that there is a strong female character here. A major negative is that robots are referred to as "Boy" and robots refer to humans as "masters." Oy.
* "The Copper Dahlia" by Gerarld Kersh. English guy goes crazy ... or is sane and everyone else is crazy. Told by his best friend. One big problem, though -- tortoiseshell cats are always female.
* "When You're Smiling" by Theodore Sturgeon. This begins painfully with a bully playing the big man, but keep with it -- it gets much MUCH better as it goes along.
* "Zero Hour" by Ray Bradbury. This is an atypical story from the usually sentimental Bradbury. Despite his stories idolizing his childhood, he never forgot that kids can be little shits.
* "Worrywart" by Clifford D. Simak. I think of this as a follow up to "The Altar at Midnight", since a horse named Midnight wins the Kentucky Derby at odds of 64 - 1. Oh, and there's sci-fi things that happen, too.
* "Una" by John Wyndham. Apparently, Wyndham hated the RSPCA. I'm starting to really hate Wyndham.
* "Blowups Happen" by Robert A. Heinlein. Arguably, RAH'S best title ever. Unfortunately, it's not exactly his best story ever. Real science has far surpassed this tale, and the stereotyped Black waiter didn't help. This us overly long, so by the end you really don't care if the world explodes or not.
* "Impostor" by Philip K. Dick. Actually, "Blowups Happen" would've been a good title for this tense thriller, too.
* "The Nine Billion Names of God" by Arthur C. Clarke. And this is nine billion anthologies, for good reasons. Clarke claimed that of all the stories he'd written, this was his favorite.
This has some great stories ... and some absolute turkeys. In other words -- a typical 1950s sci-fi anthology. It abounds with Cold War paranoia, misogyny, racism, men in suits, speciesism ... all wreathed with cigarette smoke.
Selections:
* "Introduction" by Our Editor. He's ticked off at those who put down sci-fi. Basically, it's safe to skip this and get right to the stories.
* "The Altar at Midnight" by C. M. Kornbluth. Awesome start. The story is like a Tom Waits song. Nice joke about The Sons of the Pioneers.
* "Hobson's Choice" by Alfred Bester. This story is one of the reasons that Bester is one if my favorite sci-fi authors. This takes two overdone tropes -- post-nuclear war society and time travel -- and knocks them on their heads. Darkly humorous, but in the end, sobering. Like a dash of cold water when you need to wake up.
* "Outside" by Brian W. Aldiss. I have to wonder if David Bowie read this. Anyway, a small group of people are stuck inside if a large house for four years while war with an alien menace is going on.
* "Angel's Egg" by Walter Pangborn. This was a sickly sweet look at an alien's egg being blooded by an old hen on Our Protagonist's place. It hatches into an angel. The story begins in a slightly sinister way, but then spirals into nothing. Although it's rare for a sci-fi story to end optimistically, this optimism wasn't good.
* "Placet is a Crazy Place" by Frederick Brown. This appears in several other sci-fi anthologies. It's a product of it's time -- a workplace comedy set on another planet. It was considered wonderful in the 1950s but has not aged well.
* "Little Lost Robot" by Isaac Asimov. This is one of his many robot stories, touching on his Three Laws of Robotics. I'm not 100% positive, but I think there ard two stories of Asimov's with the same title. Anyway, this was one of the weakest of Asimov's Robot stories. One positive is that there is a strong female character here. A major negative is that robots are referred to as "Boy" and robots refer to humans as "masters." Oy.
* "The Copper Dahlia" by Gerarld Kersh. English guy goes crazy ... or is sane and everyone else is crazy. Told by his best friend. One big problem, though -- tortoiseshell cats are always female.
* "When You're Smiling" by Theodore Sturgeon. This begins painfully with a bully playing the big man, but keep with it -- it gets much MUCH better as it goes along.
* "Zero Hour" by Ray Bradbury. This is an atypical story from the usually sentimental Bradbury. Despite his stories idolizing his childhood, he never forgot that kids can be little shits.
* "Worrywart" by Clifford D. Simak. I think of this as a follow up to "The Altar at Midnight", since a horse named Midnight wins the Kentucky Derby at odds of 64 - 1. Oh, and there's sci-fi things that happen, too.
* "Una" by John Wyndham. Apparently, Wyndham hated the RSPCA. I'm starting to really hate Wyndham.
* "Blowups Happen" by Robert A. Heinlein. Arguably, RAH'S best title ever. Unfortunately, it's not exactly his best story ever. Real science has far surpassed this tale, and the stereotyped Black waiter didn't help. This us overly long, so by the end you really don't care if the world explodes or not.
* "Impostor" by Philip K. Dick. Actually, "Blowups Happen" would've been a good title for this tense thriller, too.
* "The Nine Billion Names of God" by Arthur C. Clarke. And this is nine billion anthologies, for good reasons. Clarke claimed that of all the stories he'd written, this was his favorite.
June 4, 2020
oh boy, some of these stories did not age well...
April 25, 2025
Excellent collection of short stories, some of which I remember fondly reading when they first came out!
April 5, 2021
A mixed bag, some excellent stories, some not so excellent. Worth a read.
August 31, 2015
A selection of now classic stories from very famous SF authors. Great stuff.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews