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The SFWA Grand Masters #3
The SFWA Grand Masters, Volume 3
The Nebula Awards are voted on, and presented, by active members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. The Grand Master Award is given to a living author for a lifetime's achievement in science fiction and/or fantasy.
Frederik Pohl, an eminent figure in science fiction, has been authorized by the SFWA to edit an anthology in three big volumes featuring substantial selections of the work of all the first fifteen Grand Masters. These are the seminal writers of the modern SF field, whose works are of dominant importance and influence. This series of collections is a permanent record of greatness in SF.
Volume Three, presenting the last five writers to receive the Grand Master award, features the fiction of Lester Del Rey, Frederik Pohl, Damon Knight, A. E. Van Vogt, Jack Vance.
Contents:
9 • Introduction (The SFWA Grand Masters, Volume 3) • essay by Frederik Pohl
19 • The Faithful • (1938) • shortstory by Lester del Rey
28 • The Pipes of Pan • (1940) • shortstory by Lester del Rey
42 • The Coppersmith • (1939) • shortstory by Lester del Rey
57 • For I Am a Jealous People! • (1954) • novella by Lester del Rey
102 • Let the Ants Try • (1949) • shortstory by Frederik Pohl
113 • The Tunnel Under the World • (1955) • novelette by Frederik Pohl
143 • Day Million • (1966) • shortstory by Frederik Pohl
148 • The Gold at the Starbow's End • (1972) • novella by Frederik Pohl
205 • The Handler • (1960) • shortstory by Damon Knight
209 • Dio • (1957) • novelette by Damon Knight
244 • Not With a Bang • (1950) • shortstory by Damon Knight
249 • I See You • (1976) • shortstory by Damon Knight
261 • Masks • (1968) • shortstory by Damon Knight
275 • Black Destroyer • [Space Beagle] • (1939) • novelette by A. E. van Vogt
306 • Far Centaurus • (1944) • shortstory by A. E. van Vogt
326 • Vault of the Beast • (1940) • novelette by A. E. van Vogt
352 • Dear Pen Pal • (1949) • shortstory by A. E. van Vogt
363 • Sail 25 • (1962) • novella by Jack Vance (variant of Gateway to Strangeness)
388 • Ullward's Retreat • (1958) • novelette by Jack Vance
411 • The Miracle Workers • (1958) • novella by Jack Vance (variant of The Miracle-Workers)
Frederik Pohl, an eminent figure in science fiction, has been authorized by the SFWA to edit an anthology in three big volumes featuring substantial selections of the work of all the first fifteen Grand Masters. These are the seminal writers of the modern SF field, whose works are of dominant importance and influence. This series of collections is a permanent record of greatness in SF.
Volume Three, presenting the last five writers to receive the Grand Master award, features the fiction of Lester Del Rey, Frederik Pohl, Damon Knight, A. E. Van Vogt, Jack Vance.
Contents:
9 • Introduction (The SFWA Grand Masters, Volume 3) • essay by Frederik Pohl
19 • The Faithful • (1938) • shortstory by Lester del Rey
28 • The Pipes of Pan • (1940) • shortstory by Lester del Rey
42 • The Coppersmith • (1939) • shortstory by Lester del Rey
57 • For I Am a Jealous People! • (1954) • novella by Lester del Rey
102 • Let the Ants Try • (1949) • shortstory by Frederik Pohl
113 • The Tunnel Under the World • (1955) • novelette by Frederik Pohl
143 • Day Million • (1966) • shortstory by Frederik Pohl
148 • The Gold at the Starbow's End • (1972) • novella by Frederik Pohl
205 • The Handler • (1960) • shortstory by Damon Knight
209 • Dio • (1957) • novelette by Damon Knight
244 • Not With a Bang • (1950) • shortstory by Damon Knight
249 • I See You • (1976) • shortstory by Damon Knight
261 • Masks • (1968) • shortstory by Damon Knight
275 • Black Destroyer • [Space Beagle] • (1939) • novelette by A. E. van Vogt
306 • Far Centaurus • (1944) • shortstory by A. E. van Vogt
326 • Vault of the Beast • (1940) • novelette by A. E. van Vogt
352 • Dear Pen Pal • (1949) • shortstory by A. E. van Vogt
363 • Sail 25 • (1962) • novella by Jack Vance (variant of Gateway to Strangeness)
388 • Ullward's Retreat • (1958) • novelette by Jack Vance
411 • The Miracle Workers • (1958) • novella by Jack Vance (variant of The Miracle-Workers)
477 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2001
1 person is currently reading
51 people want to read
About the author
Frederik Pohl
1,152 books1,061 followersFrederik George Pohl, Jr. was an American science fiction writer, editor and fan, with a career spanning over seventy years. From about 1959 until 1969, Pohl edited Galaxy magazine and its sister magazine IF winning the Hugo for IF three years in a row. His writing also won him three Hugos and multiple Nebula Awards. He became a Nebula Grand Master in 1993.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 4, 2022
Without question, some of the most celebrated sci-fi authors and stories appear in this well-curated collection. I really liked the biographical introductions which gave good context to the work and helped me understand what the author was striving for. Overall though, I couldn't say I truly enjoyed many of the stories--some were just too dated for me to really connect to, even though I could appreciate the writing skill. It's like reading a classic in school, you know it's well crafted and in its day was groundbreaking, but that doesn't mean you love to read it now.
December 9, 2019
I don't know. A lot of these are good but they are what my man calls 'Art!' And I never know how I feel about books that set out to be art.
May 23, 2020
"The Handler," by Damon Knight (1960): 5
- Ah, I remember this; it almost crashed the whole endeavor. One of the first GA SF things I read, and I remember recoiling in some sort of cringe-y aghastness. It could be -- read, almost certainly is -- better than all that, or better than my memory, but don't feel it in me to re-find out.
"The Faithful," by Lester del Rey (1938): 9
- something about this worked quite well for me, likely it's wide lens narration and folkloric tone, basically the second of the two modes of early scifi, as I've noticed (the first being the talk heavy noirish pulpiness typical of the Williamson story Prince of Space). SYNOPSIS: interestingly, this maps quote closely onto the Planet of the Apes narrative, albeit with dogs instead of apes (wonder if the Frenchman was influenced by this?). Artificially raise up other species and see them then supersede us following our own extinction. Apes do play a role here, although they strangely kind of muddy the (potential) symbolic meanings of the story for me.
"Let the Ants Try," Frederick Pohl (1949): 7.75
- Back on the horse. Redeemed in the end, with a quite pleasant double twist ending, this tale of apocalypse and time travel [chrononaut causes ants to become dominant species, immediately regrets it]. Interesting here: that 'Golden Age' total willingness to create an Other otherwise completely alien and irredeemable and malign (the friends death was quite brutal); the fatalism and sadness underlying all of this (my family is dead, so why not just destroy us all); and time travel, generally (sucker there). Bad: the actually probably most racist line I've seen, even amidst a whole host of other GA casual racialism and racism, in the 'Ghettos and Harlem' comment -- the self-evident "assume whiteness as matter of course for both narrative and audience" of the line was striking, even for the era.
"Dio," by Damon Knight (1957): 7.25
- Eh, maybe something for it's day, but largely unmoved by this overblown -- and world-buildingly convoluted (ie WHY do there need to be two classes of people, those designing and those enjoying this utopia, in this world) — tale of Immortals and coming to terms with human mortality.
"Helen O'Loy," by Lester del Rey (1938): 7
- The piece: two friends build a thoroughly feminine robot, who falls in love with and marries one of them. For some reason, much more than other older stories, this one seems completely unquantifiable based on any scale arising more than twenty years past it’s creation date. In many respects, it simply acts out (read: sets the template for) most tropes of gendered robot Fiction for the next half century (whether on screen or text): the sexist, “she’s the ideal woman” setup (beautiful, young, sexy, AND makes a mean steak dinner!); the concomitant disgust attraction dichotomy in the humans relationship with her; the robots own unsteady reckoning with the problematic nature of their existence; etc. This plows through all of these conundra believably enough, although without ever transcending the median possibilities of contemporary genre handling of such topics.
"Sail 25," by Jack Vance (1962): 6.75
- Shame this was written in the early 60s rather than the early 40s, as it might have been doing something then (or at least contributing to a contemporaneously valid and alive aesthetic). Here, eh ...
- Ah, I remember this; it almost crashed the whole endeavor. One of the first GA SF things I read, and I remember recoiling in some sort of cringe-y aghastness. It could be -- read, almost certainly is -- better than all that, or better than my memory, but don't feel it in me to re-find out.
"The Faithful," by Lester del Rey (1938): 9
- something about this worked quite well for me, likely it's wide lens narration and folkloric tone, basically the second of the two modes of early scifi, as I've noticed (the first being the talk heavy noirish pulpiness typical of the Williamson story Prince of Space). SYNOPSIS: interestingly, this maps quote closely onto the Planet of the Apes narrative, albeit with dogs instead of apes (wonder if the Frenchman was influenced by this?). Artificially raise up other species and see them then supersede us following our own extinction. Apes do play a role here, although they strangely kind of muddy the (potential) symbolic meanings of the story for me.
"Let the Ants Try," Frederick Pohl (1949): 7.75
- Back on the horse. Redeemed in the end, with a quite pleasant double twist ending, this tale of apocalypse and time travel [chrononaut causes ants to become dominant species, immediately regrets it]. Interesting here: that 'Golden Age' total willingness to create an Other otherwise completely alien and irredeemable and malign (the friends death was quite brutal); the fatalism and sadness underlying all of this (my family is dead, so why not just destroy us all); and time travel, generally (sucker there). Bad: the actually probably most racist line I've seen, even amidst a whole host of other GA casual racialism and racism, in the 'Ghettos and Harlem' comment -- the self-evident "assume whiteness as matter of course for both narrative and audience" of the line was striking, even for the era.
"Dio," by Damon Knight (1957): 7.25
- Eh, maybe something for it's day, but largely unmoved by this overblown -- and world-buildingly convoluted (ie WHY do there need to be two classes of people, those designing and those enjoying this utopia, in this world) — tale of Immortals and coming to terms with human mortality.
"Helen O'Loy," by Lester del Rey (1938): 7
- The piece: two friends build a thoroughly feminine robot, who falls in love with and marries one of them. For some reason, much more than other older stories, this one seems completely unquantifiable based on any scale arising more than twenty years past it’s creation date. In many respects, it simply acts out (read: sets the template for) most tropes of gendered robot Fiction for the next half century (whether on screen or text): the sexist, “she’s the ideal woman” setup (beautiful, young, sexy, AND makes a mean steak dinner!); the concomitant disgust attraction dichotomy in the humans relationship with her; the robots own unsteady reckoning with the problematic nature of their existence; etc. This plows through all of these conundra believably enough, although without ever transcending the median possibilities of contemporary genre handling of such topics.
"Sail 25," by Jack Vance (1962): 6.75
- Shame this was written in the early 60s rather than the early 40s, as it might have been doing something then (or at least contributing to a contemporaneously valid and alive aesthetic). Here, eh ...
June 18, 2011
Wow, a collected book of these author's works was sure to please, and this one certainly did.
The book is well put together with interesting biographical information on each author and their impact on Science Fiction. The selected stories of each were also well selected and representative, although if you have read a great many other anthologies some of these will be familiar.
Most of the stories are older, understandably, since they come from the golden age of Science Fiction. Some stories feel old, but none suffer for it too badly. More interestingly, some stories feel timeless - if I read them in the latest Analog, I would not have noticed anything different.
That, I think, is the greatest strength of this book, and presumably the rest of the book's series. It's nearly a textbook of how good science fiction is crafted, and how timeless it can be. Contained within the pages are many ideas and themes that one can see in modern science fiction movies and TV. One sees the roots of the genre and gets more complete picture of it as a whole. I feel like I've learned more about writing from this book, than nearly any other single book I've read recently. I feel a pang of sadness that I'm through with it.
Of the authors, poor AE Van Vogt feels the most dated. However, ironically, his stories are also the ones that contain the most seeds of modern science fiction. You see the building blocks of Alien, Predator, and Terminator and many more in his stories.
Lester Del Ray's stories are a charming blend of mythology and Science Fiction - almost modern day fairy tales.
Frederick Pohl is, well, he's Pohl. I had forgotten some of the stories and was pleasantly surprised to find I had read them before. These were stories that had stuck with me my whole life, but I was too young to pay attention to author names when I first read them. Hello again, Fred, thanks for being there.
However, I was most impressed with Jack Vance and Damon Knight, and I feel a shame that I have not read them before. Both of them felt thoroughly modern for the most part.
Jack Vance's novella, The Miracle Workers, in particular, is a wonderful blend of Fantasy and Science-Fiction. I look forward to looking up more of Vance's Science Fantasy books.
However, Damon Knight's Dio was probably my favorite of the book. Beautiful, haunting, and almost poetic, it was a masterpiece of speculative fiction. It manages to feel alien, familiar, and haunting all at once. From a writing standpoint, it was masterfully written and executed, and I recommend any would-be writer to look this one up and study the artful way it is constructed and told.
Overall, if one if looking for a serious and literary treatment of classic science fiction masters, I cannot recommend this highly enough. I look forward to working my way back into Volumes 1 & 2. It's a shame there aren't more in the series.
The book is well put together with interesting biographical information on each author and their impact on Science Fiction. The selected stories of each were also well selected and representative, although if you have read a great many other anthologies some of these will be familiar.
Most of the stories are older, understandably, since they come from the golden age of Science Fiction. Some stories feel old, but none suffer for it too badly. More interestingly, some stories feel timeless - if I read them in the latest Analog, I would not have noticed anything different.
That, I think, is the greatest strength of this book, and presumably the rest of the book's series. It's nearly a textbook of how good science fiction is crafted, and how timeless it can be. Contained within the pages are many ideas and themes that one can see in modern science fiction movies and TV. One sees the roots of the genre and gets more complete picture of it as a whole. I feel like I've learned more about writing from this book, than nearly any other single book I've read recently. I feel a pang of sadness that I'm through with it.
Of the authors, poor AE Van Vogt feels the most dated. However, ironically, his stories are also the ones that contain the most seeds of modern science fiction. You see the building blocks of Alien, Predator, and Terminator and many more in his stories.
Lester Del Ray's stories are a charming blend of mythology and Science Fiction - almost modern day fairy tales.
Frederick Pohl is, well, he's Pohl. I had forgotten some of the stories and was pleasantly surprised to find I had read them before. These were stories that had stuck with me my whole life, but I was too young to pay attention to author names when I first read them. Hello again, Fred, thanks for being there.
However, I was most impressed with Jack Vance and Damon Knight, and I feel a shame that I have not read them before. Both of them felt thoroughly modern for the most part.
Jack Vance's novella, The Miracle Workers, in particular, is a wonderful blend of Fantasy and Science-Fiction. I look forward to looking up more of Vance's Science Fantasy books.
However, Damon Knight's Dio was probably my favorite of the book. Beautiful, haunting, and almost poetic, it was a masterpiece of speculative fiction. It manages to feel alien, familiar, and haunting all at once. From a writing standpoint, it was masterfully written and executed, and I recommend any would-be writer to look this one up and study the artful way it is constructed and told.
Overall, if one if looking for a serious and literary treatment of classic science fiction masters, I cannot recommend this highly enough. I look forward to working my way back into Volumes 1 & 2. It's a shame there aren't more in the series.
March 8, 2014
I bought this book mainly to get the Jack Vance story "The Magicians". I had not read it for years and it did not disappoint. I also enjoyed the other pieces by Vance and those by A E van Vogt. The Lester del Ray stories seem dated, Pohl was hit or miss, and although Damon Knight was a great editor, I've never really cared for him as a writer. But your taste may differ. It was worth the price of the Vance and van Vogt stories to me, but I may biff an of both.
February 13, 2016
There are some really good stories in here. Fred Pohl's "The Tunnel under the World" is great-- shades of "Groundhog Day". And I enjoyed all three of the Jack Vance stories. Based on this collection, Damon Knight is a pretty dark writer, and A. E. van Vogt is old-school space monster cool-- "Vault of the Beast" rocks. One complaint: two of the four Lest del Rey stories are very similar; couldn't the editor have found something with a bit more variety?
May 1, 2012
Short story compilations, especially SF ones, fell out of favor with me years ago. But this one is 100% recommended. Each time I finished a story, it was a struggle to put down the book and get back to my normal business.
Read
January 27, 2012Science Fiction,Anthology
June 26, 2014
Old-school sci if.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews