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Stellar #7
Stellar #7: Science Fiction Stories
Stellar #7. The seventh in the Stellar anthology series. Stellar Science Fiction short stories. Delightfully entertaining science-fiction short stories, written by the stars of the field. Science Fiction in the grand tradition. Stories to read and enjoy. Boasting a truly stellar list of contributors, a story collection that guarantees you hours of mind-spinning entertainment. A good collection of "good old fashioned SF stories", that have more-or-less stood the test of time, designed to counter-balance some of the weird, pretentious New Wave SF anthologies...being good old-fashioned stories that are fun to read.
Contents:
* Making Light (1981) / short story by James P. Hogan
* Horn O' Plenty (1981) / novelette by Terry Carr and Leanne Frahm
* Excursion Fare (1981) / novelette by James Tiptree, Jr.
* War Movie [Draco Tavern] (1981) / short story by Larry Niven
* Folger's Factor [Win Bear/North American Confederacy] (1981) / short story by L. Neil Smith
* Pelangus (1981) / novelette by Rick Raphael
* The Mystery of the Duplicate Diamonds (1981) / short story by Paul A. Carter
* The Two Tzaddiks (1981) / short story by Ira Herman
* Identity Crisis (1981) / novelette by James P. Hogan
* About the Authors (Stellar #7) • essay by uncredited
.
Contents:
* Making Light (1981) / short story by James P. Hogan
* Horn O' Plenty (1981) / novelette by Terry Carr and Leanne Frahm
* Excursion Fare (1981) / novelette by James Tiptree, Jr.
* War Movie [Draco Tavern] (1981) / short story by Larry Niven
* Folger's Factor [Win Bear/North American Confederacy] (1981) / short story by L. Neil Smith
* Pelangus (1981) / novelette by Rick Raphael
* The Mystery of the Duplicate Diamonds (1981) / short story by Paul A. Carter
* The Two Tzaddiks (1981) / short story by Ira Herman
* Identity Crisis (1981) / novelette by James P. Hogan
* About the Authors (Stellar #7) • essay by uncredited
.
- GenresScience Fiction
213 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published July 12, 1981
29 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 18, 2021
This was the last volume in the Stellar series that Judy-Lynn Benjamin del Rey edited for del Rey (!) Books. Her initial goal was to present stories that were a mixture of the old-time sense-of-wonder with more "New Wave" influenced character-driven stories, but by 1981 when this one appeared that's what all of the digest-sized magazines were doing, and there were quite a few other mass-market sized paperback anthologies on the stands, such as the Destinies series edited by Jim Baen, who had coincidentally succeeded del Rey as the editor of Galaxy magazine when she moved to Ballantine. This one has nine stories, including a short Larry Niven, a pair of good James P. Hogan stories, and nice pieces from Paul A. Carter and James Tiptree, Jr. My favorite is a collaboration by Terry Carr and Leanne Frahm, Horn o' Plenty. The book has a nice retro David Mattingly cover.
June 26, 2024
Pretty much exactly what I expected, in a good way!
November 1, 2011
A lot of great names in this collection, and a great editor, too. But almost every story in this collection felt lazily written. Obvious "twists", forced plot complications, expository oratory, and--yeah, just lazy, like one story where the POV character's thoughts were described as thinking about option A "or something" three times in three pages. I did read them all, but on several I did flip ahead to see how many more pages I had to get through. All the ideas could make great stories, but that's usually the case. I wouldn't recommend this as an introduction to a new science fiction reader, and to a fan only if you want to read more short stories by one of these authors for completeness. I haven't read any others in this series, so can't compare.
February 16, 2022
These had interesting and unique concepts:
Making Light
Pelangus
The Two Tzaddiks
Identity Crisis
War Movie
Making Light
Pelangus
The Two Tzaddiks
Identity Crisis
War Movie
March 15, 2012
This is a fairly average collection of short stories. Nothing really stands out as really great, nor really terrible. Unfortunately, I have some gripes with some of the stories (three, to be precise), and there is not anything that really counter-balances these.
My first gripe is essentialy the entirety of Making Light, and stems from a very personal source. It reminds me far to much of a hackneyed story I wrote many years ago, and that I cringe at whenever I try to read it again, and this negatively affected my perception of the Making Light.
My second gripe is again a minor one, and is the trope of mistaken identity used in Identity Crisis. I grant that without the trope, there would not be much of a story, but the whole thing was just so obvious once the Arabee's were suitably fleshed out. For me, this is an example of a story not weathering the passage of years well, rather than of a poor story.
My third gripe is the one that really stuck with me, and spoiled my enjoyment of the story. It stems from a throw-away scene towards the end of Pelangus, where a group of four previously unseen characters are assaulted on the landing dock, and the lone woman is raped. Given how the story had been developed to this point, this sequence of events seemed jarring, but it need not have ruined the story. What ruined it was that this scene did not affect the inevitable outcome of the story. I would posit that after such an attack, peace would be impossible, with the ranchers well beyond furious, and that many might seriously question if they might not want to be a UN protectorate, rather than a US territory. Remove the rape scene, and reference to it, and the story would progress naturally. As it is now, the conclusion does not seem realistic to me.
Making Light 2/5
Horn O' Plenty 3/5
Excursion Fare 3/5
War Movie 3/5
Folger's Factor 3/5
Pelangus 2/5
The Mystery of the Duplicate Diamonds 3/5
The Two Tzaddiks 3/5
Identity Crisis 2/5
My first gripe is essentialy the entirety of Making Light, and stems from a very personal source. It reminds me far to much of a hackneyed story I wrote many years ago, and that I cringe at whenever I try to read it again, and this negatively affected my perception of the Making Light.
My second gripe is again a minor one, and is the trope of mistaken identity used in Identity Crisis. I grant that without the trope, there would not be much of a story, but the whole thing was just so obvious once the Arabee's were suitably fleshed out. For me, this is an example of a story not weathering the passage of years well, rather than of a poor story.
My third gripe is the one that really stuck with me, and spoiled my enjoyment of the story. It stems from a throw-away scene towards the end of Pelangus, where a group of four previously unseen characters are assaulted on the landing dock, and the lone woman is raped. Given how the story had been developed to this point, this sequence of events seemed jarring, but it need not have ruined the story. What ruined it was that this scene did not affect the inevitable outcome of the story. I would posit that after such an attack, peace would be impossible, with the ranchers well beyond furious, and that many might seriously question if they might not want to be a UN protectorate, rather than a US territory. Remove the rape scene, and reference to it, and the story would progress naturally. As it is now, the conclusion does not seem realistic to me.
Making Light 2/5
Horn O' Plenty 3/5
Excursion Fare 3/5
War Movie 3/5
Folger's Factor 3/5
Pelangus 2/5
The Mystery of the Duplicate Diamonds 3/5
The Two Tzaddiks 3/5
Identity Crisis 2/5
November 4, 2014
This is a 1981 anthology of original stories. The quality is very mixed, as tends to be the case with any collection of stories commissioned specifically for the volume instead of cherry-picked from prior publications.
The weakest of the stories read like creative writing exercises, begun from a gimmicky writing prompt like “what if another world’s trash were actually treasure here?” or “what if God was subject to bureaucratic red tape when He created our universe?” These stories are clearly just supposed to be fun, and are unapologetic about not including any science with their fiction, but they're too silly and flat to be enjoyable.
It's clear that the collection was written in the eighties from its a slight obsession with the cold war and nuclear weapons. Two stories — James Tiptree Jr.’s “Excursion Fare” and Larry Niven’s “War Movie” provide independent sci-fi explanations for why we seem to have hovered right at the edge of nuclear confrontations but never crossed the line, and use aliens to provide a way out of the nuclear standoff. Of those two, Tiptree’s story is by far the better one. It is well done, and multilayered, with different plot elements and settings weaving together questions about end-of-life politics, freedom vs. survival, and whether we’re responsible for our own destiny. Niven’s, on the other hand, falls in the gimmicky category.
James P. Hogan’s “Identity Crisis” is another story worth mentioning: a clever if unambitious exploration of what exactly would constitute adultery, in a future where you can swap minds into a rented body.
The subpar stories struck me as quite a bit below average, and are definitely the majority. But the decent stories are fairly memorable. At least one (Hogan’s “Identity Crisis”) isn’t found elsewhere, but that’s about the only thing that makes this collection worth seeking out.
The weakest of the stories read like creative writing exercises, begun from a gimmicky writing prompt like “what if another world’s trash were actually treasure here?” or “what if God was subject to bureaucratic red tape when He created our universe?” These stories are clearly just supposed to be fun, and are unapologetic about not including any science with their fiction, but they're too silly and flat to be enjoyable.
It's clear that the collection was written in the eighties from its a slight obsession with the cold war and nuclear weapons. Two stories — James Tiptree Jr.’s “Excursion Fare” and Larry Niven’s “War Movie” provide independent sci-fi explanations for why we seem to have hovered right at the edge of nuclear confrontations but never crossed the line, and use aliens to provide a way out of the nuclear standoff. Of those two, Tiptree’s story is by far the better one. It is well done, and multilayered, with different plot elements and settings weaving together questions about end-of-life politics, freedom vs. survival, and whether we’re responsible for our own destiny. Niven’s, on the other hand, falls in the gimmicky category.
James P. Hogan’s “Identity Crisis” is another story worth mentioning: a clever if unambitious exploration of what exactly would constitute adultery, in a future where you can swap minds into a rented body.
The subpar stories struck me as quite a bit below average, and are definitely the majority. But the decent stories are fairly memorable. At least one (Hogan’s “Identity Crisis”) isn’t found elsewhere, but that’s about the only thing that makes this collection worth seeking out.
October 8, 2022
9 stories from 1981:
*** Making Light • James P. Hogan
** Horn O' Plenty • Terry Carr and Leanne Frahm
*** Excursion Fare • James Tiptree, Jr.
** War Movie • Larry Niven
** Folger's Factor • L. Neil Smith
* Pelangus • Rick Raphael
** The Mystery of the Duplicate Diamonds • Paul A. Carter
** The Two Tzaddiks • Ira Herman
** Identity Crisis • James P. Hogan
Notes: Nothing particularly stellar about this selection. The Tiptree is the cream of the crop, though far from the cream of Tiptree's crop. The rest are mostly elaborate jokes, good for some chuckles, the first of the Hogan stories the best of that bunch.
*** Making Light • James P. Hogan
** Horn O' Plenty • Terry Carr and Leanne Frahm
*** Excursion Fare • James Tiptree, Jr.
** War Movie • Larry Niven
** Folger's Factor • L. Neil Smith
* Pelangus • Rick Raphael
** The Mystery of the Duplicate Diamonds • Paul A. Carter
** The Two Tzaddiks • Ira Herman
** Identity Crisis • James P. Hogan
Notes: Nothing particularly stellar about this selection. The Tiptree is the cream of the crop, though far from the cream of Tiptree's crop. The rest are mostly elaborate jokes, good for some chuckles, the first of the Hogan stories the best of that bunch.
July 30, 2008
It may not be the newest collection, but this 1981 collection of science fiction stories by various authors (edited by Judy-Lynn del Rey) is one of incredibly few anthologies where there wasn't a single story that bored me. None of that flipping ahead to see how many pages left until the next story starts. That's quite an editorial achievement and I'm definitely planning to look for other collections she put together.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews