Stellar #6: Science Fiction Stories

Stellar #6

by Judy-Lynn del Rey (Editor)

Stellar #6. The sixth 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:
* 5980 A.D. • poem by Robert Zend
Till Death Us Do Part (1981) / novelette by James P. Hogan
* ... All Ye Who Enter Here (1981) / short story by Jack Williamson
* A Gift of Space (1981) / novelette by Margaret C. Hewitt
* The Cerebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras III (1981) / short story by Martha Dodson Forward, Robert L. Forward [as by Martha Dodson and Robert L. Forward]
* Cinderella Switch (1981) / short story by Anne McCaffrey
* Byte Your Tongue! (1981) / novelette by Clifford D. Simak
* Grandfather Clause [Win Bear/North American Confederacy] (1981) / short story by L. Neil Smith
* The Slow-Death Corridor (1981) / novelette by Mark J. McGarry
* About the Authors (Stellar #6) • essay by Editor

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Genres: Science Fiction

256 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published December 12, 1980

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is sixth volume of the original anthology series edited by Judy Lynn Benjamin del Rey in which her stated goal was to present old-time sense-of-wonder stories fused with the character depth and literary quality of the New Wave movement. I didn't think this one was as strong as some of the earlier volumes I'd read, despite the inclusion of authors like Clifford D. Simak, Anne McCaffrey, Jack Williamson, and James P. Hogan. It was a pretty good read, but nothing too memorable.

[Kevin Phyland · Rating 3 out of 5]

In a future where rented bodies have replaced travel a shady entrepreneur plans to murder his wife and run off with a woman he met in London, but his plans go seriously awry in “Till Death Us Do Part” by James P. Hogan, while Margaret C. Hewitt takes us into space where a young man’s dreams are shattered with a prediagnosis of a rare degenerative disease if he was ever to return to Earth after space. But a doctor’s decision delivers “A Dream Of Space”. Clifford D. Simak takes us to Capitol Hill where computers decide the suitability of candidates, who get tested every year. When an experienced campaigner fails his test he seeks to bribe a computer in “Byte Your Tongue”. Mark J. McGarry posits a future where the brain dead are kept on life-support as incubators of antibodies but when an orderly notices something odd about one of the bodies it triggers an uncomfortable conversation in “The Slow-Death Corridor”. Other tales are gimmicky and most read like commissioned pieces.