Science Fiction: The Great Years

by Carol Pohl (editor), Frederik Pohl (editor), Peter Andrew Jones (Illustrator)

Introduction (Science Fiction: The Great Years, Volume II) • essay by Carol Pohl and Frederik Pohl
The Rull • [Rull] • (1948) • novelette by A.E. van Vogt
And Be Merry… • (1950) • short story by Katherine MacLean
The Sack • (1950) • short story by William Morrison
Mewhu's Jet • (1946) • novelette by Theodore Sturgeon
Time Is the Traitor • (1953) • novelette by Alfred Bester
Columbus Was a Dope • (1947) • short story by Robert A. Heinlein
When Time Went Mad • (1950) • novella by Dirk Wylie and Frederic Arnold Kummer, Jr.

Genres: Science Fiction, Anthologies, Short Stories

287 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good collection of classic science fiction stories, all but two of which are from John Campbell's Astounding magazine. The cornerstone is Eric Frank Russell's ...And Then There Were None, along with classic stories by Frederic Brown, Raymond Z. Gallun, C.M. Kornbluth, William Tenn, H.L. Gold, and Pohl himself, writing as James MacCreigh. My only criticism would be that most of them were overly-exposed, having been anthologized many times before (and since) this publication. Aside from the Russell my favorites were the Kornbluth, Brown, and Gallun. I thought the weakest story was Pohl's; he could have picked a much better one from his own works.

[Daniel Moskowitz · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice collection of early science fiction, with the most recent story being published in 1953. Actually the majority of them are pretty solid and/or easy reads. One real highlight and one real lowlight...

Highlight: I have become a Fredric Brown, capital F, Fan. "Placet is a Crazy Place" lives up to its title, describing a planet that is stuck in a figure-8 between two suns and what happens when it's directly in the middle. All a just a set up to a punchline but the joke (and the premise) hit.

Lowlight: I have become a hater of Raymond Gallun's writing. I log every short story I read into a spread sheet with a little rating and a brief description. After (not) finishing "Old Faithful" I checked the log to see if I read any of his other stories before. And lo and behold, six years ago I had the same reaction to one of his other stories. 'Can't stay awake, fall asleep every time'.

Overall average of all of the stories 3/5 even with Gallun's goose-egg.

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3634423.html

I got this in 2014 because the last story, "A Matter of Form" by H.L. Gold, was up for the Retro Hugo for Best Novella that year (beaten by the classic "Who Goes There?", which got my vote). It's a collection of seven stories from the Golden Age, published between 1934 and 1953, all by men. The weakest is an early story of Pohl's own, "Wings of the Lightning Land"; several of the others have aged poorly, including Eric Frank Russell's "...And Then There Were None". I don't especially like Kornbluth's "The Little Black Bag" but I think it's a well-executed story.

[Jonathan Palfrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

“And Then There Were None”, “The Liberation of Earth”, “Placet is a Crazy Place”, and “The Little Black Bag” are all good stories in their different ways, but I’d already read them elsewhere by the time I read this anthology in 1975. The other three stories included here are less good.

[Peveril · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best stories ; Raymond Z Gallun Old Faithful, Fredric Brown Placet Is A Crazy Place, C M Kornbluth The Little Black Bag.

[Martin Empson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice, but unchallenging, collection of classic authors.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I originally read this book in the seventies. I'm enjoying rereading it. I especially like the stories, 'And Then There Were None' by Eric Frank Russell, 'The Liberation of Earth' by William Tenn and 'Placet is a Crazy Place' by Fredric Brown.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Old book of my Dad's. Read a couple of stories in here, but I found it uneven. And Then There Were None was my fave.