The Light Fantastic - Science Fiction Classics from the Mainstream

by Harry Harrison

rare

Genres: Anthologies

Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Harry Harrison (born Henry Maxwell Dempsey) was an American science fiction author best known for his character the The Stainless Steel Rat and the novel Make Room! Make Room! (1966), the basis for the film Soylent Green (1973). He was also (with Brian W. Aldiss) co-president of the Birmingham Science Fiction Group.

Excerpted from Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting anthology of stories that editor Harrison counted as science fiction from classic literary mainstream authors like Twain, Kipling, Borges, etc. It's an impressive line-up, and I suspect the book was assembled as something to be held out to people who claimed that they didn't like science fiction. It's a rather obscure book, and I don't believe it ever found its audience-- perhaps partially because the cover is just a shiny tangerine background with small salmon-covered type on it. It's an entertaining assemblage of curiosities.

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

One star for concept, one for inclusion of The Machine Stops. Otherwise, weird and forgettable stories. I guess I like my SF to obey at least one of the conventions of the genre.

Introduction claims they'd have included By the Waters of Babylon by Stephen Vincent Benét if it weren't already over-anthologized; I don't recognize the title so I guess that I'd better read it.

Need to find out, too, about the source of the line "on the coast of Coromandel where the early pumpkins blow...."

[Catnap · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

[Jeff Hobbs]

Read so far:

*The muse / Anthony Burgess
*The unsafe deposit box / Gerald Kersh
*Something strange / Kingsley Amis
*Sold to Satan / Mark Twain
The end of the party / Graham Greene --3
*The circular ruins / Jorge Luis Borges
The shout / Robert Graves --2
The door / EB White --1
The machine stops / EM Forster --2
The Mark Gable foundation / Leo Szilard
The enormous radio / John Cheever --3
*The finest story in the world / Rudyard Kipling
*The shoddy lands / CS Lewis