The Arbor House Treasury of Modern Science Fiction. compiled by Robert Silverberg and Martin H. Greenberg. 1980
THE ARBOR HOUSE TREASURY OF MODERN SCENCE FICTION
RATED 94% POSITIVE. STORY SCORE = 4.18 OF 5
39 STORIES : 12 GREAT / 22 GOOD / 5 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 0 DNF
Robert Silverberg and Martin Greenberg had extremely high aspirations with this anthology. They intended this book to be a successor to “Adventures in Time and Space,” an anthology considered by many to be the greatest collection of Science Fiction of its era.
And they were very successful. This is a very large anthology that is packed with exceptional SF from some of the biggest names in the genre’s history. Only 5 stories clocked as average and there were no bad stories in the book. This is anthology that is definitely worth picking up if you can find a copy.
A whopping 12 stories were added to the All Time Great List:
Angel's Egg • (1951) • novelette by Edgar Pangborn. A beautiful and hopeful epistolary story about a man who is mentored towards goodness by an alien that hatches in his backyard.
Alpha Ralpha Boulevard • [The Instrumentality of Mankind] • (1961) • novelette by Cordwainer Smith. In the richly imagined and baroque future universe that Smith called the “Instrumentality of Mankind,” two people embrace their chance to ‘live free’ by taking a dangerous journey to ask an AI questions about love. Confoundingly original at times. This is a wild, cluttered story worth multiple reads.
"All You Zombies—" • (1959) • short story by Robert A. Heinlein (variant of "All You Zombies ..."). One of the truly iconic time travel loop stories. I won’t say more….
Child's Play • [Child's Play • 1] • (1947) • novelette by William Tenn. A deliciously wicked “twilight zone - style” story about a man who finds a Build-A-Man box show up accidentally.
Kaleidoscope • (1949) • short story by Ray Bradbury. Tragic, painful, and undeniably human. The final conversations of astronauts lost in space after an accident dredge the raw feelings of lost opportunities, seething angry, and unfinished business. A work of beauty.
The Gift of Gab • (1955) • novella by Jack Vance. Mineral prospectors float across a planet with shallow seas … and start dying as they are pulled over by something below. Meanwhile, one of the crew is starting to suspect that the inhabitants of the sea - seal like animals with ten small arms - may be intelligent, but not the kind of intelligence we are used to. Even if so, why have they now started to strike back.
The Man Who Never Grew Young • (1947) • short story by Fritz Leiber. Transcendent and profound. A man who never ages talks about a world where time reversed around World War 2. This is a piece of melancholy poetry. I can’t stop wanting to reread about this strange world where time runs backwards. If fiction’s purpose is to make us see the world differently, few stories have ever done it as well as this beautiful tale.
The Bicentennial Man • (1976) • novelette by Isaac Asimov. One of Asimov’s masterpieces. This tale of a robot with a special brain who struggles for years with the right to be human. Not only inventive and clever - like all of Asimov’s work - but this is human and emotional in a way that he could rarely grasp.
Light of Other Days • [Slow Glass] • (1966) • short story by Bob Shaw. This is a delicate heart-rending tale of a couple who stop to buy ‘slow glass’ which allow the viewer to see past moment. A true classic
Stranger Station • (1956) • novelette by Damon Knight. On a space station, a man and an alien suffer because of the other’s presence. Slowly, the man starts to understand why.
The Women Men Don't See • (1973) • novelette by James Tiptree, Jr.. On a trip to Mexico, a small airplane crash lands. The main character - a man - gets to know two women who have very interesting ideas about the interplay between men and women. When strange beings arrive, things take a strange turn.
The Queen of Air and Darkness • [The Queen of Air and Darkness] • (1971) • novella by Poul Anderson. A compelling mystery quest into the collapse of reason and legend. A child is stolen by the indigenous beings of a frontier colonized planet, but no contact has yet been made with them and their very nature sounds mythological. Quietly enthralling.
THE ARBOR HOUSE TREASURY OF MODERN SCIENCE FICTION
39 STORIES : 12 GREAT / 22 GOOD / 5 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 0 DNF
How do I arrive at a rating?
Angel's Egg • (1951) • novelette by Edgar Pangborn
Great. A beautiful and hopeful epistolary story about a man who is mentored towards goodness by an alien that hatches in his backyard.
Rescue Party • (1946) • novelette by Arthur C. Clarke
Average. As the earth’s sun is going nova, aliens arrived to help rescue humanity. Except, there is no humanity on the planet to rescue. A rather plodding mystery with a nice whip crack of a final paragraph.
Shape • (1953) • short story by Robert Sheckley
Good. The Grom are trying to invade earth, but all their explorers go missing. The story follows a party that discovers why. An interesting celebration of human diversity and criticism of conformity.
Alpha Ralpha Boulevard • [The Instrumentality of Mankind] • (1961) • novelette by Cordwainer Smith
Great. In the richly imagined and baroque future universe that Smith called the “Instrumentality of Mankind,” two people embrace their chance to ‘live free’ by taking a dangerous journey to ask an AI questions about love. Confoundingly original at times. This is a wild, cluttered story worth multiple reads.
Winter's King • [Hainish] • (1969) • novelette by Ursula K. Le Guin
Average. Poetic writing in the service of a rather simple story about a King who has had their mind corrupted by an enemy. They must go off world to be healed and time dilation means that their return is complicated by radical changes in ages of the principals. Feels like fantasy in the storytelling although it is certainly science fiction.
Or All the Seas with Oysters • (1958) • short story by Avram Davidson
Good. A bicycle shop owner and his playboy partner start to speculate about what kinds of life might be hiding in plain sight.
Common Time • (1953) • short story by James Blish
Good. Something goes wrong for our protagonist during an interstellar faster than light journey. He starts to experience time at an extremely low pace. A cool idea, written in creatively hip and unconventional prose. Doesn’t quite work at the end for me, but worth the read.
When You Care, When You Love • (1962) • novelette by Theodore Sturgeon
Good. An ultra wealthy woman is obsessed with recreating her dead lover - by any means necessary. Lots of sci-fi mumbo-jumbo here, but it hangs together just long enough to get to the end of the story.
The Shadow of Space • (1967) • novelette by Philip José Farmer
Good. A weird bit of space opera in which a spaceship ends up outside of the universe and the size of an atom. Plus a giant naked woman floating in space.
"All You Zombies—" • (1959) • short story by Robert A. Heinlein (variant of "All You Zombies ...")
Great. One of the truly iconic time travel loop stories. I won’t say more….
I'm Scared • (1951) • short story by Jack Finney
Good. Not really a story as much as a thought experiment and the foundation of a political/social screed. It is truly shocking how much of this is absolutely the same as the feeling in 2022.
Child's Play • [Child's Play • 1] • (1947) • novelette by William Tenn
Great. A deliciously wicked “twilight zone - style” story about a man who finds a Build-A-Man box show up accidentally.
Grandpa • [The Hub] • (1955) • novelette by James H. Schmitz
Good. A young man - a troublemaker on a new world - must rise to the occasion when a semi-sentient large raft starts behaving in new and dangerous ways.
Private Eye • (1950) • novelette by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore [as by Henry Kuttner]
Good. In the future, an all-seeing eye can rewatch anything up to 50 years in the past as part of a criminal investigation. One man believes that he can beat the system and commit murder.
Sundance • (1969) • short story by Robert Silverberg
Good. A Native American starts to have second thoughts when it appears that the world he’s doing may be exterminating sentient life.
In the Bowl • [Eight Worlds] • (1975) • novelette by John Varley
Good. A traveler to Venus meets a 11 year old girl and goes on a quest across the surface to gather blast jewels. The young woman has been emancipated legally and is looking for a way off planet. This is tightly written, good characters, nice sense of wonder, and adventure. It is harmed by some icky stuff about romantic relationships between children and adults.
Kaleidoscope • (1949) • short story by Ray Bradbury
Great. Tragic, painful, and undeniably human. The final conversations of astronauts lost in space after an accident dredge the raw feelings of lost opportunities, seething angry, and unfinished business. A work of beauty.
Unready to Wear • (1953) • short story by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Good. People have found away to intentionally step out of their bodies and no longer are bound by the passions of the flesh. There is conflict between these “amphibians” and people who believe that it is cowardly and immoral to do this.
Wall of Crystal, Eye of Night • (1961) • novelette by Algis Budrys
Average. Corporate intrigue, assassination, subterfuge, in a story that never quite came together for me.
Day Million • (1966) • short story by Frederik Pohl
Good. A snarky, tongue-in-cheek tale of dating and society a million days in our future.
Hobson's Choice • (1952) • short story by Alfred Bester
Good. In a war-torn future, the population should be declining, but a statistician discovers that it is actual growing thanks so something strange happening in Kansas. A very clever story
The Gift of Gab • (1955) • novella by Jack Vance
Great. Mineral prospectors float across a planet with shallow seas … and start dying as they are pulled over by something below. Meanwhile, one of the crew is starting to suspect that the inhabitants of the sea - seal like animals with ten small arms - may be intelligent, but not the kind of intelligence we are used to. Even if so, why have they now started to strike back.
The Man Who Never Grew Young • (1947) • short story by Fritz Leiber
Great. Transcendent and profound. A man who never ages talks about a world where time reversed around World War 2. This is a piece of melancholy poetry. I can’t stop wanting to reread about this strange world where time runs backwards. If fiction’s purpose is to make us see the world differently, few stories have ever done it as well as this beautiful tale.
Neutron Star • [Known Space] • (1966) • novelette by Larry Niven
Good. A man is sent to investigate the deaths of two crew members of a spaceship circling a neutron star in this smart hard-sf story.
Impostor • (1953) • short story by Philip K. Dick
Good. A fun and paranoid bit on intrigue. A man working on a weapon to fight the aliens is accused of being an impostor who can destroy everything with a catch phrase. He resisted, but he might not even know what he really is.
The Human Operators • (1971) • novelette by Harlan Ellison and A. E. van Vogt
Good. 100 spaceships revolted against their human masters, keeping one young human per ship as a slave to do repairs. When one of these young man meets a young woman from another ship for procreation, opportunities to resist arise.
Poor Little Warrior! • (1958) • short story by Brian W. Aldiss
Average. A man from the future is hunting a herbivore dinosaur in the past, but he hasn’t thought out all the risks that might exist.
When It Changed • [Whileaway] • (1972) • short story by Joanna Russ
Good. On a world made up of only women, men have finally arrived and they pose a creeping threat.
The Bicentennial Man • (1976) • novelette by Isaac Asimov
Great. One of Asimov’s masterpieces. This tale of a robot with a special brain who struggles for years with the right to be human. Not only inventive and clever - like all of Asimov’s work - but this is human and emotional in a way that he could rarely grasp.
Hunting Machine • (1957) • short story by Carol Emshwiller
Good. The use of specialize robots on a hunting(poaching?) mission.
Light of Other Days • [Slow Glass] • (1966) • short story by Bob Shaw
Great. This is a delicate heart-rending tale of a couple who stop to buy ‘slow glass’ which allow the viewer to see past moment. A true classic
The Keys to December • (1966) • novelette by Roger Zelazny
Good. A group of people customized to work on another planet (Catform) run into terraforming complications when the planet they are changing may have intelligent life.
Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand • [Snake] • (1973) • novelette by Vonda N. McIntyre
Good. A good character study of a woman who uses trained snakes for healing in a strange world that feels either alien or dystopia.
A Galaxy Called Rome • (1975) • novelette by Barry N. Malzberg
Good. A interesting meta-fiction about a writing a science fiction story about a spaceship that flies into a blackhole with frozen dead to resurrect.
Stranger Station • (1956) • novelette by Damon Knight
Great. On a space station, a man and an alien suffer because of the other’s presence. Slowly, the man starts to understand why.
The Time of His Life • (1968) • short story by Larry Eisenberg
Average. Pleasant, yet disposable, story of a scientist over-shadowed by his father who has now discovered a way to manipulate aging.
The Marching Morons • (1951) • novelette by C. M. Kornbluth
Good. The movie “Idiocracy” owes royalty money to this tale where a man awakens into a world where the morons have outbred the smart people. It is quite fun but has a dark edge to it.
The Women Men Don't See • (1973) • novelette by James Tiptree, Jr.
Great. On a trip to Mexico, a small airplane crash lands. The main character - a man - gets to know two women who have very interesting ideas about the interplay between men and women. When strange beings arrive, things take a strange turn.
The Queen of Air and Darkness • [The Queen of Air and Darkness] • (1971) • novella by Poul Anderson
Great. A compelling mystery quest into the collapse of reason and legend. A child is stolen by the indigenous beings of a frontier colonized planet, but no contact has yet been made with them and their very nature sounds mythological. Quietly enthralling.
