Post #1652538

Quasit's Book Recommendations: “The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume 1 (1929 - 1964)” (1970), edited by Robert Silverberg When I was a fairly young child (maybe seven years old), my father brought me a book from the library. That book changed my life. It was a collection of some of the greatest short stories from science fiction's Golden Age, as selected by vote among the members of the Science Fiction Writers of America. The time frame for those stories was 1929 to 1964—in other words, predating the establishment of the Nebula Awards. Selection for inclusion was recognition of outstanding stories that were Nebula-level quality in the eyes of the SFWA membership. They didn't go wrong. I'm afraid that many of these classic stories are unknown to modern readers. That's why this book is at the •top• of my list of recommendations. Here's the list of stories with author and publication date: • Stanley G. Weinbaum "A Martian Odyssey" 1934 • John W. Campbell "Twilight" 1934 • Lester del Rey "Helen O'Loy" 1938 • Robert A. Heinlein "The Roads Must Roll" 1940 • Theodore Sturgeon "Microcosmic God" 1941 • Isaac Asimov "Nightfall" 1941 • A. E. van Vogt "The Weapon Shop" 1942 • Lewis Padgett "Mimsy Were the Borogoves" 1943 • Clifford D. Simak "Huddling Place" 1944 • Fredric Brown "Arena" 1944 • Murray Leinster "First Contact" 1945 • Judith Merril "That Only a Mother" 1948 • Cordwainer Smith "Scanners Live in Vain" 1948 • Ray Bradbury "Mars Is Heaven!" 1948 • Cyril M. Kornbluth "The Little Black Bag" 1950 • Richard Matheson "Born of Man and Woman" 1950 • Fritz Leiber "Coming Attraction" 1950 • Anthony Boucher "The Quest for Saint Aquin" 1951 • James Blish "Surface Tension" 1952 • Arthur C. Clarke "The Nine Billion Names of God" 1953 • Jerome Bixby "It's a Good Life" 1953 • Tom Godwin "The Cold Equations" 1954 • Alfred Bester "Fondly Fahrenheit" 1954 • Damon Knight "The Country of the Kind" 1955 • Daniel Keyes "Flowers for Algernon" 1959 • Roger Zelazny "A Rose for Ecclesiastes" 1963 Many of these authors were giants of science fiction. A few died before accomplishing all that they might have. But every one of these stories is a classic. I'd like to write a few lines about each of them, but I don't think there's space here to do it. Perhaps I'll do it over on my BookWyrm.social account, at https://bookwyrm.social/user/BobQuasit . This truly is an indispensable book for any science fiction fan. Happy reading! 🤓📖 ⁨#Books⁩ ⁨#Bookstodon⁩ ⁨#ScienceFiction #SF #Classics ⁨#QuasitBookRecs⁩