Books: The Fifth Science Fiction Mega Pack

 

(Drivebycuriosity) - I love science fiction and have been collecting it about decades. Unfortunately most scifi novels disappoint. The majority of the authors spin fantasy stories without any science in it. And there are way more books than talented authors. So I focus on short story collections and try to find some gems there. It`s like gold panning in a river.

The anthology "The Fifth Science Fiction Mega Pack" contains 25 stories & novellas (amazon ).

I have 2 favorites (this is a spoiler free blog):

-"This is Klon Calling" by Walter J. Sheldon (1917-1996). The story is about an physics professor who liked to make pranks. One of his funny phone calls turned out much funnier then he had thought. If I wouldn`t know that Sheldon wrote this I would have thought Phillip K. Dick did this.

and

"The Big Bounce" by Walter S. Trevis (1928-1984). A chemist developed are very special bouncing ball.

 

I also liked: 

Sterling E. Lanier`s  (1927-2007): "Join our Gang". Told in first person by the captain of a space ship who has to deal with severe problems on a flight. An intelligent action thriller in Zero G.

Keith Laumer`s (1925-1993(): "Greylorn". The representatives of an universe spanning powerful human community try to coax the inhabitants of a small remote planet to join them. Or is it coerce? As so often the best scifi is inspired by human history.

Frederic Pohl`s (1919-2013): "The Hated". What will happen when you put a small group of men into a tiny spaceship on a long flight? I wish Elon Musk much luck, but space trips in a kind of tin can are certainly not for me.

Robert Sheckley`s (1928-2005): "The Cost of Living". Being an economy I disagree with anti-corporation stories, but this is an exception. It´s a funny take on consumerism. Yes, economics is a science and fits into science fiction.

 

There is one story which was not as strong as the above mentioned and not really science fiction, but I liked the mystical atmosphere:

Darrell Schweitzer`s (born 1952): "The Fire Eggs". Bit egg shaped things had appeared all over the earth - doing nothing - and the humans have to deal with it. A psychological exercise.

 

In  the moment of writing the Kindle version costs just 99 Cents!