The Greatest Science Fiction Anthology Ever? (+ 'Dangerous Visions' Production Quality Gripes)  

Yes, I love "Universe" - and your choice of the word 'bellicose' is spot on!

Yes, he is- I think part of the problem is that there is so much substandard later work expanded from stories into novels sitting around secondhand- I always see LOADS of AEVV when I go bookhunting and if someone picks up the wrong one, they're put off the good stuff....

Thanks, you too!

I will cover more shorts. I may do my top ten sf shorts at some point.

Yes, it's a good anthology, must be said.

The Millington is much, much better than the Blackstone, believe me.

Hi Joe- yeah, the Godwin thing never sat well with me either- that's one reason why I always forget it was published mid 50s, seems like something from 1940 to me...as you say, there must have been a solution....

Thanks James. I have to say that although I'm far from impressed with many books these days in terms of production quality, those Blackstone Ellisons really feel very different to me than over 90% of hardcovers I handle- for books that are so heavy, which as I say is usually an indicator of quality for me, they just feel monolithic and clodhopping...so I guess I'll be sticking with the paperbacks.

It's essential for an understanding of what US SF writers in the mid sixties were most influenced by, for better or worse. Overall, a must read.

Well, masks are only one of many themes in SF of course- I wouldn't say it was a trend at any particular time as such. 'The Moon Moth' was one of his most acclaimed tales when published, you hear much less of it these days, shame.

I can't really demonstrate how this is done visually as there would be nothing to show, it's just a matter of training yourself to take extreme care when handling books and as I say, it comes over many years. Obviously there are clear 'Don'ts' such as "Keep your hands clean,", "gently bend covers rather than spine" etc....

To be fair, most booksellers don't know many of these terms- the people I work with do, as I use them all the time and they catch on. In my view, all booksellers should know them as they actually have a positive impact on sales - when you can say "Lovely book this, decorated end papers, full cloth binding..." etc I find that customers are pleased that they are talking to a professional and it gives them confidence in production quality.

@@themojocorpse1290 I really didn't know that they made SF Hall of Fame in hardcover! So much disagreement around those new DV's ! Those covers! I love harlan, but I'm waiting for the obvious, and inevitable reminder sales to even consider them.

No problem, mate. Thin paper is always a dealbreaker for me, except with LOA as they are such beautiful books.

It has mostly been only paperback over the years. It used to be a second-hand store SF mainstay.

I can't imagine being presented with this as a choice on a literature course- what joy!

I can't think of another anthology as historically important, though for my tastes I'd go to 'The New Tomorrows' by Spinrad.

@@outlawbookselleroriginal I was saying over on Kenny's channel that this and _Top Science Fiction_ (1984) edited by Josh Pachter turned me into an SF fan. The Pachter volume is sadly forgotten, but is excellent. Highly recommended, as is the companion volume _Top Fantasy_ published the following year. The stories are chosen and introduced by the authors themselves. 👍

Glad you liked it. Poor production quality I know, not my usual standard, but it was an impulse thing.

I'd forgotten that, never seen that episode, I must remedy that.

I need to re-read both novels in the sequence thoroughly, as it's been some years, though as you saw in this video, I re-read the short version of the first novel ("The Weapon Shops") recently. For me, it's the sense of strangeness inherent in Van Vogt at his best I enjoy- in the story, the idea of a far future society with a cruel Empress smacks of Fantasy in tone- and the inverse logic of how the Weapon Shops are actually part of a resistance against the Empire. Even the idea of the weapon shops themselves is redolent with oddness to me. Although his writing was sometimes crude, Van Vogt captured the very essence of Conceptual Breakthrough in SF - the moment when, with a few words, best placed at the end of a novel or story, implies a whole new paradigm of existence- this comes at the end of 'The Weapon Makers', the second book in the dyptich. This climax has been used in critical writing- notably in 'The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction' in its entry on Conceptual Breakthrough as a cardinal example of this keye element of SF. If you watch my video series 'The Elements of Science Fiction', I explore Conceptual Breakthrough there.

Hi Walt- well, I threw it together on a whim, hence lack of indepth, but some of this material I will return to. I struggle with Kornbluth at times - he gets into a very whacky and frenetic mindset and the prose goes wobbly and a bit silly, but that's satire for you- so I've never enjoyed "The Marching Morons" in itself as much as the idea behind it. I actually prefer Sheckley, whose more clipped tone works more for me. Great book overall though.

@@outlawbookselleroriginal I understand. I'm not really a fan of deliberately comedic SF or Fantasy; I just found Marching Morons a breath of fresh air in the anthology (even though I enjoyed most of it.) And that Leiber story! I read it for the first time during Covid! So this previously unknown story about people wearing masks and anxieties about wearing them and anxieties about taking them off was. . . Resonant. Weak end I thought though.

@@salty-walt I prefer Kornbluth's causes to his effects if you see what I mean. I get what you say about the Leiber as well.

Yes, great stuff.

Yes the Kevala-Lee book is very good, mentioned it on the channel around 6 months back.

Yes, they are good ones too.

Yes, it was arguably pioneering in that it was original stories rather than ones culled from magazines, however it was not the first anthology that did that- E. J. Carnells' 'New Writings in SF ' series had already done that for some years- but it was a triumph in that it moved the goalposts for allowable content in US SF publishing.

Well, you'll hear my thoughts in an upcoming vid as I say. I've read the other two as well, incidentally.

@@outlawbookselleroriginal Looking forward to it!

Terribly dull. I find his work is dead on the page- which is a shame, as I read when with reasonable enthusiasm when young and I've been recollecting him of late.

Hi Rick, great to hear from you as ever my friend! The integrity has gone from a lot of awards, true, but they are basically vital sales tools for the industry while creating a false impression in inexperienced readers about what quality really is- young readers now want everything to be 'easy' and 'clear', it seems. Hope you are keeping well, Dean of Men!

How did you get on with 'Ice'?

@@outlawbookselleroriginal loved it, can't say the same about Dangerous Visions, some story's really great, others didn't understand anything like the Purple Wage one and some storys borig, i did really love the Moderan story by David R Bunch

No illustrations inside the editions I show.

Richard is always admirably systematic. I'm more that way inclined when I write, but as I improv most of my videos, I employ my barroom style, which works sometimes! I find the novellas collection a much more mixed bag, but there are great things -"With Folded Hands" by Williamson, "Vintage Season" by Kuttner/Moore are two that stand out for me.

I hate those 'collected' Ballards, they suck, never owned them, I've stuck with the actual original collections which I have multiple copies of.

I wish I felt that way. I'm tired as a dog, had a terrible day generally, feel dreadful. I'm apparently very good at hiding the issues! Thanks.

@@outlawbookselleroriginal Do something unusual, but not stressful. Sometimes body fatigue is caused by neural habits.

@@user-mb9ll9wy6g My fatigue is caused by the polymyalgia rheumatica I've been suffering from for the last 17 months and in-life stress due to circumstances. There is no easy cure for either

You can now find the contents online if you dig. As the final selection wasn't made by HE, I'm leaving it myself as I said.

True.

It's a joke, no offense intended.

@@outlawbookselleroriginal none taken, thanks for a wonderful video.

I can’t help thinking Simak is just too rural American for you. He’s terrifically imaginative but very nice, folksy, stoic and gentle, and his conflict is usually the inevitable march of time. Not everyone’s cup of coffee.

@@rogerpetersen794 Well, I love Bradbury and a massive amount of the true tradition of British SF is based on the pastoral - many of my favourite SF writers of all -Wyndham, Priest, Roberts, Aldiss- have a strong ability to convey the pastoral- so I think it's more that I'm comparing him to Bradbury and the other writers I cit and finding him wanting stylistically, so it's a literary issue rather than a content/setting one perhaps.

@@outlawbookselleroriginal I didn’t mean place, so much as mindset. In the way Gary Cooper was once the face of American movies. He clearly didn’t have the range of superior actors, but what he presented was America. Solid, dependable Yankee ingenuity.

Won what?

this is a sf channel, not a soccer fan channel lol

Thanks for pointing that out- though I will add I like variety here, but this will NEVER be a Sport channel.

​@outlawbookselleroriginal Thank the SF gods for that.

It won't last. 'Diversity' is not our greatest strength, despite the Agenda.