Book Review: American Science Fiction Edited by Gary K. Wolfe

The American Science Fiction collection, volume one, consists of 4 classic novels written from 1953 to 1956:

The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth

More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon

The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett

The Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson

Pros: original book versions of the stories; biographical information, note on the texts and end notes for each story, diverse sub-genres represented, influencial stories and authors

Cons: some of the novels contain parts that modern readers may find boring

This is the first of a two book American Science Fiction collection.  It's a hard bound book set of books that match others in the series.  The four novels reprinted here are all by authors who have greatly impacted science fiction as we know it today.  The novels themselves represent different subgenres: dystopic, evolutionary, post-apocalyptic and fantastical.  [OK, I'm making some of these categories up, but each novel here has a different feel and used science fiction in a different way.]

The back of the collection has a number of good, short resources.  There are biographical notes on each author, a note on the texts (what versions are printed here (as most of them first appeared in magazines)), and end notes.  In addition to textual notes, the end notes also print an additional 3 chapters of Gravy Planet (renamed The Space Merchants) for its syndication in Galaxy magazine.  They come after the events of The Space Merchants as printed in book form.  There is also an introduction to The Shrinking Man writen by Richard Matheson for a 2001 printing of the book that explains where he got the idea for the story, where he wrote it and how it was turned into a movie.

If you're interested in the history of science fiction, this is a good collection, even if parts of the stories may be boring to those with modern sensibilities.

Also, check out the collection's website: loa.org/sciencefiction for commentary on all of the stories by modern SF writers, a cover gallery, an explanation of SF in the 50s and more.

Book Review: The Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson

The final classic SF novel reprinted by the first volume of the American Science Fiction collection, is The Shrinking Man.

Pros: interesting premise, intense, sympathetic protagonist

Cons: no time for the reader to take in what's happening, the shrinking is offhandedly explained 

Scott Carey fights for his life against a giant spider in the cellar of his house, imprisoned by his ever shrinking size.  Between trying to find food and water in his dangerous world, he remembers the difficult road that brought him here, losing 1/7th of an inch each day.

Scott is an angry man.  From the time his shrinking began he's raged against his ultimate fate, denying the reality of his situation, yelling at his wife and ignoring their daughter.  He's also a scared man, dealing with the reality of his situation even as work becomes harder, medical bills mount and supporting his family becomes impossible.  

He's a highly sympathetic character.  While it's hard to like how he treats his wife in the flashbacks, it's also hard to deny that anyone would feel the same in similar circumstances.  The novel explores his continuing sexual urges as well as his desire to be 'a man' in a world that increasingly views him as a kid, then a doll, then nothing at all.

It's a pulse pounding novel.  Whenever you think he's caught a break something goes wrong.  Then several more things go wrong and you wonder how he keeps going on.  Both the present scenes and back story are fraught with new perils he must face and, generally, escape.  The intensity rarely lets up, as everything becomes a danger to him.

Having said that, there's no time for the reader to do more than hang on for the ride.  A few times the author brings up more philosophical questions, but it's hard to contemplate life the universe and everything when you're running for your life, so the questions are asked and quickly forgotten as Scott gets on with living.

Readers who like solid science will be disappointed by the haphazard explanation of why Scott is shrinking.  

At just over 200 pages, it's also a fairly short read, but detailed enough to give you insight into the characters and a wild ride.

It's a fantastic conclusion for this collection and an interesting read.

Book Review: The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett

The third of the four books included in the first volume of the American Science Fiction collection edited by Gary Wolfe is The Long Tomorrow.

Pros: good writing, realistic extrapolation of the aftermath of a nuclear war

Cons: boring at times, Len becomes increasingly hard to relate to

Len and Esau are cousins growing up in the New Mennonite Community of Piper's Run a hundred years after the atomic war that destroyed the United States.  The Thirtieth Ammendment states that no cities beyond a certain size are allowed to be built and the country has splintered into a variety of religious farmers and traders.

After witnessing a stoning, the boys realize their curiosity is peaked and they start dreaming of going to Bartorstown, a mythical city where old technology is still used.

Brackett is a good writer.  Her descriptions are solid and her plotting is direct.  The idea that a nuclear war would find religious zealots banning cities, in the hopes of avoiding such a thing in the future, is realistic (even more so for the early post-WWII world Brackett wrote this in, when fear of nuclear bombs was very high), as is the idea that many people would become Amish or Mennonite, learning from people who have always eschewed technology.

Having said that, if you like your post-apocalyptic fiction more Mad Max than Little House on the Prairie, like me, you'll find this book fairly boring.  What technology there is, is obviously patterned off of 50s understanding.  But it's so limited that it doesn't detract from the story.

Len's story arc, however, does.  I liked him in the first two sections.  He's young, idealistic, and unwilling to let go of his dreams regardless of how he's beaten and shamed.  By the third segment I realized that he's also the kind of person who's always chasing a dream.  He's never satisfied with where he is in life, because he's always sure it's better somewhere else.  Only at the very end, when he finally decides as an adult what he wants out of life and what he believes in, does he stop waffling and settle.

This is the first thing by Beckett I've read.  I wouldn't mind picking up something else by her, given the writing chops she shows in this book, but The Long Tomorrow isn't a book I'd read again.

Book Review: More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon

This is the second book in the new American Science Fiction Collection, volume one, edited by Gary Wolfe.

Pros: parts 2 & 3 are brilliantly written with an interesting message, very diverse cast of characters 

Cons: part 1 has several purposely obscure but important pieces of information, 1950s racial situations/terminology

Normally I write my own synopsis for books I review, but this book's quite complex so I've decided to grab one from the Indigo website instead:

From one of the greatest practitioners of science fiction comes a genre-bending novel that is as affectingly humane as it is speculatively daring.

There's Lone, who can make a man blow his own brains out just by looking at him. There's Janie, who moves things without touching them, and the unique power of the teleporting twins. There's Baby, who invented an antigravity engine while still in the cradle, and Gerry, who has everything it takes to run the world -- except for a conscience. Separately, they are talented freaks. Together they compose a single organism that may represent the next step in evolution. As the protagonist of More Than Human struggle to find out whether they are meant to help humanity or destroy it, Theodore Sturgeon explores the questions of power and morality, individuality and belonging, with sophistication and lyricism rarely seen in science fiction.

This is the kind of book that makes me question my 'if I'm not enjoying it, stop reading it' policy.  The book is split into 3 parts, and I actively disliked part 1 while finding parts 2 and 3 brilliant.  Had this not been a review book, I would have stopped reading in part 1, which would have been a shame.  Part 1 introduces the decently large cast of very diverse characters including a mentally handicapped man, a baby that won't grow, two black girls, etc.  It does this by jumping from person to person, often giving descriptions via characters who see the world... differently.  Lone, for example, is mentally challenged and only towards the end of the section does he develop speech and anything close to a 'normal' understanding of events.  But his scenes are still written in an understandable way.  

The author, however, purposefully obscured certain events in this part of the book making the reader guess what's going on.  By the time you understand the situation, you have to go back and reevaluate what's happened.  For example, there's a father who has secluded himself and his two daughters on a piece of land.  It's easy to assume from things in the text that he's sexually abusing his oldest daughter.  Or maybe he's just beating her to drive out her sexual awakening.  Or maybe nothing abusive is happening at all besides the girls being locked up.  Even after finishing the book I'm not sure which it was, though later events make me assume it's the second scenario.

The first section is set-up for the rest of the book, and the characters the author spends so much time introducing aren't as active in the other two parts (they're mentioned and shown in flashbacks in part 2 and only one of them shows up for any length of time in part 3, with the others having bit parts). 

Modern readers will find a few scenes uncomfortable as 1950s racial prejudice is portrayed, including period terminology.

Parts 2 and 3 have a lot more suspense and drive behind them.  While I felt like putting part 1 down and not picking it back up, parts 2 and 3 had me on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen next.  The writing was clear, linear and the author tantilized you with bits of the answer at a time.

The ending was great and worth pushing through the first section to get to.