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An original concept featuring a Golden Age science fiction for every planet in the Solar System, Born of the Sun includes never-before-republished material from the British Library collection, effectively exclusive by their rarity. This is the 7th of our weighty Science Fiction Classics anthologies, a set which wonderfully embodies the Golden Age of the genre.
Terror in the steamy jungles of Venus, encounters on the arid expanse of Jupiter; asteroids mysteriously bursting with vegetation whizz past and reveal worlds beyond imagination orbiting the giver of all known life, the Sun. Mike Ashley curates this literary tour through the space around this heavenly body, taking in the sights of Mercury, Venus, Mars, an alternate Earth, strange goings on on Saturn and tales from a bizarre civilization on Neptune. Pluto (still a planet in the Classic period of Science fiction) becomes the site for a desperate tale of isolation, and a nameless point at the limits of the Sun’s orbital space gives rise to a final poetic vision of this spot in the universe we call home...
Born of the Sun collects one story for each of the planets thought to be in our solar system during the Golden Age of Science fiction, from some of the greatest, and from some of the most obscure, authors of the genre. Featuring the genius works of Larry Niven, Poul Andersen, Clifford D Simak, Clare Winger Harris and many more.
Contents:
* Introduction: Solar Tour (Born of the Sun: Adventures in Our Solar System) • essay by Mike Ashley
* Sunrise on Mercury (1957) / short story by Robert Silverberg
* The Hell Planet (1932) / novelette by Leslie F. Stone
* Foundling on Venus (1954) / short story by Dorothy de Courcy, John de Courcy
* The Lonely Path (1961) / novelette by John Ashcroft
* Garden in the Void (1952) / novelette by Poul Anderson
* Desertion [City] (1944) / short story by Clifford D. Simak
* How Beautiful with Banners (1966) / short story by James Blish
* Where No Man Walks (1952) / short story by E. R. James
* A Baby on Neptune (1929) / novelette by Miles J. Breuer, M.D., Clare Winger Harris
* Wait It Out [Known Space] (1968) / short story by Larry Niven
Reviews with the most likes.
Good ideas but really bad (too old-school, pulp) writing. Before the 60s wave, scifi was cringy AF (except Asimov and Heinlein, not included here). Most of the stories here were also dragged down by terribly bad dialogues.