An anthology recognising four pre-nebula novellas as voted by the Science Fiction Writers of America. Great cover art by Eddie Jones!
Universe by Robert A. Heinlein (1941) ⭐️⭐️⭐️
As one of the earliest examples of a generational starship story, you have to give this one credit. It sets the scene of a collapsed primitive society that has survived post-mutiny and sees the ship as their whole universe, retaining only myths about the trip and its purpose. The world is nicely built, even within the constraints of a novella, and there was a follow on story which together were later published as Orphans in the Sky.
Vintage Season by Henry Kuttner & C. L. Moore (1946) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A story about voyeuristic time travellers who derive entertainment from history’s greatest moments, but also more darkly from its disasters. This was a slow build, but the finale had me drawing parallels with modern 24-hour news culture and our own behaviours around wars and disasters reported on screen and social media.
The Ballard of Lost C’mell by Cordwainer Smith (1962) ⭐️⭐️
It was interesting world-building in the same universe as Cordwainer’s Norstrilia, but the plot was a bit thin - I felt the scene was nicely set, but the action never started.
With Folded Hands by Jack Williamson (1948) ⭐️
A cautionary tale of the unintended consequences of perfect robot servants on society contemporaneous with Asmiov’s 3 laws stories. This has relevance for today’s thinking about AI, alignment, and the paperclip problem, but it drops a lot of the story as exposition and the tech and prose have dated poorly.
