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Review Summaries
"
(editor)
Ace, Nov 2001, 24.95, 416 pp.
ISBN: 044100864X
This latest “best ... of the century” actually consists of twenty-six tales from the second half of the twentieth century and one story from the 1940s. Either that means science fiction matured considerably after World War II, the editor is too young to appreciate the early years, or the anthology should be labeled differently. In either case, the contributions are all aces and represent the wide gamut of the genre divided into three classifications: “The Golden Age, “The New Wave”, and “The Media Generation”. Though I enjoyed the other two periods, my favorite stories are from “The New Wave” because I cut my molars on several of these including having read some while working on a masters thesis involving science fiction. Regardless of nostalgia or other reasons for personal taste, each entry is powerful and shows how enlightening the genre can be when written by masters like those who rendered entries to MASTERPIECES: THE BEST SCIENCE FICTION OF THE CENTURY.
Harriet Klausner
"
Harriet Klausner, Resident Orson Scott Card Scholar
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Overall Review
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Plot
Tone of book
- very upbeat
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION?
- science fiction story
Explore/1st contact/ enviro story
Yes
Plotlets:
- exploring a wondrous planet or phenomena
- colonizing/homesteading another planet
- preventing an ecological disaster
- stranded on alien planet, fighting aliens to survive
- fighting a disease/illness affecting everyone
- surviving natural elements on planet
Spying & Investigations
Yes
What is main char. doing?
- rescue mission/escape from confinement
If an invasion, from Earth/human POV:
- fighting overt invasion (attacking aliens)
War or Invasion
Yes
Is this an adult or child's book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Profession/status:
- champion of justice
Age:
- 20's-30's
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Main Adversary
Identity:
- an entire race
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- a moderate amount
Setting
Spaceship setting:
- futuristic human warship
- alien spaceship
- a space station
- futuristic human freighter/transport
- really, really giant spaceship/station
- one or two man fighter/scoutship
Takes place in spaceship?
Yes
Style
Person?
- mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death?
- generic/vague references to death/punishment
scientific jargon? (SF only)
- a moderate amount of scientific explanation
How much dialogue?
- roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
TOP SCHOLAR: