Robert Silverberg, Science Fiction 101

About: Anthology of 13 sci-fi stories selected and discussed by Science Fiction Grand Master Silverberg and introduced with an autobiographical essay.

Verdict: Silverberg provides a very interesting personal history of his development as a writer and essays on the 13 stories he chose for the collection, originally published between 1944 and 1966. The book amounts also to a history of science fiction during that period. I enjoyed most of the stories included here; I detested a couple of them (looking in particular at you, "Hothouse," by Brian W. Aldiss). And the penultimate story in the collection, "Light of Other Days," by Bob Shaw, will be living in my head for the foreseeable future.

Publication: 1987 · 513 pages
Rating: 4 stars
[Originally published as Worlds of Wonder in 1987. It was republished in 2001 under its current title.]