The Good Old Stuff: Adventure SF in the Grand Tradition

When I looked at the list of what was in this book I thought hmm.. Now that I have read the stories I hadn't seen before, how's that go? Right, right he's bloody well right. Yeah, he's bloody well right, he most definitely does have a right to say this is the good old stuff. In fact with a story average just over 4.00, this is definitely a Super Editor at work, not a Supertramp. Probably the only story I think doesn't particularly qualify is the Le Guin, but I am presuming he wanted her in to have some well known female writers from the period - and he has chosen his period for the book as post world war two up until the sixties. Otherwise, a very impressive anthology, and even though old the only what you might call really cheesy story in that sense is the de Camp tale. Dozois says this is partly an exercise in nostalgia, but these are all worthy of reading, so the publisher should be commended as well for putting out such a cool book. On top of the great fiction the editor introduces each story in depth, talking about the writer and how they relate to adventure stories, not just giving a quick publication list, there is some analysis here, which is all pretty interesting. Along with recommendations, as well. Although given this is 10 years old the advice to 'check used bookshops' when trying to find some of the titles seems funny after a while, given abe and ebay etc. now. Also at the end (and I wish I saw this a while ago) he gives a fairly extensive list of anthologies that are relevant as he sees it, a top notch finishing touch. Good Old Stuff : The Rull - A. E. van Vogt Good Old Stuff : Second Night of Summer - James H. Schmitz Good Old Stuff : The Galton Whistle - L. Sprague de Camp Good Old Stuff : The New Prime - Jack Vance Good Old Stuff : That Share of Glory - C. M. Kornbluth Good Old Stuff : The Last Days of Shandakor - Leigh Brackett Good Old Stuff : Exploration Team - Murray Leinster Good Old Stuff : The Sky People - Poul Anderson Good Old Stuff : The Man in the Mailbag - Gordon R. Dickson Good Old Stuff : Mother Hittons Littul Kittons - Cordwainer Smith Good Old Stuff : A Kind of Artistry - Brian W. Aldiss Good Old Stuff : Gunpowder God - H. Beam Piper Good Old Stuff : Semleys Necklace - Ursula K. Le Guin Good Old Stuff : Moon Duel - Fritz Leiber Good Old Stuff : The Doors of His Face the Lamps of His Mouth - Roger Zelazny Good Old Stuff : Mother in the Sky with Diamonds - James Tiptree Jr. One-on-one conditioning for galactic diplomacy. 4 out of 5 Grandma has a pony. All the better to help her defeat alien invasions. 4 out of 5 All that fighting just to rescue a virgin priestess who wants to remain so. I'm off for some skiing, I think, instead. 3.5 out of 5 Overlords should be nicer. 4 out of 5 Night court terminated for metal war avoidance gem deal. 4.5 out of 5 Ancient illusions and hokey philosophies are no match for a barbarian horde at the gate, kid. 4.5 out of 5 Robots bearly make a differenc

_The Good Old Stuff_ (1998) is an anthology edited by Gardner Dozois. It consists of adventure science fiction stories from the 1940s through the 1960s. When it was first published, it received a rather stern review by Norman Spinrad, and I must acknowledge that there is some justice to Spinrad's position. By my own count, out of the sixteen stories in this anthology, only five stories represent the author at the top of his form: James Schmitz's "The Second Night of Summer," Murray Leinster's "Exploration Team," Brian W. Aldiss's "A Kind of Artistry," H. Beam Piper's "Gunpowder God," and Roger Zelazny's "The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth." And out of those, I would rank only the Aldiss and the Zelazny as clear classics. But Dozois, after all, was not trying to assemble a "best of all time" sf anthology. As he makes clear in his introductory material, he was motivated partly because he saw that many top-notch science fiction writers were going out of print at an alarming rate, along with some of their adventure tales. His anthology is a means of keeping some of those tales (and some of those authors!) alive. Dozois includes an excellent index of anthologies containing old adventure science fiction, and there is a beautiful cover by Ed Emshwiller (a reprint of his 1959 cover for Andre Norton's _Galactic Derelict_). The remaining stories are: A.E. van Vogt's "The Rull," L. Sprague de Camp's "The Galton Whistle," Jack Vance's "The New Prime," C.M. Kornbluth's "That Share of Glory," Leigh Brackett's The Last Days of Shandakor," Poul Anderson's "The Sky People," Gordon R. Dickson's "The Man in the Mailbag," Cordwainer Smith's Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons," Ursula K. Le Guin's "Semley's Necklace," Fritz Leiber's "Moon Duel," and James Tiptree, Jr.'s "Mother in the Sky, with Diamonds." Some (like the de Camp, the Kornbluth, the Brackett, and the Dickson) are amiable pieces of entertainment. Others (like the Anderson, the Smith, and the Tiptree) aim at something more ambitious. If, as I do, you have many of the magazines in which these stories originally appeared, you will welcome this anthology. If not... it is all the more reason for you to snap it up. Keep some of these authors from slipsliding away.

Trust Gardner Dozois to throw the dart into the board and pick some outstanding SF works.THAT SHARE OF GLORY by C.M. Kornbluth is worth the price of admission. GUNPOWDER GOD continues H. Beam Piper's "Verkan Vall" character adventuring in the levels of Earth (sideways in time). Included are Gordon R. Dickson's delightful THE MAN IN THE MAILBAG, and Jack Vances weird THE NEW PRIME. Don't skip a word or a story. Get close to the roots of this genre.

I just finished reading this book, and there's not a bad story in the bunch! I also was unfamiliar with all of these stories, although I had read works by some of the authors previously. Recommended to anyone who loves SF, and even as an entryway for those who are unfamiliar with the genre.