Super-duper Sci-fi

[sjwright]

Right, then.  When last seen, I was donning my exploring trousers and setting off into "Science Fiction Novel Super Pack #1", which sort of implies that a #2 is at least being considered....  Dirt-cheap compilations of last century's sci-fi are OK by me, but - now I've emerged from the other side of it - I might as well report my impressions

Comments

[starcat_jewel]

ISTR that MZB described Falcons as "a horrible C.L. Moore pastiche" in the introduction to one of her S&S anthologies. As a mature writer, she was not unaware of its flaws.

The idea of human-looking aliens who turn out to have animal-level intelligence was briefly quite popular; I remember running across at least 3 or 4 such stories, which suggests that there were probably others that I missed. Unfortunately, you can only encounter this twist a few times before it gets Really Old.

Alan E. Nourse put himself thru med school partly by writing pulp SF. I encountered his name on a syndicated newspaper medical-advice column some 30-odd years ago, and had a "when worlds collide" moment! The book of his that I still have around here somewhere is The Universe Between, which is more about math than medicine, and unfortunately got a visit from the Suck Fairy between my first reading it in junior high and buying my own copy a couple of decades later -- nothing huge, just a lot of outdated sexual stereotyping.