(Goodreads mirror) A sturdy set of entertaining adventures, published 1958. Spoilers ahead.
2066: Election Day (by Michael Shaara) - A computer tasked for many years with selecting qualified U.S. presidents finally finds that no one is qualified because governing has become too complicated a job for a human mind. Readers are expected to believe, despite the long preceding period of prosperity created by the computer's ability to select capable presidents, that a failure to elect a president one year would immediately cause nationwide war to break out. Why? How? It doesn't seem any opposing factions exist, nor tensions between political parties. Still, the situation is urgent, and so a group of powerful men refuse to let the machine itself govern the country, and instead choose a political science professor as a figurehead whilst planning to all work together to govern. The dying president passes the torch to the new president in private. The ending came abruptly, before the story reached a satisfying philosophical conclusion, so that it seemed like a pointless exercise. The prose had a few problems: for example, I found the phrase "a long moment" four times in as many pages.
The Mile-Long Spaceship (by Kate Wilhelm) - After suffering a serious head injury in an accident, Allan Norbett develops a psychic link with some aliens in a distant spacecraft. He receives visions which occur only in sleep and assumes them to be just a series of dreams. The aliens try to use the psychic connection to locate him, and through him the Earth. They stimulate curiosity in Allan, hoping he will thereby learn their astral mapping language and reveal his location to them, but instead he pursuses atomic engineering, without ever realizing they exist. The aliens react by deliberately and angrily destroying themselves. I don't know why.
The Last Victory (by Tom Godwin) - Technocratic authoritarianism, liberty-loving 'outlanders,' a crash landing on a new planet, a struggle for dominance resolved by solving an alien mystery; a heroic dog, some cute kittens, a herd of headcrabs, a hero's redemption, a happy ending. Awkward and unclear prose at times, especially when describing action, but the concept was fun and the story itself was structured well.
Call Me Joe (by Poul Anderson) - A story somewhat like Avatar, minus the lame McGuffin. Many inventive uses of science for worldbuilding. I loved the deeply alien nature of life on Jupiter. Anglesey the crotchety cripple was a great character, as was his physically capable avatar Joe by extension. While I liked the puzzle Cornelius and Viken had to work through (relating to Anglesey's subconscious reactions to Joe), as well as the twist created by resolving an error, I didn't find those two men themselves to be very compelling characters. But then, if there had been much more to them than just their intellects they might have crowded the spotlight and muddled the story. The links between the puzzle, Anglesey's character, and the overall mission formed a satisfying whole.
Didn't He Ramble (by Chad Oliver) - A dying music-lover builds himself a robo-replica of 1920s New Orleans, and spends the rest of his life there. This one probably would have been more interesting to me if I knew much about the specific musicians and time period replicated. Meh.
The Queen's Messenger (by John J. McGuire) - I didn't 'get' this one. I'm reminded of Vonnegut's eighth rule of storytelling: "Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible." It seemed as though the author kept deliberately skipping over bits of relevant information, creating artificial tension via confusion to make the story seem smarter than it was. I was able to recite the plot after reading, but I lacked a sense of the driving force behind it, which is not normal for me.
The Other People (by Leigh Brackett) - An investigation into a human-alien hybrid child. Vivid descriptions. Great secondary characters: the destitute human family as well as the alien 'other people.' It felt like an X-Files episode, albeit with a socially inept newbie Mulder and no Scully at all. I found myself immersed for most of the story, though the weird unsexy kiss threw me off. Older stories and movies have a Weird Unsexy Kiss problem sometimes.
Into Your Tent I'll Creep (by Eric Frank Russell) - Upon contacting humans, an alien finds that he has a psychic connection with dogs, and that the dogs are the true rulers of Earth, as they control humans by flattering them. This alien is the only one with a psychic connection to dogs, and it is never discovered why. This piece of writing is more argument than story: the aliens debate the topic on board their ship, where they're also keeping a few dogs given to them by humans. The psychic alien openly discusses his special knowledge, and his fear that dogs might come to dominate his own people as well, within earshot of the dogs. Predictable ending.
Nor Dust Corrupt (by James McConnell) - Long after humanity has spread through the galaxy, men create, and capitalize upon, the longing people have to be posthumously buried on Earth soil. These men charge gajillions for it because space is limited. A cool concept, but I wasn't quite convinced people would care so much about where they are buried, and the 'gotcha' ending (a wealthy man who wishes to be buried on Earth turns out to own the company that provides fertilizer for the graveyard gardens) was too shallow for such a weighty theme.
Nightsound (by Algis J. Budrys) - Two paragraphs into the story I said aloud to the page, "You are an amazing writer." I felt a hopeful sense of kinship with this author, who I hadn't heard of before, as I imagined that this is how I might write on a good day. This is what I aim for when editing. Vivid descriptions, smooth prose, relatable pathos, and never too much of anything. The ending is truly a tidy and hopeful beginning, and yet no information is missing. It's a simple story: a man finds a communicator among his dead father's things, and the communicator leads him to an alien who needs his help. It is also my favourite in the collection.
The Tunesmith (by Lloyd Biggle, Jr.) - Good music struggles to survive in a corrupt commercialist dystopia where all available music takes the form of commercial jingles (Coms). It was easy to get invested in the musician protagonist's struggle, so although the characterization was pretty flat, I really rooted for him as he rose to the top on his own merits and threatened the established music monopoly. I didn't like the last line, which stated the hero had gone deaf in his old age -- it seemed like an attempt at tragic irony but came off as a shallow quip.
Hunting Machine (by Carol Emshwiller) - A couple, spoiled by advanced utopian technology, go on a hunting trip, and rent a machine to do the hunting for them. The husband hacks the machine in order to direct it to hunt a forbidden brown bear. The couple is inept at hunting, but the bear is no match for the brutal and methodical hunting machine, which saves them at the last second. After their near-death experience, the couple decides they don't like hunting after all. They go home, leaving the previously coveted bear carcass behind to rot. Between the hunting machine's resemblance to a mechanical hound and the clever and humorous descriptions of advanced conveniences reminiscent of 'There Will Come Soft Rains,' I suspect this writer is a Bradbury fan.
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