- Hardcover: 960 pages
- Publisher: Tor Books; 1 edition (Oct 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0312876351
- ISBN-13: 978-0312876357
- Product Dimensions: 23.9 x 15.5 x 6.1 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,169,944 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| ||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Authors
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This edited volume assembled by David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer contains 41 "hard science fiction" stories sampled from the best writers of the 1990s. It stands alone as a collection, but is best seen as a continuation of their previous anthology, The Ascent of Wonder: The Evolution of Hard SF. Their similarly-themed Space Opera Renaissance is a logical next read.
My favorite stories are:
Greg Egan - Wang's Carpets. A new kind of life is both hard to detect and understand.
Robert Reed - Marrow. A long-term mission on a generation ship redefines long-term.
Joe Haldeman - For White Hill. Just another love story on home planet Earth.
Karl Schroeder - Halo. A fight-against-terrorism story with characters who never meet.
Vernor Vinge - Fast Times at Fairmont High - Convinces you to read--or not read--Rainbows End, depending on your taste.
Sarah Zettel - Kinds of Strangers. How do marooned astronauts respond to stress?
This is a particularly good collection--there was not a single story I didn't like. SF readers should scan the table of contents before buying, however, since these stories have all appeared elsewhere. The book's preface and brief introductions to each story add significant value. They contain the usual author bios and pointers to other story collections, novels and series. Each intro also presents each author's definition of "hard SF" and excerpts informatively from the authors' own descriptions of their work. The editors' inclusive definition of hard SF as technology and concept-driven science fiction allows entry to an intriguing variety of stories and perspectives. The authors' definitions enrich this definition and teach us interesting lessons about the evolution of science fiction during the 1990s.
I recommend the book to science fiction readers who enjoy solid stories in this genre. I further recommend it to Kindle and iPhone users who want something good to read during the snippets of found time in their hectic schedules.
My favorite stories are:
Greg Egan - Wang's Carpets. A new kind of life is both hard to detect and understand.
Robert Reed - Marrow. A long-term mission on a generation ship redefines long-term.
Joe Haldeman - For White Hill. Just another love story on home planet Earth.
Karl Schroeder - Halo. A fight-against-terrorism story with characters who never meet.
Vernor Vinge - Fast Times at Fairmont High - Convinces you to read--or not read--Rainbows End, depending on your taste.
Sarah Zettel - Kinds of Strangers. How do marooned astronauts respond to stress?
This is a particularly good collection--there was not a single story I didn't like. SF readers should scan the table of contents before buying, however, since these stories have all appeared elsewhere. The book's preface and brief introductions to each story add significant value. They contain the usual author bios and pointers to other story collections, novels and series. Each intro also presents each author's definition of "hard SF" and excerpts informatively from the authors' own descriptions of their work. The editors' inclusive definition of hard SF as technology and concept-driven science fiction allows entry to an intriguing variety of stories and perspectives. The authors' definitions enrich this definition and teach us interesting lessons about the evolution of science fiction during the 1990s.
I recommend the book to science fiction readers who enjoy solid stories in this genre. I further recommend it to Kindle and iPhone users who want something good to read during the snippets of found time in their hectic schedules.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
13 reviews
53 of 53 people found the following review helpful
Fantastic 1 volume highlight of the last decade in hard SF
26 Jan 2003
Format:Hardcover
A monumental anthology waith many of the best stories published in the last ten years, including many novellas not easily included in smaller anthologies.
Some particular favorites: "Reasons to be Cheerful" by Greg Egan. A young boy finds himself a little too happy with his life. He has a tumor in his brain that has the side effect of making him happy, even when faced with the news of his approaching death. He undergoes a radical new surgery, but afterward, can he ever be happy again?
Some particular favorites: "Reasons to be Cheerful" by Greg Egan. A young boy finds himself a little too happy with his life. He has a tumor in his brain that has the side effect of making him happy, even when faced with the news of his approaching death. He undergoes a radical new surgery, but afterward, can he ever be happy again?
"Into the Miranda Rift" by G. David Nordley. An exciting new variation on "Journey to the Center of the Earth," except here to journey is through the middle of Uranus' moon.
"Great Wall of Mars" by Alistair Reynolds. A pyrotechnic, breathtaking tour-de-force space opera from one of the most exiting new SF talents.
"Fast Times at Fairmont High" by Vernor Vinge envisions a near future where the junior high science projects of techno-savvy young students can have global repercussions.
"Understand" by Ted Chiang shows how deadly it can be to become smater than everyone else.
"Griffin's Egg" by Michael Swanwick is a captivating depiction of a future lunar society.
"Think Like a Dinosaur" by James Patrick Kelly is both a re-examination of the issues in Tom Godwin's classic "The Cold Equations," and a thoughtful examination into the implications of dealing with alien intelligences who have alien mores and priorities.
"Marrow" by Robert Reed. Humans living and traveling on a gargantuan alien-constructed starship populated by millions of beings invesigate a mystery deep in the center of their own ship, finding there a world stranger than any outside of the ship.
All the storoes in this book range from very good to excellent. There isn't a stinker in the bunch. A worthy addition to any science fiction bookshelf.
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Hard SF Is Not Entirely Dead
19 April 2006
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
If, like me, you lament the state of science fiction today, and if, like me, you long to read stories that will transport you back to the days of the masters of "hard" science fiction--writers like Arthur C. Clarke, Robert A. Heinlein, Hal Clement and Malcolm Jameson--then this thick volume could be just what you're looking for.
In general, I find today's science fiction unreadable. Every once in a while, out of desperation, sheer boredom or an attack of unwarranted optimism, I pick up a new-release SF paperback, or check one out from the library. I am invariably disappointed. Some current SF books I can't even finish, whereas I continue to read the old ones over and over. I can't recall ANY memorable SF books written within the last 20 years. In my humble opinion, there are very few recent books that even begin to compare to the "hard" SF classics like "Space Cadet," "The Deep Range," "Mission of Gravity" or "Bullard of the Space Patrol," to name just a few.
"The Hard SF Renaissance," however, gives me some hope that all is not lost. If you're a fan of "hard" SF, the stories in this book should appeal to you. While I don't agree that they collectively presage a "renaissance" of the "hard" SF style, they are nonetheless all quite good and live up to their billing. I commend this volume to you if you want to read good, "hard" SF without having to pull out an old, dog-eared, brittle 1950s classic from your collection.
In general, I find today's science fiction unreadable. Every once in a while, out of desperation, sheer boredom or an attack of unwarranted optimism, I pick up a new-release SF paperback, or check one out from the library. I am invariably disappointed. Some current SF books I can't even finish, whereas I continue to read the old ones over and over. I can't recall ANY memorable SF books written within the last 20 years. In my humble opinion, there are very few recent books that even begin to compare to the "hard" SF classics like "Space Cadet," "The Deep Range," "Mission of Gravity" or "Bullard of the Space Patrol," to name just a few.
"The Hard SF Renaissance," however, gives me some hope that all is not lost. If you're a fan of "hard" SF, the stories in this book should appeal to you. While I don't agree that they collectively presage a "renaissance" of the "hard" SF style, they are nonetheless all quite good and live up to their billing. I commend this volume to you if you want to read good, "hard" SF without having to pull out an old, dog-eared, brittle 1950s classic from your collection.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Excellent selection of stories, great introductions
6 Jan 2008
Format:Paperback
Don't underestimate the size of this volume! It's almost 1,000 large pages in small print.
Excellent selection of real hard SF stories. An inspiring and challenging read. I found myself alternating between dictionary, encyclopedia and video searches (google video and youtube) in order to try and wrap my head around many of the concepts.
The editors did a truly masterful job in selecting, introducing and ordering the stories to achieve a full immersion into science, politics and futurism. The introductory notes that precede each story are brief, but do a great job of placing the author into the proper scientific and political context. I never realized just what a tight knit club hard SF is.
The focus of most stories is not science alone, however. Most take place in the near future, and in imagining the future, the authors cannot and do not ignore the politics, economics and sociology that would be required to achieve it. Make no mistake, these guys are hard core Libertarians for the most part. Thanks to this book, I am giving money to the Ron Paul campaign!
I also never quite realized that hard SF doesn't confine itself to physics alone. There are stories by biologists, statisticians and geneticists.
If i were a natural sciences teacher, I would require my students to get this book.
I recommend taking your time with this anthology. I paused in my reading of it to check out novels and other stories by a number of the authors included here.
I think of this anthology as a text book, or maybe a syllabus, for the hard science fiction fan.
Excellent selection of real hard SF stories. An inspiring and challenging read. I found myself alternating between dictionary, encyclopedia and video searches (google video and youtube) in order to try and wrap my head around many of the concepts.
The editors did a truly masterful job in selecting, introducing and ordering the stories to achieve a full immersion into science, politics and futurism. The introductory notes that precede each story are brief, but do a great job of placing the author into the proper scientific and political context. I never realized just what a tight knit club hard SF is.
The focus of most stories is not science alone, however. Most take place in the near future, and in imagining the future, the authors cannot and do not ignore the politics, economics and sociology that would be required to achieve it. Make no mistake, these guys are hard core Libertarians for the most part. Thanks to this book, I am giving money to the Ron Paul campaign!
I also never quite realized that hard SF doesn't confine itself to physics alone. There are stories by biologists, statisticians and geneticists.
If i were a natural sciences teacher, I would require my students to get this book.
I recommend taking your time with this anthology. I paused in my reading of it to check out novels and other stories by a number of the authors included here.
I think of this anthology as a text book, or maybe a syllabus, for the hard science fiction fan.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
