ny retrospective collection claiming to gather some of the greatest science fiction of the 20th century between two covers opens itself up for serious nitpicking, but Masterpieces hits a substantial number of the genre's high points. Among the tales contained herein:
"A Saucer of Loneliness," by Theodore Sturgeon: a beautiful and poetic tale which uses the familiar trope of first contact with alien life to examine the phenomenon of isolated souls reaching out to each other. "Robot Dreams," by Isaac Asimov: in which Dr. Susan Calvin confronts a robot capable of dreaming. "Devolution," by Edmond Hamilton: a wry response to mankind's self-assessed position as nature's greatest creation.
"Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed," by Ray Bradbury: a Mars tale about colonists who find the Red Planet among the many places that leave their mark on immigrants. "Eurema's Dam," by R.A. Lafferty: a wild tall tale examining the phenomenon of the innovator-as-misfit. "Passengers," by Robert Silverberg, which examines how human beings cope with lives disrupted by aliens capable of possessing their bodies at any time. "Inconstant Moon," by Larry Niven: a character-driven end-of-the-world tale set in contemporary Los Angeles.
"Sandkings," by George R.R. Martin: an apocalyptic and horrific EC Comics version of all your mom's arguments against getting you an ant farm. "The Road Not Taken," by Harry Turtledove, which turns the familiar science fiction device of invasion by advanced alien civilizations upside down, positing an invasion by less-advanced aliens. "A Clean Escape," by John Kessel: a morality tale of guilt in the face of apocalypse (which reads uncannily like a particularly good episode of Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone). "One" by George Alec Effinger, which confronts its space-traveling hero with the possibility that man might be alone.
Together with 16 others, by authors ranging from Robert Heinlein to Terry Bisson, the collection provides an excellent case for science fiction as a literary form that matters. Why, then, is it disappointing?
A book defined by what's missing
Though compiling a collection of recognized masterpieces, editor Orson Scott Card was still moved to produce a collection that apologizes for all the stories he was forced to leave out. "The publishers," he notes, "had the foolish belief that you would not pay $70.00 for a 3,000-page book." He produces a list of authors he was unable to include, among them John Varley, Norman Spinrad, Octavia Butler and Lucius Shepherd; to those I would add the unmentioned Philip K. Dick and Robert Sheckley. It's also easy to gripe about any collection of the century's best that fails to include, among others, "Flowers for Algernon," by Daniel Keyes.
Card is correct in noting that these omissions reflect the sheer physical limitations of such a project more than they can possibly reflect the quality to be found in the field. Anybody with prior knowledge of science fiction will be tempted to gripe ad infinitum at the stories left out—but that's more a function of the volume's portentous title than it is of the book's overwhelming quality. The collection provides a wealth of stories that exemplify science fiction's potential to meld ideas and character; the very fact that it's even possible to complain about stories left out speaks well for the field's achievement as a whole.
Among the many other included stories that deserve special citation here: "The Tunnel Under the World," by Frederik Pohl, a nightmare of advertising's determination to manipulate us; the justifiably oft-reprinted "'Repent, Harlequin!', said the Ticktockman," by Harlan Ellison, a verbal tour de force dramatizing the price paid for rebellion; "The Nine Billion Names of God," by Arthur C. Clarke, with its smashing final line; "Tourists" by Lisa Goldstein, which resonates with Bradbury's tale as a portrait of the distant land that wreaks cataclysmic changes on those who visit it; and the searing, over-the-top brilliant "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas," by Ursula K. Le Guin—a story with no characters and no plot, that nevertheless strikes hard enough to leave the reader shaking.
