Customer Reviews (1)

Heroism in the process of planetary exploration
The short story collection contains:

1. R. Silverberg - Sunrise on Mercury
2. A. C. Clarke - Before Eden (Venus)
3. R. Z. Gallun - Seeds of the dusk (Earth)
4. R. A. Heinlein - The black pits of Luna (Moon)
5. W. M. Miller, Jr - Crucifixus etiam (Mars)
6. C. D. Simak - Desertion (Jupiter)
7. H. Harrison - Pressure (Saturn)
8. S. G. Weinbaum - The planet of doubt (Uranus)
9. A. Panshin - One Sunday in Neptune
10 L. Niven - Wait it out (pluto)

Silverberg's pithy plot examines intelligence than can fulfill wishes.

Clarke's man unwittingly destroys incipient life on Venus.

The longest story, 40 pages, is Gallun's prickly and pessimistic future, where a outer space seeds, Martian spores, a plant, decadently invades Earth. 500 000 years have passed. The remaining humans are living underground are preparing to leave the soon inhabitable Earth, but faith determines otherwise.

Heinlein's man struggles with the alien world.

Miller, who wrote A Canticle for Leibowitz, deals with the issue how destiny is to be changed by their environment.

Simak's study of human transformation to live in Jupiter's gas giant. How human intelligence reaches new levels after the body is no longer human.

Harrison take's idea from heroism of Yuri Gagarin and exmines self-sacrafice under "pressure".

Niven's ship wrecks at Pluto, where the only survival method is to become a human statue; but which, switches on and off like a lighthouse.

One (1) star. Written in 1969 the storied are old fashioned and traditional: about solar system exploration. Many of the stories are jagged. End comes almost too soon to appreciate the spirit of opening space age. The stories are basically about various displays of heroism in the process of planetary exploration. Decayed and muffled. ... Read more

Product Description
The ten chilling stories gathered in this book follow a simple scheme: One is laid on eachof the nine known worlds of our solar system, with a tenth story set on our moon for good measure. "Here, then, are ten stories, several of them more than thirty years old, several fo them jsut written, that portray tomorrow's possible worlds. When we reach those worlds in fact, we will not find them exactly as the writers here predict; but predicition was not the aim of the authors here in quite that sense. ... Read more

Product Description
*** The Phoenix Science Fiction Classics series has been designed for the convenience of students. Special margins provide liberal space for students to take notes. *** These distinctive trade paperbacks have also been priced to make them one of the most affordable critical series in the market today, making them easily accessible to students of all economic means. *** Each book includes notes, critical essays, chronologies, bibliographies and more. *** *** Dejah Thoris, Princess of the red humanoid race on Mars, is captured by the four-armed green 'Tharks.' John Carter, mysteriously transported from Arizona (and now possessing super strength) rescues the Princess resulting in grand romantic adventure. *** One of thegreat pulp science fictions of the early twentieth century, A Princess of Mars inspired many future science fiction writers including Robert A. Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke and Ray Bradbury. Carl Sagan, who read the book as a child, was fascinated by it. A map of Mars, as imagined by Burroughs, hung outside Sagan's offices in Cornell University.*** This edition includes critical essays by acclaimed author and senior lecturer (Arizona State University) Paul Cook and by Alexei and Cory Panshin (adapted from their Hugo-winning work on science fiction, The World Beyond the Hill). ... Read more