F/SF

An anthology of winners of the Hugo award for short fiction and novelettes, edited by Isaac Asimov. There were quite a few of these books covering different year ranges.

The novelettes and short stories in this volume are:
The Dragon Masters by Jack Vance
No Truce with Kings by Poul Anderson
Soldier, Ask Not by Gordon R. Dickson
Repent, Harlequin by Harlan Ellison
The Last Castle by Jack Vance
Neutron Star by Larry Niven

Some have worn more successfully than others. There also seems to have been a big interest in militaristic fiction at the time, given that most of the stories, other than the Ellison and the Niven, concern wars of one kind or another. In the case of the Anderson story and the Dickson, actual formal armies are the main feature.

For me, the two long stories by Jack Vance were least interesting. The first one, The Dragon Masters, with the remnants of humanity living in isolated valleys on a rocky planet which is periodically invaded by another race called the Basics who are bent on the destruction of humans, apart from those they have genetically engineered to serve them in various ways, comes across as rather silly. There is a enclave called the sacerdotes who practice ritual nudity and a form of transcendental meditation and are waiting for the ordinary humans to be wiped out. There are 'dragons' who are various strange creatures, not described very well especially when you are expected to believe that some fight with weapons such as swords etc. The big 'surprise' about them wasn't one to me that they are genetically engineered from Basics whom the humans managed to capture in a previous invasion. Most of the story is about the rivalry between two men who lead different valley communities. The only female character is a kind of ritual prostitute who, when faced with the latest invasion by the Basics, in effect goes to pieces and is treated by one of the male protagonists as a nuisance.

The other Vance story is a little better, dealing with the inhabitants of castles on a future Earth. Most of humanity left Earth long ago and founded various interstellar communities, with the remnant who remained behind taking up a tribal existence. Then about 800 years previously, various aristocratic types returned and set up huge castles where they could live a hedonistic lifestyle supported by various aliens whom they had genetically engineered to serve them as Mecks (mechanics), Peasants and others. Suddenly the Mecks leave the castles, then start besieging each, massacring the inhabitants when they break into each one. (It isn't explained why they don't just stay in each castle and kill the inhabitants without all that bother.) The story deals with the rulers of the final castle which remains. It is rather uneven in its (omniscient) viewpoint as it seems at first to be about a particular non-conformist character who has a bit more sense than the rest, as he isn't loathe to get his hands dirty when survival is at stake, but then switches to another character who is more of an action hero. Women are again very much sidelined and trivialised.

The other stories are more interesting. Anderson's concerns an American civil war in the future, long after a nuclear war has reduced the country to thousands of competing, sometimes co-ooperating, fiefdoms. An outside force decides to interfere and reduce the competition by supporting a faction who wants to reunite the States as a dictatorship, and the story details the progression of the war that follows, mainly from the point of view of Colonel Mackenzie and his son -in-law who find themselves on opposite sides. It is quite an interesting tale with enough characterisation to hold the reader's interest.

Gordon R Dickson's Soldier, Ask Not narrates what happens when a newsman from Earth who has a grudge against a particular planetary society in a future where all humans who left Earth have evolved into specialist types, seeks revenge. Again, there is enough interest in the character conflict and ethical dilemma to hold interest. This story features the Dorsai, the race who have developed into perfect soldiers, who were the subject of many of Dickson's novels.

Ellison's story is a tale of a future society hidebound by clock-driven conformity, extrapolating from what were contemporary trends, and what happens when one individual decides to kick over the traces. It is one of his most famous and prize-winning short stories.

The final story in the collection is also well remembered. By Larry Niven, it concerns one man's attempt to discover why two people who previously tried to investigate a neutron star came to grief.

Although the Vance stories are not of much interest personally, the other stories raised the rating of the collection, overall, to 3 stars. ( )

Well this is annoying. There are so many versions of "HUGO Winners" edited by Isaac Asimov that no one can agree on which version they have. I hope every version has the wonderful Asimov book and story introductions.

My 1973 edition of The HUGO Winners Volume One 1962-1967 was first published by Sphere in 1971. The covers of the 1971 and 1973 editions don't mention 1962 as there was no short story winner for that year. This book includes the following novellas/noveletts/short stories:

1962 (there were no short story selections)
1963 The Dragon Masters by Jack Vance
1964 No Truce With Kings by Poul Anderson
1965 Soldier, Ask Not by Gordon R. Dickson
1966 "Repent Harlequin" said the Ticktockman by Harlan Ellison
1967 The Last Castle by Jack Vance (novelette)
and Neutron Star by Larry Niven (short story)

A comment about the stories. These were not chosen by Asimov. They were the short story winners. I'm a little surprised and saddened that all most all of them were war stories. I'm glad the best Novel winners for these same years were not. That would be creepy. I'm not against good SF war stories but SF is so much more. The Poul Anderson entry is just a reminder that I don't really like his work. Good writing but his stories always read like he wrote a story and then altered it 10% with some impossible stuff to make it a SF. ( )

Jack Vance: Hombres y dragones; Gordon R, Dickson: Soldado, no preguntes; Harlan Ellison: "Arrepiéntete, Arlequín" dijo el señor Tic-Tac; Jack Vance: El último castillo; Larry Niven: Estrella de neutrones

Link to a review on my personal website (might be in Swedish). ( )