Review: A Megafifth of Science Fiction
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 7, 2012
This is the fifth Science Fiction Megapack, following the success of the first four volumes,The Science Fiction Megapack: 25 Modern & Classic Tales by Masters,The Second Science Fiction Megapack,The Third Science Fiction Megapack, andThe Fourth Science Fiction Megapack.  There are 25 stories in this collection.Six of the stories were particularly enjoyable to me.  Your mileage may vary.Jay Lake and Ken Scholes' "The Starship Mechanic" opens with Penauch, a many-appendaged alien, working in an otherwise ordinary Borderlands bookstore.  With its ability to repair almost anything, it is surely missed from wherever it came from.Carol Emshwiller's "Grandma" explores the post-retirement lifestyle of a superhero.  I like to think the creators ofThe Incrediblesread this story while doing their background research.Cory Doctorow's "I, Robot" has no relationship to Isaac Asimov's much longerI, Robotbeyond its title.  A policeman and his son become involved with a group of robots.  There is more diversity than one expects.Grania Davis' "Jumping the Line" will appeal to anyone who has stood in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles.  Bi and his parents' family are in line.  It moves slowly across the landscape with no remembered beginning and an unknown, perhaps nonexistent end.  Nothing is more important than keeping your place in line.Alan Nourse's "Circus" is an extended restaurant conversation between two men who have just met.  The first man tells an improbable story of arriving from very, very far away.  The second man believes it.Darrell Schweitzer's "The Fire Eggs" explores a future Earth with a pervasive and inexplicable alien presence.  Large, luminous, floating egg-shaped objects appear all over the planet and just stay in place for decades.  A good explanation does not present itself.This is a very good collection of older science fiction stories.  If you are a science fiction fan, I recommend buying it and reading it.  If your taste runs to more current work, I suggest either Gardner Dozois'The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Ninth Annual Collectionor David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer'sYear's Best SF 17.