Review: The original SF Megapack (with 5 stories replaced)
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 6, 2013
UPDATED: This was originally released in 2011 as "The Science Fiction Megapack," at that time a single title, not the initial volume in a series of SF Megapacks which it has ipso facto become. Hence, the word "First" has been retroactively added to its title to distinguish it from the others, all of which are now enumerated. But there is also a more significent change; five stories were removed. Twenty of the original 25 stories remain, but gone are "Arena" by Fredric Brown, "Shambleau" by C.L.Moore, "Little Black Bag" by Kornbluth, "Monsters of Moyen" by Burks, and "Egocentric Orbit" by Cory. (Of the five, the first three were particularly noteworthy.) These have been replaced by "Unknown Things" by Bretnor, the novel-length "Captives of the Flame" by Samuel R. Delaney (which, alone, sells elsewhere in the Kindle store for $.99 or more), "Sentiment, Inc." by Poul Anderson, "Riya's Foundling" by Budrys, and "Jubilee" by Lupoff.Oddly, this Megapack still ALSO appears in the Kindle Store under its original title, but the content has been similarly altered and is now identical to this. (The pre-2013 reviews still attached to THAT title reflect the presence of the original story content, so if you go there and read them, be aware that their praise doesn't pertain specifically to the revision.)There are bound to be some differences of opinion as to whether or not the replacement stories are inferior to, equal to, or superior to the ones now gone. I am not familiar with four of the new stories (though I am, their authors, having read and enjoyed other stories by them), but I AM familiar with the fifth, "Captives of the Flame," and did not particularly enjoy it when I first read it many years ago as half of an Ace-Double paperback.FYI: "Little Black Bag" is currently to be found in the collection "Eight Worlds of C.M. Kornbluth" for $.99 by this same publisher (Wildside Press); "Arena" is in "The Fredric Brown Megapack"; the very short "Egocentric Orbit" is now in SF Megapack #6; and "Monsters of Moyen" is in the free, public domain issue of "Astounding Stories" (April, 1930). I haven't yet located "Shambleau" elsewhere in the Kindle Store or on Gutenberg.Having said all that, we must nevertheless judge the current edition for what it now IS rather than for what it once WAS. The present edition currently offers a variety of enjoyable stories by some well-known SF writers. Having previously read 21 of the 25 stories that constitute this new edition, I can state that these tales are all entertaining, and for a mere dollar, not only is this a tremendous value, but it will provide many hours of reading pleasure to those who appreciate older SF. (For those who may be interested, I have commented on the value of older SF in my review for the other edition of this work, under its "non-first" title.)My rating for the original edition was 5-stars based on the quantity, variety, and overall quality of the story content in a very low-priced, well-formatted ebook; I have reluctantly rated this current edition one lower due to my continued inability to detect a TOC in my samples. (Be sure to sample it and see for yourself.) WITH a TOC (and judged apart from the previous edition) it would rate 5-stars.