The Good Old Stuff: Adventure Sf in the Grand Tradition
This is the first of two companion anthologies compiled by SF's leading short fiction editor, Gardner Dozois. Although Dozois is notable for tastes that are skewed heavily toward the literary side of the science fiction spectrum, his avowed purpose with this volume is to collect the seminal works of good old-fashioned adventure SF. Dozois has limited his stomping grounds to the years between 1948 and 1971, though the bulk of these stories were first published in the 1950s, a period he calls "the second great Age of the Space Opera." The book starts off with A.E. van Vogt's classic "The Rull" and continues with 16 more adventure stories, culminating with James Tiptree Jr.'s "Mother in the Sky with Diamonds." In between are works by James H. Schmitz, L. Sprague de Camp, Jack Vance, C.M. Kornbluth, Leigh Brackett, Poul Anderson, Gordon R. Dickson, Cordwainer Smith, Brian W. Aldiss, H. Beam Piper, Ursula K. Le Guin, Fritz Leiber, and Roger Zelazny.  AlthoughThe Good Old Stuffmay contain some tough moments for contemporary readers--the tales here are, after all, a product of times when race and gender discrimination were more prominent than they are today--this is an excellent collection of some of the best SF, adventure or otherwise.--Craig E. Engler