From the Aurora Hills Branch Library's sale shelf.

A collection of stories and essays written in the mid-seventies by Nebula Award winners. The two essays were an interesting look into the past and future of science fiction as seen by the authors of science fiction during that time. They saw the potential of the genre and its writers but were not sure if the world could see it. Intriguing glimpse.

Of the stories, I enjoyed the first two the most:

Roger Zelanzy's The Engine at Heartspring's Center where an immortal man-machine goes to die on a planet where people go, voluntarily, to be euthanized. He changes his mind and wanders the beach collecting detritus to sell until a woman asks for his help and a place of sanctuary in order to be given the right to change her mind as well.

If the Stars Are Gods by Gordon Eklund and Gregory Benford follows an astronaut that many believe should have already retired (I think he's only in his 50s). Living and working on the moon Reynolds passes the time alone remembering his glory days, not in an 'oh, the past is where I did all my greatest deeds' but in a 'Is that it?' kind of way. Until first contact occurs and the aliens ask for the man who speaks to the stars. (Oh early sci-fi! I really liked this story but... there was this moment. The moon base director is a woman and I thought 'Yay! Some male authors in the '70s thinking forward, in regards to women, in the future', then this comment about another female on the base: She worked in the administrative section, which meant she slept with most of the men on the base at one time or another. You were so close! So close! :/)

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Starting book for the To the Stars: A Science Fiction Bookbox.

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I'm claiming this paperback from the SF bookbox.

Later: Very good collection here! My favorites include:

"The Engine at Heartspring's Center" by Roger Zelazny, which reminded me of the anime "Casshern Sins" - a robot wandering a post-apocalyptic landscape, though in his case there were darker motives behind it all.

Tom Reamy's "Twilla" is a dark tale of a schoolgirl with a dangerous secret.

"After King Kong Fell" by Philip Jose Farmer is both funny and tragic, a look at what might have been the real-world aftermath of the great ape's death-plunge - in a New York peopled by many characters from fiction; I caught references to Doc Savage and The Shadow (by description, not by name), and may have missed others.

Robert Silverberg's novella "Born With the Dead" was a very odd story, and one I hadn't encountered before - it's set in a world where the recently dead can be "rekindled", restoring life and memories but (possibly) without the souls, or with some other difference that leaves the newly-rekindled quite detached from their previous lives. This has wrenching affects on their surviving loved ones, and part of the story features a man who can't bear to imagine his late-and-rekindled wife wandering the Earth without being able to speak to her. His attempts to meet her in the face of all resistance (including her own) make him seem way too stalkerish to be sympathetic, but perhaps that was the point...

I plan to leave this book in or near the Blue Moon Evolution restaurant while stopping by for dinner; hope someone enjoys the book!

[See other recent releases in NH here.]

*** Released for the 2019 Keep Them Moving release challenge. ***

*** Released for the 2019 Science Fiction release challenge. ***