The Road to Science Fiction: From Heinlein to Here (Volume 3) (Road to Science Fiction (Scarecrow Press))

The Road to Science Fiction is a large 6 volume collection of much of the canonical of Science Fiction with notes by teacher and author James Gunn. James Gun collected this and his annotations for use in a college class on science fiction he taught. The selections of material are excellent. The notes are at once historical and sociological and Gunn's opinions. The annotations are informative and helpful to a student of science fiction. The 6 volumes are in chronological sequence and can be purchased separately.For amassing a large amount of sci fi literature, this is an excellent collection.

Excellent collection of short stories

Each of these stories were wonderful! This was an assigned book and I am so grateful to that teacher! It's surprising how science fiction has progressed over the years, and Road to Science Fiction 3 definitely offers some wonderful insights!

I ordered this item for a Science Fiction class. Out of the four books, this is the only one that showed up in the mail and it is missing two short stories that were ripped out of the book. Other than the missing pages, it's been useful.

Some glitch with Amazon's review process somehow combines volumes 2 and 3; I'll combine my reviews here:Grand Master of SF and Hall of Fame inductee James Gunn's Road to SF series remains the go-to contextual anthology for the serious SF reader or teacher looking for the best textbook to use for an in-depth course on the genre's history, movements, and important figures.Volume 2 covers the blossoming of the genre from before it earned its name through the start of the Golden Age.Volume 3 remains my favorite in the series, covering the Golden Age through the 1980s. This (well, the old paperback edition) was the first book I ever bought new with my teenage dishwashing money!No serious SF library is complete without this series. It's like a self-contained course in SF, because that's how Gunn envisioned them!I own a set of the original paperbacks as well as the updated Scarecrow edition (which I bought before its new, low price).

Collection of arguably the most significant short science fiction stories of the period 1941 to 1972.Contents:1 * On the Road to Science Fiction: From Heinlein to Here * (1979) * essay by James E. Gunn25 * "All You Zombies . . ." * (1959) * shortstory by Robert A. Heinlein (Nominated, 1980 Balrog Award)40 * Reason * [Mike Donovan (Robot)] * (1941) * shortstory by Isaac Asimov59 * Desertion * [City] * (1944) * shortstory by Clifford D. Simak73 * Mimsy Were the Borogoves * (1943) * novelette by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore [as by Lewis Padgett ] (Basis of film, The Last Mimzy; Science Fiction Hall of Fame story)107 * October 2026--The Million-Year Picnic * (1946) * shortstory by Ray Bradbury119 * Thunder and Roses * (1947) * novelette by Theodore Sturgeon143 * That Only a Mother * (1948) * shortstory by Judith Merril (Science Fiction Hall of Fame story)155 * Brooklyn Project * (1948) * shortstory by William Tenn168 * Coming Attraction * (1950) * shortstory by Fritz Leiber (Nominated, 2001 Retro Hugo Award, Best Short Story of 1950; Science Fiction Hall of Fame story)181 * The Sentinel * (1951) * shortstory by Arthur C. Clarke (Partial basis for 2001: A Space Odyssey)195 * Sail On! Sail On! * (1952) * shortstory by Philip José Farmer207 * Critical Factor * (1953) * shortstory by Hal Clement224 * Fondly Fahrenheit * (1954) * novelette by Alfred Bester (Science Fiction Hall of Fame story)246 * The Cold Equations * (1954) * novelette by Tom Godwin (Science Fiction Hall of Fame story)273 * The Game of Rat and Dragon * [The Instrumentality of Mankind] * (1955) * shortstory by Cordwainer Smith290 * Pilgrimage to Earth * (1956) * shortstory by Robert Sheckley304 * Who Can Replace a Man? * (1958) * shortstory by Brian W. Aldiss316 * Harrison Bergeron * (1961) * shortstory by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.326 * The Streets of Ashkelon * (1962) * shortstory by Harry Harrison343 * The Terminal Beach * (1964) * novelette by J. G. Ballard367 * Dolphin's Way * (1964) * shortstory by Gordon R. Dickson387 * Slow Tuesday Night * (1965) * shortstory by R. A. Lafferty398 * Day Million * (1966) * shortstory by Frederik Pohl407 * We Can Remember It for You Wholesale * (1966) * novelette by Philip K. Dick (Basis of film, Total Recall)431 * I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream * (1967) * shortstory by Harlan Ellison (Winner, 1968 Hugo Award)449 * Aye, and Gomorrah. . . * (1967) * shortstory by Samuel R. Delany (Winner, 1967 Nebula Award. Nominated, 1968 Hugo Award)462 * The Jigsaw Man * [Known Space] * (1967) * shortstory by Larry Niven (Nominated, 1968 Hugo Award)476 * Kyrie * (1968) * shortstory by Poul Anderson (Nominated, 1968 Nebula Award)490 * Masks * (1968) * shortstory by Damon Knight (Nominated, 1968 Nebula Award, 1969 Hugo Award)503 * Stand on Zanzibar (Excerpt) * (1968) * short fiction by John Brunner (Excerpt from novel; novel won 1969 British Science Fiction Award, 1969 Hugo Award, 1973 Prix Apollo.)519 * The Big Flash * (1969) * novelette by Norman Spinrad (nominated, 1969 Nebula Award)543 * Sundance * (1969) * shortstory by Robert Silverberg560 * The Left Hand of Darkness (Excerpt) * (1979) * short fiction by Ursula K. Le Guin (excerpt from novel; novel won 1969 Nebula Award, 1970 Hugo Award, 1995 James Tiptree, Jr. Award)577 * When It Changed * (1972) * shortstory by Joanna Russ (Winner, 1972 Nebula Award, 1995 James Tiptree, Jr. Award)588 * The Engine at Heartspring's Center * (1974) * shortstory by Roger Zelazny (Nominated, 1974 Nebula Award)600 * Tricentennial * (1976) * shortstory by Joe Haldeman (Winner, 1977 Hugo Award, 1977 Locus Poll Award)620 * Index * (1979)

I enjoyed this collection, the third in the series, soon to be joined by Volume 4, 'From Here to Forever'. I can honestly say there are no duds among these stories. Naturally I have my favourites, among them 'Dolphin's Way' by Gordon R Dixon which concerns dolphins, humans and extra-terrestrial intelligence - although earth's civilisation has mastered technology, it is the communications system evolved by merging movement and sound to produce an infinitely varied language in dolphins which interests these highly benevolent ETs. I found myself drawn to a number of the writers here, particularly those that explored the possibility of different forms of intelligence in the Galaxy and beyond. Robert Silverberg's 'Sundance' was a haunting exploration of an alien life form on a planet ripe for exploitation (some themes are too good to use only once and this theme has been explored differently by numerous writers, including the screenwriter for the recent blockbuster Avatar), But for me it was the story by Joanna Russ: 'When It Changed', that was the sharpest, the most anxiety-driven story, telling of a society built upon female values, confronted by new arrivals. This is the story that will stay with me longest. I was disappointed that out of the 36 stories here only three were written by women, a ratio suggesting tokenism. This might not be the place to mention this, because I don't know who in America is writing science fiction. In Britain I would be more confident because more women than ever now write science fiction. I would hope that a British version of this anthology would find room for writers like C J Cherryh, Racoona Sheldon, Connie Willis, Gwyneth Jones and new younger writers such as Susan Price, Alex Bell and Scarlett Thomas, although it may be some of these writers might be considered to be very much on the speculative edge of science fiction, that's where you'll find them because that's where the true edge lies. Let's hope the fourth volume rights the balance.

A great selection of science fiction tales to illustrate the period in question. Almost inevitably if you are choosing the best then a significant number of them are going to be stories that are already very familiar to many fans of science fiction literature. However they are so good that I found myself taking the time to reread all but one of those tales that I had read before (and I very rarely reread any fiction).