The Stellar anthology series seems to have been designed to
counter-balance some of the weird, pretentious New Wave SF
anthologies of the time: this first volume is billed as 'good
old-fashioned stories that are fun to read'. And twenty-four years on from
publication, they do indeed seem a little old-fashioned. But some of them
are still fun to read.
Contents
- Larry Niven. Singularities Make Me Nervous. 1974
- A time-travelling astronaut devises what he thinks is a foolproof way of making a fortune...
- Clifford D. Simak. The Birch Clump Cylinder. 1974
- An alien time machine is discovered at Coon Creek. It could hold the key to a practical star drive, but first someone must switch it off.
- Alan Dean Foster. A Miracle of Small Fishes. 1974
- In a world where fishing has become a well-regulated factory business, a young girl prays for a miracle for her grandfather -- one last sardine catch.
- Milton A. Rothman. Fusion. 1974
- Advances in science and technology don't happen overnight, but only after years of patient and painstaking work.
- Vernor Vinge. The Whirligig of Time. 1974
- A relic from the final World War holds hope for freedom.
- Robert Silverberg. Schwartz Between the Galaxies. 1974
- What is an anthropologist to study on the culture-homogenised Earth of the future?
- R. A. Lafferty. Mr. Hamadryad. 1974
- Things will change drastically when Easter Island finally drifts under the Thumb of God.
- Hal Clement. The Logical Life. 1974
- The planet Omituinen condensed out in the Orion nebula, with no star of its own. Life has evolved in the cold ammonia oceans, but what forms the base of the food chain?
- Gordon R. Dickson. Twig. 1974
- The human girl Twig was raised in the wilds by Plant-Grandfather, whose mere existence threatens the livelihoods of the colonist slash-and-burn farmers.