New Legends - Softcover

3.36

59 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312862016 ISBN 13: 9780312862015

Publisher: Tor Books, 1995

"Hard" science fiction--SF that takes known scientific principles as its starting point--is, for many readers, the durable core of the field. But it is also accused, of being, as Greg Bear puts it, "a restrictive genre without a soul." Here, Nebula Award winner Bear puts forth the counterargument: an original collection of new SF tales from the cutting edge of the field, each an example of "science fiction with a great soul."

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From Publishers Weekly:

In his introduction, Nebula and Hugo winner Bear makes some grand declarations about SF as "a pretty lofty pulpit from which to scream and shout and dance out semaphores of warning" to society. Questions of cultural clout aside, however, this is a solid anthology of original SF stories. The book opens with Mary Rosenblum's "Elegy," a tale of biomedical research and squid. "A Desperate Calculus," published under physicist and writer Gregory Benford's Sterling Blake pseudonym (coyly described as "a new name with the vigorous voice of a seasoned writer") sketches a sinister relationship between a superflu and the politics of global population control. As Benford, he also has an article, "Old Legends," which is both a reminiscence about scientists such as Edward Teller and a speculation about SF's influence on?and possible responsibility for?atomic research. The piece is rendered even more poignant by Carter Scholz's brilliant "Radiance," which precedes it. These two pieces, along with Poul Anderson's "Scarecrow," a story that hypothosizes a God out of Chaos Theory, are the gems of the collection. Veterans Ursula K. Le Quin, Robert Silverberg and Robert Sheckley contribute new tales, too, rounding out a collection that often exhibits what editor Bear calls the "Sense of Wonder" that fuels the best SF writing.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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