Synopses & Reviews
Platinum Pohl is the first collection to collect all of the essential works of Frederik Pohl. First and foremost, Pohl is a master of the science fiction short story. For more than fifty years he has been writing incisive, entertaining SF stories, several hundred in all. Even while writing his bestselling triple-crown (Hugo, Nebula, Campbell Award) novel
Gateway and the other Heechee Saga novels, he has always written short fiction.
Now, for the first time, he has gathered together the best of his many stories. Spanning the decades, these tales are in their way a living history of science fiction. Because Frederik Pohl has been on the frontlines of the field since the halcyon days of the late 1930s, and has written short stories in every decade since. And because he has always been a keen observer of the human condition and the world that is shaped by it, his stories reflect the currents of political movements, social trends, major events that have shaken the world . . .
Yet at their core, all his stories are most acutely concerned with people. All sorts of people. Some are people youll love, some youll hate. But you will need to find out what happens to the people who inhabit these stories. Because Frederik Pohl imbues his characters with a depth and individuality that makes them as real as people you see every day. Of course, he also employs a mind-boggling variety of scientific ideas and science fictional tropes with which his characters must interact. And he does it all with seemingly no effort at all. Thats some trick. Not everyone can do that . . . but thats why he was named a Grand Master of Science Fiction by his peers in the Science Fiction Writers of America.
Here are his two Hugo Award winning stories, Fermi and Frost” and The Meeting” (with C. M. Kornbluth), along with such classic novellas as the powerful The Gold at the Starbow's End” and The Greening of Bed-Stuy,” and stories such as Servant of the People,” Shaffery Among the Immortals,” and Growing Up in Edge City,” all finalists for major awards. And dozens of other tales, like the wonderful The Mayor of Mare Tranq” and the provocative The Day the Martians Landed” and many others.
Altogether, a grand collection of thought-provoking, entertaining science fiction by one of the all-time greats!
Frederick Pohl lives in Palatine, Illinois.
Frederik Pohl has won numerous Hugo and Nebula Awards in his long and prolific career. He has written over thirty novels, including such classics as Gateway, Beyond the Blue Event Horizon, and Man Plus. He has served as an award winning editor for SF magazines and book anthologies and is a former president of the Science Fiction Writers or America. Platinum Pohl is the first collection of all the essential short stories of Frederik Pohl. Here are his two Hugo Award winning stories, Fermi and Frost” and The Meeting” (with C. M. Kornbluth), along with such classic novellas as the powerful The Gold at the Starbow's End” and The Greening of Bed-Stuy,” and stories such as Servant of the People,” Shaffery Among the Immortals,” and Growing Up in Edge City,” all finalists for major awards. And dozens of other tales, like the wonderful The Mayor of Mare Tranq” and the provocative The Day the Martians Landed” and many others.
"A thrilling collection of stories spanning Pohl's 50-year career. Featuring memorable characters and deft writing, these tales are must-reads for any serious fan. "The Merchants of Venus" features a vagabond pilot desperate for money for a new liver. "The Gold at the Starbow's End" tells a wonderfully layered story through communiques between a doomed exploratory spaceship and its unenthusiastic funders on Earth. In the poignant "To See Another Mountain," ailing nonagenarian genius Noah Sidorenko discovers that even an old, damaged mind can accomplish incredible feats. The collection ends with the Hugo Award-winning "Fermi and Frost," written near the end of the Cold War, which with horrifying realism demonstrates the effects of a nuclear war on Earth through the experiences of two survivors: an orphaned boy and a SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) scientist. A fine sampler."Kirkus Reviews
"Since beginning his writing career as a teenager in the early 1930s, Pohl has produced so steadily and well that corralling his finest short fiction into one volume is a daunting proposition. Platinum Pohl solves this dilemma by concentrating on award winners and nominees as well as stories out of which his most popular novels were born. The first and longest entry, "The Merchants of Venus," introduces the mysterious, artifact-producing aliens called the Heechee, who became the focus of Pohl's Hugo and Nebula Awardwinning novel Gateway (1977). Other particular standouts include "My Lady Green Sleeves," an account of a bizarre prison rebellion on a world of strictly divided social classes; "The Middle of Nowhere," a quaint Bradbury-like tale penned in 1955 that describes humanity's first encounter with Martians; and the 1986 Hugo winner, "Fermi and Frost," a chilling vision of Earth's final hours during a nuclear war. An essential treasury for every Pohl fan and every sf collection."Carl Hays, Booklist
"Spanning the five decades of SFWA Grand Master Pohl's career, these 30 stories stand out for their gritty, straightforward style and for their insightful ideas about our political, social and ecological future. The opener, "The Merchants of Venus," is an old-fashioned SF adventure yarn, but most of the rest are cautionary tales of environmental and ideological catastrophes. Stories such as "My Lady Green Sleeves" and "Spending a Day at the Lottery Fair" take social attitudes to the extreme and explore what horrible places we might end up and find normal. "The Greening of Bed-Stuy," in which New York City has crumbled to all but dust, shows how a child could still call it home and love it. Not every selection has a point to make. In "The Mapmakers," "Shaffery Among the Immortals" and other "what if" stories, the idea is all that matters. Pohl has won Hugo, Nebula and other major SF awards many times."Publishers Weekly
Table of Contents
Introduction
The merchants of Venus
The things that happen
The high test
My lady green sleeves
The kindly isle
The middle of nowhere
I remember a winter
The greening of Bed-Stuy
To see another mountain
The mapmakers
Spending a day at the lottery fair
The celebrated no-hit inning
Some joys under the star
Servant of the people
Waiting for the Olympians
Criticality
Shaffery among the immortals
The day the icicle works closed
Saucery
The gold at the starbow's end
Growing up in Edge City
The knights of Arthur
Creation myths of the recently extinct
The meeting (with C. M. Kornbluth)
Let the ants try
Speed trap
The day the Martians came
Day million
The mayor of Mare Tranq
Fermi and Frost
Afterword : fifth years and counting
Review
"SFWA Grand Master Pohl's latest is a pure delight, miraculously combining wry adventure and compassionate satire. Pohl believes we can learn to live with extraordinary challenges; his tempered, hard-won faith in humanity makes this book especially satisfying."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review) on The Boy Who Would Live Forever
"An astonishing eyeful, rich and absorbing . . . a feast for Gateway travelers."
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review) on The Boy Who Would Live Forever
"Gateway is one of those rare gems: a deeply human story set against the wonders and beauty of the infinite starry universe. Fred Pohl, Old Master that he is, has broken new ground for the science-fiction novel."
--Ben Bova, Editor, Analog Magazine
"Frederik Pohl, one of the old pros of the genre never takes unnecessary risks. For him, science fiction is a form of play--an excusable indulgence since he plays it better than most people. His new novel is based on a wonderfully satisfying SF premise . . . The Heechee space station--known as Gateway--is the ultimate roulette wheel. The odds are lousy, but the jackpot is so large that there are always gamblers willing to try their luck."
--The New York Times Book Review on Gateway
"The plot combines mystery and adventure with an excellent profile of a very lucky anti-hero. An outstanding work which is highly recommended."
--Library Journal on Gateway
"This is a great tale loaded with adventure, mystery, futuristic technology and emotion--a Grand Master at his finest."
--Charleston, SC Post and Courier on The Far Shore of Time
Synopsis
Platinum Pohl is the first collection to collect all of the essential works of Frederik Pohl. First and foremost, Pohl is a master of the science fiction short story. For more than fifty years he has been writing incisive, entertaining SF stories, several hundred in all. Even while writing his bestselling triple-crown (Hugo, Nebula, Campbell Award) novel
Gateway and the other Heechee Saga novels, he has always written short fiction.
Now, for the first time, he has gathered together the best of his many stories. Spanning the decades, these tales are in their way a living history of science fiction. Because Frederik Pohl has been on the frontlines of the field since the halcyon days of the late 1930s, and has written short stories in every decade since. And because he has always been a keen observer of the human condition and the world that is shaped by it, his stories reflect the currents of political movements, social trends, major events that have shaken the world . . .
Yet at their core, all his stories are most acutely concerned with people. All sorts of people. Some are people you'll love, some you'll hate. But you will need to find out what happens to the people who inhabit these stories. Because Frederik Pohl imbues his characters with a depth and individuality that makes them as real as people you see every day. Of course, he also employs a mind-boggling variety of scientific ideas and science fictional tropes with which his characters must interact. And he does it all with seemingly no effort at all. That's some trick. Not everyone can do that . . . but that's why he was named a Grand Master of Science Fiction by his peers in the Science Fiction Writers of America.
Here are his two Hugo Award winning stories, "Fermi and Frost" and "The Meeting" (with C. M. Kornbluth), along with such classic novellas as the powerful "The Gold at the Starbow's End" and "The Greening of Bed-Stuy," and stories such as "Servant of the People," "Shaffery Among the Immortals," and "Growing Up in Edge City," all finalists for major awards. And dozens of other tales, like the wonderful "The Mayor of Mare Tranq" and the provocative "The Day the Martians Landed" and many others.
Altogether, a grand collection of thought-provoking, entertaining science fiction by one of the all-time greats!
Synopsis
A new compilation of short fiction from the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author includes a never-before-published Heechee story; "Fermi and Frost," his award-winning novella; and other memorable tales that exemplify the best in the science fiction genre. Reprint. 10,000 first printing.
Synopsis
Frederik Pohl, the bestselling author of The Boy Who Would Live Forever, is famous for his novels, but first and foremost, he is a master of the science fiction short story.
For more than fifty years he has been writing incisive, entertaining SF stories, several hundred in all. Even while writing his bestselling triple-crown (Hugo, Nebula, Campbell Award) novel Gateway and the other Heechee Saga novels, he has always written short fiction.
Now, for the first time, he has gathered together the best of his many stories in Platinum Pohl. Spanning the decades, these tales are in their way a living history of science fiction. Because Frederik Pohl has been on the frontlines of the field since the halcyon days of the late 1930s, and has written short stories in every decade since. And because he has always been a keen observer of the human condition and the world that is shaped by it, his stories reflect the currents of political movements, social trends, major events that have shaken the world . . .
Yet at their core, all his stories are most acutely concerned with people. All sorts of people. Some are people you'll love, some you'll hate. But you will need to find out what happens to the people who inhabit these stories. Because Frederik Pohl imbues his characters with a depth and individuality that makes them as real as people you see every day. Of course, he also employs a mind-boggling variety of scientific ideas and science fictional tropes with which his characters must interact. And he does it all with seemingly no effort at all. That's some trick. Not everyone can do that . . . but that's why he was named a Grand Master of Science Fiction by his peers in the Science Fiction Writers of America.
Here are his two Hugo Award winning stories, "Fermi and Frost" and "The Meeting" (with C. M. Kornbluth), along with such classic novellas as the powerful "The Gold at the Starbow's End" and "The Greening of Bed-Stuy," and stories such as "Servant of the People," "Shaffery Among the Immortals," and "Growing Up in Edge City," all finalists for major awards. And dozens of other wonderful tales, like "The Mayor of Mare Tranq" and the provocative "The Day the Martians Landed" and many others.
Altogether, a grand collection of thought-provoking, entertaining science fiction by one of the all-time greats
Synopsis
The crème de la crème of the short fiction of one of the most acclaimed, best-selling science fiction authors of all time
About the Author
Bestselling, multiple Hugo and Nebula Award-winning SF author Frederik Pohl has written over thirty successful novels, has been the award-winning editor of SF magazines and anthologies, and has collaborated on classic SF novels such as The Space Merchants as well as having written such fine solo novels as Gateway, Beyond the Blue Event Horizon and Man Plus. Mr. Pohl is a former president of the Science Fiction Writers of America, and has been active in myriad other ways in the field for many decades. He lives in Palatine, Illinois.