writing – Page 2 – Classics of Science Fiction

Posted on August 5, 2025August 5, 2025 by jameswharris · 10 Comments

1947: ROCKET SHIP GALILEO by Robert A. Heinlein

In The Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell claims that successful people often grew up with mentors. I never had one. Looking back, I could have used Robert A. Heinlein as my mentor, because his books for young people gave a great deal of advice. Unfortunately, I ignored his wisdom.

I’ve always been embarrassed to recommend Rocket Ship Galileo to science fiction fans because it’s so dated, unrealistic, and naive. Yet, I’ve enjoyed reading it several times over my lifetime. This 1947 novel for kids sets the stage for much of science fiction to come. Rocket Ship Galileo was Robert A. Heinlein’s first published novel. It was written in 1946, just a year after the war, and published by Charles Scribner’s Sons. That was quite a coup for Heinlein, since science fiction was just starting to be published by fan presses, and his first book was coming from the same publisher as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Thomas Wolfe.

Heinlein’s writing is several steps up from most science fiction being written in 1947, but Rocket Ship Galileo is not much more than an updated Tom Swift novel. The story is set in the late 1950s, when Heinlein speculates that commercial rockets have been established for transporting freight and passengers. Military jets were being tested in 1947, but there were no commercial jets, so Heinlein expected rocket technology to be the winning technology.

Heinlein based his speculation on Werner von Braun’s rockets and our use of atomic bombs in 1945. However, I thought Heinlein was overly naive and incredibly unrealistic to suggest that three high school students and one Manhattan Project scientist could retrofit a commercial chemical rocket with an atomic drive and fly to the Moon. That’s why I find the book embarrassing to recommend to modern readers. Even more embarrassing are the Nazis found hiding on the Moon.

I first read Rocket Ship Galileo in 1964. This was just before the Project Gemini manned missions in 1965. It was obvious that three teenagers and an adult could never build a rocket in one summer capable of traveling to the Moon. I was in the 8th grade. That kind of belief was common in the Tom Swift and Tom Swift, Jr. books I read in the 5th grade. I should have been savvy enough in 1964, at age 13, to quit reading Rocket Ship Galileo after a few pages. Why didn’t I? And why have I read it another four times since then?

In the fall of 1964, I loved the new TV show Gilligan’s Island, but whenever I watch an episode of it today, I wonder if my brain was damaged as a teenager. Why wasn’t I more discerning about what I read and watched? However, I was a dumbass kid of twelve and thirteen when I first read Heinlein’s fourteen novels for young adults. (I’m adding in Starship Troopers and Podkayne of Mars to the twelve from Charles Scribner’s Sons.)

This is going to sound weird. I now consider embracing science fiction as a kid was psychologically similar to becoming religious. Accepting fantastic science fiction beliefs gave me the same comforts as accepting Jesus. I just wanted to travel to the heavens before I died.

Now Heinlein wasn’t trying to be irrational or promote silly ideas. Rocket Ship Galileo is full of scientific digressions, also called info dumps. I felt Heinlein was speculating as scientifically as possible with what people knew in 1947. He uses his own ideas about the possibilities of applied atomic power. But he doesn’t think things through. Heinlein understood that radioactivity could superheat fuel and create a more powerful exhaust than chemical combustion. However, to suggest liquid zinc or mercury as a rocket fuel is insane. Did they have no concept of pollution back in 1947?

Heinlein also understood that computers would be used to navigate to the Moon. He references ENIAC, built in 1945, the first general-purpose digital computer.

Because of rockets, computers, and atomic bombs in 1945, the guiding philosophy of science fiction became, if we can do this now, why can’t we do something like it in the future? Heinlein was leading the charge for science fiction to speculate and extrapolate. The twelve Heinlein juveniles, published from 1947 until 1958, became my gospels and epistles to a religion founded on science fiction. Heinlein became my guru, my substitute father, yet I missed all his advice that could have been considered mentoring.

All the Heinlein juveniles advocated studying science and mathematics, especially math. I read these books in the mid-1960s, believing I’d grow up and travel into space in the 1970s and 1980s. But I didn’t follow Heinlein’s guidance. In the 1920s, Heinlein had worked hard at school, making his way through the Naval Academy at Annapolis. Heinlein repeatedly emphasized studying.

Most Christians want easy Christianity. All they want to do to get to heaven and have everlasting life is to say, “I believe.” I was no better in my approach to science fiction. I have read several accounts from rocket scientists who claimed Heinlein inspired them to become who they were. There are millions like me, who aren’t rocket scientists, who also read Heinlein.

I’ve criticized some science fiction stories for using comic book science. You know the kind, exposure to Z-rays leads to superpowers. In the early years of science fiction, the public considered it moronic trash. And kids who loved it justified reading science fiction to their parents, claiming they learned science from science fiction. The frequency of science lecture infodumps in the Heinlein juveniles is high. They were respected by librarians and teachers. Ultimately, their appeal was adventure. They were crack for geeks. They preached that humanity’s manifest destiny was exploring space. Each book took readers further away from Earth. (Chart provided by CoPilot.)

Year	Title	Primary Setting	Scope of Exploration
1947	Rocket Ship Galileo	Earth ↔ Moon	First lunar mission; atomic propulsion
1948	Space Cadet	Earth ↔ Solar System	Venus and outer planets via military service
1949	Red Planet	Mars	Colonial life and rebellion
1950	Farmer in the Sky	Ganymede (Jupiter moon)	Terraforming & settlement life
1951	Between Planets	Earth ↔ Venus	Interplanetary conflict and diplomacy
1952	The Rolling Stones	Earth ↔ Mars ↔ Jupiter system	Freewheeling space travel by a family
1953	Starman Jones	Earth ↔ Deep Space	Galactic navigation and far-flung trade routes
1954	The Star Beast	Earth ↔ Galactic Civilizations	Alien ambassador pet and interstellar law
1955	Tunnel in the Sky	Unknown planet	Survival and societal formation via teleportation
1956	Time for the Stars	Earth ↔ Deep Space	Relativistic travel and twin-linked telepathy
1957	Citizen of the Galaxy	Various worlds in Galactic Empire	Slavery, social caste, and galactic society
1958	Have Space Suit—Will Travel	Earth ↔ Pluto ↔ Intergalactic Tribunal	Kidnap into deep space; galactic ethics debate

While rereading Rocket Ship Galileo this time, I noticed many of Heinlein’s lifelong pet ideas, which Heinlein elaborated on in his adult science fiction in the 1960s. Heinlein wanted to be a philosopher and teacher. The Heinlein philosophy is gentle in these books for young people. One of my pet theories is that Heinlein was influenced by Ayn Rand in her 1957 novel, Atlas Shrugged. After that, he switched to writing novels for adults, and the Heinlein philosophy became more pronounced.

Heinlein’s core philosophy in the twelve juveniles is that space exploration is humanity’s manifest destiny. In Rocket Ship Galileo, the first of the twelve, is about going to the Moon. In Have Space Suit-Will Travel, the twelfth and last, it’s about travel across the galaxy. Each new book goes further out into space, expanding on Heinlein’s pet ideas. Strangely, after the juveniles, Heinlein turns to politics in his adult science fiction novels. Space travel is part of these stories, but it’s no longer being promoted. It’s just accepted.

I first read the twelve Heinlein juveniles just after Project Mercury and just before Project Gemini. I had followed all the manned flights of Project Mercury. Was I a space enthusiast because of NASA or Heinlein? When Heinlein began his series for boys in 1946, few people thought about actual space travel. Science fiction was considered that Buck Rogers stuff, and if you’ve seen any of the Buck Rogers serials, you know that’s a put down.

Heinlein does contribute to a long line of books speculating about the first mission to the Moon. Verne imagined a giant gun. Wells imagined anti-gravity. Heinlein imagined rockets evolving from V-2s. Heinlein just didn’t imagine how difficult the task would be to send a human to the Moon but had anyone else. I asked CoPilot and got this answer:

Era	Title & Author	Mode of Travel	Notable Themes
2nd century CE	True History by Lucian of Samosata	Whirlwind	Satire of fantastical travel tales
1634	Somnium by Johannes Kepler	Lunar demons during eclipses	Early scientific speculation; heliocentrism
1638	The Man in the Moone by Francis Godwin	Migrating swans	Utopian society; weightlessness
1657	States and Empires of the Moon by Cyrano de Bergerac	Fireworks & dew bottles	Satirical science; proto-rocketry
1705	The Consolidator by Daniel Defoe	Winged chariot	Political satire; lunar governance
1835	The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall by Edgar Allan Poe	Balloon	Comic realism; early space travel logic
1865	From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne	Space cannon	Technological optimism; post-Civil War science
1901	The First Men in the Moon by H.G. Wells	Antigravity material (Cavorite)	Alien civilizations; imperialism
1926	The Moon Maid by Edgar Rice Burroughs	Spaceship	Hollow Moon; hidden civilizations
1947	Rocket Ship Galileo by Robert A. Heinlein	Atomic rocket	Youthful ingenuity; Cold War anxieties
1950	The Man Who Sold the Moon by Robert A. Heinlein	Corporate-funded rocket	Capitalism and space exploration
1956	Mission to the Moon by Lester del Rey	Rocket	Realistic Moon landing prep
1977	Inherit the Stars by James P. Hogan	Archaeological discovery	Human origins; Moon as historical site

Rocket Ship Galileo will probably not appeal to modern science fiction readers. But for science fiction fans who study the evolution of the genre, is it worth reading? I was surprised by how many things I had forgotten about the novel. All I remembered was the Nazis on the Moon. I had forgotten all the details about creating an atomic rocket engine based on nuclear thermal propulsion, ballistics, space navigation, space suits, autopilots, airlocks, weightlessness, space sickness, computers, radio communication, and more.

After Apollo 11, reading books about the first landing on the Moon is problematic. However, Mary Robinette Kowal’s Lady Astronaut Universe series and Apple TV’s series For All Mankind have succeeded uniquely by creating retro histories. Because I grew up reading pre-NASA science fiction, I can still enjoy stories that are obviously dated because of nostalgia. I also love reading old science fiction because I love studying how the genre evolved.

But is Rocket Ship Galileo really worth reading five times over sixty-plus years? I imprinted on the Heinlein juveniles like baby ducks imprint on their mother. I loved these books so much that I ordered all twelve in hardback directly from Charles Scribner’s Sons with my first paycheck at age sixteen in 1967. I still have them.

At 73, I’m trying to understand how my personality was created. There are the genes I inherited from my parents. And my upbringing and education. I also believe a great deal of who I am came from pop culture – books, movies, TV shows, and music. One of the biggest factors was science fiction. When I reread old favorite books from childhood, I look for clues about how my personality formed.

I’m forced to ask myself: Did I really believe I would go into space someday? I thought I did, but was it a realistic belief? Do kids really believe they will grow up to be football players, or rock stars, or astronauts?

Here’s the thing. If I truly paid attention to Heinlein’s books, I should have modeled myself after his characters. I didn’t. I half-ass did. I read easy popular science books. I built Estes model rockets. I even tried to grind my own telescope mirror but failed. However, I mostly read science fiction. The Heinlein characters didn’t read science fiction.

Today, we have the Maker Culture. That’s what Heinlein was really promoting. Heinlein wanted his readers to become junior scientists. Reading his books made me fantasize about doing that. Instead, I just read more science fiction.

I’ve often pondered how many science fiction books anyone should read. Taking psychedelics back in the 1960s opened the doors of perception. Science fiction was like that. But like people asked back in the 1960s, how many times do you need to go through the doors of perception?

In retrospect, I feel I read too much science fiction and didn’t do enough of other things. I’ve often wondered what my life would have been like if I had stopped with Have Space Suit-Will Travel and gotten busy doing things. Rereading Rocket Ship Galileo reminds me of what I wanted to be as a kid, but reveals I took the wrong path.

James Wallace Harris, 8/5/25

Posted on July 24, 2025November 3, 2025 by jameswharris · 2 Comments

SCIENCE FICTION: THE 100 BEST NOVELS by David Pringle

I’ve been reading science fiction for sixty-three years, and it’s getting difficult to find anything that feels new and different. However, my problem is more than just being old and jaded. I’ve discovered that I missed or ignored many kinds of science fiction books that didn’t appeal to me for one reason or another. Late in life, I’ve discovered that I need to read science fiction outside my comfort zone.

I recently took another look at David Pringle’s Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels. Pringle, a Scottish critic and editor, selected one hundred science fiction novels published from 1949 until 1984 to recommend. I knew his list was a good one because I had already read over sixty of the books on it. I figured the ones I haven’t read should be equally good. I’ve read and reviewed two so far: The Inheritors by William Golding and The Inverted World by Christopher Priest.

Both of those novels were outstanding, but more importantly, they were different, with stories and writing techniques lying outside my usual tastes. I’ve now started No Enemy but Time by Michael Bishop. It’s proving to be equally good and different.

I’m buddy reading these books with my old friend Mike. Having someone to discuss books with is important. So is reading slowly and taking notes. I’ve decided to read or reread all the books on Pringle’s list.

This project is also a way to reevaluate a lifetime of science fiction reading. I plan to review each title when I finish that book.

The list below of Pringle’s recommended SF novels was copied from Wikipedia. However, Pringle’s book is $1.99 on Amazon (Kindle edition), and the essays recommending each novel are well worth reading.

Most of these books are still in print, but not always. Some are in very cheap eBook editions. I wish all were available as audiobooks, but they are not. I consider that a kind of criticism. Any true classic should be in print as a hardback, paperback, eBook, and audiobook.

The title and author link take you back to Wikipedia for those entries. If I give a date, it’s the last date I read the book. If I put a number in parentheses, it’s the number of times I remember reading the book. If I don’t provide a date but include a number, it’s because I read it before 1983, when I started keeping my reading log. The Buy link will direct you to the least expensive edition on Amazon. It will also allow you to view the availability of different editions. Bolded titles are unread titles I hope to read before I start rereading the others.

By reading Pringle’s essay, the Wikipedia entry, and the content and comments on the Amazon page, it’s possible to judge how these books are remembered since Pringle created his list in 1985, and to decide if they are worth buying and reading. Many of these books are still discussed by book reviewers on YouTube. But many others are forgotten.

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (1949) – 12/31/13 (2) – Buy
Earth Abides by George R. Stewart (1949) – 4/12/10 (3) – Buy
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (1950) – 1/9/15 (3) – Buy
The Puppet Masters by Robert A. Heinlein (1951) – 9/2/93) (3) – Buy
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham (1951) – 6/3/12 – Buy
Limbo by Bernard Wolfe (1952) – Buy
The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester (1953) – 2/8/18 (2) – Buy
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1953) – 10/30/05 (2) – Buy
Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke (1953) – 12/23/08 (3) – Buy
The Paradox Men by Charles L. Harness (1953) – Buy
Bring the Jubilee by Ward Moore (1953) – (1) – Buy
The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth (1953) – 11/26/08 (2) – Buy
Ring Around the Sun by Clifford D. Simak (1953) – Buy
More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon (1953) – 3/13/09 (2) – Buy
Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement (1954) – 12/24/15 (1) – Buy
A Mirror for Observers by Edgar Pangborn (1954) – 11/24/24 (2) – Buy
The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov (1955) – Buy
The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett (1955) – 10/7/13 (1) – Buy
The Inheritors by William Golding (1955) – 7/7/25 (1) – Buy
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester (1956) – (1) – Buy
The Death of Grass by John Christopher (1956) – 3/10/20 (1) – Buy
The City and the Stars by Arthur C. Clarke (1956) – (1) – Buy
The Door into Summer by Robert A. Heinlein (1957) – 8/1/06 (5) – Buy
The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham (1957) – (1) – Buy
Non-Stop by Brian Aldiss (1958) – 2/21/15 (1) – Buy
A Case of Conscience by James Blish (1958) – 12/15/08 (2) – Buy
Have Space Suit—Will Travel by Robert A. Heinlein (1958) – 4/30/17 (7) – Buy
Time Out of Joint by Philip K. Dick (1959) – 2/2/24 (2) – Buy
Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank (1959) – 8/21/11 (1) – Buy
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr. (1959) – 9/8/11 (1) – Buy
The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (1959) – 5/7/9 (1) – Buy
Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys (1960) – (2) – Buy
Venus Plus X by Theodore Sturgeon (1960) – Buy
Hothouse by Brian Aldiss (1962) – 11/9/24 (2) – Buy
The Drowned World by J. G. Ballard (1962) – 12/4/16 (1) – Buy
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (1962) – (1) – Buy
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick (1962) – 12/27/15 (3) – Buy
Journey Beyond Tomorrow by Robert Sheckley (1962) – Buy
Way Station by Clifford D. Simak (1963) – 10/7/08 (2) – Buy
Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (1963) – Buy
Greybeard by Brian Aldiss (1964) – 10/25/24 (1) – Buy
Nova Express by William S. Burroughs (1964) – Buy
Martian Time-Slip by Philip K. Dick (1964) – 2/11/10 (3) – Buy
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick (1965) – 10/24/08 (2) – Buy
The Wanderer by Fritz Leiber (1965) – Buy
Norstrilia by Cordwainer Smith (1965) – Buy
Dr. Bloodmoney by Philip K. Dick (1965) – 2/14/22 (2) – Buy
Dune by Frank Herbert (1965) – 4/11/09 (2) – Buy
The Crystal World by J. G. Ballard (1966) – 12/22/24 (1) – Buy
Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison (1966) (1) – Buy
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (1966) – (1) – Buy
The Dream Master by Roger Zelazny (1966) – (1) – Buy
Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner (1968) – 1/29/16 (3) – Buy
Nova by Samuel R. Delany (1968) – 11/14/14 (2) – Buy
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick (1968) – 4/15/08 (4) – Buy
Camp Concentration by Thomas M. Disch (1968) – 3/10/25 (2) – Buy
The Final Programme by Michael Moorcock (1968) – Buy
Pavane by Keith Roberts (1968) – 4/3/16 (1) – Buy
Heroes and Villains by Angela Carter (1969) – Buy
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (1969) – (1) – Buy
The Palace of Eternity by Bob Shaw (1969) – Buy
Bug Jack Barron by Norman Spinrad (1969) – (1) – Buy
Tau Zero by Poul Anderson (1970) – (1) – Buy
Downward to the Earth by Robert Silverberg (1970) – 8/26/17 (3) – Buy
The Year of the Quiet Sun by Wilson Tucker (1970) – 5/13/12 (1) – OOP
334 by Thomas M. Disch (1972) – Buy
The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe (1972) – 6/25/18 (1) – Buy
The Dancers at the End of Time by Michael Moorcock (1972) – Buy
Crash by J. G. Ballard (1973) – Buy
Looking Backward, from the Year 2000 by Mack Reynolds (1973) – OOP
The Embedding by Ian Watson (1973) – Buy
Walk to the End of the World by Suzy McKee Charnas (1974) – Buy
The Centauri Device by M. John Harrison (1974) – Buy
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin (1974) – (1) – Buy
Inverted World by Christopher Priest (1974) – 7/21/25 (1) – Buy
High Rise by J.G. Ballard (1975) – Buy
Galaxies by Barry N. Malzberg (1975) – 7/22/22 (1) – Buy
The Female Man by Joanna Russ (1975) – Buy
Orbitsville by Bob Shaw (1975) – Buy
The Alteration by Kingsley Amis (1976) – Buy
Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy (1976) – (1) – Buy
Man Plus by Frederik Pohl (1976) – 8/30/96 (1) – Buy
Michaelmas by Algis Budrys (1977) – Buy
The Ophiuchi Hotline by John Varley (1977) – 5/18/85 (1) – Buy
Miracle Visitors by Ian Watson (1978) – Buy
Engine Summer by John Crowley (1979) – Buy
On Wings of Song by Thomas M. Disch (1979) – Buy
The Walking Shadow by Brian Stableford (1979) – Buy
Juniper Time by Kate Wilhelm (1979) – OOP
Timescape by Gregory Benford (1980) – 12/22/14 (3) – Buy
The Dreaming Dragons by Damien Broderick (1980) – OOP
Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler (1980) – Buy
Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban (1980) – Buy
The Complete Roderick by John Sladek (1980) – Buy
The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe (1980) – Buy
The Unreasoning Mask by Philip José Farmer (1981) – Buy
Oath of Fealty by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle (1981) – Buy
No Enemy But Time by Michael Bishop (1982) – Buy
The Birth of the People’s Republic of Antarctica by John Calvin Batchelor (1983) – Buy
Neuromancer by William Gibson (1984) – 5/8/85 (1) – Buy

JWH

Posted on July 15, 2025 by jameswharris · 2 Comments

“Sooner or Later or Never Never” by Gary Jennings

What exactly is fantasy? “Sooner Or Later Or Never Never” by Gary Jennings has no magic, no fantastic creatures. Its setting is present-day Australia. The story is both comic and absurd. Yet, it’s based on a somewhat realistic premise. Yes, the characters and plot are made up, but so is most fiction. I can find no reason to call this a fantasy. I assume Edward L. Ferman published it in the May 1972 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction because he admired the creative prose — and he had the power to publish it.

Gary Jennings (1928-1999) is known for writing historical fiction, but also published many stories in F&SF. You can read the story online here.

“Sooner or Later or Never Never” is told as a letter to The Rev. Orville Dismey, Dean of Missionary Vocations, at the Southern Primitive Protestant Seminary in Grobian, Virginia. Crispin Mobey narrates his effort to bring Christ to the Anula tribe in the Australian outback. Mobey was inspired by a quote from The Golden Bough by Sir James Frazer. The quote describes a ritual Frazer witnessed. Mobey wants to use that ritual to bring Christianity to a rather primitive tribe.

I’ve read “Sooner or Later or Never Never” before, but I’m not sure where and how. I don’t normally read this kind of fiction. However, the prose is quite entertaining. Normally, I dislike dialect, but Jennings captures outback Aussie hilariously. I wish I had an audiobook version.

There is no way I can describe this story, so I’m just going to give you two pages to read as a sample.

I know this is cheating, but I’m taking the easy way out. I’m posting this merely to encourage people to read this story. I read it today because my Facebook short story club is reading The Best Fantasy Stories from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Reading this 792-page anthology demonstrates the range of what people call fantasy.

I routinely tell people I dislike fantasy. But of the stories we’ve read in this anthology, the ones set in the present about ordinary people have been the most entertaining to read. And the ones that people consider traditional fantasy were no fun to read. I guess when I say I dislike fantasy, I dislike only a subset of the genre.

However, I also think Ferman is cheating to call “Sooner or Later or Never Never” fantasy. It could have been published in almost any kind of fiction magazine.

James Wallace Harris, 7/14/25

Posted on July 1, 2025July 2, 2025 by jameswharris · 1 Comment

“The Cloud-Sculptors of Coral D” by J. G. Ballard — Fantasy or SF?

I reread “The Cloud Sculptors of Coral-D” by J.G. Ballard because my short story reading group is reading The Best Fantasy from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Inclusion in this volume suggests its fantasy. However, it was also included in The Great Science Fiction Series edited by Martin H. Greenberg, Joseph Olander, and Frederik Pohl. The story contains no magic, no dragons or elves, and it’s set in our present day, but in a fictional resort called Vermillion Sands.

Vermillion Sands feels like a decadent playground for the rich, which also features the many kinds of parasites that live off the wealthy. It’s also an artist and expat colony. We don’t know its location, but it feels like Palm Springs, California. Many worldly travelers come and go there.

“The Cloud Sculptors of Coral-D” was my first introduction to J. G. Ballard back in the 1960s. Other stories from that setting make up the series, collected into Vermillion Sands.

“Prima Belladonna” (Science Fantasy, December 1956)
“Venus Smiles” (Science Fantasy, June 1957)
“Studio 5, the Stars” (Science Fantasy, February 1961)
“The Thousand Dreams of Stellavista” (Amazing Stories, March 1962)
“The Singing Statues” (Fantastic Stories, July 1962) (not in original collection)
“The Screen Game” (Fantastic Stories, October 1963)
“Cry Hope, Cry Fury!” (F&SF, October 1967)
“The Cloud-Sculptors of Coral D” (F&SF, December 1967)
“Say Goodbye to the Wind” (Fantastic, August 1970)

Wikipedia provides an excellent overview of the stories, highlighting that each dealt with a different artistic medium being affected by technology.

When I first read “The Cloud Sculptors of Coral-D” as a teen, it felt very grown-up to me. The characters were the kinds of people I met growing up in Miami, not the typical heroes of science fiction stories I spent so much time reading. It never occurred to me to think of the story as fantasy, but it didn’t seem like science fiction either. At the time, I was just discovering British science fiction writers like Brian Aldiss and John Brunner and the New Wave SF. The stories were set in the present or near future and took place on Earth. No rockets or robots. Was this actual science fiction?

“The Cloud Sculptors of Coral-D” is about a band of glider pilots who shape clouds with silver iodide. At first, their audience and patrons are people who park their cars along the lagoon road to watch. Eventually, the Garbo-like Leonora Chanel hires them to perform for her party. Sculpting clouds is a neat idea, but far from realistic. Does that make the story science fiction? Ballard does throw in a creature called sand rays, which I suppose are like manta rays that live under the sand instead of the sea. Do they make the story a fantasy?

Science fiction has often been the dumping ground for any kind of weird story that can’t be classified. The Vermillion Sands stories would have been rejected by mainstream and literary magazines. They fit nicely in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. They were also published in the British magazine Science Fantasy and the American Fantastic. Only one was published in a straight-ahead science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories. I doubt John W. Campbell would have accepted them in Astounding or Analog. Nor would he have published them in Unknown. I wonder if Rod Serling would have used “The Cloud Sculptors of Coral-D” for The Twilight Zone?

I’m not fond of traditional fantasy, and many of the stories in The Best Fantasy from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction aren’t enjoyable for me to read. But I did enjoy “The Cloud Sculptors of Coral-D.” The story has a pleasant, surreal feel. The setting is very close to this world, but just a smidge off. I love the artist colony atmosphere, the hint of decadence, the ever-so-slight sense of unreality. The story combines barnstorming, carny folks, and the ugly rich. I visualize it as a cross between early Faulkner and Fellini.

The shortest description would be to say the story has atmosphere.

James Wallace Harris, 7/1/25

Posted on June 7, 2025June 7, 2025 by jameswharris

THE LAST ASTRONAUT by David Wellington

I don’t read many science fiction novels nowadays. I prefer SF short stories. I just don’t read as many books as I used to. However, after my friend Laurie told me about The Last Astronaut by David Wellington, I decided to give it a try. The Last Astronaut is the kind of science fiction thriller that Michael Crichton used to write — fast pace, lots of physical action, and basically fun. The Last Astronaut reminded me how entertaining reading a novel used to be. I wouldn’t call it great, but it does have that page-turning quality.

Now I do have some things to say about it, but what I have to say is full of spoilers. I recommend you go read the novel and then come back here, if you can remember. The Last Astronaut made me think about how science fiction novels change over the years, and how each generation retells old themes in new ways.

The Last Astronaut is about a Big Dumb Object. That’s the official name of a specific science fiction plot device. When I started reading The Last Astronaut, I immediately thought of Rendezvous with Rama. In 2020, The Last Astronaut was nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. Wikipedia even says, “Edward Guimont and Horace A. Smith propose that the origins of the Big Dumb Object trope can be found in H. P. Lovecraft’s novellas At the Mountains of Madness and The Shadow Out of Time, both of which feature human expeditions to immense ancient alien cities in remote parts of our world, and both of which were early influences upon Arthur C. Clarke.”

Funny that they mention H. P. Lovecraft. Because I also thought of Lovecraft while reading The Last Astronaut. Wellington’s novel features horror. Horror like the film Alien, but also horror like Lovecraft’s monstrous alien gods.

The setting, inside the vast alien spacecraft, is dark. Having a story set almost completely in darkness reminded me of Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth and The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson.

I’m finally reminded of another story/movie, Fantastic Voyage by Isaac Asimov, along with “Finisterra” by David Moles. This last reminder should give you one huge clue to what’s happening in The Last Astronaut. But I did warn you about spoilers.

My point in this essay is that science fiction is seldom original anymore. The Last Astronaut feels like David Wellington took several of his favorite science fiction themes and blended them into a new SF novel. It succeeds well. I had a lot of problems with the characters because I felt their psychological motivations were too contrived. However, Wellington does use those contrived motivations to wrap up his novel. The ending does make sense and is satisfying.

I was entertained by how Wellington told his story. Wellington places himself in the book as an author in the future, writing a historical novel, but a history that hasn’t happened yet. It’s amusing that one of his characters criticizes the future Wellington for getting his facts wrong. Since we know the story is based on history, there are clues as to who survives and who doesn’t. The audiobook is especially nice because they rig up the audio so that interviews of characters taken after events sound different.

In the 40s and 50s, science fiction writers aimed to create new ideas and themes, but their stories were told without sophistication. In the 60s and 70s, SF writers added literary techniques to their stories. In the 80s and 90s, SF writers upped the ante by going epic. Hyperion is a great example. In the 21st century, SF writers have had to constantly find new ways to tell stories that have already been told.

If you haven’t read old science fiction, new science fiction seems novel. If you have read old science fiction, new science fiction feels recycled. That’s not a bad thing, but it makes the stories feel baroque when you cram so many old ideas into one story. Wellington does streamline his novel, so it feels action-packed like old science fiction. In some ways, his storytelling is as speedy as Edgar Rice Burroughs’ stories or pulp fiction.

James Wallace Harris, 6/6/25

Posted on May 30, 2025May 30, 2025 by jameswharris · 8 Comments

How To Buy the Most Ray Bradbury Short Stories with the Fewest Purchases

Ray Bradbury published hundreds of short stories over and over again in various collections. Bradbury and his publishers often repackaged his stories into new collections or reprinted older collections with a slightly different lineup of stories. Ray Bradbury’s bibliography at ISFDB.org is so confusing that we’ve decided to select those collections that will provide the most stories by buying the fewest books.

Mike, the programmer for the Classics of Science Fiction website, coded several programs to find the right combinations of Bradbury collections that would give the widest selection of stories to read. The permutations turned out to be excessively large, so we simplified the procedure.

Our solution was to pick the collection that provided the most Bradbury stories. Then add a second collection that provides the most additional stories not in the first collection. Then add the third collection that contributes the next most additional stories, not in the previous two. And so on. Study the table, and the technique will become obvious.

Here are the twenty-five collections we used. We only used collections that are in print, either in hardback, paperback, e-book, or audiobook. Hyperlinks are to Amazon affiliate links.

1947 – Dark Carnival
1950 – The Martian Chronicles
1951 – The Illustrated Man
1955 – The October Country
1957 – Dandelion Wine
1965 – Vintage Bradbury
1976 – Long After Midnight
1980 – The Stories of Ray Bradbury
1983 – Dinosaur Tales
1988 – The Toynbee Convecter
1996 – Quicker Than the Eye
1997 – Driving Blind
1997 – The Golden Apples of the Sun and Other Stories
1998 – A Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories
1998 – I Sing the Body Electric and Other Stories
2002 – One More for the Road
2003 – Bradbury Stories
2004 – The Cat’s Pajamas
2007 – Now and Forever
2009 – We’ll Always Have Paris
2010 – A Pleasure to Burn
2010 – Killer, Come Back to Me
2011 – The Collected Stories of Ray Bradbury 1: 1938-1943
2014 – The Collected Stories of Ray Bradbury 2: 1943-1944
2017 – The Collected Stories of Ray Bradbury 3: 1944-1945

Here are Mike’s calculations.

James Wallace Harris, 3/30/25

Posted on May 25, 2025 by jameswharris · 5 Comments

“The Whole Town’s Sleeping” by Ray Bradbury

I have not been writing blogs or reading for a couple of weeks. I lost the habit of reading and writing because of a house guest, many visitors, and a more active social life. However, tonight I felt a wistful urge to read a short story. I chose “The Whole Town’s Sleeping” by Ray Bradbury. It was the first story in Ray Bradbury Stories. You can read a PDF copy online here. “The Whole Town’s Sleeping” is not science fiction or fantasy. And I wouldn’t call it horror, although its purpose is to scare. “The Whole Town’s Sleeping” was published in three magazines, McCall’s (1950), Argosy (1951), and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine (1954), indicating its wide appeal. Finally, the story was incorporated into the fixup novel Dandelion Wine in 1957.

For me, “The Whole Town’s Sleeping” was pure nostalgia. It’s a story that made me think about memory and writing. Sure, Bradbury is trying to tell a scary story, like those he heard camping in the woods, but he’s also remembering his past.

Although the story came out in 1950, “The Whole Town’s Sleeping” is set much earlier, in the era of Bradbury’s youth, because Lavinia, Francine, and Helen go to the theater to see a Charlie Chaplin film. That unnamed film could have been Monsieur Verdoux from 1947, but the story’s mood makes me think it might be The Circus (1928) or City Lights (1931). Bradbury was born in 1920, the same year my father was born. I was born in 1951. It feels nostalgic to the small towns I lived in in the 1950s, but it would have been nostalgic to readers in 1950.

Many of Bradbury’s stories were inspired by his youth growing up in Waukegan, Illinois, which he later fictionalized as Green Town. I believe those little towns I lived in hadn’t changed much in twenty years. Back then, I remember walking with my friends to the theater and talking to people sitting on their porches, which made me identify with the story. I remember walking alone along deserted streets late at night like Lavenia and having the same fears as she did.

My past includes living in small towns where all the stores were set on the square or along Main Street, with all the connecting streets occupied by homes. I had a hard time visualizing the ravine that divides Green Town. Although I do remember living in a little town divided by a small lake. It had a tiny waterfall, which scared me at age nine.

There’s not much I want to say about “The Whole Town’s Sleeping,” because I want to talk about reading. Often in my life, I’ve substituted reading for living. There are times when life is uneventful, so reading is exciting. Life experiences are superior to reading, but idle times are great for reading.

However, there are times when life is full, and I wish I were idle reading. We have two worlds to live in, reality and fantasy. Ray Bradbury created a fantasy world for us to enjoy, and it’s fascinating to think about how and why he did that. On one hand, he’s given us a simple story built to scare us. We even know he’s doing it. Readers know the ending will shock them, but we didn’t know how Bradbury would pull it off. It’s the kind of story that we watched on the old TV show Alfred Hitchcock Presents. (It’s even reprinted in one of Hitchcock’s anthologies.)

But that’s only one level. Fiction usually works on multiple levels. Bradbury also works to describe the past, his past, in the kind of detail that will trigger memories in his readers. And there’s a level beyond that which Bradbury entertains us. It’s the writing.

I have had several intense experiences over the last two weeks. They will stay locked in my head because we seldom share intense experiences. If I were a writer, I would write a story about them. That story might even be read by readers who have had similar experiences.

Isn’t that what Ray Bradbury is doing? Do we read to learn about Bradbury’s experiences, or do we read to remember our own?

Often, we use fiction to escape from boredom. But doesn’t fiction work best when it triggers something inside us? When life is full, I shouldn’t crave reading, but I do. Why? Is reading an essential nutrient of the soul that causes us to fall ill if it goes lacking?

I wish I could fictionalize my experiences so I could understand them. Maybe because I don’t, I read other people’s efforts instead.

James Wallace Harris, 5/25/25

Posted on May 13, 2025May 13, 2025 by jameswharris · 3 Comments

How Many Ray Bradbury Short Stories Do You Want to Read?

by James Wallace Harris, 5/12/25

I’ve been getting back into Ray Bradbury again. I loved The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man when I was young, but then I forgot about Ray Bradbury for a long time. I came late to Fahrenheit 451, and I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I loved the Truffaut film more than the book. In 2015, I reread The Martian Chronicles. I was dazzled. Yet again, I quickly moved on. Bradbury has a sweet quality that I can’t overindulge.

However, over the last five years, I’ve been gorging on science fiction short stories, and I’ve been surprised by how often his stories show up in anthologies. Then, a few weeks ago, I read The Bradbury Chronicles, a biography of Ray Bradbury by Sam Weller. Bradbury’s life was riveting, inspiring me to read more of his work. According to the Library of Congress, Bradbury published over 600 short stories. According to the Weller biography, by the late 1940s, Bradbury was writing and publishing a short story a week.

Piet Nel sent me a spreadsheet with 375 stories from all of Bradbury’s major collection. Piet also said, “Ray Bradbury: The Life of Fiction, by Eller & Touponce (2004), has a comprehensive story list, compiled with academic rigor, up to 2002. It runs to about 400 stories.” So, it’s hard to reconcile the 600 number from the Library of Congress. Piet also sent me the link to Phil Nichols’ site and his Short Story Finder.

Piet also emailed me this comment, which I will quote:

I think it's quite simple. If you read everything collected up to and including 1980, I think you've read as much Bradbury as all but serious experts need to read. The later collections get progressively weaker and the last ones are mostly leftovers. In saying all that, I am referring to the short fiction only. I've never liked the late detective novels because, for me, they seem a bit Nancy Drew-ish.

The short course is simply to read The Stories of Ray Bradbury (1980), which is more essential than Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Essential Tales.

The intermediate course is to read The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, The Golden Apples of the Sun, The October Country, Dandelion Wine (a disguised story collection), A Medicine for Melancholy, The Machineries of Joy, R Is for Rocket (without duplicates), S Is for Space (without duplicates), I Sing the Body Electric!, Long After Midnight, and The Stories of Ray Bradbury (again without duplicates, which leaves about five stories).

After that, it's expert level.

I just don’t want to read that many Ray Bradbury stories. I just want to read his best stories, but I’m unsure which ones are the best. I’m partial to his science fiction stories, but I’m willing to read any type as long as they are among his best. I started listening to Golden Apples of the Sun and Other Stories, and my response varied significantly. I own copies of Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales and The Stories of Ray Bradbury, but they aren’t available on audio at Audible.com. Since I want audio editions, I will buy A Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories next. After that, I’m not sure.

Piet Nel, in our short story reading group, created this graph showing the stories in The Golden Apples of the Sun and Other Stories (peach 1-32) and A Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories (blue-gray 33-63). Those two collections reprinted many of the stories in the four previous collections (orange, blue, red, green). The numbers in the four earlier collections are the story’s position in the table of contents.

I told my friend Mike, a computer programmer, and he decided that comparing the collections of Ray Bradbury’s short stories is an interesting programming problem.

It all depends on what you want.

All of his stories – would buying all his collections do that?
The best stories – who knows how many collections.
The fewest collections with the least duplicates.
Just science fiction?
Maybe add fantasy?
Just the literary works. Mysteries.
Just in ebook, or audiobook, or in print?

Mike might make this an interactive program if enough people are interested, but for now, he’s just testing the idea by generating reports. Here’s the latest one showing 30 of 1003 combinations generated so far.

As you can see, we’re only working with a handful of his collections, and the maximum number of stories is 256.

-------------------------------------------------------
Group 1

1: Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
2: Driving Blind
3: The Golden Apples of the Sun and Other Stories
4: I Sing the Body Electric and Other Stories
5: The Illustrated Man
6: The Martian Chronicles
7: A Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories
8: The Stories of Ray Bradbury

Total unique stories:     256
Total duplicate stories:  100
-------------------------------------------------------
Group 2

1: Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
2: Driving Blind
3: The Golden Apples of the Sun and Other Stories
4: I Sing the Body Electric and Other Stories
5: The Illustrated Man
6: The Martian Chronicles
7: A Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories
8: S is for Space
9: The Stories of Ray Bradbury

Total unique stories:     256
Total duplicate stories:  116
-------------------------------------------------------
Group 3

1: Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
2: Driving Blind
3: The Golden Apples of the Sun and Other Stories
4: I Sing the Body Electric and Other Stories
5: The Illustrated Man
6: The Martian Chronicles
7: A Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories
8: R is for Rocket
9: The Stories of Ray Bradbury

Total unique stories:     256
Total duplicate stories:  117
-------------------------------------------------------
Group 4

1: Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
2: Driving Blind
3: The Golden Apples of the Sun and Other Stories
4: I Sing the Body Electric and Other Stories
5: The Illustrated Man
6: The Martian Chronicles
7: A Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories
8: R is for Rocket
9: S is for Space
10: The Stories of Ray Bradbury

Total unique stories:     256
Total duplicate stories:  133
-------------------------------------------------------
Group 5

1: Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
2: Driving Blind
3: I Sing the Body Electric and Other Stories
4: The Illustrated Man
5: The Martian Chronicles
6: A Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories
7: R is for Rocket
8: The Stories of Ray Bradbury

Total unique stories:     253
Total duplicate stories:  88

Group 4 stories that are not in Group 5:
	En la Noche
	The Murderer
	Sun and Shadow
-------------------------------------------------------
Group 6

1: Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
2: Driving Blind
3: I Sing the Body Electric and Other Stories
4: The Illustrated Man
5: The Martian Chronicles
6: A Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories
7: R is for Rocket
8: S is for Space
9: The Stories of Ray Bradbury

Total unique stories:     253
Total duplicate stories:  104
-------------------------------------------------------
Group 7

1: Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
2: Driving Blind
3: The Golden Apples of the Sun and Other Stories
4: The Illustrated Man
5: The Martian Chronicles
6: A Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories
7: The Stories of Ray Bradbury

Total unique stories:     252
Total duplicate stories:  75

Group 6 stories that are not in Group 7:
	Christus Apollo
	Drink Entire: Against the Madness of Crowds
	The Lost City of Mars
	One Timeless Spring

Group 7 stories that are not in Group 6:
	En la Noche
	The Murderer
	Sun and Shadow
-------------------------------------------------------
Group 8

1: Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
2: Driving Blind
3: The Golden Apples of the Sun and Other Stories
4: The Illustrated Man
5: The Martian Chronicles
6: A Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories
7: S is for Space
8: The Stories of Ray Bradbury

Total unique stories:     252
Total duplicate stories:  91
-------------------------------------------------------
Group 9

1: Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
2: Driving Blind
3: The Golden Apples of the Sun and Other Stories
4: The Illustrated Man
5: The Martian Chronicles
6: A Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories
7: R is for Rocket
8: The Stories of Ray Bradbury

Total unique stories:     252
Total duplicate stories:  92
-------------------------------------------------------
Group 10

1: Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
2: Driving Blind
3: The Golden Apples of the Sun and Other Stories
4: The Illustrated Man
5: The Martian Chronicles
6: A Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories
7: R is for Rocket
8: S is for Space
9: The Stories of Ray Bradbury

Total unique stories:     252
Total duplicate stories:  108
-------------------------------------------------------
Group 11

1: Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
2: Driving Blind
3: The Golden Apples of the Sun and Other Stories
4: I Sing the Body Electric and Other Stories
5: The Martian Chronicles
6: A Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories
7: The Stories of Ray Bradbury

Total unique stories:     251
Total duplicate stories:  85

Group 10 stories that are not in Group 11:
	The Concrete Mixer
	Epilogue (The Illustrated Man)
	The Highway
	The Other Foot
	Prologue: The Illustrated Man

Group 11 stories that are not in Group 10:
	Christus Apollo
	Drink Entire: Against the Madness of Crowds
	The Lost City of Mars
	One Timeless Spring
-------------------------------------------------------
Group 12

1: Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
2: Driving Blind
3: The Golden Apples of the Sun and Other Stories
4: I Sing the Body Electric and Other Stories
5: The Martian Chronicles
6: A Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories
7: S is for Space
8: The Stories of Ray Bradbury

Total unique stories:     251
Total duplicate stories:  101
-------------------------------------------------------
Group 13

1: Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
2: Driving Blind
3: The Golden Apples of the Sun and Other Stories
4: I Sing the Body Electric and Other Stories
5: The Martian Chronicles
6: A Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories
7: R is for Rocket
8: The Stories of Ray Bradbury

Total unique stories:     251
Total duplicate stories:  102
-------------------------------------------------------
Group 14

1: Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
2: Driving Blind
3: The Golden Apples of the Sun and Other Stories
4: I Sing the Body Electric and Other Stories
5: The Illustrated Man
6: The Martian Chronicles
7: R is for Rocket
8: S is for Space
9: The Stories of Ray Bradbury

Total unique stories:     251
Total duplicate stories:  107

Group 13 stories that are not in Group 14:
	The Headpiece
	In a Season of Calm Weather
	The Little Mice
	The Marriage Mender
	The Time of Going Away

Group 14 stories that are not in Group 13:
	The Concrete Mixer
	Epilogue (The Illustrated Man)
	The Highway
	The Other Foot
	Prologue: The Illustrated Man
-------------------------------------------------------
Group 15

1: Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
2: Driving Blind
3: The Golden Apples of the Sun and Other Stories
4: I Sing the Body Electric and Other Stories
5: The Martian Chronicles
6: A Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories
7: R is for Rocket
8: S is for Space
9: The Stories of Ray Bradbury

Total unique stories:     251
Total duplicate stories:  118

Group 14 stories that are not in Group 15:
	The Concrete Mixer
	Epilogue (The Illustrated Man)
	The Highway
	The Other Foot
	Prologue: The Illustrated Man

Group 15 stories that are not in Group 14:
	The Headpiece
	In a Season of Calm Weather
	The Little Mice
	The Marriage Mender
	The Time of Going Away
-------------------------------------------------------
Group 16

1: Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
2: Driving Blind
3: I Sing the Body Electric and Other Stories
4: The Illustrated Man
5: The Martian Chronicles
6: A Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories
7: The Stories of Ray Bradbury

Total unique stories:     250
Total duplicate stories:  74

Group 15 stories that are not in Group 16:
	En la Noche
	Here There Be Tygers
	The Murderer
	R is for Rocket
	Sun and Shadow
	The Time Machine

Group 16 stories that are not in Group 15:
	The Concrete Mixer
	Epilogue (The Illustrated Man)
	The Highway
	The Other Foot
	Prologue: The Illustrated Man
-------------------------------------------------------
Group 17

1: Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
2: Driving Blind
3: I Sing the Body Electric and Other Stories
4: The Illustrated Man
5: The Martian Chronicles
6: A Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories
7: S is for Space
8: The Stories of Ray Bradbury

Total unique stories:     250
Total duplicate stories:  90
-------------------------------------------------------
Group 18

1: Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
2: Driving Blind
3: The Golden Apples of the Sun and Other Stories
4: I Sing the Body Electric and Other Stories
5: The Illustrated Man
6: The Martian Chronicles
7: S is for Space
8: The Stories of Ray Bradbury

Total unique stories:     250
Total duplicate stories:  91

Group 17 stories that are not in Group 18:
	The Gift
	The Headpiece
	In a Season of Calm Weather
	The Little Mice
	The Marriage Mender
	The Time of Going Away

Group 18 stories that are not in Group 17:
	En la Noche
	Here There Be Tygers
	The Murderer
	R is for Rocket
	Sun and Shadow
	The Time Machine
-------------------------------------------------------
Group 19

1: Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
2: Driving Blind
3: The Illustrated Man
4: The Martian Chronicles
5: A Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories
6: R is for Rocket
7: The Stories of Ray Bradbury

Total unique stories:     249
Total duplicate stories:  63

Group 18 stories that are not in Group 19:
	Christus Apollo
	Drink Entire: Against the Madness of Crowds
	En la Noche
	The Lost City of Mars
	The Murderer
	One Timeless Spring
	Sun and Shadow

Group 19 stories that are not in Group 18:
	The Gift
	The Headpiece
	In a Season of Calm Weather
	The Little Mice
	The Marriage Mender
	The Time of Going Away
-------------------------------------------------------
Group 20

1: Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
2: Driving Blind
3: The Illustrated Man
4: The Martian Chronicles
5: A Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories
6: R is for Rocket
7: S is for Space
8: The Stories of Ray Bradbury

Total unique stories:     249
Total duplicate stories:  79
-------------------------------------------------------
Group 21

1: Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
2: Driving Blind
3: I Sing the Body Electric and Other Stories
4: The Martian Chronicles
5: A Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories
6: R is for Rocket
7: The Stories of Ray Bradbury

Total unique stories:     248
Total duplicate stories:  73

Group 20 stories that are not in Group 21:
	The Concrete Mixer
	Epilogue (The Illustrated Man)
	The Highway
	The Other Foot
	Prologue: The Illustrated Man

Group 21 stories that are not in Group 20:
	Christus Apollo
	Drink Entire: Against the Madness of Crowds
	The Lost City of Mars
	One Timeless Spring
-------------------------------------------------------
Group 22

1: Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
2: Driving Blind
3: I Sing the Body Electric and Other Stories
4: The Illustrated Man
5: The Martian Chronicles
6: R is for Rocket
7: S is for Space
8: The Stories of Ray Bradbury

Total unique stories:     248
Total duplicate stories:  78

Group 21 stories that are not in Group 22:
	The Headpiece
	In a Season of Calm Weather
	The Little Mice
	The Marriage Mender
	The Time of Going Away

Group 22 stories that are not in Group 21:
	The Concrete Mixer
	Epilogue (The Illustrated Man)
	The Highway
	The Other Foot
	Prologue: The Illustrated Man
-------------------------------------------------------
Group 23

1: Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
2: Driving Blind
3: I Sing the Body Electric and Other Stories
4: The Martian Chronicles
5: A Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories
6: R is for Rocket
7: S is for Space
8: The Stories of Ray Bradbury

Total unique stories:     248
Total duplicate stories:  89

Group 22 stories that are not in Group 23:
	The Concrete Mixer
	Epilogue (The Illustrated Man)
	The Highway
	The Other Foot
	Prologue: The Illustrated Man

Group 23 stories that are not in Group 22:
	The Headpiece
	In a Season of Calm Weather
	The Little Mice
	The Marriage Mender
	The Time of Going Away
-------------------------------------------------------
Group 24

1: Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
2: Driving Blind
3: The Golden Apples of the Sun and Other Stories
4: I Sing the Body Electric and Other Stories
5: The Illustrated Man
6: The Martian Chronicles
7: R is for Rocket
8: The Stories of Ray Bradbury

Total unique stories:     248
Total duplicate stories:  94

Group 23 stories that are not in Group 24:
	Chrysalis
	Come Into My Cellar
	The Headpiece
	In a Season of Calm Weather
	The Little Mice
	The Marriage Mender
	Pillar of Fire
	The Time of Going Away

Group 24 stories that are not in Group 23:
	The Concrete Mixer
	En la Noche
	Epilogue (The Illustrated Man)
	The Highway
	The Murderer
	The Other Foot
	Prologue: The Illustrated Man
	Sun and Shadow
-------------------------------------------------------
Group 25

1: Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
2: Driving Blind
3: The Golden Apples of the Sun and Other Stories
4: The Martian Chronicles
5: A Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories
6: The Stories of Ray Bradbury

Total unique stories:     247
Total duplicate stories:  60

Group 24 stories that are not in Group 25:
	Christus Apollo
	The Concrete Mixer
	Drink Entire: Against the Madness of Crowds
	Epilogue (The Illustrated Man)
	The Highway
	The Lost City of Mars
	One Timeless Spring
	The Other Foot
	Prologue: The Illustrated Man

Group 25 stories that are not in Group 24:
	Chrysalis
	Come Into My Cellar
	The Headpiece
	In a Season of Calm Weather
	The Little Mice
	The Marriage Mender
	Pillar of Fire
	The Time of Going Away
-------------------------------------------------------
Group 26

1: Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
2: Driving Blind
3: The Golden Apples of the Sun and Other Stories
4: The Martian Chronicles
5: A Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories
6: S is for Space
7: The Stories of Ray Bradbury

Total unique stories:     247
Total duplicate stories:  76
-------------------------------------------------------
Group 27

1: Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
2: Driving Blind
3: The Golden Apples of the Sun and Other Stories
4: The Martian Chronicles
5: A Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories
6: R is for Rocket
7: The Stories of Ray Bradbury

Total unique stories:     247
Total duplicate stories:  77
-------------------------------------------------------
Group 28

1: Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
2: Driving Blind
3: The Golden Apples of the Sun and Other Stories
4: I Sing the Body Electric and Other Stories
5: The Illustrated Man
6: The Martian Chronicles
7: The Stories of Ray Bradbury

Total unique stories:     247
Total duplicate stories:  78

Group 27 stories that are not in Group 28:
	Chrysalis
	Come Into My Cellar
	The Gift
	The Headpiece
	In a Season of Calm Weather
	The Little Mice
	The Marriage Mender
	Pillar of Fire
	The Time of Going Away

Group 28 stories that are not in Group 27:
	Christus Apollo
	The Concrete Mixer
	Drink Entire: Against the Madness of Crowds
	Epilogue (The Illustrated Man)
	The Highway
	The Lost City of Mars
	One Timeless Spring
	The Other Foot
	Prologue: The Illustrated Man
-------------------------------------------------------
Group 29

1: Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
2: Driving Blind
3: The Golden Apples of the Sun and Other Stories
4: The Illustrated Man
5: The Martian Chronicles
6: R is for Rocket
7: S is for Space
8: The Stories of Ray Bradbury

Total unique stories:     247
Total duplicate stories:  82

Group 28 stories that are not in Group 29:
	Christus Apollo
	Drink Entire: Against the Madness of Crowds
	The Lost City of Mars
	One Timeless Spring

Group 29 stories that are not in Group 28:
	Chrysalis
	Come Into My Cellar
	The Gift
	Pillar of Fire
-------------------------------------------------------
Group 30

1: Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
2: Driving Blind
3: The Golden Apples of the Sun and Other Stories
4: The Martian Chronicles
5: A Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories
6: R is for Rocket
7: S is for Space
8: The Stories of Ray Bradbury

Total unique stories:     247
Total duplicate stories:  93

Group 29 stories that are not in Group 30:
	The Concrete Mixer
	Epilogue (The Illustrated Man)
	The Highway
	The Other Foot
	Prologue: The Illustrated Man

Group 30 stories that are not in Group 29:
	The Headpiece
	In a Season of Calm Weather
	The Little Mice
	The Marriage Mender
	The Time of Going Away
-------------------------------------------------------

Posted on May 10, 2025 by jameswharris · 5 Comments

SF Extrapolation – Learning with AI

Yesterday I read “Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College” by James D. Walsh, which was quite eye-opening. AI programs like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini have made a massive and immediate impact on K-12 and high education. This essay is already being widely discussed. It says students are using AI to do their homework and that teachers have practically given in.

The essay is worth reading carefully, especially if you’re a parent, educator, or science fiction writer. I don’t think I’ve read a single science fiction story that’s even come close to imagining what’s happening today.

Try extrapolating this trend into the future.

Since the 17th century and the advent of public education, society has been working to develop a curriculum that defines a basic, well-rounded education. The way students use AI today throws all of this out the door. They want to rely on AI to know what needs to be known and use AI to get what they want.

In essence, school kids are making themselves into cyborgs. But what happened to the Borg when they were cut off from the Hive Mind?

The article profiled one kid who is using AI to invent ways to create wearable AI believing that someday that AI access will just be embedded in our heads. That has come up in science fiction before. But I’m not sure if any writer imagined how intelligent the human part would be on its own.

As the article points out, education isn’t about stuffing kids with knowledge. Education is about learning how to think and process information. AI bypasses that.

The article also implies we’ll never put the genie back in the bottle, so we’ll need to adapt. What we need is a science fiction novel that explores such adaptation on the level of Nineteen Eighty-Four or The Handmaid’s Tale. We need to imagine where this is going.

I don’t use AI to write my blogs, but I do use the realtime spelling and grammar checker that’s built into Microsoft Edge. Then I use the free version of Grammarly, but in a weird way. The free Grammarly constantly offers to rewrite my sentences but only if I pay them $129 a year. With the free version, it only shows me a blurred version of what it proposes. Because I’m too cheap to buy the full version of Grammarly, I just keep rewriting my sentences until Grammarly stops trying to sell itself to me.

I’m wondering if even that much AI help is bad for me. I could turn off all of Edge’s writing tools and depend solely on my own knowledge. I’d need to carefully proof everything I write and look up everything that looks suspicious. Of course, that means I need to know when something is wrong.

Advocates of AI in education claim that AI will offer every student their own personal tutor. And that’s probably a good thing. But tutors teach. I would probably be better helped by a program that just crosses out problems but gives me no solutions.

One of the insights I gained from reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell is standout successful people like Tiger Woods or Mozart achieved their great successes by early intervention of their fathers. That people who find a mentor or tutor early in life have a far better chance of achieving a major success.

In the Walsh article, one of the students profiled eventually dropped out of Columbia. He ended up inventing several programs and companies by using AI. That shows you can still succeed without getting a traditional education. However, most of what he created helped students cheat with AI. Would you want a tax accountant who skipped school and based their expertise on AI?

If students are going to cheat their way through the standard education system, why keep our current education system? Do kids need all twelve years of grammar and secondary education? Do they need four years of college?

Can any science fiction writer imagine what adults will be like in the 2040s who grew up with using AI in school in the 2020s? Science fiction has often imagined AI taking over human civilization. Has any writer imagined a symbiotic civilization based on human-AI cyborgs?

James Wallace Harris, 5/10/25

Posted on May 9, 2025 by jameswharris · 10 Comments

How My Buddies Judged Science Fiction Back in High School

Group Read 92 (#06-08 of 25)

“The Certificate” by Avram Davidson (F&SF, March 1959)

“To See the Invisible Man” by Robert Silverberg (Worlds of Tomorrow, April 1963)

“A Two-Timer” by David I. Masson (New Worlds 159, February 1966) (Amazon)

Back in the sixties, in high school, my friends and I would argue endlessly over science fiction short stories. We didn’t remember them by their title or author, but by whatever neat idea they imagined. I still remember my friend George telling Connell and me about a humorous short story, where a human crewed military spaceship tries to get cooperation from a human colony world where the social norms and economy were wacky. The colonists kept telling the crew “myob” to everything asked. I didn’t learn until years later that this was a famous story by Eric Frank Russell called “… And Then There Were None.” Another story George told us was about an Earthman who fell in love with a girl, and she wanted him to tell him he loved her. But the guy didn’t want to use such a trite phrase, so he left Earth and went all over the galaxy to learn about the preciseness of language. Eventually, he returns to the girl and says, “My dear, I’m rather fond of you.” Of course, the girl was hugely disappointed and rejected the guy. When the guy told his language guru what happened, the guru said, “Lucky devil, vaguely enjoyable was the best I could ever find.” I didn’t discover until decades later that it was “The Language of Love” by Robert Sheckley.”

The point of all this was that we judged science fiction solely on the ideas in the stories, not the plot, characterization, or writing. George read the most and was the best at retelling a story. I think he mainly read anthologies. I read anthologies and magazines. I was more into neat inventions. For example, I told them about the ecologariums in “The Star Pit” by Samuel R. Delany. Connell and I loved Mindswap by Sheckley, and we told everyone about the Theory of Searches. We worked at the Kwik Chek in Coconut Grove, Florida. At the time, its park was a gathering place for would-be hippies. The odds of meeting someone you knew from all over Dade County were increased if you came to the park on Saturdays. That fit Sheckley’s idea that there were optimal places to go if you were searching for someone.

The last three stories we read for the Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Fiction Facebook group were all idea stories, the kind my buddies and I would have discussed at Connell’s house on Vista Ct.

“The Certificate” by Avram Davidson is a tight little story about alien invaders who take complete control over humanity, making us their slaves. The aliens create a vast bureaucracy that’s impossible to fight. The aliens also punish us severely if we don’t cooperate. To make matters worse, they have altered us so we heal immediately, so they can torture us over and over again.

The story’s protagonist is Dr. Roger Freeman, who desperately wants a new winter coat. To apply for one involves going through an obstacle course that takes years. But Freeman is finessing the system.

Back in high school, this story would have caused us to argue about how we’d overthrow those aliens. Being young guys, we’d probably claim to know how to start a rebellion, even though Davidson sets up the story to suggest no rebellion is possible. When I read this story this week, the idea didn’t appeal to me much. The story is well-written, with an O. Henry surprise ending. However, it doesn’t offer anything to me as an older reader.

“To See the Invisible Man” by Robert Silverberg seems like a reply to Damon Knight’s classic short story, “Country of the Kind.” Like the Knight story, Silverberg sets up a society with a unique liberal form of punishment. The unnamed first-person narrator is sentenced to a year of invisibility for being cold and detached. He’s not actually made invisible. He’s just branded on the forehead, so anyone who sees him should act like he doesn’t exist. The story is about the psychological changes this character undergoes during the year. The narrator learns that he can steal whatever he wants or visit women’s locker rooms and be completely ignored. But he gets lonely, even desperate for someone to talk to. Silverberg takes us to a different place in his story. His character rebels in a different way by being compassionate.

My buddies and I would have had a lot to say about this story, with each of us coming up with how to handle the punishment. We’d probably argued over whether or not we’d go into the women’s locker room. I would have said that my solution would have been to read science fiction for a year. We did know of “Country of the Kind,” so we would have compared the two, but only about what the two criminals did, not about the writing, plotting, or characterization. Science fiction was about setting up a situation that you could argue over.

“To See the Invisible Man” is a good story. It’s tightly told, immediate, and works. However, it is not nearly as dramatic as “Country of the Kind,” and thus won’t be as memorable.

There’s little likelihood we would have read “A Two-Timer” by David I. Masson in the 1960s because it came out in a British SF magazine. Also, the idea behind this story is probably too subtle for three teenage boys in the 1960s. Joe, the narrator, is a guy from 1683 who steals a time machine and visits 1964. Of course, he doesn’t know it’s a time machine when he discovers it, or comprehends the idea of time travel. He just sees a guy walk away from a weird enclosed chair. He gets in and sees all kinds of dials and buttons labeled with words he doesn’t understand. He pushes a button and goes to 1964. Eventually, Joe figures out how the machine travels in time and space, like the DeLorean in Back to the Future.

The real point of this story is Joe, with his Middle English mind, describing 1964 to the reader. That might have entertained us back in the sixties, but I’m not sure. Old man me, found it very creative. There’s little action in the story. The piece is Masson’s playground for showing off his knowledge about language and history. Present-day me was disappointed that Joe wasn’t inspired to explore time based on his 17th-century knowledge.

I’m getting old and jaded. I find it hard to discover science fiction that thrills me in the remaining years of my life. I’ve loved reading science fiction magazines my whole life, but most of the stories were aimed at readers like my younger self. Masson’s exploration of language is more ambitious and mature than the other two stories, but Masson built his story on a lame plot.

Even though I’ve been reading science fiction for over sixty years, I still want to find stories that thrill me to the same degree as I was at 13. I’m not sure that’s even possible. Breakthrough science fiction novels like Hyperion are rare. But it’s interesting to note that Hyperion would have been a novel that thrilled me and my high school science fiction buddies.

Obviously, many of the stories that wowed me as I grew older would have also thrilled the younger me. For example, “Think Like a Dinosaur” by James Patrick Kelly or “Beggars in Spain” by Nancy Kress.

On the other hand, would “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang have inspired our younger selves? We would have avidly talked about translating an alien language, but would we have appreciated the advanced plotting and exceptional writing?

And could we have appreciated “Loneliness Universe” by Eugenia Triantafyllou without having lived through the social media era? Or could my younger self appreciate “Two Truths and a Lie” by Sarah Pinsker, which moved my older self? Wasn’t I mainly moved by the writing? I’m not sure high school Jim could have.

What if we could have read “Press ENTER ■” by John Varley in 1966? Would it blow us kids away like it did me in 1984? Did we need to understand computers and know about the technological singularity first?

I have to assume certain stories in the 1960s were relevant because of my age and current events. That’s why Dangerous Visions was exciting in 1969 but painful to read last year.

I keep looking for old science fiction I missed back then that will thrill me as much now as it would have thrilled me back when — if I had discovered it when I was young. One such book was The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis. The trouble is, I think George, Connell, and I would have all thought that story was dull. Isn’t that novel better for the old and jaded?

I need to find cutting-edge science fiction for today that would have thrilled me as a 13-year-old but also a 73-year-old.

By the way, my 1964 self expected a much different 2025 than the one I live in now. There are many nonfiction books about current affairs that, if I could send to my 1964 self, would read more like science fiction than science fiction.

James Wallace Harris, 5/9/25