381 Comments on “Worlds of Wonder: Exploring the Craft of Science Fiction”

1. This book was recommended to me by a science fiction writer as having useful essays dissecting why science fiction works They are useful Robert Silverberg is one of my favorite authors, so I was happy to listen to anything he said.However, some of the stories are real gems that I would not have otherwise come across Silverberg culled the period from the mid 40s through early 60s the Pulp Era and found some that stand out as exceptional for that time period My favorite was Alfred Bester s Fondly [...]

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2. Published as Worlds of Wonder in 1987, Science Fiction 101 still works on several levels as an autobiography of one of the most honored Masters in the history of the field and you thought Asimov immodest , as an introduction to classic SF short stories mostly from the 1950s, and as entertaining and insightful essays on just what SF is and how it works.Unlike many current authorities, Silverberg places SF inside the fantasy genre In fact, ignoring the obvious vampires, elves and magic, he argues [...]

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3. The premise of this collection is, to someone like me who aspires to sell stories to SFF magazines, a compelling one Much awarded writer Silverberg collects stories that were influential on him as a young writer, that he learned from, along with essays on each story analysing what he learned from it, and an overall essay about the start of his career in general.The main drawback is that this is an almost 30 year old book in which a writer whose fiction I ve never really liked analyses stories th [...]

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4. 9 Four in One by Damon Knight Recon party get ingested by an amoeba like organism Their brains and nervous systems remain intact in a symbiotic state with the amoeba The narrator, an unflappable scientist, is the first ingested and the first to begin to work out their predicament One of others is a political officer who orders them to return to camp The scientist understands this will be suicide, and a power struggle begins The four minds compete for dominance of the amoeba organism The narrator [...]

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5. There were some nuggets in here that made reading it worthwhile Mostly the value came from the selection of stories rather than the commentary itself.

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6. I d give this a 3.5 were it an option Not perfect but Silverberg is a craftsmanlike writer who shows a surprising amount of humility in this volume If nothing else he s an excellent anthologist and the majority of these stories are very enjoyable to read and fairly diverse in their style Most date from the 50s and 60s so while its hard to fault Silverberg personally for it, as a contemporary guide to the form this may not be the most helpful That said, Silverberg goes over the basics pretty well [...]

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7. Collection of good to excellent sf stories, framed in an interesting way Silverberg s goal is to explore the craft of science fiction writing through the chosen stories In the intro he gives a brief bio of how he became a sf writer especially good for the sketches it gives of the editors who shaped him , and then follows each story with an analysis of what makes the story work There s some decent variety in the stories, too some lean towards cool exploration of scientific idea , others towards [...]

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8. I read this b c one of the short stories was recommended by Connie Willis now I don t even remember which one Robert Silverberg takes you through his genesis as a sci fi writer and critically praises 13 stories that came out around the time 1950 53 or so that he was beginning to have some success getting stories into magazines.It was OK for me the stories are for the most part REALLY good I think there were only two that I just plain old didn t like As for his commentary I disagreed with much of [...]

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9. 3 Read a collection of essays 2016 read harder challenge 1 A book you meant to read in 2015, but didn t Around the year in 52 books 2016 Four in one Damon Knight, 4.5 stars Fondly Fahrenheit Alfred Bester, 4.5 stars No Woman born C L Moore, 1.5 stars Home is the hunter Henry Kuttner, 4.5 stars The Monsters Robert Sheckley, 5 stars Common Time James Blish, 3 stars Scanners live in vain Cordwainer Smith, 4 stars Hothouse Brian W Albiss, 1 star The New Prime Jack Vance, 5 stars Colony Philip K Dick [...]

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10. This was an awesome collection of short stories, even if it had just been a collection It was added to a great deal, I think, by Silverberg s commentary and breakdown of each story, and some of the things he has to say about writing are very good to know.I was a little disappointed that there wasn t about writing techniques in the book, but it was still an awesome book, and I think that several of the stories are now among my top ten favorite short stories of all time.Specifically Slow Glass, b [...]

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11. This is a very interesting concept one of the great scifi writers has put together a combination memoir, anthology of the best short stories in science fiction and then a commentary on each story My only quibble with it is that it is so old all the stories in it were written in the 50s and 60s which is hardly the fault of the author So if you enjoy science fiction, if you would like to know how to write it, or if you just want to know how someone of the standing of Robert Silverberg became a sci [...]

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12. This book, which covers Where to start reading and writing science fiction, starts with an autobiographical section from Robert Silverberg Yes, I understand this is a decorated science fiction author, but the pomposity borders on arrogance It really took me two attempts at this book to get through his grandiloquent description of his own self After that, a series of really lovely short stories each accompanied by relatively useful descriptions by Silverberg.

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13. A nice collection of sf short stories chosen for their quality and their aptness for illustrating pertinent points about the craft of writing sf Silverberg has a good eye for a story and his analyses are enlightening I enjoyed them all except perhaps for No Woman Born , but the highlight, I think, is The Little Black Bag by Cyril Kornbluth.

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14. An excellent assortment of classic sci fi from classic sci fi authors, WITH commentary about the best and worst bits of each, for the aspiring writer Lots of other resources and suggestions too A big win for sci fi lovers great stories and a really big win for aspiring writers I ll be buying this one, and I don t say that often

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15. A blend of personal memoir, skills necessary to write good science fiction, and a collection of older science fiction short stories stories Silverberg includes an analysis for each story, thus making them learning tools I found the book educational.

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16. A stellar selection of stories perhaps 2 of the 13 stories are duds, in my view , complemented by Silverberg s thoughtful commentary, which is almost completely focused on matters of writerly craft There is a tragic paucity of books like this, in any genre.

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17. Excellent introduction to the genre for both writers and readers.

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18. A good collection of classic sci fi stories Well worth the read although some of them were sort of meh

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19. This was great fun I remember most of these stories and it was interesting to get Silverberg s perspective on them as a young reader, and a developing writer For rereading.

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20. Silverberg uses other writers stories to show how he learned his craft Very good stories and Silverberg info.

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