The Mirror of Infinity

edited by Robert Silverberg

 
 
Year
1970
Publisher
Harper & Row
Country
USA
Pages
324
Media
Hard cover book
ISBN
Cover art
Unknown

Blurb

For the confirmed science-fiction fan as well as for readers new to s-f, this collection of brilliant tales and critical comments will be an enjoyable revelation. Thirteen of the most perceptive critics in the field have selected and introduced their favorite stories to demonstrate the limitless worlds of space, mind, and technology that s-f has opened to its steadily increasing audience. Awe-inspiring, funny, tender, and chilling, these tales trace the evolution of this genre from its modern beginnings to the work of the latest generation of authors.

Included are stories by H.G. Wells, John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Lewis Padgett, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Sheckley, James Blish, Cordwainer Smith, Robert A. Heinlein, J.G. Ballard, Harlan Ellison, P.A. Zoline, and Jorge Luis Borges...selected and discussed by such critics as Jack Williamson, Algis Budrys, Harry Harrison, James Blish, Thomas D. Clareson, Robert Conquest, Damon Knight, Kingsley Amis, Alexei Panshin, H. Bruce Franklin, Willis E. McNelly, Brian W. Aldiss, and Ivor Rogers.

As Robert Silverberg points out in his introduction, "It has slowly become apparent to students of literature that science fiction deserves serious attention, not as a manifestation of pop culture but as an expressive and distinct branch of the narrative art...One of the purposes of this book is to offer a selection of such stories by way of demonstrating the liveliness of the genre."

Lively the book is, and first-rate reading.

ROBERT SILVERBERG is the author of many science-fiction novels and stories and has twice been awarded the coveted Hugo. A past-president of the Science Fiction Writers of America, he has also edited several other outstanding anthologies.

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