About five years ago, Book DNA (formerly Shepherd.com) arrived on the scene as a competitor to Goodreads. Every autumn, they offer their authors the opportunity to review their three favorite reads of the past year and to promote one book of their own.
I began participating in 2023 and recently sent in reviews of my top three favorite books from 2025-2026.These include More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon, A Time of Changes by Robert Silverberg, and Roadmarks by Roger Zelazny.
Sturgeon presents a compelling story in three parts about a group of what one might call mutants-four children and an infant with interpersonal or developmental problems but each possessing a gift. Leading the group is a simple-minded young man named Lone who compensates for his limited vocabulary through impressive telepathic abilities. He connects with a runaway girl, Janie, who not only has telekinetic powers but is the only one able to communicate with Baby, an infant with Down syndrome who has immense knowledge of the world. Rounding out the group are two girls who can teleport at whim, but must do so naked.
Together, these misfits embody something beyond homo sapiens. They adopt the term homo gestalt as they use their abilities to advance their lot in life until Lone is killed and replaced by Gerald, another young man of similar telepathic abilities. Unlike Lone, Gerald’s power is coupled with an immense intellect and a lack of compassion for his targets.
Sturgeon does a masterful job of portraying the relationship between the five main characters as well as their interactions with normal humans, including one Army lieutenant named Hip Barrows who stumbles upon an antigravity device invented by Baby and planted in a field by Lone to help the farmer who adopted him at a young age. After finding the device, Barrows is soon driven mad in his search for the truth behind it even when the device and all of his notes mysteriously vanish thanks to Gerald and Janie.
Gathering some of the best SF writers of the time including Isaac Asimov, Larry Niven, Theodore Sturgeon, Robert Silverberg, and more, TV:2000 offers prescient tales of television’s effects on society, how it can be used to shape opinion as much as entertain, misinform, disinform, and overwhelm.
As with any anthology, some stories are better than others and a few seem to miss the theme. My favorites included “The Jester” by William Tenn, “The Prize of Peril” by Robert Scheckley, “Mercenary” by Mack Reynolds, “And Madly Teach” by Lloyd Biggle, Jr., and “Interview” by Frank A. Javor.
This aptly named collection of six stories shines brightly and showcases the distinct and diverse talents of one of speculative fiction’s most celebrated voices.
“Derm Fool” – While courting a beautiful woman, a man with a disturbing skin disease discovers that she suffers from the same affliction—they both molt like reptiles. After isolating the cause as well as a cure, they decide to put both to a profitable use.
“The Haunt” – Two young men rig an abandoned house with special effects in order to scare an unflappable woman, but the results are far more harrowing than expected.
“Artnan Process” – An alien race known as the Artnans possess the technology to transmute Uranium 238 into Uranium 235, but refuse to reveal the process. Earth and Mars each send a crew to the Artnan homeworld in an effort to uncover the secret. Perhaps they’ll succeed, if they don’t kill each other first.
“The World Well Lost” – A captain and first mate are charged with the task of transporting a pair of alien refugees back to their homeworld. During the journey, the first mate learns that the alien lovers are not only telepaths but of the same gender and for this, they will be executed upon arrival.
“The Pod and the Barrier” – A motley crew of scientists and engineers embark on an expedition to find a way to break through an energy barrier surrounding a planet of benevolent aliens. Each believes that his plan will succeed, but perhaps the power of doubt will be what wins the day.
“How to Kill Aunty” – A willful but crippled elderly woman believes her maladroit nephew is bent on murdering her. Amused by his doltish efforts, she mocks his intelligence by actively aiding his efforts, but the final results are not what she anticipated.
A tribute to SF writer C.M. Kornbluth— who died at the age of 34 in 1958—Science Fiction Showcase delivers eleven excellent speculative fiction tales edited by Kornbluth’s wife, Mary Byers. Contributing authors include Ray Bradbury, Damon Knight, Ted Sturgeon, Robert Bloch, Frederik Pohl, Avram Davidson, James Blish, Jack Williamson, Philip K. Dick, Poul Anderson, and Richard Matheson.
With a line-up like that, how could you go wrong? It’s a rare occasion when I enjoy every story in an anthology almost equally, but in this case, they were all brilliant. Were I forced to choose favorites, they would be…
Richard Falk, a fugitive from Earth, steals a space freighter and heads to Mars where an alien transportation device was long ago uncovered. Unable to live in a society brainwashed into complacency by the government, Falk intends to use the device to begin life anew on a distant world. There’s only problem—once you step inside, where you end up is anyone’s guess in “A Ticket to Anywhere” by Damon Knight.
Anderson “Sonny” Trumie grew up poor, practically raised by robots, in a society whose highest priority was to consume. Yet, time passed Sonny by and he failed to share in its enlightenment. He continued to consume, until he was too obese to move without assistance, and to construct robots to help him acquire his own island… and still he wanted more, for Anderson Trumie was “The Man Who Ate the World” by Frederick Pohl.
In “A Work of Art” by James Blish, 19th century German composer Richard Strauss is resurrected in a new body in the year 2161. Repulsed by what he considers the regression of music in this modern age, Strauss sets out to compose an opera based on Christopher Fry’s play, Venus Observed. Although his opera is wildly successful, Strauss comes to realize two awful truths about himself… and his fate.
The orphaned boy of two American explorers must leave his Tibetan upbringing and migrate to Kansas where he is to be raised by his intolerant Christian aunt who, glaring down at him with one eye brown and other a glassy green, will not bear the boy’s heathen faith and philosophy. Yet despite her chastisements and beatings, the boy holds true to his Tibetan teachings while his aunt learns a lesson in cruelty in Jack Williamson’s “The Cold Green Eye.”
“Mantage” by Richard Matheson – Alfred Hitchcock observed that “drama is life with the dull bits cut out,” but what if you were so eager to achieve your goals that you had the option to live your life without those dull bits? Heed the old adage, you can’t live your life in a day—unless you’re award-winning writer Owen Crowley who learns that the gaps between the accolades are just as precious.
Typically when I review an anthology, I will enumerate my favorite stories and briefly provide a blurb about each one. In the case of 50 Short Science Fiction Tales—edited by the legendary Isaac Asimov and renowned anthologist Groff Conklin—that would be a daunting and tedious task.
Suffice it to say that like any collection, certain stories are better than others and this one is no exception. However, the majority of the entries are some combination of witty, engaging, chilling, thought provoking, or amusing. Of course, how could it be otherwise with such luminaries as Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, C.M. Kornbluth, Robert Sheckley, Theodore Sturgeon, and A.E. Van Vogt, just to name a few.
Most of the stories here are no more than 3,000 words. The book opens with a short poem by Poul Anderson and closes with six haiku written by his wife, Karen. I highly recommend this anthology both to aficionados of the golden age of SF or as an introduction to many of the top talents of the time.