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Best of Science Fiction and Fantasy  By  cover art

Best of Science Fiction and Fantasy

By: Arthur C. Clarke, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Ben Bova, Isaac Asimov, Greg Bear, Fritz Leiber, Connie Willis, Dan Simmons, Jane Yolen
Narrated by: Adrienne Barbeau, Ken Howard, Jack Carter
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Publisher's summary

Watch out - the Earth just fell into a dark sun's orbit! Or maybe you'd rather visit a theme park called Hell? These are just two of the strange and unnerving tales you'll find in this collection of great science fiction and fantasy stories. Take your imagination into futuristic and mystical worlds where gravity can kill and humans become walking biochip labs. See the world through the eyes of a four-legged creature in Susan Shwartz's "Critical Cats", and meet an electronic storyteller in Isaac Asimov's "Someday".

The other stories include Greg Bear's "Blood Music," Ben Bova's "The Man Who Hated Gravity", Arthur C. Clarke's "Breaking Strain", Fritz Leiber's "A Pail of Air", Kristine Kathryn Rusch's "Sing" and "Story Child", Dan Simmons's "Vanni Fucci Is Alive and Well and Living in Hell", Connie Willis's "Ado", and Jane Yolen's "Green Messiah."

©198 8; 1990 by Kristine Kathryn Rusch; 1956 by Royal Publications; 1991 by Susan Shwartz; 1951 by Galaxy Publishing Corporation, Renewed 1978 by Fritz Leiber; 1949 by Arthur C. Clarke; 1988 by Jane Yolen; 1989 by Davis Publications; 1987 by Kristine Kathryn Rusch; 1983 by Greg Bear (P)1991 Dove Audio

What listeners say about Best of Science Fiction and Fantasy

Average customer ratings
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  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Vanni Fucci . . .

Without a doubt - this book is worth "the price of admission" purely for "Vannic Fucci is Alive and Well and Living in Hell" - a tongue planted firmly in cheek look into a morning religious talk show.

"Vanni Fucci gave God the fig... twice."

Pure brilliance!

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Cute stories, clunky format

The stories in this anthology are not the most mind-blowing or the most exciting I've read, but they are generally very solid - my favorites were Susan Schwartz's "Critical Cats," Fritz Leiber's "A Pail of Air," and Isaac Asimov's "Someday." Arthur C. Clarke's "Breaking Strain" and Dan Simmons' "Vanni Fucci is Alive and Well and Living in Hell" are also strong. In general, the stories in this anthology are cute rather than brilliant. The narrator is good.

The format, however, is kind of annoying, since the audiobook chapters do not begin and end where the stories begin and end; thus, it is impossible to go to the beginning of a story. I'm not sure why they divided the chapters this way. Also, the anthology is a little short for the price.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Worth double the price

This is a rare collection of science fiction stories, and the readers are great! I recommend this collection to anyone who enjoys being entertained by great fiction.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

awesome collection

This was one of the best audio short story collections I've had the pleasure of listening to.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

4 Great Stories, the rest are interesting

4 stars for "Critical Cats", "Breaking Strain", "Vanni Fucci" and "Ado" because they each combine an interesting story with good characters. The other stories are interesting but didn't draw me in as much.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great short stories

great short stories, when I purchased it I didn't realize I had read it on paper, narration was not very good

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good stories, mixed performances and odd format

Does anybody know who the performer is on the first story, Blood music by Greg Baer? Sounds like Ray Manzarek but I am not aware of him doing such things.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Chapters don’t match stories

Stories are good. But chapters don’t match the stories. Some end at middle of the chapter.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

great syfi

good variety. keeps me hanging on. easy listeningl. recomend , something for everybody. its it for real

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

good variety of tales

Good variety of stories. the shorter, whimsical ones were my favorite ("Ado", "Someday" ) The standouts for me were "Blood music" and "a pail of air"

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