The Greatest Science Fiction Stories of the 20th Century

By: Greg Bear, Terry Bisson, David Brin, John W. Campbell, Harlan Ellison, Ursula K. Le Guin, Judith Merrill, Frederik Pohl, Eric Frank Russell, Arthur C. Clarke

Narrated by: David Ackroyd, Wil Wheaton

Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

From Ellison to Clarke to Merrill, hear a dozen unabridged science-fiction short stories, considered the best of the best from the 20th century. They are: "Why I Left Harry's All-Night Diner" by Lawrence Watt Evans, "Jeffty Is Five" by Harlan Ellison, "The Nine Billion Names of God" by Arthur C. Clarke, "The Crystal Spheres" by David Brin, "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula K. LeGuin, "Huddling Place" by Clifford D. Simak, "That Only a Mother" by Judith Merrill, "Fermi and Frost" by Frederick Pohl, "Tangents" by Greg Bear, "Bears Discover Fire" by Terry Bisson, "Allamagoosa" by Eric Frank Russell, and "Twilight" by John W. Campbell.

©1987 by Lawrence Watt Evans; 1935 by Street & Smith Publications; 1985 by Davis Publications, Inc.; 1953, Renewed 1981 by Arthur C. Clarke; 1948 by Judith Merrill; 1973 by Ursula K. LeGuin; 1986 by Omni Publications International Ltd.; 1990 by Davis Publications Inc., "Allamagoosa", Copyright 1955 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc.; 1977 by Harlan Ellison; 1984 by David Brin; 1944 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc., Renewed 1972 by Clifford D. Simak (P)1998 by NewStar Media, Inc.

Ok, not great

was a nice listen. great for the price and I would say it is well worth the money.

Second Time Around!

This book was even better the second time around! Beautiful stories and well read. Thank you.

Quality is all

The stories were good. The narration was fine. The recording quality? Awful. Was very difficult to hear

Some Absolute GOLD - Some Absolute GARBAGE

Any additional comments?

The majority of the stories in this collection are pretty pathetic. Even many of the well-known authors on here had some of their worst work chosen.

"Bears Discover Fire" was easily one of the WORST pieces of trash that I have ever wasted my time listening to.

BUT - Among the pile of bad sci-fi, there are some stories that are PURE GOLD.

"The Nine-Billion Names of God" by Arthur C. Clarke is an absolute treat to listen to. Fortunately, this story in particular can be found on MANY other collections on Audible, including a collection of Arthur C Clarke's short stories, which is just fantastic.

This collection is not worth getting just for the 20% that's actually good.

4.60 / 10.00

Audio quality is atrocious!

The audio quality is so bad that I couldn't even listen to the whole thing!

Not great nor interesting

Would you try another book from the authors and/or David Ackroyd and Wil Wheaton ?

Absolutely not

Has The Greatest Science Fiction Stories of the 20th Century turned you off from other books in this genre?

It turned me off from this curator's choices, surely

How could the performance have been better?

Reading is average, but the best thing would have been not performing at all, listening to it was a waste if my time

What character would you cut from The Greatest Science Fiction Stories of the 20th Century?

Nearly everything: with a few exceptions I could call it "The most trivial and boring..." And most of the stories are non even SF, just fantasy

Any additional comments?

I advise to be more careful than I was: who is the guy that arrogates to itself the right to decide what are the Greatest Science Fiction Stories of the 20th Century?

"No soap the radio"

Back when I was a kid, there was a somewhat cruel trick that you used to play on kids who weren't quite cool enough to be in your group. (Of course, I discovered it by having it played on me). One of the cooler kids would tell a joke for which there was an intentionally nonsensical punchline. After the punchline was delivered, everyone in on the prank would laugh heartily causing the victim to (usually) laugh along with them as if they understood the joke. At which point, they would be asked to explain the joke which, of course, they could not.

That's how I felt about most of the stories here. I found the writing (and, for the most part the performances, very good) But the stories endings always seemed to fall off a cliff. Like the author just ran out of gas, or had to go somewhere and didn't have time to complete the story. Of course, "True" sci-fi fans will take exception to my analysis and insist that I am not sophisticated enough to appreciate the brilliance. Or they will (As they have) list all the awards a story has received. To that, I will simply mention an older "No Soap the Radio" version: The Emperor's New Clothes.

hit and miss.

three or four of the stories were worth it, but I cannot recommend it highly. If it's free okay, but otherwise keep your money. Cheers

Absolute garbage

This is the worst collection of random stories I have ever read. Don't waste your credits or money. Low quality audio also.

If this is the greatest, what's left?

I agree Richard. Thank goodness it was only $10. Maybe the readers were culpable but these stories were boring and pointless. I'd comment in further detail but I didn't make it through any of the stories completely.