The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol. 2-A

The Greatest Science Fiction Novellas of All Time Chosen by the Members of The Science Fiction Writers of America

By: Theodore Sturgeon, Ben Bova - editor, Lester del Rey, C. M. Kornbluth, Robert A. Heinlein, H. G. Wells

Narrated by: Chris Andrew Ciulla, Kevin T. Collins, Mark Boyett, full cast, Graham Halstead, L. J. Ganser, Michael David Axtell

Length: 24 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's Summary

Eleven essential classics in one volume

This volume is the definitive collection of the best science fiction novellas published between 1929 and 1964, containing 11 great classics. No anthology better captures the birth of science fiction as a literary field. 

Published in 1973 to honor stories that had appeared before the institution of the Nebula Awards, The Science Fiction Hall of Fame introduced tens of thousands of young readers to the wonders of science fiction and was a favorite of libraries across the country. 

This volume contains the following: 

• Introduction by Ben Bova 
• Call Me Joe by Poul Anderson 
• Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell Jr. (as Don A. Stuart) 
• Nerves by Lester del Rey 
• Universe by Robert A. Heinlein 
• The Marching Morons by C. M. Kornbluth 
• Vintage Season by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore (as Lawrence O'Donnell) 
• And Then There Were None by Eric Frank Russell 
• The Ballad of Lost C'Mell by Cordwainer Smith 
• Baby Is Three by Theodore Sturgeon 
• The Time Machine by H. G. Wells 
• With Folded Hands by Jack Williamson

©2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc. (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

'Greatest' is the word...

Hall of Fame, no doubt. I'm an avid reader (60yrs old w/3k+ books behind me) so here in my going-on 'golden years' I've begun adding audio books to my daily commute. Should have done it LONG ago. Duh. But the pleasure is greater, I suppose, and this title in particular took me for a ride in the WayBack machine. Yes, I DO remember the '60s; when sci-fi made you think. Hall of Fame, Vol. 2-A has several of the best titles from that or any era. And FYI? If you're familiar with the movie 'Idiocracy' (loved it, HIGHLY recommend it) the plot was clearly stolen from Cyril M. Kornbluth's 'The Marching Morons'. I wouldn't bother mentioning this, but the movie credits gave no credit... and that ain't right. Get this audiobook (and the others in the series). Listen... and learn.

A must read for any science fiction fan

I didn't like all the histories, but I didn't expected to, a good selection must show different styles to taste.

Classics for a reason

Solid readings of key pieces of old scifi. I must admit, I could have done without "Who goes there", for it felt unnecessarily convoluted and hard to follow, but even so, the premise is good, so I can't really complain too much. "And then there were none" and "Universe" are probably my favourites of the bunch.

Well Worth the Effort

I really enjoyed this book. Hearing the story line of authors who produced science fiction prior to space flight and the computer age was very entertaining. Plus the blatant, but acceptable at the time, racist and man-centric story lines were great. This is a super way to review these old stories and enjoy them for what they are and for what they tried to imply for the future of the human race. I enjoyed this very much.

Done of the best fiction. Narration is... Mostly fine

The stories are among the best there are. No debating they, if you're a sci fi fan. The narration is usually fine, but some stories have odd moments.

Like when the character is East Asian... The worst example of this is in the story "Nerves", where the exposition describes a Japanese man as having almost no accent, then when the man speaks it's on the worst caricature of a Chinese accent.

There are also a couple moments when narrators mispronounce words.

But aside from those two weird problems, it's really a good listen!

Classic Stories, Some Dated, Some Not

The stories collected here show what science fiction was. Some still hold up, some don’t. They are all though, a chance to travel in time—not to the future, but to the past. The world they present is that of America (mostly) before the 1960’s. The futures they imagine are hardly more different from our present!

Excellent!

This has some great stories. I had read most of them before, but it had been some time since I had read most of them. They are superb examples of early Sci-Fi.
The last story is, in my opinion, the best story to show that any extreme is bad.
I think most of the concepts in these stories are beyond children, but I recommend this book for all adults. It might even make you stop and think.

Cornerstone

solid Cornerstone absolutely great. these are the stories that future stories and movies are based on and some of these I've never read before. if you get any science fiction books at all from Audible and you haven't got this yet you're missing out

Great Stories!

Loved hearing this on the way to work. The narration really draws you into the stories.

A mixed bag

The stories wer good to to classic.
Unfortunately, the longest story (The Time Machine) was ruined by the fellow who attempted to read the part of time traveler (someone should explain to him that he should cease attempting to use a false upper class English accent when he is obviously not English (in an audio book, which I had to return due to his narration 'skills', it appears that he has an issue reading English) ).

Onegreatbiglonguninterruptedaudiofilewithnomarkers

I ordered this and its previous volume on the presumption that Audible had bothered themselves to format it in some way. They haven't. As a result you've no idea what's on the file. it's a total of 43 hours of continuous speech, and labled "Chapter 1", "Chapter 2" etc.

You've not a clue what's what's playing and what might be next, and they haven't even included text to help you sort it out. As a result, although the content is great, your chances of finding (or even knowing about) a given story are negligible

Can't recommend for any purpose.

Excellent mix, well delivered

No anthology will ever please everyone, but this is excellent overall, some brilliant narration. recommended.

dissapointing

It was a letdown after volume 1, it was missing that very special magic. A very poor choice of stories and the one about Jupiter I have no idea what it was about.

Look out for racist/eugenic undertones

Performance was great, and while a lot of these classic sci-fi stories are amazing, 'The Marching Morons' and some of the other stories in this collection perpetuate racist/misogynist narratives that made me deeply uncomfortable. I would really appreciate it if the most problematic stories had disclaimers at the start of them, warning listeners that these stories are products of their time.