Mark Clifton (1906–1963)

The Second Golden Age of Science Fiction is a collection of science fiction stories by Mark Clifton who was an American science fiction writer who was first published in 1952. He won the Hugo Award for best novel in 1958 for They’d Rather Be Right which is included in this collection.

Like all collections, I enjoyed some of the stories much more than others. I actually wasn’t all that taken with the Hugo winner, much preferring the first story “Star Bright” from 1952 which concerns a father discovering that his young daughter is much brighter than he, in fact, using ESP she has worked out how to time travel and how to travel to other planets. But although she is of a far superior mind, she is still a little girl and how is he going to be able to keep her safe. My other favorite story was “Do Unto Others” (1958), in this short and humorous story, a young man accompanies his strait-laced aunt as she travels to another planet to ensure the aliens are clothed and not walking around naked.

Considered an innovator of science fiction his stories are of alien invasion, expanding technology, and space colonization but as he was writing in the 1950s his work gives us insight into what people were thinking about and concerned with at that time. He seemed to feel that advanced technology was something to be feared far more than aliens. The Second Golden Age of Science Fiction was an interesting collection that I enjoyed.… (more)

Oh goodness. This 1955 Hugo winner nearly broke the Hugos. It was actually downright bad in parts, a catastrophic mess in others, and the handwavium was practically everywhere you looked, even in basic logic and common knowledge. I almost gave the novel a one star for all the clichés and the grab-bag of old SF tropes mixed together to create... a single clever idea that was subsequently beat into a fleshy pulp.

Oh my.

So why am I giving this three stars? Because I realized something fairly late into the novel that may or may not be actually there, but because I did see it, it managed to raise my enjoyment level by a crapload.

I discovered that I could read this novel as SATIRE. Is it true? Hell if I know. But between the doctorates of psychosomatic medicine, everyday Joe Psychic Supermen, UBERSUPER AIs that never have a speaking role despite being so brilliant even though they've discovered how to give 'dem normal folk immortality as well as MULTI-VARIABLE PHYSICS? OH MY GOD. That's AMAZING.

Ahem. Okay. Maybe I'm getting a tad carried away with my excitement. A little.

The characters were right out of 1930's stock scientist hero manuals, the old fat and stupid men and women who got to become supermen were a flipped sheet of paper, almost a perfect one-dimensional representation, and the way the novel flies through complicated ideas without stopping to smell the roses on any except one just made me wonder what the hell this novel was FOR.

Was it really about the admittedly cool premise behind the title? Well, we're meant to think so.

If you could have immortality, but the only way to have it is to be free of conviction, could you do it? If the knowledge of knowing you're right is the only reason you're growing old, fat, and stupid is the only reason you can't live young, happy, smart, and yes, full of fantastic psi powers, then could YOU give up your crappy worldview?

The answer, my dear satire readers, is NO. You probably couldn't. Very few people could, even if you put the UBER AMAZING AI in everyone's hands. See? The joke is on you!


This really could have been written much better. We probably didn't need more than 20% of the actual text to get this joke across nicely. I did have enough fun with it to give it pretty much a general passing grade, but seriously, so much of it was a slog. (That is, until I read it as a satire, and then it became my new [b:The Complete Roderick|968863|The Complete Roderick|John Sladek|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348419044s/968863.jpg|953760]).

Be forewarned! This is very much a 50's book with all that entails. I actually started groaning with the physical need for Asimov's early stilted dialogue and Heinlein's pedantic juveniles, and that's saying A LOT.

Whew!… (more)