Thomas N. Scortia (1926–1986)

The Glass Tower. It’s supposed to be a show-stopper of a building. It is. It’s supposed to be envied by those in the building trade. It is. It’s supposed to be a coveted place to have shops, do business, and live. It is. It’s supposed to be safe. It almost is, but not quite. Though written in 1974, this book shows no signs of being dated. In fact, the portrayal of the characters seems quite current. Most people will be familiar with the tale and have likely seen the movie roughly based on it, but reading novel will give you a new perspective, despite knowing how it will end. The authors do an excellent job of building suspense throughout the novel. The fire itself is a major player in the drama, and they don’t let readers forget that. Many characters are introduced rapidly in the beginning chapters, but readers will soon sort out the major ones. It’s a very well-plotted and and exceedingly well-written story. If you’ve only seen the movie, do yourself a favor and add this book to your reading list.… (more)

This is my first Scortia book and I liked it.

Scortia was lesser known SF writer of the "Golden Age" of SF. Like his fellow authors he started in the SF pulps with short stories. He had stories in at least 8 different SF publications. He went on to write half a dozen SF novels. He likely would have written more but he was busy as an aerospace engineer designing rocket fuel.

I'm surprised this book has such mediocre reviews. I liked the hard SF theme and the possibilities of humans in space.… (more)

Most anthologies are quite a mixed bag - especially ones of stories collected for a theme, and esp. SF. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed these. I've never heard of the editors before, and (imo) their stories were the weakest, but they do have good taste.

I liked that the stories were from different eras. I liked that the authors of them had various ideas about what kind of form cyborgs could take, and how the cyborgs would then relate to traditional humans. I liked that some of the stories were a bit funny, others a bit adventurous, others a bit melancholy, etc. And I liked that none were overly pretentious or metaphysical.

The story Camouflage, by H. Kuttner, was so dramatic & provocative that I'm recommending it to my husband, who prefers full-length novels.… (more)