This second volume of Brian Aldiss' multi-author science fiction anthology is at least as good as the first. As before, selections are drawn from periodicals in the tail end of the pulp era: the 1940s and 1950s. (Harry Harrison's "Final Encounter" is an outlier from 1964.) The thematic sections of the book treat "Maturity or Bust" and "Decline and Free Fall," but the stories are more accurately characterized by the subsections, such as "The Other End of the Stick," which uses narrative reversals to point out subaltern perspectives.

In his editorial remarks, Aldiss is especially fervent about the James Blish story "Beep." It is definitely an interesting tale, adding the espionage bureaucracy flavor to a narrative that uses FTL communications technology to explore philosophical determinism. I was curious to read the Gardner Fox story "Tonight the Stars Revolt!" but it turned out to be pretty unexceptional sword and planet fare.

Women authors are conspicuous by their absence from this book, and the relatively late Harrison story is the only one with anything interesting to say about gender. The fault lies with Aldiss's choices more than with what was written in the period. Leigh Brackett and C. L. Moore wrote many stories that would have suited this collection. The Poul Anderson story "Lord of a Thousand Suns" particularly struck me as perhaps Brackett-derivative. Anderson is also a repeat author from the previous volume, the only one to have two stories selected by Aldiss.

In its two books this anthology supplies a distinct perspective on Golden Age science fiction. It was notable to me that I had read none of these stories collected elsewhere. Still and all, I will be happy to turn my sfnal attention to more recent works after this excursion into an early phase of the genre.

This two-part anthology was Brian Aldiss's attempt to give an overview of the "galactic empire" story, those sweeping tales of the rise and fall of great interstellar civilizations. He gives a selection of stories from across the history of sf, but unfortunately the conclusion one reaches is that the galactic empire story is a bit rubbish. Many of the stories come across as subpar Star Wars, with men being manly men and women being sexual objects, and the fate of empires being decided because a lot of people have too much testosterone and someone met a convenient "wizard". "The Rebel of Valkyr" by Alfred Coppel (this is the story that contains the woman on the cover of Volume I with the amazing gravity-defying breasts) is the worst offender, most of it being taken up by barbarians posturing at one another. It's got a robot in it, but it's otherwise indistinguishable from a really bad fantasy story. "The Star Plunderer" by Poul Anderson, "Escape to Chaos" by John D. MacDonald, and "Tonight the Stars Revolt!" by Gardner F. Fox run along similarly unenjoyable lines.

Also common (and commonly poor) are stories with twist endings, which typically go one of two ways 1) humans think they're colonizing, but they're really being colonized! or 2) the big evil aliens we will meet in space... are actually humans! There are numerous offenders along these lines: "The Possessed" by Arthur C. Clarke, "Protected Species" by H. B. Fyfe, "All the Way Back" by Michael Shaara, "We're Civilized!" by Mark Clifton and Alex Aposolides, "Concealment" by A. E. van Vogt, "Down the River" by Mack Reynolds, "The Bounty Hunter" by Avram Davidson, "Not Yet the End" by Fredric Brown, and "Big Ancestory" by F. L. Wallace. I don't why sf authors are obsessed with the twist ending, but if they're going to use it so much, it would behoove them to learn to use it well. It's usually heavy-handed and obvious, and the stories nothing more than a vehicle for it. There is one story that uses it to excellent effect: "Final Encounter" by Harry Harrison, where the surprise isn't obvious, yet can still be figured out, and actually makes a thematic point that works with the rest of the story.

And indeed, there are a few gems in these collections, but they are usually stories that subvert the idea of the galactic empire (or have nothing to do with it, making one wonder why Aldiss selected them for the collection): R. A. Lafferty's "Been a Long Time" is an amusing explication of the infinite-monkeys-infinite-typewriters idea. Cordwainer Smith's "The Crime and Glory of Commander Suzdal" is so mad it has to be brilliant. Idris Seabright's "Brightness Falls from the Air" is a melancholy vignette about those stomped beneath the heel of empire. Clifford Simak's "Immigrant" provides some social commentary about climbing the social ladder, delivered in an interesting way. And James Blish's "Beep" is a clever idea that actually has a decent story attached to deliver it, unlike, say "Planting Time" by P. Adams and Charles Nightingale (which is a somewhat interesting idea that someone forgot to attach any story to). Of course, the best tale in the collection is the one I had already read many times going in: Isaac Asimov's original "Foundation". Overall, though, it was a slog to get through these books more often than not. Aldiss's strange choices in selection and organization don't help much, and neither do his dull introductions.

I purchased this collection because of the long piece by John D. MacDonald. It surprised me. I knew the man was good, but I had no idea he could be as imaginative as this story; in fact, I had to start it over twice to keep track of his plot. As a satisfying story, however, it didn't quite cut it. Much better is the shorter story at the back of the book about the hundreds of species of humans found throughout the galaxy, planted by the Master Race. they tract down where the home world of said master race is and they finally got their answers. ( )

An Orbit book ( )