Literature / Great Tales of Science Fiction

Original edition

First published in 1983 under the title The Arbor House Treasury of Science Fiction Masterpieces, this Genre Anthology was edited by Robert Silverberg and Martin H. Greenberg.

It was republished under the title Great Tales of Science Fiction in 1985 by Galahad Books.

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Thirty-seven works have been reprinted in this book:

• "Mellonta Tauta" by Edgar Allan Poe (1849)
• "In The Year 2889" by Jules Verne (1891)
• "Sold To Satan" by Mark Twain (1923)
• "The New Accelerator" by H. G. Wells (1901)
• "Finis" by Frank Lillie Pollack (1906)
• "As Easy as A.B.C." by Rudyard Kipling (1912)
• "Dark Lot Of One Soul" by MP Shiel (1912)
• "R.U.R." by Karel Čapek (1920)
• "The Tissue Culture King" by Julian Huxley (1926)
• "The Metal Man" by Jack Williamson (1928)
• "The Gostak And The Doshes" by Miles J Breuer (1930)
• "Alas, All Thinking!" by Harry Bates (1935)
• "The Mad Moon" by Stanley G. Weinbaum (1935)
• "As Never Was" by P Schuyler Miller (1912)
• "Desertion" by Clifford Simak (1944)
• "The Strange Case Of John Kingman" by Murray Leinster (1948)
• "Dreams Are Sacred" by Peter Phillips (1948)
• "Misbegotten Missionary" by Isaac Asimov (1950)
• "Dune Roller" by Julian May (1951)
• "Warm" by Robert Sheckley (1953)
• "A Bad Day For Sales" by Fritz Leiber (1953)
• "Man Of Parts" by HL Gold (1954)
• "The Man Who Came Early" by Poul Anderson (1956)
• "The Burning Of The Brain" by Cordwainer Smith (1958)
• "The Men Who Murdered Mohammed" by Alfred Bester (1958)
• "The Man Who Lost The Sea" by Theodore Sturgeon (1959)
• "Goodlife" by Fred Saberhagen (1963)
• "The Sliced-Crosswise Only-On-Tuesday World" by Philip José Farmer (1971)
• "Gehenna" by KMO Donnell (1971)
• "A Meeting With Medusa" by Arthur C. Clarke (1971)
• "Painwise" by James Triptree Jr (1972)
• "Nobody's Home" by Joanna Russ (1972)
• "Think Only This Of Me" by Michael Kurland (1973)
• "Capricorn Games" by Robert Silverberg (1974)
• "The Author Of The Acacia Seeds And Other Extracts From The Journal Of The Association Of Therolinguistics" by Ursula K. Le Guin (1974)
• "Travels" by Carter Scholtz (1980)
• "Doing Lennon" by Gregory Benford (1975)

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Tropes appearing in this anthology:

• Brain/Computer Interface: In "The Burning Of The Brain", by Cordwainer Smith, except for one symbolic lever, the controls of the Wu-Feinstein are either electronic or telepathically controlled.
• Doorstopper: This Anthology has just over 700 pages and almost forty stories. Even the abridged versions (missing Travels by Carter Sholz and annotations to "Doing Lennon" by Gregory Benford) are over 500 pages.
• Exty Years from Now: "In The Year 2889", published in 1889. (The story's actually by Verne's son, Michel, a creative sci-fi author in his own right, but Jules let Michel use his more famous name so the story would have a better chance of being published.)
• For Science!: In "The New Accelerator", by H. G. Wells, the story ends with The Protagonists casually preparing to mass-produce and sell a product to grant a standard set of superpowers which will likely upend human society in countless ways.
• Genre Anthology: This anthology is focused on Science Fiction.
• Loud of War: In "As Easy as A.B.C." the airships of the Aerial Board of Control use an industrial-strength sound and light show to pacify a Powder Keg Crowd.
  "I hate to interrupt a specialist when he's enjoying himself," said De Forest. "But, as a matter of fact, all Illinois has been asking us to stop for these last fifteen seconds."
  "What a pity." Arnott slipped off his mask. "I wanted you to hear us really hum. Our lower C can lift street-paving."
• Minimalistic Cover Art: The original front cover features a slate grey background, black text for The Arbor House Treasury and "Introduction by Robert Silverberg", and bright red text for of Science Fiction Masterpieces and the editor names.
• Non-Malicious Monster: In "Dune Roller", by Julian May, a monster crashed on Earth long ago. The landing caused it to break up into many pieces (its "children"), and those are widely scattered. It doesn't go out of its way to harm other creatures, but if you get in its way when it tries to reabsorb its children, it will go Mama Bear on you.
• One-Word Title:
  • "Finis", a Short Story by Frank Lillie Pollack.
  • "Desertion", a Short Story by Clifford D. Simak.
  • "Warm", a Short Story by Robert Sheckley.
  • "Goodlife", a Novelette by Fred Saberhagen.
• "Gehenna", a Short Story by KMO Donnell.
  • "Painwise", a Novelette by James Triptree Jr.
  • "Travels", a Short Story by Carter Scholtz.
• Orwellian Retcon: Galahad Books had The Arbor House Treasury of Science Fiction Masterpieces reprinted with the name Great Tales of Science Fiction. They also omitted Travels by Carter Sholz and annotations to "Doing Lennon" by Gregory Benford.
• Reality Ensues: In "The New Accelerator", by H. G. Wells, scientists are attempting to research the ramifications of an elixir that grants Super-Speed (ie, clothes catching on fire due to the friction).
• Super-Speed: In "The New Accelerator", by H. G. Wells, scientists have created a new elixir that causes the subject's body and mind to accelerate fast enough that the world around them appears to slow to a crawl. The characters in the story experiment with some of the ramifications.
• Time Travel: In "The Man Who Came Early", by Poul Anderson, an American soldier stationed in Iceland is sent back to the Viking Era after being hit by lightning.
• Trapped in the Past: In "The Man Who Came Early", by Poul Anderson, an American soldier is stuck in a Viking settlement after being sent back in time by a lightning strike.
• Unusual User Interface: In "The Burning Of The Brain", by Cordwainer Smith, there's an entire wall of laminated star charts, which aids in telepathic control of the Wu-Feinstein. It fails catastrophically at the worst time.

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