It's Blish, so it's supposed to be good, right? Well, imo, it wasn't. These are apparently stories that Blish himself felt deserved a wider audience - he even rewrote the included novella for this collection. But all I got out of it was the sense that the man thinks highly of his *L*iterary talents and ordinary readers can be damned if they don't get it. Not an involving story or memorable character in the book, imo. It was short, and now it's off my shelves - I'm glad. ( )

Indeholder "Preface", "A Style in Trason", "The Writing of the Rat", "And Some were Savages", "A Dusk of Idols", "None so Blind", "No Jokes on Mars", "How Beatiful with Banners".

"Preface" handler om at alle historierne er lavet på bestilling fra en bladredaktør. Dvs nogle andre er kommet med ideen/temaet og så har James Blish skrevet noget i den dur.
"A Style in Trason" handler om ???
"The Writing of the Rat" handler om en galaktisk krig mod slavejægere og hvilken side Jorden er på.
"And Some were Savages" handler om ???
"A Dusk of Idols" handler om ???
"None so Blind" handler om ???
"No Jokes on Mars" handler om ???
"How Beatiful with Banners" handler om ???

??? ( )

James Blish is one of the greats of science fiction. (Three words - “cities” “in” “flight”.) Do not use this book to evaluate his talent. This is a collection which is apparently built around the premise that each story was commissioned by an editor. In addition, it also seems to have given Blish the opportunity to expand the first story – “A Style in Treason”. The resulting collection is not necessarily bad – there is just little to recommend it. It feels (for any of you out there as old as me who can remember such things) like reading one of the less successful issues of a 60s science fiction magazine. Of course it seems like the 60s, because that is when the stories were written. But it does not represent the best or even the slightly good that decade produced. Rather, it feels like works written by request, and pounded out to get the penny a word. ( )