'Arena' always brings back memories of what was possibly my first science fiction anthology, 'Science Fiction Terror Tales'. It also includes both Dick's 'Imposter' and Heinlein's 'They'.

Oh wow you did it again, Jonathan! "Surface Tension" is one of my most favorite SF short stories. I read it about 40 years ago and then again in 2023 and the story still delivered for me. Blish wrote some related short stories and included "Surface Tension" in a book titled "The Seedling Stars" which I purchased and then donated to BOB's Science Fiction because she collects paperbacks printed before barcodes. "Surface Tension" is very highly recommended!!!

Super-easy; Fredric Brown > James Blish > Fritz Leiber > A.E van Vogt > John W. Campbell. I like all the authors in this list, and have read and liked the majority of their outputs, so this is straightforward. Done. Next? (only reason Leiber is below Blish is that most of Leiber's output was fantasy and horror, and if you're now talking those genres, he'd be at the top).

I have a shelf-full of anthologies for this very reason: finding authors that resonate with you, without having to make the commitment to read a full-length novel on the chance that you might like it. This is smart reading and rewarding. I have this anthology too, and 'The Weapon Shop' was one of my favorites, along with 'Scanners Live in Vain' (Cordwainer Smith), 'First Contact' (Murray Leinster), and 'The Quest for Saint Aquin (Anthony Boucher). Thank you, Jonathan, great job!

I love “Coming Attraction”, named it my favorite short story last year. It’s more of a reversal on white knight, not actually a white knight story as no one is saved in the end. It’s actually the oldest story to appear in the recent Big Book of Cyberpunk, and it screams proto-cyberpunk, even the girl has nails similar to Molly Millions. Not to mention the odd punk culture, microwaved food, and electronic music. It is firmly Cold War era though as New York is a victim of nuclear attack.

Just read “Arena” this last week in ‘The Best of Fredric Brown’. Having champions represent military forces goes back at least as far as David and Goliath. The twist is that an ancient alien presence forces the issue, unknown to the two armadas. After that there really isn’t any resemblance to the Star Trek episode. Very different alien, the barrier and the battle of wits. Brown’s story could have been printed today and been nominated for awards.

Bravo! I thoroughly enjoyed your video, and your TBR selection methodology. You certainly chose the right collection to use; I think The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Vol. 1 may well be the best short SF collection ever put together. You didn't mention them, but this collection includes Nightfall by Isaac Asimov, Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, The Nine Billion Names of God by Arthur C. Clarke, It's a Good Life by Jerome Bixby, Scanners Live in Vain by Cordwainer Smith, and First Contact by Murray Leinster, to name just a few. Superb, and highly recommended.

Nice selection. I just added a couple of novels by Fredric Brown on my tbr too some days ago. (The Mind Thing, Murder Can Be Fun, Hall of Mirrors as well as his stort story collection Nightmares and Geezenstacks)

What Mad Universe is a treat , and like Dying Inside, the NYC area descriptions were fun to read.

Van Vogt was a major influence on Philip K. Dick's writing. I see a lot of his books in second-hand bookshops where I live. Also that fact about Blish and gas giants is really cool - didn’t know that 👍

I like the idea of reading short stories of authors I want to try out - my TBR is growing faster than it's shrinking.

I read Arena last year and agree it's excellent, definitely has a place in my top 10 short stories. I would recommend reading more of Brown's short stories - Honeymoon in Hell is another great one

Surface Tension was my favourite story out of this anthology.

great way to decide what novel to pick and your winner was clear. imo ae van vogt has one of if not thee best short stories ever ‘the enchanted village.’ i love it much more for its elegiac, pastoral feel than its great but obvious twilight zone twist ending.

Fredric Brown is easily one of my all-time favourite authors...of Crime and Mystery. The Screaming Mimi, The Far Cry, His Name Was Death, The Night of the Jabberwock, and all of the volumes in the Fredric Brown in the Detective Pulps series. I think his creativity, suspense levels, and weird imagination served him so very well in the Crime & Mystery field. By contrast, the odd way his mind worked produced some interesting SF - and 'Arena' is the stand-out, as far as I'm concerned - and I'm not here to slag or trash the SF of an author I worship and have spent a fortune collecting,,,but I can't help feeling Brown never did write an SF masterpiece to rival all the other works we could name by other authors. That said, my favourite of the novels is The Mind Thing, a rather obscure one; after that, What Mad Universe is one I very much enjoyed. I have to say, having read the many chapters that exist of his unfinished SF novel Brother Monster, I would say it may have turned out to be one of the best things he ever wrote, certainly when it comes to the SF content. 'Arena' remains one of my fave short stories of all time, and I'm glad it got you onto this author. Night of the Jabberwock is of course the novel for Fantasy fans (maybe even SF fans?), willing to make to the leap to all of Brown's brilliant Crime & Mystery output. His "general fiction" novel, The Office, is also a hidden gem.

Anthologies are a great way to discover authors! Currently working through Library of America's 60's Sci Fi collection, which has several gems in it (Algernon, Nova, and Way Station are my favs so far) Campbell had an award named after him, and the winners and nominees tended to not be on the Hugo/Nebula lists. Permutation City won in '95, for example.

👨‍🏫 Loved the background nuggets on these authors - particularly re. “Alien” - as I did not know the little details you added. Marvellous.

Great video, great game! I remember that first Van Vogt story, The Weapon Shop: I remember loving those elements of mystery involved in it. Same as in The Worldhouse by MZB, or the small shop in Terry Pratchett's novels, where Twoflower bought his sapient pearwood chest.... that I, too, was a bit frustrated and then confused later when I read the full novel and could not square it up with my memory of the story. Based on this, I might need to look out for some of Brown's work. I definitely, but DEFINITELY need to find that James Blish story! I really enjoy James Blish and love marine themes.

Of those 5 authors, I've read, Blish, Brown, Campbell, and Van Vogt, my favourite by a long way is Van Vogt.

I really like this idea. And I'm glad Brown "won," since he's probably my favorite of the five. But if you had asked my opinion, I would have recommended that you read a whole book of his short stories (including some short-shorts) rather than a novel.

Nice summaries. Great idea for a video

What a super cool video!

Cool! I've never read any of this writters! Good video idea too! We'll be looking forwards to the novel you end up reading because of this

I'm excited you got that anthology. I "fondly remember" these stories. Some of them were adapted on tv shows like the Twilight Zone (It's a Good Life) or Star Trek (Arena). "A Martian Odyssey" by Stanley G. Weinbaum "Microcosmic God" by Theodore Sturgeon "Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov "Arena" by Frederic Brown "First Contact" by Murray Leinster "Scanners Live in Vain" by Cordwainer Smith "Mars is Heaven!" by Ray Bradbury "The Nine Billion Names of God" by Arthur C. Clarke "It's a Good Life" by Jerome Bixby "The Cold Equations" by Tom Godwin "Fondly Fahrenheit" by Alfred Bester "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes

Sounds like some great recommendations. I wasn’t aware that Leiber did Sci-fi.

0well, thank you. I've read this work by Van Vogt many, many years ago and had difficulty in remembering the title and the author. All I could recollect was the impression upon me.

I picked up about eight Van Vogt as the only secondhand book shop in town seemed to have a lot of them. I read Space Beagle and mostly enjoyed it, felt a bit Star Trekky at times. The Beast was a disappointing fix-up with some good moments, but it just didn't gel. I found an inscription in one of his books, as he seemingly had a nice evening in 1976 and gave a copy of his latest book to a couple he chatted with at a dinner. It's sort of nice to find things like that. I really want to read Blish. As a fan of The Thing, I think you'll enjoy the Who Goes There? novella.

That is a nifty way to find some authors new to you. Gonna give this method a try.

@alexunabridged brought me here. Happy Reading! 😎📚👍

I just finished “Martians, Go Home”. I found it mildly amusing, but don’t think it has held up well, over the years. Not much really happens. One of the first sci-fi books I read, as a teen (I’m current 68 years old), was “The Voyage of the Space Beagle”. I remember it fondly and think it has held up well, after reading it again several years ago. Thanks!

Wouldn't mind seeing more of these videos. I should add an anthology of some sort to my rotation of books. Not that I need to be adding more books to the rotation.

jonathan u r an endless fount of new reading ideas yes I had a feeling the film makers of the alien movie got the concept for the monster from literary sci-fi but didn't know who but movie and tv r about ten yrs or so behind the written stuff and get most of their ideas from writers ⚛😀

Fredric. Brown Placet is a Crazy Place!

I’ve been a sci-fi reader for years, and absolutely love the genre! Also new to your channel (subscribed now!) so don’t know if you’ve covered Greg Bear. I’ve read Eon and City at the End of Time…both great books! Would love to hear if you’ve read any Greg Bear and what your thoughts are! Cheers! 😊

The Weapon Shops of Isher is a great rumination on arms control. i noticed echoes of the concept in the Men in Black movies.

oh, I had no idea star trek was based on books. For whatever reason, the tv series has never caught my eye, but I'd totally give it a chance in book format.

Loved Slan by A.E. van Vogt when I was a young person. Recently read his Voyage of the Space Beagle. The different alien species that were encountered were really interesting. I did not care for the main protagonist, who was a scientist; he seemed arrogant and did some questionable actions. The spaceship was comprised of scientists and military types. Even though this book came out in the 1960s I think, I thought it was odd that there were no women on board the ship. The Beagle was exploring thousands of lightyears of space and I think flying between galaxies. It seems super illogical not to include women.

Twilight seems interesting, a third hand telling is original. Hes the only author on the list I've heard of so glad to hear about some new golden age authors. TBR grows more powerful today..

Jonathan are you aware of Gareth @ Books Songs & Other Magic. He loves Science Fiction too! You should have him on your channel.

Nice video. A couple of thoughts. Brown is also the master of the short short, i.e., less than two pages. These are notoriously hard to market, and the disintegration of the magazine market has led to most of them disappearing. Leiber also wrote westers, really good ones, under a variety of pseudonyms. Blishs most famous work, in the wider world, would be the "after such knowledge" triptych, which includes A Case of Conscience. The other two works, Dr Mirabilis and Faust Aleph Null (Black Easter) are not SF. He is (still) the pre-eminent critic in the field IMO. Speaking of personal opinions. I have always thought Campbell was an ordinary writer and a worse editor. I am apparently in the minority in this regard. His status as a human being is difficult to gauge after all this time, and IMO shouldn't reflect on his work.

شكرا جزيلا لك ❤❤❤

I need to read Ray Radbury’s Martian Chronicles, I enjoyed reading Fahrenheit 451. Do you like the cyberpunk genre?

Manic pixie dream girls for the win, Evan Rachel Wood in Barefoot.

I’m doing something similar as I’m trying to discover James Tiptree by reading her short stories, Warm Worlds and Otherwise. Unfortunately, I’m finding them very difficult to comprehend... it’s probably just me, but I have no clue what the hell is going on. 😂 Have you read Tiptree?

👍👍👍📚🤖🚀🐲

Stupid question: what’s TBR?