Book - A window on the universe

Book –A window on the universe

Author: multiple 

Score:8/10

Year : 1995 (stories from 1950-60's ; see below) 

Publisher: Oxford University Press

ISBN 0194226948

Pages : 160

Language: English

Is a collection of 9 scifi short stories by Ray Bradbury (zero hour), Bill Brown (the sar ducks), Philip K. Dick (human is), Jerome Bixby (it's a good life), Isaac Asimov (the achine that won the war), Brian Aldiss (who can replace a man?), John Wyndham (stitch in time), Roald Dahl (the sound machine) & Arthur C. Clarke (the hammer of god), each with their thought provoking tales...

This particular book adds notes to explain specific words but also invites the reader to answer a few questions regarding the stories and to imagine consequences, sequels and so forth.

More about each short story ....

Ray Bradbury’s ‘’zero hour’ (1951)’ isn’t quite the same level as The Martian Chronicles, but it’s still enjoyable. This short story brings forth hidden agenda's in an apparently innocent child's game of imagined friends... 

Maybe you'll be more cautious next time you talk to relatives who tell you their kids are playing the same exact game with the same imagined friend's name...

I think Ray could have developed this into a full-fledged horrific tale... wonder if he has indeed... because this smells like a first draft to a much bigger idea.

Score : 7/10

Philip K. Dick : ‘’Human Is’’ (1955). In an unknown far distant future, humankind has settled on other planets/ stars... but, what does truly define a human? - is it the fact of one's birth on earth or is it about something else? In this short story, a mean man travels to Rexor IV and comes back totally changed...

Score : 8/10. But what defines a human ?

Jerome Bixby : ‘’It’s a good life’’ (1953)  is a horrific tale of an emotionally undeveloped child with a powerful mind, holding his family and city in terror…

I found some bits of this difficult to read due to cruelty to animals.

Score : 6/10.

Note: this short story has been adapted into an eponymous episode of The Twilight zone aired in 1961.

Isaac Asimov : ‘’the machine that won the war’’  (1961)

the interstellar war between earth & deneb is over. earth has won, with the help of a machine...

score : 8/10

Brian Aldiss : ‘’who can replace a man?’’ (1958)

Can automatons replace humans ? What is their place and role for us ? On what levels should we rely on them and what are the risks of an all-robotic world ? Such are the themes in this well written short by Aldiss.

Score 8/10.

John Wyndham : ‘’ stitch in time’’ 1956)

Mrs Solderson reflecting on a lost love which would have changed her life completely receives an unexpected visit...

Score : 8/10 for this thought provoking love story and imagined what-ifs.

Roald Dahl : ‘’the sound machine’’ (1949) left me a bit dubious and I’d forgotten to even score it when I read this short story in July 2014.