It’s truly hard to select among Fred’s books; so many of them are excellent. To be honest, Alex and I both like The Space Merchants best, though it isn’t 100% Fred’s. But for me, runners up to that, would be The Coming of the Quantum Cats and Narabedla Limited—both of which are crazy and innovative and have enormous charm and could not be more different from each other. Fred is wonderfully versatile. And The Age of the Pussyfoot also stands out in my memory, as do Gateway and Man Plus.
And above all of that, Alex and I both think Fred’s short story “The Tunnel Under the World” is one of the best SF short stories ever written. Who could forget Feckle Freezers? And of course when we saw “Groundhog Day” the comparison was automatic, except that Fred’s story has a much more chilling (and gratifying for the SF lover) ending. And then there’s “The Man Who Ate the World,” which gives a whole new dimension to teddy bears. At long lengths and short ones, Fred always delivers the sense of wonder that science fiction lovers read the stuff for.
Phyllis Eisenstein can be found online at x.bl.com/eisenstein
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All the Lives He Led (978-0-7653-2176-3 / $25.99) by Frederik Pohl will be available from Tor Books on April 12, 2011.
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Related Links:
- What’s your Favorite Frederik Pohl novel?
- Jody Lynn Nye: Starburst
- Mike Resnick: The Way the Future Was
- Harry Harrison: The Space Merchants
- Vernor Vinge: Slave Ship
- Joe Haldeman: Wolfbane and The Space Merchants
- Neil Gaiman: The Age of the Pussyfoot
- Cory Doctorow: The Space Merchants
- David Brin: Wolfbane
- James E. Gunn: Gateway and The Space Merchants
- Gregory Benford & Elisabeth Malatre: Man Plus
- Larry Niven: The Age of the Pussyfoot
- Ben Bova: The Space Merchants
