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What’s your Favorite Frederik Pohl novel, Phyllis (and Alex) Eisenstein?

Poster Placeholder of - 67It’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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What’s your Favorite Frederik Pohl novel, Ben Bova?

Poster Placeholder of - 88I like The Space Merchants best of all. To me, it epitomizes science fiction at its best: a fascinating premise, intricate interlacing of the futuristic aspects with the characterizations, and sharp writing.

Ben Bova can be found online at benbova.net

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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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What’s your Favorite Frederik Pohl novel, James E. Gunn?

Placeholder of  -81Poster Placeholder of - 72My choices probably are pretty standard (although maybe I’ll be surprised by the final list): Gateway and The Space Merchants.  Fred’s fiction is always an occasion, for those flashes of insight into the human condition as well as his great storytelling abilities and his skillful prose, I don’t think Fred (and Cyril) ever did better in Fred’s satire mode than his first, but Gateway is Fred at the peak of his mature powers and focusing on a more difficult target, the human heart rather than human folly.  By the time Fred was able to write Gateway he had recognized that his skills at skewering human folly were a trap and he had moved on (at least most of the time).  I’m looking forward to his new one.

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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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What’s your Favorite Frederik Pohl novel, Cory Doctorow?

Image Placeholder of - 31The Space Merchants was a book my father and I could both agree on—he from his anti-capitalist background and me from the PoV of speculative fiction. The image of Chicken Little has stuck with me ever since, and it resonates anew every time someone reveals a fresh horror from big agribusiness. Likewise, I am reminded of it again and again every time some jackass comes up with a newer, more intrusive form of web advertising.

Cory Doctorow can be found online at craphound.com and boingboing.net

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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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What’s your Favorite Frederik Pohl novel, Joe Haldeman?

Image Placeholder of - 21Placeholder of  -5As impressive as Fred’s later work is, the two that made the biggest impression on me were novels I read when I was still in high school—Wolfbane and The Space Merchants.  I suppose most of the sf I’d read before that was pretty much hooray-for-the-future optimism.  Fred’s darker vision (along with Kornbluth’s) woke up something new and frighteningly adult in me.

Joe Haldeman can be found online at home.earthlink.net/~haldeman/

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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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What’s your Favorite Frederik Pohl novel, Harry Harrison?

Placeholder of  -39Frederik Pohl is one of science fiction’s most skilled novelists—but I am not writing about his novels. Other critics are on hand here to tell you about them. I want to turn my attention to his skills as an editor, because he is right up there in the editorial pantheon—right at the top.

With the exception, always, of John W. Campbell, Jr. who stands alone. John was the editor who invented modern science fiction. Period. Other editors carried on his founding labors—and leading them all is Fred Pohl.

He has had plenty of competition. In the post-war years the SF magazines boomed. Horace Gold at Galaxy printed admirable fiction dealing with the softer sciences. Tony Boucher loved good writing and saw to it that F&SF featured it whenever possible. (He also opened the door to religion, which is something, I fervently believe, SF can live without.) However Fred was equal to the best of the competition, bettering them most of the time, and certainly exceeding them when it came to longevity. He dropped out of high school at a tender age to edit his first magazine, then edited other magazines—and books—well into the twenty-first century.

As John Campbell proved, an editor can change to the world. In his case, the SF world. In Fred’s case, the parameters of this world. He both plucked winners from the slush pile—and encouraged writers to reach out and create fiction of lasting value. (The slush pile is the heap of unsolicited manuscripts submitted to the editor. Who separates the dross from the gold, extracting he few bits of bullion from the tons of refuse.) It is a wonderful feeling for an editor to discover these stories.

(One of the reasons I feel qualified to judge Fred’s editorial accomplishments is that I have enjoyed a side-career as an editor and know the Eureka! thrill of finding a publishable story among the tons of coffee-stained, paperclip-rusty mss. I have found and published the first sales of 45 writers. 43 have vanished—but I’m still proud of Tom Scortia and James Tiptree, Jr.)

I wonder how many first-sales Fred has published?

A good editor is also creative. Fred actually made the time to read fanzines—and once braced me about a piece I had written in a zine called Ansible; about weapons for use in space war. He took me to task for throwing away a good idea. I got the message. Wrote “No War or Battle’s Sound,” which Fred cheerfully bought.

He has always extended himself—and in doing so has improved our field of writing. An example; some years ago he bought and published a novel by Chip Delany titled Dhalgren. Which many loathed. Since then Chip has gone to a career in academia and his novel has been well received there. (Though still loathed by some…) Was I right or was Fred? The jury is still out.

But Fred always bent the rules to get the stories he wanted for Galaxy. I sent him my novel Bill, the Galactic Hero. Which had been bounced by many book editors. He didn’t do serials—but he did publish the novel as separate stories. And it did go on to a minor sort of literary fame.

What I am saying is that Fred is a great editor.

And his best novel is one that echoes his editorial skills.

It is The Space Merchants—or any of the other various titles that it has been published under. It is a collaboration with Cyril Kornbluth. And it is also the best novel Cyril published.

So there you have it. The best novel that Fred ever wrote—and Cyril as well.

Two for the price of one.

Harry Harrison can be found online at harryharrison.com

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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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