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Platinum Pohl: The Collected Best Stories by Frederick Pohl
01/01/2006 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
pub: TOR/Sci Fi Channel. 463 page hardback. Price: $27.95 (US), $37.95 (CAN). ISBN: 0-312-87527-4. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out website: www.tor.com
I was going to say this book is sheer gold but as publisher TOR have raised the stakes with the title, then you'll have to settle for pure platinum.
This book consists of 30 novella and short stories spanning the life of SF writer Frederick Pohl, to whom I hope is required reading for all of you reading this here. Oddly enough, I've only read four of these before, the others have appeared in various magazines that I didn't have access over the years. They cover a wide-range of subjects within SF in all its spectras and a lesson for all neo-writers as to the range that they should be capable of writing.
Picking out favourites is never easy. I loved 'Waiting For The Olympians'. A first contact story only told from the orientation that the Roman Empire survived until the present day and life seen from a Sci-Rom or Scientific-Romance hack writer. What makes it work is that we can see why events happened the way they did whereas the Romans locked in their own reality can't. A nicely thought out tale.
'The Day The Icicle Works Closed' is one that I read before but is a superb detective story set on an isolate world. Although on first inspection it looks like a story that could be transposed into general genre, the slant doesn't and makes for a neat SF tale.
'My Lady Green Sleeves' is set in a futuristic prison bringing home dire consequences for those who make a jail break. So, too, does 'The Greening Of Bed-Stuy' for quite different reasons. Conceivably, 'The Gold At Starbow's End' could be perceived in a similar vein except it's a conspiracy by the President and his scientific advisor to develop knowledge from a space trip.
I could go on gushing about these stories for ages but then you'll be missing the enjoyment for yourself. Frederick Pohl is a deserved master of Science Fiction and this volume deserves a place on your shelf.
GF Willmetts
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