Tales from the Planet Earth

Tales from the Planet Earth is a 1986 anthology of science fiction stories edited by Frederik Pohl and Elizabeth Anne Hull ^[1] It presents 18 stories, sharing a common background developed by Pohl and Hull, by 18 authors from 18 different countries; each author's story is set in his native country.^[2]

The collection was dedicated for the memory of A. Bertram Chandler and Janusz A. Zajdel.^[3]

Contents

• Sitting Around the Pool, Soaking Up the Rays · Frederik Pohl, originally in IASFM Aug ’84
• The Thursday Events · Ye Yonglie
• User Friendly · Spider Robinson
• Life as an Ant · André Carneiro
• Fiddling for Waterbuffaloes · Somtow Sucharitkul, originally in Analog Apr ’86
• S Is for Snake · Lino Aldani, originally in “S come serpente”, Urania #1021, Apr 27, ’86.
• The Divided Carla · Josef Nesvadba, originally in Literarni Mesicnik Jun ’85
• The View from the Top of the Tower · Harry Harrison, originally in F&SF May ’86
• Don’t Knock the Rock · A. Bertram Chandler
• The Owl of Bear Island · Jon Bing
• Contacts of a Fourth Kind · Ljuben Dilov
• Infestation · Brian W. Aldiss
• In the Blink of an Eye · Carlos Maria Federici
• Particularly Difficult Territory · Janusz A. Zajdel
• Time Everlasting · Sam J. Lundwall
• The Middle Kingdom · Tong Enzheng & Elizabeth Anne Hull, adapt.
• On the Inside Track · Karl-Michael Armer, originally in Entropie, 1986
• The Legend of the Paper Spaceship · Tetsu Yano; trans. by Gene Van Troyer & Tomoko Oshiro, originally 1978
• We Servants of the Stars · Frederik Pohl^[4]

Reception

Orson Scott Card described the anthology as "a world tour of science fiction" and reported "it will make you more appreciative of the best of America sf -- and more impatient with sameness, the repetitiveness, the insularity that so often afflicts us."^[2]

References