The Science Fiction of Mark Clifton

by Mark Clifton

This collection of the best short stories of Mark Clifton makes these fine tales readily available for the first time in two decades.

Winner with Frank Riley of the 1955 Hugo Award for They'd Rather Be Right, Clifton has for a variety of reasons unrelated to the quality of his writing all but disappeared from the aware­ness of today's science fiction audience. Never a prolific writer he had published only about twenty-five...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0809309858
• ISBN13: 9780809309856
• Release Date: December 1980
• Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Clifton is the greatest Sci-Fi writer ever.

Mark Clifton is the greatest science fiction writer ever. After reading his collection, I pretty much gave up on sci-fi since, in comparison to his work, so much in the genre seemed contrived and devoid of substance.His background was in personel which provided him with the opportunity to interview 250,000 people in his career. This comes accross brilliantly in all the characters which populate his stories, everyone of them infused with a richness and truth that is rare in all forms of fiction. His works are perfect examples of the medium, meaning that they could not be told in any form other than sci-fi. Please give him a try. If you do pick up the collection, then I highly recommend the last two stories, "What Now, Little Man?" and "Hang Head, Vandal!" The former story impressed me with the most profound sense of the meaning(and meaninglessness) of life that I have ever encountered in literature. He is such an underated and unknown master of sci-fi, it would really be great for some of you to discover him as I did. And if you like what you see, then you might want to try one of his few novels, "When They Came from Space." Don't let the cheesy title fool you. It's a wonderful satire and contains an inspired debate on the differences between faith in science and faith in miracles.