Helpful Score: 2
A unique book of short stories of surival and the human will to survive in various situations. Well written most are off earth experiences, but interesting none the less.
Came across this short story anthology in my closet, and remembered reading it long ago, but not the specific stories, or even that Dickson was the author. All I can say is WOW. There were some stories I remembered nearly word for word, even though it's been over 20 years since I first read them!
Case in point, Jean DuPres, in which a child is more a man than many adults, and The Underground, a what-if scenario about Hitler's Wolf's Lair.
After the Funeral points up one of the possible problems with telepathy, while The General and the Ax outlines problems of motivation in a lotus-eater society.
Button, Button demonstrates some of the problems of ignorance, and Rescue outlines the importance of understanding another person's point of view BEFORE putting yourself in their power.
Other stories include The Question and No Shield from the Dead, Friend for Life, Carry Me Home, and Breakthrough Gang.
FIVE STARS
From back cover: What price Survival! You who have never faced death in an alien wilderness, or struggled desperately with a failing life-support system, or in some other way stood firm against bewildering odds, can never know the true cost of survival. You can only estimate it from the lives of others, by weighing their values on the great human scale. He who ... more »survives, if he acquits himself well, is a hero. He who does not survive is often a hero as well...for only a life will lived is worth the dying.
Case in point, Jean DuPres, in which a child is more a man than many adults, and The Underground, a what-if scenario about Hitler's Wolf's Lair.
After the Funeral points up one of the possible problems with telepathy, while The General and the Ax outlines problems of motivation in a lotus-eater society.
Button, Button demonstrates some of the problems of ignorance, and Rescue outlines the importance of understanding another person's point of view BEFORE putting yourself in their power.
Other stories include The Question and No Shield from the Dead, Friend for Life, Carry Me Home, and Breakthrough Gang.
FIVE STARS
From back cover: What price Survival! You who have never faced death in an alien wilderness, or struggled desperately with a failing life-support system, or in some other way stood firm against bewildering odds, can never know the true cost of survival. You can only estimate it from the lives of others, by weighing their values on the great human scale. He who ... more »survives, if he acquits himself well, is a hero. He who does not survive is often a hero as well...for only a life will lived is worth the dying.
"Are we that important to the race?" she asked.
"I think you are," replied the general, seriously. "What happened to Earth - and you - has become a test. Will man end by killing himself off, or by surviving his tendency to kill himself off? That's what the race wants to know - and why the peoples on twenty different worlds pitched in immediately to raise the tremendous amount of money needed to find and furnish this world for those of you that were spared. The race has been challenged. The question has been raised. Can the will to survive be killed in a people? None of us dares to face the possibility of an answer of YES to that question."
"I think you are," replied the general, seriously. "What happened to Earth - and you - has become a test. Will man end by killing himself off, or by surviving his tendency to kill himself off? That's what the race wants to know - and why the peoples on twenty different worlds pitched in immediately to raise the tremendous amount of money needed to find and furnish this world for those of you that were spared. The race has been challenged. The question has been raised. Can the will to survive be killed in a people? None of us dares to face the possibility of an answer of YES to that question."
