Call Me Joe (NESFA Press Collection): Volume 1 of the Short Fiction of Poul Anderson Kindle Edition

Yes, I know proofreading yes it needs better. Yes the price is higher. But then again, the contents warrant it. I am now reading Volume 4, and frankly, I don't really care about the proofreading, especially the way these books are gathered. Most notably, as referenced in every volume, much of these stories are from their pulp origins, many disintegrating into history. I have always loved this author, and will collect all the volumes I can. I constantly kick myself for not getting the Jack Williamson collection, and will not make the same mistake twice. Over the year, I have collected many many Anderson Hardbound and paperbacks, but many here I do not have. The stories are outstanding, and well worth it. These will go along side my other collections, (Theodore Sturgeon , Chad Oliver, De Camp, and others). I am quite a fan of early science fiction, and this a great bridge between classic and newer. Well recommended, and well worth it.

Believe me. I had really really wanted to give this book four stars. But I must admit that the fourth one was more to the wonderful production values of NESFA Press rather than the contents.Why?Had this book been full of crisp & compact stories like 'Call Me Joe', 'Time Patrol', 'The Double-dyed Villains', 'The Live Coward', 'The Man Who Came Early', 'Turning Point', 'Enough Rope', 'Welcome', and the jewel of them all 'The Martian Crown Jewels', I would have given it all the five stars only for the stories. But the pointless poems, and the overwritten ponderous novellas made for such poor reading that the book took such a looooooooong time to finish.They ought to make a 'best of' collection, seriously. It would establish how Anderson's ideas preceded and created templates for smarter & sharper stories which came letter.Until that happens, this is a very good place to begin as far as Anderson's works are concerned.Recommended.

This is Poul Anderson. That alone is a five star recommendation, and I'm a big fan of Poul's work. I hope NESFA releases all of these collections (#6 is in the pipeline for paper) as eBooks so I can buy them.

Beautifully produced volume by NESFA Press. The first of a projected eight volumes of Poul Anderson's collected short stories, of which four volumes have been printed so far. No thematic or chronological order in the presentation of the stories. A nevertheless indispensable collection for the amateurs of the great scifi master.

This is a highly eclectic grab-bag of Anderson's short fiction and is not presented in chronological order. It is part of a series which presumably will ultimately include all of his short fiction. The quality of the stories and the extent to which they have managed to surmount the era in which they were written is highly variable. The stories which, for me, were the liveliest and have stood the test of time are Anderson's lightly humorous tales. His more dramatic and ironic works, such as Call Me Joe, feel quite dated, especially in tone, nowadays. Nonetheless, this is definitely a series which is worth a read. As a plus for the bibliophile, the book is beautifully bound in high quality cloth and printed on high quality acid-free paper stock. A real collector's volume.

Anderson covered so many subjects- this does remind one of 'Avatar', but with flavor of SciFy's past. The concept of using receiver/transmitters to communicate with beings was building on scientific breakthroughs, and the idea of remotely exploring Jupiter meshes with themes of human discovery. So you are sucked into this foreign life, and all that it implies... except awakening. I never stopped to think of creating a new life-form tailored to observe and communicate with fragile humans.The characters need depth, and the station exists as a simple stage. It is too short; the story begs for expansion into a full-length book.

NESFA Press is doing the SF community a tremendous service by producing books like these, making classic stories by important SF authors like Anderson more accessible. I encourage anybody who cares about the history of SF or enjoys classic SF to buy this book and other NESFA books. NESFA's work deserves to be rewarded and encouraged.That said, Call Me Joe contains many many errors that proofreaders should have spotted, like extra periods in the middle of sentences and missing quotation marks. The Editor's Introduction on page 6 has at least two errors; an errant period in the 6th line and a word in the 16th line that should be pluralized. Very irritating.

I have mentioned this in the case of one other NESFA book here -- the NESFA series could be such a joy to own if the books were professionally produced. Unfortunately, they're not, and you have to wonder if they're not embarrassed asking $30 for books that look like they were proofread by a high school journalism class.