The Playboy Book of Science Fiction

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Book Description

SF-Unleashed!

Since its beginning almost a half a century ago, Playboy has given authors the freedom to address adult themes and controversial issues. This has proven irresistible to writers who have something new or different to say--which includes most of the top names in the field of science fiction.

In this extraordinary diverse collection, covering SF's most provocative half century, you will find the works of such acknowledged masters as Arthur C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury, and Ursula K. Le Guin, along with daring forays by innovators like Harlan Ellison, Lucius Shepard, and Howard Waldrop, leavened with surprise appearances by Donald E. Westlake, Doris Lessing, and even Billy Crystal.

The stories assembled here provide a glittering array of science fiction at its uncensored best, form the Golden Age to the New Wave, from Cyberpunk to Virtual Sex.

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Despite (or perhaps because of) its once taboo subject matter, Playboy magazine has garnered a reputation as a market for daring, innovative short fiction since its inception in 1953. In particular, science fiction authors used Playboy as a forum for stories in which they explored literary themes and adult situations that would have rendered them unpublishable by mainstream SF magazines then aimed at teenagers. Alice K. Turner, Playboy's fiction editor, has collected a remarkable set of science fiction stories for this anthology. The list of prestigious, award-winning authors whose stories graced the magazine's pages between those (in)famous photos reads like a science fiction hall of fame: Ray Bradbury, Ursula K. Le Guin, Norman Spinrad, Damon Knight, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., J.G. Ballard, Frederick Pohl, Arthur C. Clarke, Larry Niven, Harlan Ellison, Philip K. Dick, Robert Silverberg, Joe Haldeman, and more. The stories span from the late 1960s through the late 1990s, with several SF subgenres such as new wave and cyberpunk represented. Some of these works are reprints, some are original, but each provides a glimpse into a fascinating sidebar in SF publishing. (Adult content and situations)