One day youre gently coaxing an out-of-print story from an estates protective hands.
That, no, keeping a writers short stories unpublished is not like hoarding stock options.
He had become an expert, due to his travels, on fiction in many countries.
From him we received a flurry of photocopies and advice that will likely inform future projects.
Its a small world, but also a big, complex one, too.
You also find yourself getting side-tracked by juicy informationlike finding outPhilip K. Dick reported Stanislaw Lem to the FBI.
(And waitwhy dida famous editor weara diving helmet and breathing apparatus while editing?)
If you love books and you love storytelling, how could it not be?
It was also a moment of trepidation.
Commissioning a translation based on a summary is a risk.
What if the stories didnt hold up?
And yet they did, and are among the strongest inThe Big Book of Science Fiction.
At moments like that, you feel like youve stumbled across something remarkable and beautiful and rare.
The physical detritus accumulates because you become obsessed with going aftereverything.
By the end, the mountain of books we acquired made walking through our living room difficult.
Especially with a giant wooden dragon head also taking up space (dont ask).
So, in the end, after two years of research, where did the evidence lead?
In fact, theres a surprising amount of humor in science fiction, going well beyond Douglas Adams.
A full third of our selections are on the funny end of the spectrum.
We also hope readers find it as fun to read as we found it fun to research.
