The Best Short Stories by Cyril M. Kornbluth (Illustrated Edition) (Annotated)
Enriched Edition. The Rocket of 1955, What Sorghum Says, The City in the Sofa, Dead Center!, The Perfect InvasionBy Cyril M. Kornbluth
Length12h 10m
About this audiobook
The Best Short Stories by Cyril M. Kornbluth (Illustrated Edition) gathers the concentrated brilliance of one of mid-twentieth-century science fiction's sharpest satirists. These tales combine speculative ingenuity with a mordant, streetwise prose style, often turning futuristic premises into critiques of mass culture, bureaucracy, militarism, and intellectual complacency. In stories such as "The Little Black Bag" and "The Marching Morons," Kornbluth fuses pulp momentum with Swiftian irony, placing him firmly within the Golden Age tradition while also anticipating the darker social concerns of later New Wave fiction. Cyril M. Kornbluth, born in New York in 1923, was a precocious member of the influential Futurians, the circle that helped reshape American science fiction into a more politically alert and stylistically ambitious literature. His brief life, wartime service, urban background, and collaborations with Frederik Pohl all informed his skeptical view of institutions and his fascination with the uses and abuses of knowledge. His fiction reflects both youthful audacity and a remarkably mature moral intelligence. This illustrated edition is recommended for readers who value science fiction not merely as prediction, but as diagnosis. Kornbluth's stories remain witty, unsettling, and intellectually bracing, offering enduring pleasure to newcomers and essential context for serious students of the genre.
This enriched edition has been carefully crafted to add value to your reading experience.
- A comprehensive Introduction outlines these selected works' unifying features, themes, or stylistic evolutions.
- A Historical Context section situates the works in their broader era—social currents, cultural trends, and key events that underpin their creation.
- A concise Synopsis (Selection) offers an accessible overview of the included texts, helping readers navigate plotlines and main ideas without revealing critical twists.
- A unified Analysis examines recurring motifs and stylistic hallmarks across the collection, tying the stories together while spotlighting the different work's strengths.
- Reflection questions inspire deeper contemplation of the author's overarching message, inviting readers to draw connections among different texts and relate them to modern contexts.
- Lastly, our hand‐picked Memorable Quotes distill pivotal lines and turning points, serving as touchstones for the collection's central themes.
Audiobook details
GenreScience Fiction, General Fiction
Length12 hrs 10 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateFeb 26, 2020
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Introduction
21Iteration
2Introduction
22The Marching Morons
3Historical Context
23With These Hands
4Synopsis (Selection)
24CHAPTER I.
5The Rocket of 1955
25CHAPTER II.
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6What Sorghum Says
26CHAPTER III.
7The City in the Sofa
27CHAPTER IV.
8Dead Center!
28CHAPTER V.
9CHAPTER I.
29CHAPTER VI.
10CHAPTER II.
30The Altar at Midnight
11CHAPTER III.
31The Adventurer
12CHAPTER IV.
32The Luckiest Man in Denv
13CHAPTER V.
33Time Bum
14The Perfect Invasion
34Ms. Found in a Chinese Fortune Cookie
15CHAPTER I.
35Theory of Rocketry
16CHAPTER II.
36Crisis!
17CHAPTER III.
37The Reversible Revolutions
18CHAPTER IV.
38Analysis
19Masquerade
39Reflection
20The Little Black Bag
40Memorable Quotes
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