Tuesday, June 18, 2019

Scanners Live in Vain - A Book Review

Among my collection of books at home are several science fiction anthologies filled with short science fiction stories. I'm reading through the first volume of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame and recently finished reading a short story called Scanners Live in Vain by Cordwainer Smith.


This is an odd story in which some people have been turned into "scanners" and had all emotion removed. The scanners can travel into space without pain, something regular humans cannot do in this story. Then comes along a human who has figured out how to travel through space without pain, putting the "lives" of the scanners at risk. The scanners then group together to decide how they should react to this new discovery.

Not my favorite short science fiction story of all time, but interesting. I enjoy reading science fiction anthologies as they provide exposure to different writing styles, different ideas, and different visions of the future, as seen by authors both recent and multiple decades ago. 



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