A 1969 anthology of science fiction-themed poetry. Well, more or less, anyway. Some of these piece are no doubt more accurately described as fantasy, and it's arguable whether others exactly qualify as speculative fiction at all. But I'm not inclined to quibble too much about genre boundaries, in any case. A lot of them, possibly the majority, are essentially tiny, self-contained stories in verse, although not always clear and coherent stories. The subject matter varies, but there's a surprising amount of religious imagery and a not-at-all-surprising number of nuclear apocalypses and other gloomy scenarios. (1969 was not the most optimistic and cheerful time for SF.)

When it comes to poetry, I'm afraid I'm very much the "I don't know much, but I know what I like" sort. I'd hoped I'd like this, as I like science fiction and have enjoyed some other SF poetry I've read. But... I don't know. Some of these, I must confess, I didn't exactly "get." Others I understood perfectly well, but they just didn't do much of anything for me. Most of them were okay, and intellectually kind of interesting, but there just weren't all that many I can say I actively liked.

Mind you, I'm not saying these poems are bad, or even mediocre. They've obviously been carefully crafted by thoughtful, artistic people. I think this is one of those cases where the editor's personal tastes and mine just don't line up all that well. Although, interestingly, I did like the two poems Lucie-Smith himself contributed better than most of them, and his introduction was pretty good.

Rating: An ungenerous and completely subjective 3/5. ( )