Old Venus

A Collection of Stories

Sixteen all-new stories by science fiction’s top talents, collected by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois

From pulp adventures such as Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Carson of Venus to classic short stories such as Ray Bradbury’s “The Long Rain” to visionary novels such as C. S. Lewis’s Perelandra, the planet Venus has loomed almost as large in the imaginations of science fiction writers as Mars. But while the Red Planet conjured up in Golden Age science fiction stories was a place of vast deserts and ruined cities, Venus was its opposite: a steamy, swampy jungle world with strange creatures lurking amidst the vegetation. Alas, just as the last century’s space probes exploded our dreams of Mars, so, too, did they shatter our romantic visions of Venus, revealing, instead of a lush paradise, a world inimical to all life.

But don’t despair! This new anthology of sixteen original stories by some of science fiction’s best writers—edited by #1 New York Times bestselling author George R. R. Martin and award-winning editor Gardner Dozois—turns back the clock to that more innocent time, before the hard-won knowledge of science vanquished the infinite possibilities of the imagination.

Join our cast of award-winning contributors—including Elizabeth Bear, David Brin, Joe Haldeman, Gwyneth Jones, Mike Resnick, Eleanor Arnason, Allen M. Steele, and more—as we travel back in time to a planet that never was but should have been: a young, rain-drenched world of fabulous monsters and seductive mysteries.

FEATURING STORIES BY

Eleanor Arnason • Elizabeth Bear • David Brin • Tobias S. Buckell • Michael Cassutt • Joe Haldeman • Matthew Hughes • Gwyneth Jones • Joe R. Lansdale • Stephen Leigh • Paul McAuley • Ian McDonald • Garth Nix • Mike Resnick • Allen M. Steele • Lavie Tidhar

And an Introduction by Gardner Dozois

Stories and Narrators:
Introduction by Gardner Dozois read by Roy Dotrice

“Frogheads” read by Jake Weber
“The Drowned Celestial” read by Roy Dotrice
“Planet of Fear” read by Tisha Donnelly
“Greeves and the Evening Star” read by Stephen Fry
“A Planet Called Desire “ read by Jake Stormoen
“Living Hell” read by W. Morgan Sheppard
“Bones of Air, Bones of Stone” read by Gethin Anthony
“Ruins” read by Mandy Williams
“The Tumbledowns of Cleopatra Abyss” read by Wil Wheaton
“By Frogsled and Lizardback to Outcast Venusian Lepers” read by Harry Lloyd
“The Sunset of Time” read by Matt Frewer
“Pale Blue Memories” read by Prentice Onayemi
“The Heart’s Filthy Lesson” read by Janis Ian
“The Wizard of the Trees” read by Michael Dorn
“The Godstone of Venus” read by Ron Donachie
“Botanica Veneris: Thirteen Papercuts” read by Dame Diana Rigg

Interstitial author biographies read by Scott Brick

Entertaining

Mixed quality of stories, but that could be personal preference. Good voice performances. The last story had the most relaxed & unique style and was the most memorable.

A few gems

There’s a lot here… And some of it is quite good. Some of it seems to suffer from following the subject matter too closely… Retro and pulp doesn’t mean in substantial. This was definitely a mixed bag for me.

Overall amazing

I love collections of Science fiction. Short or otherwise they always seem to posit such wonderful worlds that we can explore. This book was awesome, a few of the stories were not to great in my opinion, but overall this book has some amazing tales in it.

Exactly what I was looking for

I had just finished re-listening to Sky People, a very retro action adventure on a Venus teeming with dinosaurs, cavemen, and sinister Russians, so Old Venus was exactly what I needed to keep scratching that retro sci-fi itch.

I will say, about a third of the authors on this collection didn't really understand the assignment. Some stories are much more modern sci-fi, with none of the wonder and wistfulness for a mysterious Venus of the past.

That said, most of the stories are good and the good ones really rip! Loaded with deadly jungles and oceans, sinister and sexy aliens, and death ray shoot outs, Old Venus is a very enjoyable collection of science fiction with a distinctly vintage flavor.

Before NASA Ruined the Party

Old Venus is a blast back to a time when writers thought our neighboring planet was basically a sweaty jungle resort full of dinosaurs, lizard people, and adventure — before boring old science came along and said, “Actually, it’s just a toxic rock that’ll melt your face.” Thanks, NASA.

The stories here are swampy, pulpy, and gloriously over the top. Some are fantastic, others feel like they could’ve stayed lost in a pulp magazine, but together they capture that wild optimism of sci-fi before reality smashed it with a probe and a data sheet.

If you want serious, modern hard science — look elsewhere. If you want to pretend Venus is a muggy Florida Everglades in space, this anthology delivers.