OK, I get that he's a trailblazer for the sci-fi genre and sets the ground for a lot of writers to follow - but that doesn't make this collection any more enjoyable. That may be the material, or the narration, but I suspect is due, in part to both. the text was somewhat overblown and florid, while the narrator did a very fine line in high Victorian melodrama - neither of which are really to my taste. I finished it but as much because there was nothing good on the radio that because I was enjoying it. I can appreciate the inventiveness of some of the stories, the horror is dredged out of seemingly normal situations with some ease. And I can appreciate the way he sets a scene, be that on this world or another. But I can't past the over the top ness of the colleciton and that is my lasting impression. he may be great and loved, but based on this, he is simply not for me. ( )