This is a good collection from the Golden Age of SF. The period from the 1940s to the early 1960s produced the best of the pioneers of SF. We all know about Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein but we often miss out on the dozens of other great contributors to the genre. Kathrine MacLean was one of the better writers. she authored at least 5 novel/novellas and multiple short stories. She received a Nebula for Best Novella in 1972 for the "The Missing Man". There are more a dozen anthologies containing one of her stories.

This is one of her short story collections
The Diploids (good)
Defense Mechanism (fair)
The Pyramid in the Desert (very good)
The Snowball Effect (very good)
Incommunicado (fair)
Feedback (interesting spin on old theme)
Games (fair)
Pictures Don't Lie (best of the book) ( )

This collection contains eight science fiction stories from the 1950s through the early 1960s. They’re pure pulp stories, meaning that the writing is serviceable, and that they sometimes suffer from cringey science (e.g. engineers fearing that a terrorist might let Pluto fall into earth; silly Sapir-Whorf nonsense). But they all share a clear focus on how individuals and societies respond to changes in technology, and I thought that aspect was very well developed. I’d say this collection is about as introspective as pulp sf gets.

On the whole, though, I quite liked these stories, dated though they might be: the scientific kernels they revolve around are things like genetic manipulation, bio-engineering self-repairing bodies, staging a global take-over through mathematical models of sociology, and raising children with ESP. MacLean tries to coat the science part of her stories with at least one or two layers of semi-plausible-sounding technobabble. And most of these stories here are, if not passable, then at least likeable: while some Golden-Era tropes are annoying, there is an unmistakable drive for interesting ideas to wrap stories around, and that can never be a bad thing.

MacLean’s writings reminded me of the stories of Walter M. Miller Jr., which I liked for similar reasons. ( )