The Science Fiction Album is another of Silva's "I'm not going to type out the track listing" 4 CD sets and as usual the selection is of the good, the bad and the awful. Most of Silva's very long sets are gathered together from previous recordings and this is no exception, only Williams' stunning Where Dreams Are Born from AI appears to be newly recorded, but it is one of the best tracks, even if the tempo is a fraction fast for my taste. The rest of the album is a fairly predictable selection, with the obvious Star Trek and Star Wars inclusions. Star Trek generally receives some fine performances, even if the emphasis on End Credits is a little boring after a while, but Star Wars fairs less well. The performance of the Main Theme is pretty risible, although the less well known concert arrangement of Han and Leia's theme is a welcome inclusion and given a quite fetching performance. The Phantom Menace suite is also included with a fine performance of the Flag Parade and Anakin's Theme, even if Duel of the Fates holds together on sheer bravura than technically perfect playing. Then again, a re-recording of the piece to rival the quality of the original has yet to appear.

Most of the other John Williams inclusions are a bit on the disappointing side, Superman and Close Encounters are reasonable, but ET is pretty ghastly in a slow and unspirited performance of Flying. Jerry Goldsmith as usual receives better performances, including Silva's much praised (and rightly so) performance of the thrilling titles to Capricorn One, but other favorites such as Alien and Total Recall are performed with gusto. Silva always seem to include a few curious oddities that aren't strictly in the genre; Apollo 13 is science fact rather than fiction and the two Bond inclusions, the space music from Moonraker and You Only Live Twice, are stretching the remit a bit thin, good though they are. Even Back to the Future is a little off topic, although the performance of the indelible main theme isn't bad, certainly (surprisingly) better than that on the Varese Back to the Future trilogy album. Alan Silvestri crops up later for the ethereal Contact (a nice break from the brass section) and the martial Judge Dredd and Predator, both in good performances.

The less well known items are invariably the most interesting and the last disc includes Arthur Bliss' marvellous march from Things to Come as well as music by Dimitri Tiomkin for The Thing From Another World. The inclusion of a few sound effects tracks is a little distracting, but they number only one per disc and can easily be skipped over. Any serious science fiction film music fan is liable to have all the best tracks in original arrangements, but for the newbie fan wanting a good overview, the selection here is comprehensive, if not always note perfect. The liner notes are better than the average Silva 4 CD set, with a paragraph on each film, film series or television show. Another fairly good budget collection, although considerably more hit and miss performance wise than the Bond and western collections.

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The track listing can be found here at Silva Screen's official site. Sorry for being lazy, but it's 4 CDs and there are only so many hours in the day...