SF Author Collections – SF Universe

THE MEN AND THE MIRROR (1973) by Ross Rocklynne

This time out, we have a single author collection of short fiction by SF Pulps stalwart, Ross Rocklynne (real name Ross Louis Rocklin, February 21, 1913 – October 29, 1988). Rocklynne was very active in the SF magazines from the early-1930s up until the mid-1950s, when he disappeared off the scene for more than a decade (supposedly because of his interest in Dianetics), only returning in the late-1960s, when he wrote a small number of highly regarded stories, including \”Ching Witch!\”, which appeared in Harlan Ellison\’s classic 1972 anthology, AGAIN, DANGEROUS VISIONS.

But it\’s Rocklynne\’s classic 1930s, 1940s and early-1950s stories that he is most remembered for. And this is a nice little collection, spanning 1936-1952, another fairly short book, only 208 pages and six stories, so it shouldn\’t be too hard to get through.

TITLE: THE MEN AND THE MIRROR
AUTHOR: Ross Rocklynne
CATEGORY: Short Fiction
SUB-CATEGORY: Single Author Collection
FORMAT: Paperback, 208 pages
PUBLISHER: Ace Books, First Ace Printing, New York, 1973
ISBN: 0 7278 1221 1

CONTENTS:

Introduction by Ross Rocklynne
\”At the Center of Gravity\” (Astounding Stories, June 1936)
\”Jupiter Trap\” (Astounding Stories, August 1937)
\”The Men and the Mirror\” (Astounding Science Fiction, July 1938)
Robert D. Swisher letter from Astounding Stories, November 1938
\”They Fly So High\” (Amazing Stories, June 1952)
\”The Bottled Men\” (Astounding Science Fiction, June 1946)
\”And Then There Was One\” (from Astounding Science Fiction, February 1940)

Ross Rocklynne was one of those writers who seemed to pop up regularly in the SF mags during the 1930s-1950s, and who was very popular, but was sadly underappreciated compared to his more famous contemporaries (Heinlein, Van Vogt, Asimov, Del Rey, etc), and so he never achieved the same level of fame as these authors. Perhaps this was because many of the stories were very unusual for that era, less mainstream commercial SF, and in many ways quite a bit ahead of their time. He was certainly a very powerful writer, almost avant-garde, and in many ways was a precursor to the New Wave of the 1960s. Maybe this explains why he was never as big as the likes of Heinlein or Van Vogt.

My own first encounters with Rocklynne\’s work came through reading some of his short fiction in various anthologies of Golden Age SF (I\’ve never read any of his novels). The two that I remember best, and which stick in my mind, are “Into the Darkness” (Astonishing Stories, June 1940) and \”Time Wants a Skeleton\” (Astounding, June 1941). “Into the Darkness”, which spawned several sequel stories, is a fascinating tale with no human characters at all. The main characters are a bunch of ancient, sentient nebulae (not many writers could pull that one off)! \”Time Wants a Skeleton\” is a very clever time paradox/time loop story, which was quite unusual and complex back in 1941, although this type of story has become quite commonplace in recent years.

I\’ve never read any of the stories in this collection before, and all of them are considered classic \”scientific puzzle\” or \”scientific problem\” stories, which were so much in vogue during that era. The first three stories, \”At the Center of Gravity\”, \”Jupiter Trap\” and \”The Men and the Mirror\” were all published in Astounding in June 1936, August 1937 and July 1938 respectively, and were part of the \”cops and robbers\” Colbie and Deverel series, featuring Interplanetary Police Officer Lt. Jack Colbie, and his long time adversary, space pirate Edward Deverel. The third story and title story of the collection, \”The Men and the Mirror\” is followed by a very interesting letter published several months later in Astounding from one Robert D. Swisher, arguing that the calculations in \”The Men and the Mirror\” were completely wrong. Just the kinda thing that John W. Campbell Jr loved to publish, and guaranteed to cause much controversy and discussion! 🙂

The fourth and fifth stories were originally intended to be part of the Colbie and Deverel series, but for some reason Rocklynne changed the names, backgrounds and personalities of the main male adversaries. But in every other respect, they are still the same \”cops and robbers\” space stories. The final story of the six, \”And Then There Was One\”, is a variation on the classic \”Ten Little Indians\” theme. It breaks (slightly, but not a lot) the trend of the \”cops and robbers\” theme in the previous five tales, and was obviously written to show that the premise of the first story, \”At the Center of Gravity\”, was scientifically incorrect. Rocklynne sounds like a right screwball – quite obviously my type of guy! 🙂

The edition of THE MEN AND THE MIRROR that I have is the Ace Books 1st Paperback edition, and apparently Rocklynne himself was VERY unhappy about how Ace Books handled the publishing of his short story collection. And who could blame him? The stories were published out of chronological order, and, if that wasn\’t bad enough, the break between the fifth and sixth stories was completely omitted, leaving out altogether both the title of the story and the author\’s introductory comments to the final story in the collection, \”And Then There Was One\”. It is so bad that there are many readers who are convinced that there are only five stories in the collection. I\’ve seen comments on Amazon.com complaining about this very thing. But trust me. There are six stories, not five. Just go to page 168 and check it out.

You have to look very carefully to even find where \”And Then There Was One\” begins, as the final paragraph of the previous story, \”The Bottled Men\”, ends about half way down page 168, there is a single paragraph break, and then straight into the first paragraph of \”And Then There Was One\”. There is no title nor any author\’s comments (as there were with the previous five stories) to show where it begins. And this was compounded even further by the fact that there are only five stories listed on the Contents page – \”And Then There Was One\” is omitted from that as well, although, strangely enough, it IS listed on the preceding Copyright/Credits page. All in all, this was a complete printing/publishing cock-up by the Ace Books editors, which, sadly, spoils the enjoyment of this nice collection somewhat. No wonder Ross Rocklynne was absolutely livid.

Just as an addendum, and through judicious use of Google, I\’ve tracked down Rocklynne\’s author comments to \”And Then There Was One\”. They were published for the very first time in a reference book, The Work of Ross Rocklynne: An Annotated Bibliography & Guide**, and I\’ve reprinted the comments here, just in case anyone else has read the collection and might be interested:

\”Sir Isaac Newton provided the idea. He already had Worked out the problem of the hollow planet before I approached it in \”At the Center of Gravity\”. My answer was wrong. A decision was made to set the record straight, even though no complaining remarks about my ancient error had come through. The ten little Indians implied in the title became six big businessmen having a bit of a go at each other under rather strange and, in a manner of speaking, revolutionary conditions. Again, a planet was tailored to fit the problem.\”*

*The Work of Ross Rocklynne: An Annotated Bibliography & Guide p.59

**The Work of Ross Rocklynne: An Annotated Bibliography & Guide
by Douglas Menville
edited by Boden Clarke
Borgo Press, First Edition December 1989
Hardback: ISBN: 0-8095-0511-8 $19.95
Paperback: ISBN: 0-8095-0511-3 $9.95

A New Dawn: The Complete Don A. Stuart Stories (2003)

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[T]his time out, I\’m taking a brief look at one of the high-quality NESFA Press collections of SF author short fiction. This one contains all of John W. Campbell, Jr\’s short fiction written under his \”Don A. Stuart\” pseudonym, plus a couple of previously unpublished (in book form) articles also written by Campbell under the Stuart handle.

The collection starts off with an excellent introduction, \”The Man Who Lost the Sea\”, written by Barry N. Malzberg, giving a short but fascinating examination of Campbell\’s career. This is followed by sixteen stories, and finishes off with the two essays.

TITLE: A NEW DAWN: THE COMPLETE DON A.STUART STORIES
AUTHOR: John W. Campbell, Jr.
EDITED BY: James A. Mann
CATEGORY: Short Fiction
SUB-CATEGORY: Author Collection
DUSTJACKET ART: Bob Eggleton
FORMAT: Hardback, 464 pages
PUBLISHER: NESFA Press, US, 2003
ISBN: 1-886778-15-9

CONTENTS (16 Stories, 2 Articles):

Introduction: \”The Man Who Lost the Sea\” (2002) by Barry N. Malzberg
\”Twilight\” (Astounding Science Fiction, November 1934, short story)
\”Atomic Power\” (Astounding Science Fiction, December 1934, short story)
\”The Machine\” (Astounding Science Fiction, February 1935, short story, Machine series #1)
\”The Invaders\” (Astounding Science Fiction, June 1935, novelette, Machine series #2)
\”Rebellion\” (Astounding Science Fiction, August 1935, short story, Machine series #3)
\”Blindness\” (Astounding Science Fiction, March 1935, short story)
\”The Escape\” (Astounding Science Fiction, May 1935, novelette)
\”Night\” (Astounding Science Fiction, October 1935, novelette)
\”Elimination\” (Astounding Science Fiction, May 1936, short story)
\”Frictional Losses\” (Astounding Science Fiction, July 1936, novelette)
\”Forgetfulness\” (Astounding Science Fiction, June 1937, novelette)
\”Out of Night\” (Astounding Science Fiction, October 1937, novelette, Aesir series #1)
\”Cloak of Aesir\” (Astounding Science Fiction, March 1939, novelette, Aesir series #2)
\”Dead Knowledge\” (Astounding Science Fiction, June 1938, novelette)
\”Who Goes There?\” (Astounding Science Fiction, August 1938, novelette)
\”The Elder Gods\” (Unknown, October 1939, novella)
\”Strange Worlds\” (Unknown, April 1939, article)
\”Wouldst Write, Wee One?\” (Scienti-Snaps, Vol.3 No.1, February 1940, article)

The stories appear in chronological order, in order of dates of publication, with the exception of the three stories in the Invaders sequence and the two Aesir stories, which have all been re-ordered so they appear in their own correct internal sequence.

Campbell, especially the Don A. Stuart alter ego, was one of my favourite SF writers of the 1930s. Under his own name, he competed with E. E. \”Doc\” Smith, writing stories of superscience (although Campbell was a MUCH better writer than Smith), but under the Stuart pseudonym, he wrote stories that were truly special, dark, moody, decadent, and more akin to the darker tales of H. G. Wells and other classic scientific romance authors than anything hitherto seen in the pulps.

Sure, there were a few other writers in that era who did the dark, moody and decadent thing pretty darned good – Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, C. L. Moore, and Henry Kuttner, to name but a few – but these authors mostly wrote SF&F of a completely different, more fantasy-oriented flavour. In my opinion, Campbell, with the exception of maybe Jack Williamson, who also was writing some similarly dark, moody SF during that period, had no real direct competition in science fiction at that time.

When I was a kid (early-mid teens), I first encountered Campbell\’s short fiction in various collections and anthologies that I checked out of local libraries. Ironically, I encountered the superior Don A. Stuart tales years before I ever read any of Campbell\’s Superscience stories. \”Night\” was the first one, in the Sam Moskowitz-edited anthology Microcosmic God. That story had a huge and formative impact on me as a reader, and I was delighted to find out a year or two later that it was actually a sequel to another excellent story, \”Twilight\”.

After I read \”Night\”, I eagerly hunted down any other Campbell short stories that I could find. Some of them were just as good as \”Night\”, including the aforementioned \”Twilight\” and other tales such as \”Forgetfulness\”, the two Aesir stories \”Out of Night\” and \”The Cloak of Aesir\”, and the classic \”Who Goes There?\”. These all became huge favourites of mine during my teenage years. \”Dead Knowledge\”, \”Blindness\” and the Machine trilogy of stories were all also very good. It\’s been many years since I\’ve read most of these stories, so it\’s going to be fun revisiting them.

When Campbell took over at Astounding as The Editor, and kick-started the Golden Age which totally reshaped SF, he became one of the biggest and most important figures in the history of the genre. But, at the same time, we also lost potentially one of the genre\’s greatest writers, something that I, personally, regret quite a lot. We can only imagine how good he might have become, what other amazing stories he might\’ve written, if he hadn\’t given up writing to concentrate fully on being the editor of Astounding.

But, at least, in this excellent collection, he has left behind some of the greatest SF stories not only of the 1930\’s, but indeed any other era. This is one of my favourite SF author short fiction collections, and definitely recommended reading.

A New Dawn: The Complete Don A. Stuart Stories (2003)

$\"A$

This time out, I\’m taking a brief look at one of the high-quality NESFA Press collections of SF author short fiction. This one contains all of John W. Campbell, Jr\’s short fiction written under his \”Don A. Stuart\” pseudonym, plus a couple of previously unpublished (in book form) articles also written by Campbell under the Stuart handle. The collection starts off with an excellent introduction, \”The Man Who Lost the Sea\”, written by Barry N. Malzberg, giving a short but fascinating examination of Campbell\’s career. This is followed by sixteen stories, and finishes off with the two essays.

CONTENTS (16 Stories, 2 Articles):

Introduction: \”The Man Who Lost the Sea\” (2002) by Barry N. Malzberg
\”Twilight\” (Astounding Science Fiction, November 1934, short story)
\”Atomic Power\” (Astounding Science Fiction, December 1934, short story)
\”The Machine\” (Astounding Science Fiction, February 1935, short story, Machine series #1)
\”The Invaders\” (Astounding Science Fiction, June 1935, novelette, Machine series #2)
\”Rebellion\” (Astounding Science Fiction, August 1935, short story, Machine series #3)
\”Blindness\” (Astounding Science Fiction, March 1935, short story)
\”The Escape\” (Astounding Science Fiction, May 1935, novelette)
\”Night\” (Astounding Science Fiction, October 1935, novelette)
\”Elimination\” (Astounding Science Fiction, May 1936, short story)
\”Frictional Losses\” (Astounding Science Fiction, July 1936, novelette)
\”Forgetfulness\” (Astounding Science Fiction, June 1937, novelette)
\”Out of Night\” (Astounding Science Fiction, October 1937, novelette, Aesir series #1)
\”Cloak of Aesir\” (Astounding Science Fiction, March 1939, novelette, Aesir series #2)
\”Dead Knowledge\” (Astounding Science Fiction, June 1938, novelette)
\”Who Goes There?\” (Astounding Science Fiction, August 1938, novelette)
\”The Elder Gods\” (Unknown, October 1939, novella)
\”Strange Worlds\” (Unknown, April 1939, article)
\”Wouldst Write, Wee One?\” (Scienti-Snaps, Vol.3 No.1, February 1940, article)

THE RED PERI (1952) by Stanley G. Weinbaum

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[L]ast time out, I had a look at one of the oldest and most valuable SF books in my collection, the original 1949 Fantasy Press US 1st Edition hardcover of A Martian Odyssey and Others, which contained a dozen of the best pieces of short fiction written by classic 1930\’s SF author Stanley G. Weinbaum. Now I\’m going to take a look at a second Weinbaum short fiction collection, The Red Peri, another US 1st Edition hardcover, also published by Fantasy Press, in 1952.

TITLE: THE RED PERI
AUTHOR: Stanley G. Weinbaum
COVER ARTIST: John T. Brooks
CATEGORY: Short Fiction
SUB-CATEGORY: Single-Author Collection
FORMAT: Hardback (with dustjacket), US 1st Edition, 270 pages
PUBLISHER: Fantasy Press, Reading, Pennsylvania, US, 1952.

Contents (8 stories):

\”The Red Peri\” (novella, Astounding Stories, November 1935)
\”Proteus Island\” (novella, Astounding Stories, August 1936)
\”Flight on Titan\” (novelette, Astounding Stories, January 1935)
\”Smothered Seas\” (novelette, Astounding Stories, January 1936)
\”Redemption Cairn\” (novelette, Astounding Stories, March 1936)
\”The Brink of Infinity\” (short story, Thrilling Wonder Stories, December 1936)
\”Shifting Seas\” (novelette, Amazing Stories, April 1937)
\”Revolution of 1950\” (novella, Amazing Stories, October-November 1938)

This one can be regarded as the companion collection to the earlier A Martian Odyssey and Others, and between them, they contain all but a couple of Weinbaum\’s entire short fiction output. There are fewer stories in this one – eight as opposed to twelve – but there are three novellas, four novelettes and only one short story in The Red Peri, whereas A Martian Odyssey and Others contained no novellas, eight novelettes and four short stories.

It\’s been a long, long time since I read this one, and my memories are understandably hazy. I do remember preferring A Martian Odyssey and Others to The Red Peri, as the earlier collection did contain more of Weinbaum\’s \”better\” stories. But this collection also contains several of his best longer-form stories. I distinctly remember enjoying both \”The Red Peri\” and \”Proteus Island\”, although my memories of the other stories range from extremely vague to non-existent.

Like A Martian Odyssey and Others, this 1st US hardcover edition of The Red Peri comes with the original dustjacket, showcasing some very nice art by John T. Brooks. As with the earlier collection, the dustjacket of this one is in remarkably good condition considering its age. A little frayed around the outside, but otherwise pretty intact.

Overall, The Red Peri is a very nice collection, and in great condition, considering the fact that it\’s almost sixty-five years old and has been around the block a bit. Along with A Martian Odyssey and Others, it\’s definitely one of the real treasures in my SF book collection.

THE RED PERI (1952) by Stanley G. Weinbaum

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Last time out, I had a look at one of the oldest and most valuable SF books in my collection, the original 1949 Fantasy Press US 1st Edition hardcover of A Martian Odyssey and Others, which contained a dozen of the best pieces of short fiction written by classic 1930\’s SF author Stanley G. Weinbaum. Now I\’m going to take a look at a second Weinbaum short fiction collection, The Red Peri, another US 1st Edition hardcover, also published by Fantasy Press, in 1952.

Contents (8 stories):

\”The Red Peri\” (novella, Astounding Stories, November 1935)
\”Proteus Island\” (novella, Astounding Stories, August 1936)
\”Flight on Titan\” (novelette, Astounding Stories, January 1935)
\”Smothered Seas\” (novelette, Astounding Stories, January 1936)
\”Redemption Cairn\” (novelette, Astounding Stories, March 1936)
\”The Brink of Infinity\” (short story, Thrilling Wonder Stories, December 1936)
\”Shifting Seas\” (novelette, Amazing Stories, April 1937)
\”Revolution of 1950\” (novella, Amazing Stories, October-November 1938)

A MARTIAN ODYSSEY AND OTHERS by Stanley G. Weinbaum

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[T]his time out, I\’m going to take a brief look at one of the oldest and most valuable SF books in my collection, the earliest collection of short fiction by classic 1930\’s SF author Stanley G. Weinbaum. I bought this book a long time ago from a UK used book dealer, must\’ve been thirty-five years ago or more, way back when I was just becoming an obsessive book collector for the first time. It actually came as part of Weinbaum two-book set by the same publisher, Fantasy Press, the other book being The Red Peri, another collection of Weinbaum\’s short fiction, which will also be the subject of the blog post after this one.

TITLE: A MARTIAN ODYSSEY AND OTHERS
AUTHOR: Stanley G. Weinbaum
COVER ARTIST: A. J. Donnell
CATEGORY: Short Fiction
SUB-CATEGORY: Single-Author Collection
FORMAT: Hardback (with dustjacket), US 1st Edition, 289 pages
PUBLISHER: Fantasy Press, Reading, Pennsylvania, US, 1949.

Contents (12 stories):

\”A Martian Odyssey\” (novelette, Wonder Stories, July 1934)
\”Valley of Dreams\” (novelette, Wonder Stories, November 1934)
\”The Adaptive Ultimate\” (novelette, Astounding Stories, November 1935)
\”The Mad Moon\” (novelette, Astounding Stories, December 1935)
\”The Worlds of If\” (short story, Wonder Stories, August 1935)
\”The Ideal\” (novelette, Wonder Stories, September 1935)
\”The Point of View\” (short story, Wonder Stories, February 1936)
\”Pygmalion\’s Spectacles\” (short story, Wonder Stories, June 1935)
\”Parasite Planet\” (novelette, Astounding Stories, February 1935)
\”The Lotus Eaters\” (novelette, Astounding Stories, April 1935)
\”The Planet of Doubt\” (novelette, Astounding Stories, October 1935)
\”The Circle of Zero\” (short story, Thrilling Wonder Stories, August 1936)

This collection is notable for containing Weinbaum\’s most famous short story, \”A Martian Odyssey\” and its sequel, \”Valley of Dreams\”. There are also a few other good ones, including \”Parasite Planet\” and its sequel \”The Lotus Eaters\”, \”The Mad Moon\”, \”The Worlds of If\” and \”The Adaptive Ultimate\”. \”The Adaptive Ultimate\” has also been (if you\’ll pardon the pun) adapted to film, television and radio a number of times over the years.

Overall, A Martian Odyssey and Others contains most of the best of Weinbaum\’s short fiction, and, combined with the eight stories in The Red Peri contains almost all of the short fiction that Weinbaum wrote, with the exception of a handful of stories.

The dustjacket is in pretty good condition, considering its age, showcasing some lovely artwork by A. J. Donnell. As an aside, the edition that I have also bears a very interesting hand-written inscription/dedication on the front inside page. The inscription goes as follows:

\”FROM SCIENTI-CLAUS 1955
FOR ALF GREGORY\’S HG WELLSIANS
IN RESPECT OF THE MEMORY
OF THE GREATEST*
OF THEM ALL.

*HGW: 1886-1946\”

It\’s an extremely sobering thought that, at the publication date of this book (1949), the Great Man (H.G. Wells) had only been dead a mere three years. 🙁

It looks like this book was bought as a Christmas gift for someone, and this dedication is a tribute to a H.G. Wells fan group active in the UK, possibly in the late-1940s and the 1950s. At least that\’s the assumption that I\’m making from this. I know that it\’s a long shot, as we\’re talking more than sixty years ago here, and this group may or may not have been anything more than a small local fan group. But does anybody out there have any information on an old UK-based SF/HG Wells fan group by the name of ALF GREGORY\’S HG WELLSIANS? If so, I\’d be very appreciative if you\’d let me know the details.

A MARTIAN ODYSSEY AND OTHERS (1949) by Stanley G. Weinbaum

$\"A$

This time out, I\’m going to take a brief look at one of the oldest and most valuable SF books in my collection, the earliest collection of short fiction by classic 1930\’s SF author Stanley G. Weinbaum. I bought this book a long time ago from a UK used book dealer, must\’ve been thirty-five years ago or more, way back when I was just becoming an obsessive book collector for the first time. It actually came as part of Weinbaum two-book set by the same publisher, Fantasy Press, the other book being The Red Peri, another collection of Weinbaum\’s short fiction, which will also be the subject of the blog post after this one.

Contents (12 stories):

\”A Martian Odyssey\” (novelette, Wonder Stories, July 1934)
\”Valley of Dreams\” (novelette, Wonder Stories, November 1934)
\”The Adaptive Ultimate\” (novelette, Astounding Stories, November 1935)
\”The Mad Moon\” (novelette, Astounding Stories, December 1935)
\”The Worlds of If\” (short story, Wonder Stories, August 1935)
\”The Ideal\” (novelette, Wonder Stories, September 1935)
\”The Point of View\” (short story, Wonder Stories, February 1936)
\”Pygmalion\’s Spectacles\” (short story, Wonder Stories, June 1935)
\”Parasite Planet\” (novelette, Astounding Stories, February 1935)
\”The Lotus Eaters\” (novelette, Astounding Stories, April 1935)
\”The Planet of Doubt\” (novelette, Astounding Stories, October 1935)
\”The Circle of Zero\” (short story, Thrilling Wonder Stories, August 1936)

\”FROM SCIENTI-CLAUS 1955
FOR ALF GREGORY\’S HG WELLSIANS
IN RESPECT OF THE MEMORY
OF THE GREATEST*
OF THEM ALL.

*HGW: 1886-1946\”

It\’s an extremely sobering thought that, at the publication date of this book (1949), the Great Man (H.G. Wells) had only been dead a mere three years. 🙁

THE MARATHON PHOTOGRAPH AND OTHER STORIES (1986)
by
Clifford D. Simak

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[T]his time out, we have a single author collection of short fiction by one of my favourite authors, Clifford D. Simak, in which all of the stories have an underlying thematic link dealing with the mysterious paradox of time.

It\’s quite a short collection, at only 171 pages, and only four stories (making it a relatively quick and easy read compared to most of the modern brick-sized entities masquerading as books). But one of those stories is a long novella, and there are also two novelettes and a single short story making up the rest of the book. And what stories they are.

TITLE: THE MARATHON PHOTOGRAPH AND OTHER STORIES
AUTHOR: Clifford D. Simak
EDITOR: Francis Lyall
CATEGORY: Short Fiction
SUB-CATEGORY: Single Author Collection
FORMAT: Hardback, 171 pages
PUBLISHER: Severn House (SH), London, 1986
ISBN: 0 7278 1221 1

The Introduction
\”The Birch Clump Cylinder\” (from Stellar #1, edited by Judy-Lynn del Rey, Ballantine, 1974)
\”The Whistling Well\” (from Dark Forces), edited by Kirby McCauley, Viking, 1980
\”The Marathon Photograph\” (from Threads of Time), edited by Robert Silverberg, Nelson, 1974
\”The Grotto Of The Dancing Deer\” (from Analog, April 1980)

The stories are all quite long. Even the shortest, \”The Grotto of the Dancing Deer\”, comes in at just over twenty-one pages. This story is a good one, first published in Analog back in April 1980, and winning the Hugo, Nebula and Locus Awards for that year. It\’s a lovely story, and one which I recall enjoying a lot when I first read it twenty or so years ago.

\”The Marathon Photograph\” at seventy pages, is the longest story in the collection. I read this one many years ago on its original publication in Threads of Time, edited by Robert Silverberg (1974). I loved it then, and still do. It\’s my favourite of the four stories in this collection.

The other stories in the collection, \”The Birch Clump Cylinder\” and \”The Whistling Well\”, are two that I haven\’t read before. From what I\’ve read of both stories so far, I\’m quite sure that I\’ll enjoy them just as must as I did the other two.

Simak had his first SF story published in Astounding way back in 1931 (\”World of the Red Sun\”), and most of my favourite Simak short fiction came from much earlier in his career – \”The World of the Red Sun\” (1931), \”Sunspot Purge\” (1940), \”Beachhead\” aka \”You\’ll Never Go Home Again\” (1951), \”The Trouble with Ants\” (1951), \”Small Deer\” (1965), and a few others – and I haven\’t read a lot of his later stuff. By contrast, the stories in this collection are all from quite late in Simak\’s career (he died in 1988, at the age of 83), the earliest two being written when he was almost 70, and the other two during his mid-70\’s.

It\’ll be interesting to compare and contrast with his earlier material. \”The Marathon Photograph\” already rates as one of my favourite Simak tales, if not my overall favourite.

Definitely a nice little collection, from a pretty much forgotten (except by the oldies) and greatly underappreciated author.

THE MARATHON PHOTOGRAPH AND OTHER STORIES (1986) by Clifford D. Simak

$\"The$

This time out, we have a single author collection of short fiction by one of my favourite authors, Clifford D. Simak, in which all of the stories have an underlying thematic link dealing with the mysterious paradox of time.

The Introduction
\”The Birch Clump Cylinder\” (from Stellar #1, edited by Judy-Lynn del Rey, Ballantine, 1974)
\”The Whistling Well\” (from Dark Forces), edited by Kirby McCauley, Viking, 1980
\”The Marathon Photograph\” (from Threads of Time), edited by Robert Silverberg, Nelson, 1974
\”The Grotto Of The Dancing Deer\” (from Analog, April 1980)

It\’ll be interesting to compare and contrast with his earlier material. \”The Marathon Photograph\” already rates as one of my favourite Simak tales, if not my overall favourite.

Definitely a nice little collection, from a pretty much forgotten (except by the oldies) and greatly underappreciated author.

EMPIRE by H. Beam Piper

TITLE: EMPIRE
AUTHOR: H. Beam Piper
CATEGORY: Short Fiction
SUB-CATEGORY: Collection
FORMAT: Paperback
PUBLISHER: Ace Books, New York, 1981 (ISBN: 0-441-20557-7-250)

CONTENTS:

Terro-Human Future History Chronology
Introduction, by John F. Carr
The Edge of the Knife
A Slave is a Slave
Ministry of Disturbance
The Return (with John J. McGuire)
The Keeper

Last time out, I featured FEDERATION, the first of two collections gathering together the short fiction of H. Beam Piper\’s classic Terro-Human Future History cycle. This time it\’s the turn of EMPIRE, the second collection of stories set in that future history.

The book starts with an excellent three-page chronology of Piper\’s Terro-Human Future History, put together from dates, events and other data spread over all of Piper\’s short fiction and novels. This is followed by yet another fascinating and detailed ten-page Introduction by Piper scholar John F. Carr, which gives a lot of useful additional details on the future history as related in the five stories in this collection.

The five stories in the FEDERATION collection are from the earlier phase of Piper\’s Future History, whereas the five stories in EMPIRE cover the later stages of that Future History, with the exception of The Edge of the Knife, which is unique in that it is set in the more contemporary timeframe of the early 1970s, pre-dating the formation of the Federation, and thus placing the story effectively outside of the future history itself.

I haven\’t read this collection for years, but I have fond memories of The Keeper, Ministry of Disturbance, and The Edge of the Knife, although I remember very little about either A Slave is a Slave or The Return (which are lined up for a much-needed re-read in the not-too-distant future). If they turn out to be even half as good as the other stories, that will be the cream on top of the cake, as far as I\’m concerned.

The Keeper, in particular, is very moody and atmospheric, and is one of my favourite Piper stories, in my opinion bettered by only Omnilingual (I\’ve always found it funny that my two favourite stories in Piper\’s Future History chronology are, by their positions in that future history, the very first, Omnilingual, and the very last, The Keeper). The Keeper allows us the only available brief and tantalizing glimpses into the mysterious far future of the Fifth Empire, and is also the only known story written by Piper which is set beyond the end of the First Empire. The rest of the existing Terro-Human Future History Chronology doesn\’t go beyond the First Empire, which makes The Keeper seem strange and out of place compared to the other stories, until we accept that it is the only surviving proof that Piper intended to write other stories extending his future history far into the distant future.

Aside from the few snippets of background information contained in The Keeper, we know absolutely nothing about Piper\’s plans for developing the details of these distant far-future eras of his chronology. According to Jerry Pournelle, who had a lot of contact with Piper back in the day, he had certainly planned something much bigger. Pournelle has always asserted that he had seen Piper\’s folders full of extensive notes and details of a much longer and more complex future history chronology. Tragically, those notes were lost after Piper\’s suicide, and all that we\’re left with is a big bunch of \”maybes\” and \”what-might-have-beens\”, only too aware that the future history material which (fortunately) still exists in print, as good as it is, gives us only a tiny portion of the greatness that might have been.

As it stands, EMPIRE is a very strong collection, and already contains at least three of my favourite Piper stories, plus the excellent chronology and introduction. And as such, it\’s definitely well worth adding to any aspiring SF reader\’s bookshelf.