Tag: Nelson S. Bond

THE GREAT SF STORIES VOL. 1 (1939) edited by Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg

TITLE: ISAAC ASIMOV PRESENTS THE GREAT SF STORIES VOL. 1 (1939)
EDITED BY: Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg
CATEGORY: Anthology
SUB-CATEGORY: Short Fiction
FORMAT: Paperback, 432 pages
PUBLISHER: DAW Books, New York, 1st Printing, March 1979.

Those are the various general details, and here\’s a listing of the contents:

  • Introduction by Isaac Asimov
  • \”I, Robot\” by Eando Binder (Amazing Stories, January 1939)
  • \”The Strange Flight of Richard Clayton\” by Robert Bloch (Amazing Stories, March 1939)
  • \”Trouble with Water\” by H. L. Gold (Unknown, March 1939)
  • \”Cloak of Aesir\” by Don A. Stuart (John W. Campbell, Jr.) (Astounding Science Fiction, March 1939)
  • \”The Day is Done\” by Lester Del Rey (Astounding Science Fiction, May 1939)
  • \”The Ultimate Catalyst\” by John Taine (Thrilling Wonder Stories, June 1939)
  • \”The Gnarly Man\” by L. Sprague De Camp (Unknown, June 1939)
  • \”Black Destroyer\” by A. E. Van Vogt (Astounding Science Fiction, July 1939)
  • \”Greater Than Gods\” by C. L. Moore (Astounding Science Fiction, July 1939)
  • \”Trends\” by Isaac Asimov (Astounding Science Fiction, July 1939)
  • \”The Blue Giraffe\” by L. Sprague De Camp (Astounding Science Fiction, August 1939)
  • \”The Misguided Halo\” by Henry Kuttner (Unknown, August 1939)
  • \”Heavy Planet\” by Milton A. Rothman (Astounding Science Fiction, August 1939)
  • \”Life-Line\” by Robert A. Heinlein (Astounding Science Fiction, August 1939)
  • \”Ether Breather\” by Theodore Sturgeon (Astounding Science Fiction, September 1939)
  • \”Pilgrimage\” by Nelson Bond (Amazing Stories, October 1939)
  • \”Rust\” by Joseph E. Kelleam (Astounding Science Fiction, October 1939)
  • \”The Four-Sided Triangle\” by William F. Temple (Amazing Stories, November 1939)
  • \”Star Bright\” by Jack Williamson (Argosy, November 1939)
  • \”Misfit\” by Robert A. Heinlein (Astounding Science Fiction, November 1939)

This is a real gem of an anthology, and what a year 1939 was! It\’s hard to know where to start with this lot, but it would probably be with the three that really stand out for me, Van Vogt\’s \”Black Destroyer\”, John W. Campbell\’s (under his \”Don A. Stuart\” pseudonym) \”Cloak of Aesir\” and Milton A. Rothman\’s \”Heavy Planet\”, which are all stories that impacted greatly on me when I first started reading short SF way back in my early teens.

But there are also so many other good stories here, in particular C. L. Moore\’s \”Greater Than Gods\”, Jack Williamson\’s \”Star Bright\”, Lester Del Rey\’s \”The Day is Done\”, Eando Binder\’s \”I, Robot\”, Isaac Asimov\’s \”Trends\”, and the two Robert A. Heinlein stories \”Life-Line\” and \”Misfit\”. Most of the others I can\’t really remember, as I read them so long ago, and there are a few that I don\’t think I\’ve actually read before.

I\’m really looking forward to reading (or is that re-reading?) Henry Kuttner\’s \”The Misguided Halo\” (I\’m a big fan of his), Theodore Sturgeon\’s \”Ether Breather\” (likewise a big fan of his), Robert Bloch\’s \”The Strange Flight of Richard Clayton\” and the two L. Sprague De Camp stories \”The Gnarly Man\” and \”The Blue Giraffe\”. All big names that I\’ve enjoyed reading before.

This book was the first in a very long series, and Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories, Volumes 1-25, was one of the greatest ever series of science fiction anthologies. Published by DAW Books, the twenty-five volumes each covered a single year, and the entire series spanned the years 1939-1964.

The first twelve of these volumes were also later repackaged in a series of hardcovers, Isaac Asimov Presents the Golden Years of Science Fiction. There were six volumes in total of that one, First Series-Sixth Series, each one containing two of the original paperback volumes. For some reason (I\’ve never found out why), this series of hardcovers stopped at the half-way mark, and the remaining thirteen volumes of the paperbacks were never collected in hardback. Pity. Those hardbacks were really nice, and I\’m fortunate enough to have all six of them.

The twenty-five volume paperback set is a different matter. I only started to collect those several months ago, and so far I only have nine of them, although I continue to pick up the odd one here and there, with the intention of collecting the entire series, eventually. The books in this series are also quite expensive and hard to find, and most of the copies that I\’ve seen are from US sellers, so the shipping charges to the UK and Ireland are also very expensive. I\’ve often seen costs totalling up to $50 on Ebay for one of these paperbacks inclusive of shipping, as some of the US sellers charge ridiculously and inexcusably high transatlantic shipping charges. It\’s much better if you can find them on Amazon UK, as they only charge £2.80 shipping from all Amazon sellers, even those in the US.

Anyways, nine down, sixteen to go. Oboy! I guess it\’s time to get the credit card out and start buying a few more of these books…

BEACHHEADS IN SPACE edited by August Derleth

TITLE: BEACHHEADS IN SPACE
EDITED BY: August Derleth
CATEGORY: Anthology
SUB-CATEGORY: Short Fiction
FORMAT: Hardback, 224 pages
PUBLISHER: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1954 (Originally published in the US in 1952 by Pellegrini & Cudahy).

That\’s the various general details, here\’s a listing of the contents:

  • \”Beachhead\” by Clifford D. Simak (1951)
  • \”The Years Draw Nigh\” by Lester del Rey (1951)
  • \”Metamorphosite\” by Eric Frank Russell (1946)
  • \”Breeds There a Man…?\” by Isaac Asimov (1951)
  • \”And the Walls Came Tumbling Down\” by John Wyndham (1951)
  • \”The Blinding Shadows\” by Donald Wandrei (1934)
  • \”The Metamorphosis of Earth\” by Clark Ashton Smith (1951)

This is an interesting old anthology, edited by another of my favourite SF anthologists, August Derleth. The theme of this anthology, according to the book\’s jacket blurb, is \”invasion from another world, or counter-attack from Earth against the planets\”.

I haven\’t read this one in many years, maybe twenty-five years or more, but I remember that it was a favourite of mine way back in the day, and it still has a special place on my bookshelves. Obviously my memories of the individual stories are vague after all this time, and I don\’t remember all of them clearly, and a couple of them not at all. But the ones that I do recall really liking are Clifford D. Simak\’s very clever short story \”Beachhead\” (AKA \”You\’ll Never Go Home Again!\”, first published in Fantastic Adventures, July 1951), Eric Frank Russell\’s excellent novella \”Metamorphosite\”, (from Astounding, December 1946), and Clark Ashton Smith\’s scary and unusual alien invasion SF/Horror novelette \”The Metamorphosis of Earth\” (Weird Tales, September 1951).

I also remember liking Lester del Rey\’s \”The Years Draw Nigh\” and Isaac Asimov\’s \”Breeds There a Man…?\”, although for some reason I remember a lot less about them than I do about the Russell, Simak and Smith stories. I don\’t recall anything at all about the Wyndham and Wandrei stories. I\’m surprised about not remembering the Wyndham story, as I\’m usually a big fan of his writing.

But as good as my recollections are of the Simak and Smith stories, the stand-out story for me in this anthology has always been Eric Frank Russell\’s classic \”Metamorphosite\”, which I recall having a huge impact on me back when I was a young guy in my twenties. I don\’t think this story is in any of my other anthologies (and I have zillions of the darned things!), so I reckon it hasn\’t been reprinted very often. It\’s far, far too many years since I last read it, and indeed this entire anthology, so it\’s long overdue for a re-read. I\’ve already started on the Simak story, and, so far, it\’s at least as good as I remember it, if not better. If the rest of the stories hold up as well as this one is doing, I\’m going to really enjoy reading this anthology again.

Please take note that this is the 1954 UK edition, which is different from the original 1952 US hardcover edition, published by Pellegrini & Cudahy. Apparently all editions aside from the original hardcover edition have been \”butchered\” in some way, missing stories, etc. This UK edition is missing the Introduction and seven of the stories from the US edition. Also note that John Wyndham has two stories in the original US edition, one under his usual John Wyndham pseudonym, and the other as John Benyon.

Here is the full Contents Listing of the original 1952 US edition:

  • Introduction by August Derleth
  • \”The Star\” by David H. Keller, M.D.
  • \”The Man from Outside\” by Jack Williamson
  • \”Beachhead\” by Clifford D. Simak
  • \”The Years Draw Nigh\” by Lester del Rey
  • \”Metamorphosite\” by Eric Frank Russell
  • \”The Ordeal of Professor Klein\” by L. Sprague de Camp
  • \”Repetition\” by A. E. van Vogt
  • \”Breeds There a Man…?\” by Isaac Asimov
  • \”Meteor\” by John Beynon
  • \”And the Walls Came Tumbling Down\” by John Wyndham
  • \”Blinding Shadows\” by Donald Wandrei
  • \”The Metamorphosis of Earth\” by Clark Ashton Smith
  • \”The Ambassadors from Venus\” by Kendell F. Crossen
  • \”To People a New World\” by Nelson S. Bond

For lovers of old-style, classic SF short fiction, this anthology would be right up their alley. If you can actually find it, that is. As it\’s such an old book, it\’s obviously long out of print, and you\’ll have to hunt through used book stores to find this anthology. But it\’ll be well worth the trouble it takes to find it, as are any other anthologies edited by August Derleth.

After all these years, I think I\’ll actually make a major effort to get off my butt and track down the longer original US hardcover edition, which I didn\’t even realize was different/longer until I recently read the Wikipedia entry on the anthology.

Highly recommended, particularly the original US hardcover edition.