James H Schmitz's "Trigger & Friends" (ed Eric Flint) (collection, free): Annotated table of contents & review

Nothing really extraordinary here, though "Forget It" & "Sour Note on Palayata" have cool ideas.

Whole collection is available at Baen CD here, but contains substantially edited versions of "Legacy" & "Forget It". Links with the stories below go to original unedited versions.

List of contents below is in order of my preference, rather than ToC order.

1. [novelette] "Forget It" aka "Planet of Forgetting" (B); download; Galaxy, February 1965: An unusual animal defense against predators.
2. [novelette] "Sour Note on Palayata" (B); download; Astounding, November 1956: An unusual evolution of brain.
3. [ss] "Aura of Immortality" (B); download; If, May/June 1974: Criminals are after the immortality potion the scientist has.
4. [novel] "Legacy" aka "A Tale of Two Clocks" (B); download; 1962; space opera: Lot of parties are after "plasmoids", artificial-life agricultural robots left by apparently long dead "Old Galactics". Currently in care of government, sundry villains are after the loot.
   This story is a sequel to "Harvest Time".
5. [novelette] "Harvest Time" (B); download; Astounding, September 1958: Ancient galactic fortune hunters on a new-to-man virgin world. An evil government officer hell bent on claiming booty discovered by someone else gets justice.
6. [novella] "Lion Loose" (B); Analog, October 1961; adventure: Villains, comprising of two mutually mistrusting gangs, have taken control of a space station that is about to receive some valuable cargo. They plan to rob cargo & fly away, after bombing away the space station to avoid leaving evidence. Hero will get them justice & protect the space station.
   See also: Murray Leinster's "Checkpoint Lambda": Very similar plot - hero must save the space station from its hijackers who plan to loot valuable cargo expected soon & who also intend to destroy the space station before leaving.

Related: Stories of James H Schmitz.