Roger Dee's "The Obligation" (novelette, free, first contact): An alien's adventures at a human camp on Venus

A shape-shifting surveyor ("Cseth Abrii of Pselpha from the binary suns Kornephoros") from an alien elder race saves a human fisherman on Venus in a storm. Alien's later friendly gestures at the human camp drive another man mad with fear - so we have a madman hunting the alien & other humans of the habitat trying to save the alien. Eventually, the madman will die & so will the saved man's wife, but does the man need to know his wife is dead? Alien thinks he has an obligation towards the friendly man who lost his wife trying to save him...

Collected in.

1. Donald A Wollheim (ed)'s "Adventures on Other Planets".

Fact sheet.

First published: Startling Stories, September 1952.
Read online at UNZ.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Roger Dee.

Donald A Wollheim (ed)'s "Adventures on Other Planets" (anthology)

Table of contents.

1. [novelette] Roger Dee's "The Obligation" (B); read online; Startling Stories, September 1952: An alien visitor's adventures at a human fishing camp on Venus.
2. [ss] Robert Moore Williams' "The Sound of Bugles" (B): Couple of humans' adventures among Martians.
3. Clifford D Simak's "Ogre".
4. Murray Leinster's "Assignment on Pasik".
5. [novelette] A E van Vogt's "The Rull"; Astounding, May 1948.

First published: 1955.

Related: Anthologies & collections; works of  Donald A Wollheim.

Robert A Heinlein's "Double Star" (novel, politics): When an imposter became the ruler

This is a fast paced action story with a lot of election politics. I didn't like it as much as I wanted to because at some places the world view is too provincially Western; the thing that irritated me most was a small passage on the classification of world's languages - confidently told & totally bogus.

Story summary.

Here is a solar Empire spanning many worlds, dominated by humans though there are aliens on other worlds. It's a monarchy similar to British one - emperor is supreme but is a rubberstamp, & sits in a city on the moon. The parliament has the power & is elected; aliens can vote but must choose a human representative. Head of government is the "Supreme Minister", probably majority leader in Parliament.

Current ruling party has arranged the kidnapping of the leader of opposition at a time where he's absolutely required to be present at a Martian ceremony. So his underlings will recruit an actor, Lawrence Smith aka Lorenzo Smythe, to act as an imposter at the function. One thing will lead to another & new situations will keep coming up & the imposter will end up becoming the politician he's impersonating.

The story is, first & foremost, the character study of this actor, & evolution of his personality.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, Feb/Mar/Apr 1956.
Rating: A.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Winner of Hugo Award 1957 in novel category.
Related: Stories of Robert Heinlein.

Jack Vance's "Worlds of Origin" aka "Coup de Grace" (short story, murder mystery)

This is classic Vance - the kind of stories he's best remembered for. Very colorful.

Story summary.

In a private space station somewhere far away where men & aliens of many worlds pass through, a man has been murdered.

Ace detective Magnus Ridolph will help the station owner solve the crime. In the process, we meet many suspects of very colorful background each of which could have had a story dedicated to its own culture & customs.

Fact sheet.

First published: Super-Science Fiction, February 1958.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Jack Vance.

"Astounding Science Fiction", July 1955 (ed John W Campbell, Jr) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents & review

Most, but not all, stories here are the same as those in Astounding (British ed), December 1955. Even the cover is the same.

Where I've a separate post on a story, link on its title goes there. For read stories, my rating appears in brackets. Links on authors fetch more works of author.

Table of contents.

1. [novelette] Algis Budrys' "In Clouds of Glory": "Combat of Champions is an old method of settling disputes--but when hiring champions, there is a certain danger they aren't fighting for the goals you think..."
2. [novelette] Eric Frank Russell's "The Waitabits" (A): Different people run their lives at different pace. What happens when faster ones try to bring up the slower ones to their pace? 
3. [novelette] Frank Herbert's "Rat Race" (A): Rats are to men as men are to...
4. [ss] Robert Sheckley's "Earth, Air, Fire and Water": "The best way to use anything is the way it will do you the most good in the situation you happen to be in. Sometimes that's not all the way it was intended to be used..."
5. [ss] Eric Frank Russell's "Tieline" (as by Duncan H Munro) (B): "When you've got to put a lone man on a beacon-operator job, ten dozen solar syatems away from any other human--he needs an emotional tieline to Earth. But finding one isn't always easy."
6. [serial - part 4/4] Poul Anderson's "The Long Way Home": "Sooner or later, every adult human being makes a discovery--or lives dissatisfied, unhappy. That there never was, & never will be, a way to go home ... but there is always a way to make home."

Fact sheet.

Labeled: "Vol LV No 5".
Download scans as a cbr file. [via Alexander@pbscans]
Note: Download link points to a rar file that needs to be renamed cbr.
Related: Stories from Analog/Astounding (whole issues only) (only issues edited by John Campbell); old "pulps"; 1950s.

"Infinity Science Fiction", April 1957 (ed Larry T Shaw) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents

Where I have a separate post for a story, link on story title goes there. Link on author fetches more fiction by author.

Table of contents.

1. [novelette] Harlan Ellison's "Deeper than the Darkness": "Controlled, his weird power might have been a blessing--uncontrolled, it made his life a literal, flaming hell!"
2. [ss] Arthur C Clarke's "The Case of the Snoring Heir" aka "Sleeping Beauty" (A): "Sigmund's problem was simply stated: no sleep, no wife; no wife, no money! But how can a man control his snores?"
3. [ss] E C Tubb's "The Eyes of Silence": "The choice was his: a solitary cell on Earth, or a solitary cell in space--& both paths led only to madness!"
4. [ss] Fritz Leiber's "Friends & Enemies": "In a world blasted by super-bombs & run by super-thugs, Art vs Science can be a deadly debate!"
5. [ss] John Christopher's "The Noon's Repose": "To control genetics, you must control love--& if Cupid is human, will he enjoy slavery?"
6. [ss] Charles L Fontenay's "The Martian Shore": "Shaan made the longest crawl in history--to avoid crawling before tyrants!"
7. [ss] John Victor Peterson's "The Gently Orbiting Blonde": "Anti-gravity may be hard to handle--but a woman scorned is still harder!"
8. [ss] Richard Wilson's "Deny the Slake":
          "Those couplets held
             (unless they lied)
           The reason why
             a world had died!"

Fact sheet.

Labeled: "Vol 2 No 2".
Download the scans as a CBR file. [via Alexander@pbscans]
Note: Link fetches a RAR file that needs to be renamed CBR.
Related: Stories from Infinity SF; 1950s; old "pulps".

Jack Vance's "The Men Return" (short story, weird physics)

This is unlike anything else I've seen of Vance. And pretty near amongst the weirdest stories I've seen.

Story summary.

Earth passes through a peculiar region of space where causelty no longer holds & physics is weird. Earth is not necessarily solid & can randomly change phases. You can pick up a chunk of air & eat it, or ride it! Etc.

Most men died out. Few survivors are in two groups: organisms are thoughtless with random spur of the moment action. Relicts are rational of the old but are fast dying out - since this world has not rationality & doesn't tolerate rationality.

That's when the universe inexplicably returns back to a state where the effect follow the cause & rational men can claim the world again.

Fact sheet.

First published: Infinity Science Fiction, July 1957.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Jack Vance.

"Future Science Fiction", Fall 1957 (ed Robert A W Lowndes) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents

I haven't read any story yet. Links on author fetch more fiction by author.

Table of contents.

1. [novelette] Gordon R Dickson's "Cloak & Stagger": "It would have been hilarious if Earth's acceptance into the Federation hadn't depended on how Torm Lindsay carried out his mission--because no one, particularly Lindsay, had the faintest notion of what he was expected to do, or not do!"
2. [ss] Margaret St Clair's "Starobin": "They needed a hero like Starobin--but a hero like Starobin was just the kind who didn't care..."
3. [ss] Scott Nichols' "The Lonely Stars": "Would humanity ever be able to undo that worst of blunders?"
4. [ss] Robert Silverberg's "Force of Mortality": "The greatest boon can also be the deadliest curse..."
5. [ss] Thomas N Scortia's "Last Meeting Place": "Garth was one of the few who understood history--but could he avoid repeating it?"
6. [ss] Bruce Tucker & Irving Cox, Jr's "The Professor from Pyjm": 'Was Mytohell just another "crazy scientist" or ...?'
7. [ss] F M Busby's "A Gun for Grandfather": "So you have a time machine, so you can go back in time & shoot grandpa? But why bother? Barney had a reason..."
8. [ss] George R Hahn's "The Round Peg": "Basil Thorpe was the most bizarre of phonies..."

Fact sheet.

Labeled: "No 34". "Published quarterly".
Download scans as a cbr file. [via pulpbox@pulpscans]
Note: Link fetches a RAR file that needs to be renamed CBR.
Related: Old pulps; fiction from Future SF, 1950s.

Isaac Asimov's "Silly Asses" (flash fiction, satire, free)

It's a commentary on the first nuclear (weapons?) tests - wise alien's reaction to discovery that the man has detonated a nuclear device on his own world.

The SFFAudio link below has more on the immediate political background to the story.

Fact sheet.

First published: Future Science Fiction, February 1958.
Download full text & audio from SFFAudio. [via QuasarDragon]
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Isaac Asimov.

Fredric Brown's "Sentry" (flash fiction, war, free)

In a long drawn galactic war, the "good" side is still not used to the sight of ugly monsters that comprise the enemy.

Fact sheet.

First published: Galaxy, February 1954.
Download full text & audio from SFFAudio. [via QuasarDragon]
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Fredric Brown.

Robert F Young's "Collector's Item" (short story, free)

Hmmm... so even Galactic Historian can make minor omissions...

Fact sheet.

First published: Fantastic Universe, September 1956.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg or Manybooks. [via Becky@ClassicScienceFiction]
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Robert F Young.

"Imaginative Tales", July 1957 (ed William M Hamling) (magazine): Annotated table of contents

Oops. I downloaded its CBR a while back but the link seems to have gone dead now. Will post the link separately if I can find it elsewhere.

I haven't read any story yet.

Table of contents.

1. [novella] Edmond Hamilton's "World of Never-Men": "Barker set out on a trail of vengeance that would lead him to retribution--or death. It would also, inevitably, bind him to Mars' dark secret..."
2. [ss] Robert Moore Williams' "The Red Rash Deaths": "There wasn't a cure for the sickness that struck humans down in horrible agony. And Keeton lacked any clues to follow in his race to stop..."
3. [ss] Randall Garrett's "Devil's World": "Every secret agent sent to Mercury turned up dead; now Courtney volunteered for the task of trapping Thurston, the man who ruled this--".
4. [ss] Robert Silverberg & Randall Garrett's "Hot Trip for Venus" (as by Ralph Burke): (ToC lists Ralph Burke as author; story lists Randall Garrett as author!). Alex Mayne knew somebody wanted to keep him out of the spacelanes. And that could only mean someone was afreaid he'd learn about the--"
5. [ss] Robert Silverberg & Randall Garrett's "Pirates of the Void" (as by Ivar Jorgensen): "Brant's job was to check the robot relays on tiny stations scattered through space. It was not his job to risk death after an attack from--"
6. [ss] Robert Silverberg's "The Assassin": "Bigelow had a grand idea; he would travel more than a hundred years through time to Ford's Theatre, see the President, & warn him about--"

Fact sheet.

Related: Old pulps.; fiction from 1950s.

Manly Wade Wellman's "O Ugly Bird!" (short story, free): Hero frees a town of a curse

This is not science fiction; it's witchcraft. I loved it because of beautiful language - content didn't really matter!

Story summary.

Penniless hero is taking a long walk along a trail. On the way he sees & hears stories about the evil Mr Onselm & his Ugly Bird. Mr Onselm can hex anyone, & whole town is scared of him.

Of course, by the end of the story, hero will vanquish the villain.

Fact sheet.

First published: F&SF, December 1951.

Download full text from Baen Ebooks or Oregon Literary Review.

This is the first of the author's "Silver John" series.

"there was a Silver John movie made back in 1972, sometimes found under the title The Legend of Hillbilly John, but it bombed at the box office. It was originally released as Who Fears the Devil?"

Rating: A.

Jack Finney's "The Body Snatchers" aka "The Invasion of Body Snatchers" (novel, alien invasion)

I'm actually puzzled by the fame of this much filmed story. It's a very ordinary novel, action packed but often illogical, sometimes outright illogical. It touches upon two themes - human tendency to destroy the environment while exploiting resources & then move on to newer pastures for more exploitation, & the idea of not remaining ourselves but becoming something else as a result of some kind of foreign invasion. Former occupies so little time in the story as to be irrelevant. Becoming something else pervades the book, but in a form that left me untouched.

Then there is the issue of style. Use a dozen paragraphs where one would do. Tell us the life on the street below is ordinary today, & then get into painful detail of who is doing what for may be 2 dozen people none of which is really in the story. Tendency to tell rather than show...

I might have explained it away as a classic whose key ideas have been so well absorbed in subsequent literature they're no longer novel. Only that is not the case - the idea of foreign imposters slowly substituting local populations has been around in sf much longer. Some commentators seem to think it captures the paranoia about communist invasion in the US during 1950s, which might explain its appeal to an earlier generation of Americans. I finished it, but in a very unsatisfied way.

Story summary.

A local doctor in a small town is suddenly seeing a lot of cases where patients are exhibiting a strange delusion: they claim that someone they've long known is an imposter, though the "imposters" look & behave identically to their former selves!

Things will get horrifying when he discovers enormous alien plant "pods", recently arrived from space, are capable of turning into any kind of nearby life, including vegetable or animal, destroying the original...

Fact sheet.

First published: "as a three-part serial in Collier's Magazine (November 26 - December 24, 1954). Rewritten in 1978 as Invasion of the Body Snatchers."
Rating: B.

William Tenn's "Time in Advance" (collection): Annotated table of contents & review

Four stories. I'd read "Firewater" long back - communications difficulties during first contact with aliens, & modeled after the (presumably) historical European invader/native American interactions.

There is only story one I really loved - "Time in Advance", but others are still readable.

Where I have a separate post on a story, link on its title goes there.

Table of contents.

1. [novelette] "Time in Advance" (A); Galaxy, August 1956: There is a 50% discount on conviction provided you get arrested & let a court convict you before you commit a murder!
2. [novella] "Firewater" (B); Astounding, February 1952; communication: Traders come before theorists...
3. [novelette] "The Sickness" (B); Infinity SF, November 1955.: A cure for cold war mistrust between US & USSR...
4. [novella] "Winthrop was Stubborn" (B); Galaxy, August 1957, time travel: A look at the world of 25th century...

Fact sheet.

First published: 1958.
Related: Stories of William Tenn.

William Tenn's "Winthrop was Stubborn" aka "Time Waits for Winthrop" (novella, time travel): What will the world look like in 25th century?

This is about as colorful an adventure as you're likely to see in science fiction. And from William Tenn, of all people! Alive sidewalks that help you move & help prevent your fall, "government machine" you can order materialized out of thin air to discuss things governmental, "Shriek Field" where you can play mad (but only in nude!) to relive stress, telepathic semi-sentient food that will work all it can for your enjoyment, "Oracle Machine" that can solve any problem, floor that keeps adjusting to your needs, "jumper" - a cylindrical contraption you can materialize from thin air & get inside to instantly teleport anywhere, ...; it goes on & on!

Story summary.

A group of 5 Americans in 1958 travel to 2458, selected with great fanfare (by government?) on invitation from & with technology of 25th century. The deal is: it's an exchange; when they go to future, simultaneously 5 persons from future will materialize in now. Only way the parties can return to their time is at an appointed time & place, & only if all of them want to return; if even one of them wants to stay, all get stranded in foreign time.

And Winthrop, an old man among the visitors to future, likes it so much here that he's refusing to return, stranding everyone else! Story if of efforts of others in his party to persuade or coarse him to return.

Collected in.

1.  William Tenn's "Time in Advance".

Fact sheet.

First published: Galaxy, August 1957.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of William Tenn.

William Tenn's "The Sickness" (novelette): A cure for cold war mistrust between US & USSR

This is a story of two epidemics caused by bugs - one physical & literal, other metaphorical as in US/USSR standoff. Knowing Tenn, I won't be surprised if he intended it as a satire on cold war war-mongering at both ends.

Story summary.

US & USSR not only are constantly at each other's throat, they also have independent programs to send people to Mars. An India-mediated joint expedition to Mars might hopefully help understanding & ease tensions - so the ship that goes there contains an equal number of Americans & Russians but with the condition that Americans will only speak Russian & Russians only English during the expedition.

On Mars, they'll find a vast & ancient underground city - still kept alive by machines though its inhabitants are long dead. Human explorer to the city will return infected with a highly contagious (via breathing) bug, & quickly infect the whole expedition. They'll nearly die out, but there is a miracle waiting - both for their personal sickness, & of humanity's sickness back on earth...

Collected in.

1.  William Tenn's "Time in Advance".

Fact sheet.

First published: Infinity Science Fiction, November 1955.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of William Tenn.

William Tenn's "Time in Advance" (novelette, free): 50% discount on pre-murder conviction!

I'd recently read a story from Astounding, August 1958 (British ed) where I liked the concept: Stanley Mullen's "Fool Killer". Looks like that was an imitation of this excellent original.

Story summary.

On this future earth, you get a 50% discount on a murder sentence, provided you seek conviction before committing the murder! 7 years on deadly prison planets. You can, of course, change your mind part way through the sentence & return without prejudice, but then you forfeit the served sentence. But on successful completion of the sentence, you've earned the right to murder one human being!

One such precriminal, just returned after serving the pre-murder sentence, will actually get some completely unexpected enlightenment...

Collected in.

1.  William Tenn's "Time in Advance".

Fact sheet.

First published: Galaxy, August 1956.
Note: I'd read this in an anthology, but scans of the issue where this story originally appeared is online.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of William Tenn.

Evelyn E Smith's "The Venus Trap" (short story, free): Man brings hope to a dying alien species

Man has just began colonizing an alien world called Elysium, a world full of intelligent native plants. But most males of these plants died out of a disease; the world is now full of female intelligent plants, with no hope of a future generation.

One of the colonists men will develop a special relationship with Magnolia, one of these female plants, leading to much acrimony & jealousy on the part of his wife. But things turn hopeful near end, with a new arrival from earth...

See also.

1. Eric Frank Russell's "P.S."; download as part of a larger package: A man has had an alien as a pen-pal for a number of decades. Now, old & alone, he learns that his life long pen friend is actually a tree & a rather smelly one at that! How should he react to the news?

Fact sheet.

First published: Galaxy, June 1956.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, Feedbooks. [via John Grayshaw @ClassicScienceFiction]
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Evelyn E Smith; Vegetable SF.

Stanley Mullen's "Fool Killer" (short story, justice, free): Do you _really_ want impartial & logical justice?

While it has a mundane start, it changes gears in a completely unexpected way part way through. Much of the story is about the implications of this twist, but almost anything I say about it will spoil the most interesting moment in the story.

Notes.

Author clarifies the title near end: "The Fool Killer never has to kill; it is enough if the fools know he is present, ready to strike, to keep them on their toes, make good citizens of bad, or at least careful citizens of those inclined to heedless cruelty or stupidity."

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, May 1958.
Download full text as part of the scans of Astounding (British ed), August 1958.
Rating: A.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.

Frank Herbert's "You Take the High Road" (short story, detective, free)

Here is a peaceful place, its peacefulness asserted by its natives. Natives that were told beforehand that they'll get a significant prize if they're peaceful! And there are no obvious signs that suggest they're not peaceful.

But a detective's got a hunch they're putting up a false show...

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, May 1958.
Download full text as part of the scans of Astounding (British ed), August 1958.
This is the first of the four stories that went into the making of author's fixup novel "The Godmakers".
Rating: A.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of Frank Herbert.

"Astounding Science Fiction" (British edition), August 1958 (magazine, free) (ed John W Campbell): Annotated table of contents

Links on author fetch more fiction by author. Where I've read the story, my rating appears in brackets. If I have a separate post on a story, link on its title goes there.

Table of contents (best first, unread last).

1. [novel - 1/3] Hal Clement's "Close to Critical" (A): "Meet Tenebra, the planet where raindrops are fifty feet through ... & hard quartz rocks dissolve away like salt. Under three gravities, & a monstrously deep atmosphere, with oily seas of sulphuric acid, two children touch off a political situation that is ... close to critical".
2. [ss] Frank Herbert's "You Take the High Road" (A); detective: Is this village really of peaceful people?
3. [ss] Stanley Mullen's "Fool Killer" (A): What if law allowed you one murder!
4. [ss] John Rackham's "One-Eye" (B): A man has an unusual gift - he "sees" bad things happen just before they do happen. And figuring out the nature of this "gift" gets him in trouble.
   
   Title is from the story about a one-eyed man among the blind ones. As is the man with the gift among the ordinary humans.
5. [novelette] Charles V de Vet's "Special Feature": "What constitutes public entertainment changes with the mores of a society. The Romans liked the circuses ... but the feline devil loose in their city might have been a bit too stimulating for them..."
6. [ss] Gordon R Dickson's "The Question": "It wasn't too surprising that aliens couldn't answer the Question. After all, we've been trying for millenia ourselves!"

Fact sheet.

Labeled: Vol XIV No 8.
Download scans as a CBR file. [via Bob@pulpscans]
Note: Link points to a RAR file that contains target CBR, probably to work around some hosting service file naming constraints.
Related: Stories from the Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell, old "pulps", 1950s.

Robert Silverberg's "To Be Continued" (short story, immortality, free): Slow life is frustrating!

Immortality here is of a curious kind - your growth slows down. Like you'll develop physically & psychologically by a year when actual time lapsed in say 100 years! Author didn't elaborate how the hero survived infancy since parents aren't normally immortals & the immortals exist without society knowing about them; that's a weak point of the story.

The only immortals we meet in the story also have a curious super ability - they can morph into a different individual, in all observable ways. So, e.g., you can simultaneously romance two girls using your different personas, & no trouble even if one of them spots you with another.

This is the story of a 2000 year old man, Gaius Titus Menenius, who's now finally reached puberty! Story is mostly his search for a mate, with a funny ending.

See also.

1. Mohsen H Darabi's "Loyalty beyond seasons" (download): Another kind of biological impediment to romance...
2. Eric Frank Russell's "The Waitabits" (download as part of a larger package): When a fast life encounters a much slower one...

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, May 1956.
Download full text as part of the scans of Astounding (British ed), April 1957.
Rating: A.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of Robert Silverberg.

Marion Zimmer Bradley's "Year of the Big Thaw" (short story, first contact, free)

A farmer is telling how come he doesn't know where his son was born...

The plot itself is ordinary, but I loved it because of its beautiful but peculiar language, probably an old English dialect.

Fact sheet.

First published: Fantastic Universe, May 1954.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, Feedbooks.
Download audio read by Greg Weeks from LibriVox.
Rating: A.

Algis Budrys' "Look On My Works" (short story, post apocalypse, free): Guides milking tourists...

For a post apocalypse story, it's a very light read; even had me smiling many times.

Story summary.

About 600 years into future, New York city is flooded to near roofs of some of the tallest current buildings, & local civilization has regressed to simpler times. But some hardy local conmen are happily milking the visiting human tourists from prosperous space colonies (established before the floods), offering the visitors the almost mythical authentic Terran fare...

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, December 1956.
Download full text as part of the scans of Astounding (British ed), April 1957.
Rating: B.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of Algis Budrys.

"Astounding Science Fiction" (British edition), April 1957 (ed John Campbell) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents

I think I've read "2066: Election Day" in one of the "Issac Asimov Presents Great SF Stories" books. An unusual "election" for a US President, an election where people don't vote at all, & one that was actually rigged by a small coterie. I don't think I came back happy with it, & the ending invoked in me an angry reaction - "how could the author propose this to be a good outcome?" type of reaction.

Links on author fetches more fiction by author. Where I have a separate post on a story, link on story title goes there. For stories I've read, my rating is in brackets.

Table of contents.

1. [novelette] Robert Silverberg & Randall Garrett's "False Prophet" (as by Robert Randall): "There are times when it is exceedingly unwise to tell the truth--& the Nidorian was dedicated to truth. The Earthmen were wiser; they lied about him."
2. [ss] Michael Shaara's "2066: Election Day": "There is a limit to any process you can name ... & sooner or later that limit will be reached. Then ... somehow you have to fumble togeather a new thing..."
3. [ss] Algis Budrys' "Look on My Works" (B): Tourist guides milking a tourist from Centaurus with fakes, in a far future New York city...
4. [ss] Robert Silverberg's "To Be Continued" (A): Slow life is frustrating!
5. [serial - 3/3] Isaac Asimov's "The Naked Sun": "Lije Baley had a triple-decker problem to solve--& solved it only because a robot tried to give him a hand. And thereby taught him to define his terms with a new exactness!"

Fact sheet.

Labeled: "Vol XIII No 4 (British Edition)".
Download scans as a CBR file [via Bob@pulpscans]
Note: The link fetches a RAR file that contains the target CBR, probably to work around hosting service's file naming constraints.
Related: Stories from the Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell, old "pulps", 1950s.

Miles M Acheson's "The Apprentice" (short story, adventure, free)

This could really have been from Planet Stories rather than Astounding - an action packed adventure in the jungles of Venus. But it does have a funny punchline - a test to determine if you are smart enough!

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, May 1950.
Download full text as part of the scans of Astounding (British ed), June 1951.
Rating: B.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.

Tom Godwin's "Cry from a Far Planet" (short story, first contact, free)

This reminded me of an episode in author's "The Space Barbarians", the second novel in his Ragnarok series. Aliens called Kilver in the novel are called Varn here; otherwise, the story could have been a chapter in the novel.

Story summary.

Human exploration expeditions to stars have been miserably failing, frequently getting the exploring humans killed. Killed because of misunderstandings brought about by difficulty in communications with aliens they encounter on different worlds.

One such explorer here, facing just such a fate, will be saved by ... well, it's deus ex machina. No real enlightenment, but a happy ending & a readable story.

Fact sheet.

First published: Amazing Science Fiction Stories, September 1958.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, Feedbooks. [via Becky@ClassicScienceFiction]
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Tom Godwin.

Poul Anderson's "The Helping Hand" (novelette, diplomacy, free)

This one might be read differently in rich vs poor countries. It's about the real nature of the so called "aid" given by rich countries to poor ones. While the term has practically vanished from India during the last 2 decades, local readers should find a lot here that strikes a cord.

This story is about a rich & powerful country wanting, altruistically, it would seem, to give "aid" for reconstruction to two poor countries that have just been through a war & are both in bad shape. One country accepts it; other doesn't. Story looks at the evolution of these two countries - which one comes out better off 50 years down the line, one that accepts the aid or the one that refuses it.

Countries involved are actually star faring empires. Earth is the rich one. Two warring parties are the alien worlds of Cundaloa & Skontar.

See also.

1. L Sprague de Camp's "Finished" (download as part of a larger package): Another story that deals with a rich vs poor country issue that used to be an emotional one in India till 1980s, even a bit in 1990s, but is rarely heard of now - technology sanctions as a diplomatic policy tool.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, May 1950.
Read online at BookReader, or download full text as part of the scans of Astounding (British ed), June 1951.
Rating: A.
Nominated for Retro Hugo Award in 2001.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of Poul Anderson.

Jack Vance's "Potters of Firsk" (short story, free): Hero peacefully frees a tribe from oppression by its ferocious neighbors

This is standard Jack Vance - colorful communities & their customs, medieval side by side with modern. But it has a macabre thread running all through. Kept me engaged all the way.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, May 1950.
Download full text as part of the scans of Astounding (British ed), June 1951.
Download MP3 of a radio dramatization by Dimension X from Internet Archive.
Rating: A.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of Jack Vance.

"Astounding Science Fiction" (British Edition), June 1951 (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents & review

Links on author fetch more matching fiction by author. Where I have a separate post on a story, link on story title goes there. For read stories, my rating appears in brackets. Where I'm aware of alternate availability of a story on the web, I include those links too.

Table of contents (best first, unread last).

1. [novelette] Poul Anderson's "The Helping Hand" (A); read online: International "aid" considered harmful...
2. [ss] Jack Vance's "The Potters of Firsk" (A); download radio adaptation: Hero peacefully frees a tribe from oppression by its ferocious neighbors.
3. [ss] Miles M Acheson's "The Apprentice" (B): Adventure on Venus...

Fact sheet.

Labeled: "VII, No 10 (British Edition)".
Download scans as a CBR file. [via Bob@pulpscans]
Note: Link points to a RAR file that contains target CBR, probably to work around some hosting service file naming constraints.
Related: Stories from the Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell, old "pulps", 1950s.

Algis Budrys' "Man in the Sky" (short story, free): Cold engineering vs public opinion

It's dated in that it's a pre-spaceflight story, imagining early space flight in ways that we now know were different. But it's readable.

Story summary.

US, as part of a very long running program to put man on moon, has put the first satellite in orbit around earth. A (solo) manned satellite, because technology for precise automatic steering up in orbit is not available.

As soon as the satellite goes in orbit, the pilot dies of heart attack. No mystery there, just an ordinary bad coincidence.

Dilemma faced by bosses down: The dead pilot up there is worth more to the ground than a live one, because now satellite can stay up there & continue bringing in telemetry data! But public opinion will force them to bring the body down, a project involving building a new identical machine, work that inevitably kills a few workers as part of construction accidents!

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, March 1956.
Download full text as part of the scans of Astounding (British edition), August 1956.
Rating: B.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of Algis Budrys.

Herbert L Cooper's "A Nice Little Niche" (short story, ecology, free): When vitamin K craving alien bacteria infected human guts

Someone thinks the author might be a pseudonym of Edmond Cooper, based on the story style. And as far as I can find, this is the only published story of "Herbert L Cooper", a story that has never been reprinted.

Story summary.

This is a classic Campbell puzzle story. Human explorers have arrived on a very desirable world. Only there is evidence that there once were mammalian animals here that died out a few hundred thousand years ago.

A doctor on board will puzzle things out, & barely save the humans on board...

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, March 1956.
Download full text as part of the scans of Astounding (British edition), August 1956.
Rating: B.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.

"Astounding Science Fiction" (British Edition), August 1956 (ed John Campbell) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents

I've read "Exploration Team" & "Minor Ingradient" elsewhere before, but don't recall much of them now.

Links on author fetch more fiction by author. Where I have a separate post on a story, link on story title goes there. For read stories, my rating appears in brackets.

Table of contents (best first, unread last).

1. [ss] Herbert L Cooper's "A Nice Little Niche" (B): When vitamin K craving alien bacteria invaded human guts...
2. [ss] Algis Budrys' "Man in the Sky" (B): Cold engineering vs public opinion.
   
   It's a story about early spaceflight, before there was space flight.
3. [novelette] Murray Leinster's "Exploration Team": "The perfect machine for exploring a new plant would, of course, be self-repairing, self-maintaining, able to construct its own repair parts from local materials, & even able to replace itself with a new unit..."
4. [ss] Eric Frank Russell's "Minor Ingradient": "A critically necessary lesson any true officer must learn is the crushing burden it is to be Master of a slave..."
5. [serial - 2/3] Robert Heinlein's "Double Star": "Lorenzo, the conceited pipsqueak, was stretched & inflated to fill a mold. But Lorenzo, while conceited beyond question--was not a fool!"

Fact sheet.

Labeled: "Vol XII No 8 (British Edition)".
Download scans as a CBR file. [via Bob@pulpscans]
Note: Link points to a RAR file that contains target CBR, probably to work around some hosting service file naming constraints.
Related: Stories from the Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell, old "pulps", 1950s.

Frank Herbert's "Rat Race" (short story, detective, free): Rats are to men as men are to...

A police detective, during a routine errand to a mortuary, asks an idle question about something kept there. He gets an evasive response. He smells rat, & we are on to something really big...

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, July 1955.
Download full text as part of scans of Astounding (British Edition), December 1955.
Rating: A.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of Frank Herbert; fiction where men are lab animals to aliens.

"Astounding Science Fiction" (British Edition), December 1955 (ed John Campbell) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents & review

Links on author fetch more fiction by author. Where I've read a story, my rating appears in brackets. Where I have a separate post on a story, link on story title goes there.

Table of contents (best first, unread last).

1. [ss] Eric Frank Russell's "The Waitabits" (A): Different people run their lives at different pace. What happens when faster ones try to bring up the slower ones to their pace? 
2. [ss] Frank Herbert's "Rat Race" (A): Rats are to men as men are to...
3. [ss] Algis Budrys' "In Clouds of Glory": "Combat of Champions is an old method of settling disputes--but when hiring champions, there is a certain danger they aren't fighting for quite the goals you think..."
4. [serial - conclusion] Poul Anderson's "The Long Way Home": "Sooner or later, every adult human being makes a discovery--or lives dissatisfied, unhappy. That there never was, & never will be, a way to go home ... but there is always a way to make home."

Fact sheet.

Labeled: Vol XI No 12.
Download scans as a CBR file. [via Bob@pulpscans]
Note: Download link points to a RAR file that contains the target CBR as its sole contents, probably to work around some file naming constraint of hosting service.

See also.

1. Fiction from Analog/Astounding (only issues edited by Harry Bates, John Campbell; whole issues only).
2. Fiction from old "pulp" magazines.
3. Fiction from 1950s.

Sydney J Bounds' "The Beautiful Martian" (short story, free): Fear creates hate creates destruction

A beautiful flame-being arrived in a strange ship in a village on Christmas eve. All village welcomed it, children were particularly happy, & "she" wanted only to contribute happiness.

In the morning, the news spread & the unwise men began arriving: soldiers, politicians, scientists, businessmen, priests, ... They brought fear, greed, hate. They evacuated the village, & they destroyed the visitor & her ship.

Fact sheet.

First published: Nebula Science Fiction, #14 (November 1955).
Download full text as part of the scans of the magazine it originally appeared in.
Rating: B.
Related: Christmas fiction.

Robert Silverberg & Randall Garrett's "The Chosen People" (as by Robert Randall) (novelette, communications, free): Teaching the scientific method to deeply tradition bound

This rarely reprinted story would be among my all time favorite science fiction. It's a study in how to win friends & influence people!

Story summary.

There is a deeply religious & tradition-bound alien society on a world called Nidor. Humans came a few decades back, & seem to be wise & religious beyond question; so they're respected & have been allowed to run a local school that teaches the familiar to youngsters, sometimes in new ways. And what a revolution it is brewing!

Story is told via a massive local disaster that can only be averted with the new ways of thinking: "Hugl", small insect-sized pests, travel in vast swarms & destroy everything in their path. Only "Edris powder", the traditional insecticide, is not working this year...

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, June 1956.
According to ISFDB, it's first of the 3 stories that make up the fix-up novel "The Shrouded Planet".
Download full text as part of scans of Astounding (British Edition), November 1956.
Rating: A.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of Robert Silverberg, Randall Garrett.

Poul Anderson's "The Live Coward" (short story, intrigue, free): Cop catches a fugitive

One of the minor stories with a colorful background that is generally quite readable.

Story summary.

A policeman needs to flush out a fugitive who's hidden himself among the rulers of a tribe. But he must do this without any collateral damage to those around the fugitive.

Set in a galaxy spanning human empire. The tribe hiding the fugitive is part of a backwaters planet with medieval Europe type ruling clique with constant clashes between nominal rulers & powerful priests.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, June 1956.
Download full text as part of scans of Astounding (British Edition), November 1956.
Rating: B.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of Poul Anderson.

Algis Budrys' "The Peasant Girl" (as by Paul Janvier) (short story, free)

Not sure why I liked it - I would like to say the plot didn't do much for me, but it sure kept my attention & I finished it in a single sitting.

Story summary.

Mankind has split into two races - ordinary humans, & a new apparently far superior race of supermen - telepathic, able to change shape of things by thought, able to move by thought, etc. They seem to control ordinary humans' lives.

One day, Dorothy, the little sister of Henry Spar, a small town "cabinetmaker", vanished. Apparently kidnapped by one of the supermen, something that seems to happen fairly regularly, with ordinary men resigned to this fate. But Henry goes looking for his sister...

I found the ending too antithetical to rest of the story, supermen to whom ordinary men are supermen, in some sense...

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, June 1956.
Download full text as part of scans of Astounding (British Edition), November 1956.
Rating: B.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of Algis Budrys.