"Astounding Science-Fiction", May 1941 (ed John Campbell) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents & review

I've read stories of Heinlein, Asimov & Russell elsewhere; am posting this only for the two unread shorts - "Fish Story" & "Subcruiser".

Links on author fetch more stories of author. Where I've a separate post on a story, link on story title goes there. My rating for stories I've read & still remember appears in brackets.

Table of contents.

1. [novelette] Robert Heinlein's "Universe"; MP3 of radio adaptation: "an unique & fascinating civilization in a spaceship that missed its goal!"
   
   Collected in "The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two A" (ed Ben Bova).
   
   See also: its sequel, "Common Sense", in Astounding, October 1941.
2. [novelette] Robert Heinlein's "Solution Unsatisfactory" (as by Anson MacDonald): "a story of the very near & grimly probably future. Man's apt to have that irresistible weapon soon--& no method of control!"
3. [ss] Isaac Asimov's "Lier!": "Herbie was a robot; he was also a mistake. Somewhere in the assembly, an accident made him telepathic, with inevitable & disturbing consequences!"
4. [ss] Eric Frank Russell's "Jay Score" (A): A passenger ship on earth to Venus voyage is hit by a meteor, & is now headed for Sun! 
5. [ss] Vic Phillips & Scott Roberts' "Fish Story" (B): A "fishing" adventure on Venus.
6. [ss] Harry Walton's "Subcruiser" (B): Foiling a warship hijack.
7. [serial - 2/2] L Sprague de Camp's "The Stolen Dormouse": "In a slightly delirious world of the future where noble Sir Businessman feuds, & the times are more than a little out of joint."

Fact sheet.

Labeled: "Vol XXVII No 3".
Download scans as a CBR file. [via Bob@pulpscans]
Related: Stories from the Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell, old "pulps", 1940s.

"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.

Eric Frank Russell's "Exposure" (short story, alien invasion, free): Bad luck dooms alien invasion of earth

A Rigelian colonial party of shape-shifters has found earth, & early evidence suggests this should be a world easy to take. So they land near a small human camp, take samples of local life, including 2 humans, for dissection, & plant 2 spies each in 4 small towns nearby - spies taking the shape of the two humans they'd picked. How were they to know the specific human samples they had picked will look out of ordinary in pretty much every other city?

Of course, the alien party will never leave earth.

Notes.

1. This is one of the stories with feel good effect, but I found the quick human win in the end too convenient.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, July 1950.
Download full text as part of the scans of Astounding, July 1950.
Rating: B.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of Eric Frank Russell (annotated & ranked list - infrequently updated).

"Astounding Science Fiction", July 1950 (ed John W Campbell, Jr) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents & review

Link 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 appears in brackets.

I've not read Heinlein's non-fiction piece, "Destination Moon", noted on cover.

Table of contents (best first).

1. [ss] Eric Frank Russell's "Exposure" (A): Bad luck dooms alien invasion of earth.
2. [novelette] C M Kornbluth's "The Little Black Bag" (A): A bum finds purpose in life...
   
   Collected in SF Hall of Fame, #1. 
3. [ss] James E Gunn's "Private Enterprise" (as by Edwin James) (A): Taking charge of a country by overtaking its economy...
4. [ss] Ford McCormack's "Skin Deep" (B): A human party, aided by a member of an elder alien race, are investigating another alien race. So they kidnap a local for examination in lab, only the local was a beauty queen about to give a major stage performance. So the kidnapping became a major issue. 
5. [novelette] Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "Heir Apparent" (as by Lawrence O'Donnell) (B): Hero helps contain a political rebellion plot. It's a complex story with elements of cyborgs, swarm intelligence & waves that can make an island invisible!

Fact sheet.

Labeled: Vol XLV, No 5.
Download scans as a cbr file. [via David T @pulpscans]
Related: Stories from Astounding/Analog, only issues edited by John Campbell, only whole issues; old "pulps"; 1950s.

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

I'd read "Next of Kin", the novelization of "Plus X" (another longer variant of the story is "The Space Willis"), when I went through a Russell phase some years ago, & just loved it. Now, reading the original novelette in this issue, I had a milder reaction, but it still made me laugh at many places. It's a funny jailbreak story - a human smart alec vs his dimwitted alien captors.

Table of contents.

1. [novelette] Eric Frank Russell's "Plus X" (A); humor: Didn't you know that humans can only exist in pairs?
2. [novelette]  Robert Silverberg & Randall Garrett's "The Chosen People" (as by Robert Randall) (A): Teaching the scientific method to deeply tradition bound.
3. [ss] Poul Anderson's "The Live Coward" (B): Cop catches a fugitive in colorful circumstances.
4. [ss] Algis Budrys's "The Peasant Girl" (as by Paul Janvier) (B): Humans are supermen to supermen!
5. [ss] Thomas N Scortia's "Sea Change": 'Of course, everybody knows what "being human" means--it's just that they can't define it, but of course they know what it means..."

Fact sheet.

Labeled: Vol XII, No 11.
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.

"Astounding Science Fiction" (British Edition), July 1958 (ed John Campbell) (magazine, free) : 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. Where I'm aware of an alternate download location of a story, I include that too.

Table of contents (best first, unread last).

1. [novelette] Christopher Anvil's "Revolt!" (A); download; humor, adventure: Bureaucratic turf war & monster machines run amok...
2. [novel - part 1, 2, 3 (this) of 3] Poul Anderson's "The Man Who Counts" (A): What if, during the creation of Israel during the 1940s, US had sided with Arabs instead of Israel? A very colorful fantasized variant of it.
3. [ss] Jon Stopa's "A Pair of Glasses" (as by John Stopa) (B): Materialism is better than spiritualism.
4. [novelette] Eric Frank Russell's "Basic Right": "It's a basic right to try anything you want--a right the Universe itself grants. But it's necessary to distinguish between the right to try--which is real--& the right to succeed at it--which doesn't exist!"

Fact sheet.

Labeled: Vol XIV No 7.
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.

Eric Frank Russell's "Brute Farce" (short story, diplomacy, humor, free): Meet a lateral thinker...

In my book, this is among the better stories of Russell. And apparently never reprinted. May be my tastes are different from most editors?

This is the kind of story Russell is best known for: a lone smart alec vs a less witful universe.

Story summary.

In a galactic Union of many species & worlds, two particular ones - Drenes & Salamards - have been corroding the atmosphere by their constant bickering & minor fights, both driven by ambitious, unscrupulous & corrupt leaders.

Sebastian Snodgrass is an unconventional diplomat assigned by Terra to solve the problem. Very funny story.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, February 1958.
Download full text as part of the scans of Astounding (British edition), May 1958.
Rating: A.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of Eric Frank Russell (annotated & ranked list).

"Astounding Science Fiction" (British Edition), May 1958 (ed John Campbell) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents

Where I have a separate post on a story, link on its title goes there. Where I'm aware of another text version of a story, I include that link too. Links on author fetch more of their works. My rating for read stories appears in brackets.

Table of contents (best first).

1. [ss] Eric Frank Russell's "Brute Farce" (A); humor: Introducing a lateral thinker... 
2. [novelette] L Sprague de Camp's "Aristotle and the Gun" (A): Teaching the scientific method to Aristotle... 
3. [novel - 1 (this), 2, 3 of 3] Poul Anderson's "The Man Who Counts" (A): What if, during the creation of Israel during the 1940s, US had sided with Arabs instead of Israel? A very colorful fantasized variant of it.
4. [article] Mark Clifton's "The Dread Tomato Addiction" (A); download; satire: How to reach wrong conclusions from the right data! 
5. [ss] Jon Stopa's "Hot Water" (B): This government doesn't know how to handle civil unrest; both sides are throwing atom bombs at each other!
6. [ss] Christopher Anvil's "Achilles' Heel" (B); download: Starfaring humanity's military commander finally gets insight on how to defeat "Wij-Wij", aliens that look like "giant inchworms" & with whom earth is at war. 
7. [ss] Robert Silverberg's "No Way Out" (B): Chief executive of an overpopulated earth still breeding uncontrollably finally has enlightenment: to take measures to cut the breeding rate!

Fact sheet.

Labeled: "Vol XIV, No 5 (British Edition)".
Download scans as a CBR file. [via Bob@pulpscans]
Note: Link fetches a RAR that contains target CBR, probably to work around the file naming conventions of hosting service.

Related.

1. Stories from Astounding/Analog (whole issues only).
2. Fiction from 1950s, old "pulps".
3. Stories from the Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.

Eric Frank Russell's "Test Piece" (short story, first contact, free): Don't say it. Or die!

This is a contest story - great anticipation buildup, & a positive conclusion, but key to conclusion is for the reader to find! I wonder how it would look like in a reprint, without contest details of the original publication.

Story summary.

A human ship with 3 crew members has just landed on the alien world of Shaksembender - a followup to the world's discovery message from a scout 300 years ago. A world with hominids who now revere that long forgotten scout as a god. A god who'd asked them to be wary of the coming of men - it will either spell their doom, or will lead to salvation.

And he gave them a test to give to the future human landing party - when put in a certain situation, if the visitors utter two specific words in a sentence, that means doom & they must be immediately destroyed. What are those words? That's for reader to guess.
PS: Rob Slaven thinks the two words are likely to be racially derogatory to blacks of US in 1950s, & that the story is essentially an anti-racism piece.

The crew will meet a reception committee & will successfully pass the test.

Fact sheet.

First published: Other Worlds, March 1951.
Download full text as part of the scans of the magazine it originally appeared in.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Eric Frank Russell (annotated list).

"Other Worlds Science Stories", March 1951 (ed Raymond A Palmer) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents

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

Table of contents (best first, unread last).

1. [ss] Eric Frank Russell's "Test Piece" (B): Don't say it, or your life is forfeit!
2. [novelette] Theodore H Sturgeon's "Last Laugh": "There was nothing so terrible as the Gabblers. Human ears could not withstand their horrid uproar--& death to all comers glared from their eyes."
3. [ss] Lou Tobakow's "The Wedding Present": "Only the god-color's golden glory could be a fitting gift--& Vroom found just the thing for the wedding present".
4. [ss] David H Keller's "The Plot Machine": "Here's advice to those of you who want to write science fiction--"
5. [novelette] Ray Palmer's "Eye of the Temptress": "Beginning with Eve, each period of our history has been influenced by a beautiful woman. But have you ever stopped to wonder why? Take, for instance, our present day temptress..."
6. [novelette] Charles R Tanner's "Angus MacAuliffe & the Gowden Tooch": 'Angus received a legecy from his warlock uncle, but it wasn't what it seemed--for it contained a Greek, & what was worse, he was a Greek who came bearing "gifts."'
7. [ss] Fredric Brown & Mack Reynolds' "The Switcheroo": "The switcheroo did a wonderful thing--it sent you into the body you were thinking of at the time."
8. [novelette] William C Bailey's "The Solution": "When young Pinky Lane returned to Castor, he was considered fair game by everyone at the Casino. Pinky, however, had learned his lesson the first time & now had a few plans of his own."
9. [ss] Charles E Fritsch's "The Wallpaper": "He came out of the wallpaper, intent on seduction--as was Pan's usual practice, but..."

Fact sheet.

Download scans as a CBR file. [via Rog@pulpscans]
Related: Fiction from Other Worlds, old pulps, 1950s.

Eric Frank Russell's "Down, Rover, Down" aka "The Case for Earth" (short story, first contact, free): Man not mature enough to join elder aliens' union

One of the minor stories of Russell.

Story summary.

Moon & Venus have been conquered; now it's time to expand outwards. Carlow is the sole occupant of the first human ship to Mars. He'll lose contact with earth on the way, & meet an interstellar reception committee on arrival there. And made to attend hearing that will decide the fate of humanity...

Notes.

Title is alien's answer to human's objection to aliens' decision:
  "Even if we haven't learned to keep the peace, we are smart & tough & we keep going. Man's a rover, see?"
  "Down, rover, down!"

See also.

1. Robert Heinlein's "Have Space Suit - Will Travel": Has a somewhat similar sitting of an alien committee to judge the fate of humanity.

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: Stories of Eric Frank Russell (annotated list).

"Nebula Science Fiction", #14 (November 1955) (ed Peter Hamilton) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents & review

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

Table of contents (best first, unread last).

1. [novelette] James White's "Pushover Planet" (A): Surrender your stuff. And life. Or else...
2. [ss] E C Tubb's "Quis Custodiet" (A): Musings on the idea of a "traitor"... 
3. [ss] Sydney J Bounds' "The Beautiful Martian" (B): Fear creates hate creates destruction.
4. [ss] Eric Frank Russell's "Down, Rover, Down" (B): Man is not yet mature enough to join elder aliens' union!
5. [ss] Mark Trent's "Question Answered" (B): Computer, save the human civilization, please...
6. [novel] Kenneth Bulmer's "Sunset": An overpopulation dystopia. I'm yet to finish it.

Fact sheet.

Download scans as a CBR file. [via JM@pulpscans].
Note: Download is in the form of a rar file. Rename it as CBR after download.
Related: Old pulps; fiction from 1950s.

Eric Frank Russell's "Dreadful Sanctuary" (novel, thriller): Man must not go to space cultists vs hero who says we'll go

This is one of those Fortean stories of Russell ("Sinister Barrier" is his best known of the type) - something above humanity is pulling our puppet strings.

Story summary.

Over a dozen human attempts to reach moon have all failed - rockets exploding when they're about a certain critical distance from moon. It's too much of a coincidence & there is no reason to suspect sabotage; rockets of several countries have met the same fate.

There is a man financially involved in the next rocket to go. And he's smelling conspiracy...

Notes.

1. Title refers to earth. There is an unreliable back story: Humanity independently evolved on 4 worlds - blacks on Mercury, browns on Venus, yellows on earth, & whites on Mars (skin color depends on their distance from sun). All civilizations except earth reach maturity a long long time ago, & banished war. But they still had crazies who were not cured of need to war. They were herded on 3 worlds, & transported to earth to rid the mother worlds of them - back when earthmen were really primitive. So earth is a prison planet & all except those of yellow skin are descended from the crazies dumped here!

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, June/July/August 1948.
Rating: B. 
Among the stories edited by John Campbell for Astounding/Analog. 
Related: Stories of Eric Frank Russell (annotated list).

Eric Frank Russell's "Legwork" (novelette, alien invasion): Solving a weird bank robbery

Most of the story is a detective work - as cops trace the culprit of an extremely weird bank robbery.

But as readers, we already know the culprit: an alien scout who's here to prepare the groundwork for invasion. And he has an unusual ability: within a mile of him, he can make anything with some brains, animal or human, see whatever he wishes them to see.

How do you track someone who could look like anyone or anything? Or nab one who could make you handcuff yourself instead of him!

See also.

1. "Spiro" (download scans as part of a larger package): Another Russell story with similar theme - catching an alien spy that can masquerade as anything to humans around him.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, April 1956.
Rating: A.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of Eric Frank Russell (annotated list).

Eric Frank Russell's "Study in Still Life" aka "Still Life" (novelette, bureaucracy, satire)

This would rank among my all time favorites. Very funny satire on bureaucracy.

Only puzzling thing is: why hasn't it been widely anthologized?

Story summary.

A star faring human empire spread across many worlds. Moving goods between worlds is expensive, so they're prioritized. Of course, the liqueur for an influential bureaucrat on an outworld has higher priority than equipment needed to make the place habitable!

We get to view a fat bureaucracy in action, as a well intentioned insider games the system to get the cargo shipments' priorities right...

Collected in.

1. Eric Frank Russell's "Major Ingredients" (ed Rick Katze).

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, January 1959.
Rating: A.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of Eric Frank Russell (annotated list).

Eric Frank Russell's "Major Ingredients" (ed Rick Katze) (collection): Annotated table of contents & review

Where I have a separate post on a story, link on story title goes there. Where I am aware of an online copy, I include download links too. My rating appears in brackets.

Table of contents (30 stories, best first, unread last).

1. [ss] "Allamagoosa" (A); download; Astounding, May 1955; humor: Data fudging can have unforeseen consequences!
   
   Winner of Hugo award 1955 in short story category.
2. [novella] "The Ultimate Invader" (A); Planet Stories, January 1953; space opera: Mythical intergalactic super-cops are out to enforce new war-free rules for space lanes! 
3. [novelette] "Dear Devil" (A); download scans as part of a larger package; Other Worlds, May 1950; uplift: Humanity rises from post-nuclear-war apocalypse - with some external help.
4. [novella] "And Then There Were None" (A); download; Astounding, June 1951: A gang of imperialists is frustrated by a planetful of Gandhian natives.
   
   Later included as half of 1962 fix-up novel "The Great Explosion".
5. [novelette] "The Waitabits" (A); Astounding, July 1955: Different people run their lives at different pace. What happens when faster ones try to bring up the slower ones to their pace?
6. [novelette] "Late Night Final" (A); Astounding, December 1948: A variant of "And Then There Were None", but with a very different ending.
7. [novelette] "The Army Comes to Venus" (A); download as part of a larger package; Nebula Science Fiction, December 1953: Persistence pays. 
8. [ss] "Jay Score" (A); Astounding, May 1941; thriller: A passenger ship on earth to Venus voyage is hit by a meteor, & is now headed for Sun!
9. [novelette] "A Little Oil" (B); Galaxy, October 1952: Even precision machinery needs a bit of lubricating!
10. [ss] "U-Turn" [as by Duncan H Munro] (B); Astounding, April 1950: State helps a bored man commit "suicide"... 
11. [ss] "Diabologic" (B); Astounding, March 1955; humor: The art of driving other people nuts! And using it as a political strategy!
12. [novella] "Hobbyist" (B); Astounding, September 1947: A stranded spaceman on an alien planet hasn't realized he's actually met god!
13. [ss] "Top Secret" (B); Astounding, August 1956; science fiction, humor: Fun with data-corrupting communications channels!
14. [ss] "I Am Nothing" (B); Astounding, July 1952: A ruthless dictator has a change of heart...
15. [ss] "Tieline" [as by Duncan H Munro] (B); Astounding, July 1955; science fiction: Sole man on an entire planet that serves as a space lighthouse is very lonely.
16. [ss] "Into Your Tent I'll Creep" (C); Astounding, September 1957: Humans have long been slaves of a master race unknown to them. And now this master race has used humans to spawn itself as masters of an alien race too - aliens that are friendly to humans.
17. [novelette] "Basic Right"; Astounding, April 1958: Not read.
18. [ss] "Fast Falls the Eventide"; Astounding, May 1952: Not read.
19. [ss] "Homo Saps"; Astounding, December 1941: Not read.
20. [novelette] "Last Blast"; Astounding, November 1952: Not read.
21. [ss] "Meeting on Kangshan"; If, March 1965: Not read.
22. [novella] "Metamorphosite"; Astounding, December 1946: Not read.
23. [ss] "Minor Ingredients"; Astounding, March 1956: Not read.
24. [ss] "Now Inhale"; Astounding, April 1959: Not read.
25. [novella] "Nuisance Value"; Astounding, January 1957: Not read.
26. [ss] "Panic Button"; Astounding, November 1959: Not read.
27. [novelette] "Plus X"; Astounding, June 1956: Not read.
    
    I have, however, read its 1959 novelization - "Next of Kin"; very funny.
28. [novelette] "Study in Still Life"; Astounding, January 1959: Not read.
29. [ss] "The Timid Tiger"; Astounding, February 1947: Not read.
30. [novelette] "The Undecided": Astounding, April 1949: Not read.

Fact sheet.

First published: 2000.
Related: Stories of Eric Frank Russell (annotated list).

Eric Frank Russell's "Muten" (as by Duncan H Munro) (short story, humor): Fun transporting an intelligent talking horse

US government's Board of Social Survey keeps a record of country's mutants. Now they've got a call for a possible mutant, & Steven Yule is dispatched to investigate it. He finds the mutant all right, only it's a horse - an intelligent talking horse! A lot of fun transporting him to government's labs...

Title is mutant mispronounced by the farmer in whose stables talking horse was born.

See also.

1. James Blish's "How Beautiful With Banners" (download): Another story where the resolution is primarily by sexual arousal.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, October 1948.
Rating: A.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of Eric Frank Russell (as by Duncan H Munro) (annotated list).

Eric Frank Russell's "Hell's Bells" aka "Bentley's Old London Djinn" (as by Duncan H Munro) (novelette, humor): Glad to get rid of Alladin's magic lamp!

An American tourist in Cairo picked up a souvenir - a "sistrum". A gadget with some small bells tied variously. That's the magic lamp of the story.

On a London train some months later, he'll notice the gadget again & playing around, untie a bell. Well, that's the clue for djinn to appear. We'll have fun as literal-minded djinn does the master's bidding...

See also.

1. Murray Leinster's "Gateway to Elsewhere" (download): Adventure in an alternate reality where djinns actually exist.

Fact sheet.

First published: Short Stories, March 1945 as "Bentley's Old London Djinn".
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Eric Frank Russell (as by Duncan H Munro) (annotated list).

Eric Frank Russell's "A Little Oil" (novelette): Even precision machinery needs a bit of lubricating!

Most stories on this theme tend to be melancholy - a very few people, packed together in a small spaceship for years, with little hope of ever locating home, cracking up one after the other. This one, on the other hand, is sometimes funny, & made me laugh once.

There is something here I don't think I've seen in this kind of stories before: main thing driving the crew crazy is noise the ship's drive is making - relentless, day after day, with no respite for years.

Story summary.

First 2 manned starships never returned. Story is set on 3rd one - 4 years out from earth - 2 of them going to an unnamed target star, 2 returning. Sol should have been located by now & is not, & everyone seems to be cracking up. Everyone, that is, except ...

Notes.

1. Title comes from analogy to a precision machine - cogs & wheels working together generate friction - so you oil the interfaces to cut friction. Here precision components are highly skilled crew members, & oil is...
2. There was "a film offer by Metro Goldwyn Mayer, MGM, for A Little Oil". Looks like the movie never came through. 

Collected in.

1. "Major Ingredients" (ed Rick Katze). 

Fact sheet.

First published: Galaxy, October 1952.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Eric Frank Russell (annotated list).

Eric Frank Russell's "The Glass Eye" (short story, alien invasion)

It has been quite some time since I saw a really good story of Russell; this one breaks the jinx. It's as good as anything by Russell at this story length.

Story summary.

Two arrogant "Sagittarian" invaders, Qvord & Eenif, have finally discovered Earth, & want it. So they plan to soften up the inhabitants for slavery, before masters arrive in hordes.

Near the end of the week long softening, they'll finally face the horror...

Notes.

1. Title refers to a camera lens, employed as a weapon by humans.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, March 1949.
Rating: A.
Among the stories edited by John Campbell for Astounding/Analog. 
Related: Stories of Eric Frank Russell (annotated list).

Eric Frank Russell's "Take a Seat" (short story, body snatching)

ArchiveHub records that F&SF turned down this story because of its "peculiar language".

Story summary.

Some sort of alien entity has taken possession of a human body, somewhere, using a newly developed "psycheport machine". Story is of its exploration of the new body, & of nearby humans' reaction to very unexpected behavior of their colleague, now possessed.

Fact sheet.

First published: Startling Stories, May 1952.
Rating: B.  
Related: Stories of Eric Frank Russell (annotated list).

Updated: annotated list of Russell's stories

Main post.

I just updated this infrequently updated list, after perhaps a couple of years. Now features 42 stories. Also, some more stories in the list now have download links.

Eric Frank Russell's "I Am Nothing" (novelette): Ruthless dictator has a change of heart

There is a well known name in Indian history - Ashok. He lived a couple of centuries AD, was a ruthless warrior, & is today remembered as the ultimate pacifist - a change of heart that is said to have happened when he saw the ruins of one of his battles. He's supposed to be the man who first publicized Buddhism at a large enough scale. The official stamp of the government of India is a symbol taken from one of his monuments.

This is a similar story - a ruthless dictator who has never known love, & has destroyed a lot of communities & lives to his ambition, meets a distraught little girl, the only survivor of a village destroyed by his troops. And we witness may be the beginnings of a change of heart...

Quotes.

1. "Only the strong knew there is but one cause of war. All the other multitudinous reasons recorded in the history books were not real reasons at all. They were nothing but plausible pretexts. There was but one root cause that persisted right back to the days of the jungle. When two monkeys want the same banana, that is war."
2. "The feared are respected and that is proper and decent.
   
   If one can have nothing more."

Notes.

1. I was wondering if the author modeled the dictator after an alternate wishful image of Hitler? Or was there an Ashok-like emperor in European history too?

Collected in.

1. Eric Frank Russell's "Somewhere a Voice".
2. "Major Ingredients" (ed Rick Katze). 

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, July 1952.
Rating: B.
Among the stories edited by John Campbell for Astounding/Analog.
Related: Stories of Eric Frank Russell.

Eric Frank Russell's "Seat of Oblivion" (novelette, body snatching)

This is an action packed story, but the premise didn't really work for me. There is a machine, variously called "automatic psyche-liberator", "mechanical body-snatcher", or "life-force projector". Say you set it up near a window on a higher floor. Link one end to you, & aim its "projector" at that man walking down the street. Click a button, & a moment later your body is dead here, & your "life force" is in that man you aimed at. What happens to the "life force" of the stranger is not mentioned, except that it loses the body it was so far occupying.

Machine's inventor created it with a pious aim: to reuse the body of executed criminals to host the life force of a dying surgeon, e.g. Niven's "The Jigsaw Man" was yet to be written, so the implications of mining executed criminals' bodies wasn't considered.

In any case, an escaped death row convict gets hold of the machine & has a merry-go-round robbing banks etc, discarding bodies as necessary. Until the inventor traps him...

See also.

1. Murray Leinster's "The Mole Pirate": While the device is different, dilemma is the same. A man invents a locomotive that, at the press of a button, transforms into a machine that can move through solid matter like walls & interior of earth. So a criminal grabs it & has fun. Until the inventor traps him...

Collected in.

1. Eric Frank Russell's "Somewhere a Voice".

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, November 1941.
Rating: B.
Among the stories edited by John Campbell for Astounding/Analog.
Related: Stories of Eric Frank Russell.

Eric Frank Russell's "U-Turn" (as by Duncan H Munro) (short story, utopia): State helps a man commit "suicide"...

Depend on Russell to make you smile, even chuckle, even with macabre subjects. This one is about a suicide.

Story summary.

A utopian world where there is work only for the young, but there is plenty for everyone to live comfortable. And there are rejuvenation treatments, so you can live indefinitely long by periodic treatments. Only problem is: boredom. Long life & no work & no uncertainty. So the government provides you an official method of committing suicide: walk into a "Life Terminal" building where you can demand to be killed painlessly!

This is the story of Douglas Mason's adventures when he visits Life Terminal. It does help you commit suicide, but its definition of suicide might not be obvious...

Collected in.

1. Eric Frank Russell's "Somewhere a Voice".
2. "Major Ingredients" (ed Rick Katze). 

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, April 1950.
Rating: B.
Among the stories edited by John Campbell for Astounding/Analog.
Related: Stories of Eric Frank Russell.

Eric Frank Russell's "Somewhere a Voice" (collection): Annotated table of contents & review

I've not read all stories yet. Will fill up entries as I read.

"Dear Devil" is one of the most loved stories of the genre.

ToC below is in order of my preference, best first. Where I have a separate post on a story, link on title goes there. Where I'm aware of an online copy of the story, I include the link. Links on publisher or year fetch more matching fiction.

1. [novelette] "Dear Devil" (A); download scans as part of a larger package; Other Worlds, May 1950: Humanity rises from post-nuclear-war apocalypse - with some external help.
2. [ss] "U-Turn" (as by Duncan H Munro) (B); Astounding, April 1950: State helps a bored man commit "suicide"...  
3. [novelette] "I Am Nothing" (B); Astounding, July 1952: A ruthless dictator has a change of heart...
4. [novella] "Somewhere a Voice" (B); Other Worlds, January 1953: Unsuccessful hike to rescue by the stranded.
5. [ss] "Tieline" (as by Duncan H Munro) (B); Astounding, July 1955: A man alone on an entire planet that houses a space lighthouse is very lonely.
6. [novelette] "Seat of Oblivion" (B); Astounding, November 1941: What's the best place to hide for a runaway death row convict? In another man's body! 
7. [ss] "Displaced Person" (B); Weird Tales, September 1948; religion: Some revolutionaries aren't welcome anywhere.

Fact sheet.

First published: 1965.
Related: Stories of Eric Frank Russell.

Eric Frank Russell's "Somewhere a Voice" (novella, adventure): Unsuccessful hike to rescue by the stranded

One of the more mundane stories of Russell. Or may be I'm getting impatient with plots repeated a 1000 times. This one is of a hike through a jungle world, meeting & fighting local monsters.

At the start, it's a party of 7 men, 1 woman, & 1 dog - survivors of a spaceshipwreck that successfully landed on an uncolonized world. Uncolonized, but it still has a "rescue-station"! That's some 2000 miles north of landing place, no one knows how far east or west. They've no maps, no working communications gear.

So they set on a hike through the jungle to the rescue-station. All, except dog, will die on the way, one by one.

Fact sheet.

First published: Other Worlds Science Stories, January 1953.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Eric Frank Russell.

Eric Frank Russell's "Appointment At Noon" (short story)

This is one of the minor stories of Russell, though a much searched one - going by the number of failed hits I receive.

Story summary.

Henry Curran, a busy executive, will be forced to receive a blind visitor who claims to have an appointment with him at "two minutes to twelve". As it turns out, visitor does, indeed, has an appointment...

Fact sheet.

First published: Amazing Stories, March 1954.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Eric Frank Russell (annotated & ranked list).

Eric Frank Russell's "Love Story" (short story): It's easier giving advice than to follow it!

One of the minor stories of Russell.

A military commander is griping about how much worse the current crop of soldiers is compared to when he was young, what with men citing family obligations to avoid difficult assignments. But he himself is not quite immune to a bite of love, even if he doesn't have a family...

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, April 1957.
Rating: B.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of Eric Frank Russell (annotated list).

Online copies of yesterday & today's stories

While I found both yesterday's story, Russell's "Bitter End", & today's, "The Trans-Human" by Murray Leinster, online, I haven't included download links with relevant stories for a reason: I found them both as a part of a small hoard of ancient pulp magazines, but at a place that appears to include a lot of clearly illegitimate stuff.

Magazine hoard is all html rather than cbr, & the magazine issue containing both these stories - Science-Fiction Plus, December 1953 - is in file "Science Fiction Plus 1953.12 v1.0.htm". Try the file name or some of its keywords with Google, & you might get lucky (I haven't tried).

Eric Frank Russell's "Bitter End" (short story, man-hunt): Predicament of the crew of first successful Mars round-trip

James Vail & Richard Kingston took off Luna City for Mars - first manned mission to red world. Contact will be lost with earth & moon, they won't return back at appointed time or weeks afterward, & will be presumed lost.

Only, they're'nt lost. Their ship had developed a snag on Mars, & took a while to fix. The delay created an unusual emergency - one that resulted in the ship returning to earth with Vail alone. And Vail will abandon the ship after landing it in a place it will be easily found, but doesn't want to show back his own face.

Why does the first successful Mars round-trip survivor want to go hide somewhere in anonymity? Ancient plot, very well done - reads like a thriller.

Fact sheet.

First published: Science-Fiction Plus, December 1953.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Eric Frank Russell (annotated & ranked list).

Russell's "Wasp" online!!

Someone seems to have put online the "best" science fiction novel by anyone, in my book anyway. And a hilarious one at that. I'm yet to meet anyone who has read it & not liked it.

I'm not sure if it's a legitimate copy, but it's very hard to find in the physical world.

Eric Frank Russell's "The Star Watchers" aka "Sentinels from Space" aka "Sentinels of Space" (novel, free): Humanity's guardian angels get involved in its petty troubles

While the story is generally quite readable as an adventure involving political intrigue, it's unusual for a Russell story in that it includes pretty much every known genre trope: telepathy, teleporting, mutants, pyrotics (ability to physically burn someone by thought!), body snatchers, shape shifters, energy beings, bug-talkers, levitators, aliens, Martians & Venusians, ... you name it. It's as if author wanted to dedicate it to the wide-eyed fan happy with funny sounded names.

I like to be surprised by a story's twists, but this one uses magic rather than logic for this.

Story summary.

It's a complex story with a lot of threads, but the main plot involves David Raven, an alien disguised as human. He's one of the two guardian angels on earth of unnamed god-like energy beings, primarily to guard against possible interference in human development by Denebs, another advanced alien race.

But much of the story involves only humanity. Human colonies on Mars & Venus want freedom Earth is denying them; so they've started a sabotage campaign on earth. Earth cannot stop them from coming in, or it will have to recognize them as non-citizens!

David will unofficially help the government put out the rebellion.

Quotes.

1. "All wars go on for too long".
2. On governmental secrecy: "What constitutes legitimate news was decided by the type of mind that insists that matters of major public interest must not be divulged in the public interest."
3. "the most effective technique is not to fight a thing but set its own parts fighting one another."
4. "The public will swallow anything providing it appears to bear the seal of official approval & is sufficiently long sustained & plays upon their fears".

Fact sheet.

First published: Startling Stories, November 1951.
Download full text as part of the scans of the magazine it originally appeared in.
Rating: B.
This story was later expanded into the novel "Sentinels from Space" (1953), also sometimes titled "Sentinels of Space".
Related: Stories of Eric Frank Russell (annotated & ranked list).

Eric Frank Russell's "Venturer of the Martian Mimics" aka "I, Spy" aka "Spiro" (novelette, detective, free): Exploits of a Martian spy on earth

This is a detective story: Chief Inspector McKechnie of Scotland Yard, with help from Dr Lanigan, solving the case of very unusual phenomena happening around London & then in rest of Europe: a man murdered by electrocution several miles from nearest power lines, then he's seen boarding a bus & a train several hours after his death! A shape shifter that gives electric shocks to anyone touching it. Someone breaking into sensitive installations clearly for espionage purposes. They'll eventually kill the uncatchable.

There is no mystery for reader, though. We see the alien land & shapeshift in the first scene itself. Still a good read; I finished it in a single sitting.

Fact sheet.

First published: Tales of Wonder, #12 (Autumn 1940).
Download full text as part of scans of the Weird Tales, May 1947 (Canadian Edition) where it was reprinted.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Eric Frank Russell (annotated & ranked list).

"Weird Tales", Vol 38 No 4 (May 1947) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents

Scans of this magazine in CBR format are online as part of a larger package.

This is probably the Canadian edition. There is a note, in small print, on ToC page: "This magazine was produced in Canada, on Canadian paper, by Canadians." And the ToC as well as cover is different from the same issue's description at ISFDB (which I assume is the US edition?)

Table of contents. 

Links on authors fetch more fiction by author. Where I have a separate post on a story, link on story title goes there.

1. [novelette] Stephen Grendon's "Mr George": "A child must be guarded in its tender years against those who follow false gods down dim paths to oblivion".
2. [novelette] Harold Lawlor's "The Terror in Teakwood": "What was the Macabre secret of the black casket, more precious than life, more dangerous than death?"
3. [novelette] Eric Frank Russell's "Venturer of the Martian Mimics" (A): "Our young sciences, like our imaginings, have limits but where facts end possibilities start--& they're truly boundless".
4. [ss] Seabury Quinn's "Hoodooed": "When the time comes to fix the hoodoo there is no power in heaven or earth to avert it".
5. [ss] Theodore Sturgeon's "Fluffy": "Don't make enemies with a cat. Why? Well, try it, & find out!"
6. [ss] Allison V Harding's "The Immortal Lancer": "There are places in this world & out of it that you have never dreamed of in your wildest nightmares!"
7. [ss] Robert Bloch's "Sweets to the Sweet": "She wanted a broomstick & a black cat; after all, don't witches have both?"
8. [ss] Herbert Scanlon's "Lizzie Borden Took an Axe": "A locked room, moldering books, muttered curses, in rotting hulk of a house--add up to tragedy".
9. [verse] Stanton A Coblentz's "On a Weird Planet".

See also.

1. Fiction from Weird Tales.
2. Fiction from old "pulp" magazines.
3. Fiction from 1940s.