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.

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.

Philip K Dick's "The Minority Report" (novelette, conspiracy, free): Don't invite death; it might oblige!

A country whose administration was once dominated by military, but military had its wings clipped after a devastating war. What was then military's turf is now divided up with police.

And police here aren't the kind you're familiar with. These guys prosecute people for "precrimes" - crimes they're yet to commit! But it's sure that if left free, they will commit these crimes! This prediction is done using 3 "precog mutants" & some complicated machinery.

Now a band of military veterans have decided to get back their former glory...

Fact sheet.

First published: Fantastic Universe, January 1956.
Download full text from C. W. Aanderson (dot) org, or read online at Google cache.
Rating: A. 
Related: Stories of Philip K Dick.

Philip K Dick's "Beyond the Door" (short story + short movie, fantasy, free)

Be gentle to your cuckoo clock...

See also.

1. H L Gold's "Trouble with Water": Much funnier variation of the same general idea - be gentle when dealing with water gnomes!

Fact sheet.

First published: Fantastic Universe, January 1954.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, Feedbooks.
Download MP3 audio of the story, read by Gregg Margarite, from LibriVox.
Watch a 7-minutes movie adaptation of the story at YouTube (bad acting, black & white).
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Philip K Dick.

"Fantastic Universe", Vol 1 No 1 (June-July 1953) (ed Sam Merwin, Jr) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents

Inaugural issue of the magazine. Going by sheer number of stories, this looks more like an anthology than a magazine! Its scans in CBR format are online as part of a larger package.

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. [novella] Sam Merwin, Jr's "Nightmare Tower" (as by Jacques Jean Ferrat): "Lynne disliked the man from Mars on sight. Yet drawn by forces beyond her control she let him carry her off to the Red Planet."
2. [novelette] A Bertram Chandler's "Vicious Circle": "It's bad to be trapped in a time warp with anyone. And when anyone is Malaprop Jenkins it can adder a man's wits peppermintly."
3. [ss] Frank Belknap Long's "Little Men of Space": "The Children were very young--& the crisis they were called upon to face would have driven most adults into a straitjacket."
4. [novelette] E Hoffmann Price's "The Fire and the Flesh": "Was Agni Deva flame? Or was she flesh? In either case, the woman of volcano was irresistible."
   
   Note: I wonder whatever made the author make "Agni Deva" female? In Hindu mythology, it's a male. Also, "Deva" (also written "Dev" in English) literally means "god" & is clearly male; "Devi" is "goddess" & female.
5. [ss] August Derleth's "The Maugham Obsession": "All inventors seek success. Some few achieve it. And now & then, a Quintus Maugham is a bit too successful for his own health."
   
   From editor's introduction to story: author was the owner of Arkham press at the time the story was published.
6. [ss] Arthur C Clarke's "The Other Tiger": "When a pair of strollers begin to ponder parallel worlds just about anything can happen. And this time about anything does."
   
   From Clarke's introduction to this story in his "Collected Stories": "Originally entitled 'Refutation', this story was retitled by Sam Merwin, editor of Fantastic Universe, as a nod to Frank Stockton's classic but now forgotten 'The Lady or the Tiger'".
   
   For me, it's among the forgettable stories of Clarke. It's very small though, probably just above the boundary of flash fiction.
7. [ss] Gene L Henderson's "The Small Bears": "The aliens looked cute as Koalas. But there was a little matter of a graveyard of dead spaceships."
8. [ss] Philip K Dick's "Martians Come in Clouds": "Among Man's noblest dreams is that of making friendly contact with other world creatures. But dreams may become nightmares..."
9. [ss] Roger Dee's "The Minister Had To Wait": 'The Brass said, "Turn it on!" So Doc Maxey could but obey--which created one hell of a big mess.'
10. [ss] Milton Lesser's "Finders Keepers": "Amhurst wanted to get married. But then an invisible ingenue moved in on his wedding day..."
11. [ss] Ray Bradbury's "Time in Thy Flight": "The circus, Hallowe'en, the Glorious Fourth may go--yet eternal is their pull on a child's heart."
12. [ss] Eric Frank Russell's "It's in the Blood" (B): "Space may flow in a young man's veins. But at times the laws of heredity can take tragic twists."
13. [ss, reprint] Francis G Rayer's "Of Those Who Came" (as by George Longdon); New Worlds, November 1952: "The alien scheme was perfect--a night landing, infiltration, human disguises. Fortunately for us the Policeman was awaiting them."

See also.

1. Fiction from Fantastic Universe.
2. Fiction from old "pulp" magazines.
3. Fiction from 1950s.

Eric Frank Russell's "It's in the Blood" (short story, tragedy, free): Don't force your career choice on your child

Much hashed story idea now, & I could see the ending part way through the story, but still quite readable.

Story summary.

Twenty year old Tom Fanshaw is the sixth generation in the family to look at space-pilot as as a profession. His proud dad has driven him to the school where he'll fly a spaceship solo for the first time. You can already guess the results...

See also.

1. Henry Kuttner's "Absalom" (download): Very dark story of a child refusing to accept the career choice his father wants to make for him. Or may be it's about the choice of what he should study in college? It's been a while since I read it.

Fact sheet.

First published: Fantastic Universe, June-July 1953.
Download full text as part of Fantastic Universe, June/July 1953. Scans of this magazine in CBR format are online as part of a larger package.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Eric Frank Russell (annotated & ranked list).

"Fantastic Universe", Vol 11 No 3 (May 1959) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents

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

Table of contents. 

Links on author fetch more fiction by author.

1. [novelet] Eric Frank Russell's "The Army Comes to Venus": "He was secretly surprised to find himself enjoying this spell of gallantry. But worse was to happen."
2. Robert F Young's "The Wistful Witch": "Anybody might think that she wanted to be a witch--& anybody thinking so would have been correct."
3. Ron Goulart's "Parlor Game": "Luanne made it almost a challenge. She really was pretty. And there were so few women on Prospero II."
4. Sam Rosenfeld's "Citizen Meekle": "What happens when a little man who's not aggressive--but who does dream--finally makes a startling discovery?"
5. Lloyd Biggle's "Traveling Salesman": "The Feds were getting tough. It was costing too much to distribute the stuff. He'd probably have to go away..."
6. Joy Leache's "Miss Millie's Rose": "a very different story about Tomorrow's Mars."
   
   'The Customs man announced he had an old dame there "with one of them Jap trees." How was he to know what'd happen?'
7. John Victor Peterson's "The Amnesic Men": "Venus! She remembered the harsh record of hostory & shuddered at the thought of the many men who had died."
8. G Harry Stine's "Letter from Tomorrow" (as by Lee Correy): "Maybe the man was nutty as a fruitcake. Maybe he thought he was a little green man--& maybe he was very sane..."

See also.

1. Fiction from Fantastic Universe.
2. Fiction from old "pulp" magazines.
3. Fiction from 1950s.

Notes.

1. There is no mention of editor on ToC page, though Hans Stefan Santesson is noted as the "Editorial Director".

Sam Merwin, Jr's "A World Apart" (short story, time travel, free)

A man driving down a road near his childhood hometown suddenly finds himself back 20 years - younger self, older town, his long dead mother still alive, ...

Finally the puzzle will reveal itself, helping him trivially escape to present.

Notes.

1. Sudden travel across time while driving down a particular place also features in at least one story of Philip K Dick. I cannot recollect the title though.

Fact sheet.

First published: Fantastic Universe, May 1954.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg.
Rating: B.
Related: Time travel fiction; fiction from 1950s.

Free fiction: Fantastic Universe, March 1956

At Internet Archive in multiple formats.
Note: The description on IA page wrongly mentions March 1952; actual downloaded file's ToC page has March 1956.

Among the authors: Marion Zimmer Bradley, Robert Sheckley.

Judith Merril's "Exile from Space" (novelette, first contact, free): Human girl, raised by aliens, returns home

A very well done story, though with a familiar trope: lone, nearly human looking, alien stranded on earth. One of the better known stories of the kind is Murray Leinster's "The Strange Case of John Kingman".

Story summary.

Strictly speaking, it's not a first contact story; it's about the adventures of a human girl who's returned to earth for the first time since she was taken away by aliens as a baby. And raised lovingly by them. Aliens who'd accidentally killed her parents.

It's also commentary on our society - by using the device of seeing it through the girl with alien outlook. Sometimes quite humorous.

And there is a love story too. She falling in love with a normal man here, & their ambiguous happy ending.

Quotes.

1. On typical drivers on a crowded road: "You'd think anybody who could build an automobile—let alone an atom bomb--could drive one easily enough. Especially with a lifetime to learn in. Maybe they just like to live dangerously."
2. "a true metropolitan area" "means--on Earth--that it is dirtier, more crowded, far less pleasant to look at or live in, and a great deal more convenient and efficient to do business in."
3. "when dealing with humans, one must always allow for waste time."
4. Her problem with contraceptives: "The idea of pursuing a course of action whose sole motivation was the procreative urge, and simultaneously to decide by an act of will to refuse to procreate."

Fact sheet.

First published: Fantastic Universe, November 1956.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, Feedbooks.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Judith Merril; First contact fiction; Fiction from 1950s.

Poul Anderson's "The Sensitive Man" (novella, free): A superman rescues a hostage

A fast moving action story, with some ruminations on politics & society. In a world where man has began building cities on the surface of, & at the bottom of, seas, & has also began farming on the ocean's surface.

I've collected some quotes from this story here.

Story summary.

Psychotechnic Institute is developing a variation of Asimov's Psychohistory: the "science" of manipulating society to force-move it in a desired direction! Men with political ambitions desire it. One of them have kidnapped a veteran researcher from the institute, Dr Michael Tighe.

Simon Dalgetty, the young protegee of Tighe & a trained superman, will go out & effect a rescue. With help from Elena Casimir, an FBI mole in the gang. Of course, by the end of the story, they'll be romantically entangled too.

Title comes from superman abilities of Simon: ability to make his physical senses supersentitive, far beyond what is merely human.

Notes.

1. Story makes a direct reference to Voltaire's alien visitation story, "Micromegas" (download).
2. According to Wikipedia, this story is part of a series - a future history called "The Psychotechnic League", & this story happens in the year 2009.

Fact sheet.

First published: Fantastic Universe, January 1954.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Poul Anderson, from 1950s.

Robert Abernathy's "The Record of Currupira" (short story, free): The origins of human speech & music

I might have liked it more without its monster hunting parts, but it's still a decent enough read.

May be 2 years back, I recall a Discovery or National Geographic show in India that reconstructed an ancient predator. A predator whose hunting technique was very similar to that in this story.

Story summary.

Human explorers on Mars have found dead Martian cities. And from a museum in one of these cities, they've found earthly relics dating 50,000 years back! Apparently, Martians visited earth in that remote time, & collected specimen.

Among the specimen is a video recording & a flute. Men have rebuilt a machine that can play back the recording, minus visual parts - only sounds. Two scientists who hear it first - James Dalton, a linguist, & Dr Oliver Thwaite, an archeologist - will get nightmares for days afterward: the recording is of a human lured & eaten by an animal somewhere near equator!

"Currupira" of title is the name of this ancient predator. It makes different sounds to terrorize or sooth its prey - so the prey will come willingly to it! And some of the sounds it makes are very human; apparently, men learned the power of words from this hunter!

Thwaite has an idea the animal may not be extinct, & goes hunting it in Brazil. Dalton follows, but has a better idea of a weapon to fight the monster - the ancient flute!

We'll hear fearful accounts of locals about this monster. Of course, the heroes will eventually find it, & Thwaite will almost become its meal - until Dalton gets courage to deploy the flute as a weapon.

See also.

1. Arthur Clarke's "History Lesson": Venusians have found a well preserved video recording of the long extinct humans, & have built a machine to play it back. We see very funny theories about what the bipeds in the pictures might be doing & the apparent purposes of their visible anatomical features.
2. Henry Kuttner's "Nothing But Gingerbread Left" (download): Music as a weapon in WWII! Very funny story.

Fact sheet.

First published: Fantastic Universe, January 1954.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg or Manybooks.
Rating: B.
Related: Fiction from 1950s.

Henry Kuttner's "Where the World is Quiet" (as by C H Liddell) (short story, time quake, free)

There are actually a lot of oft-used tropes here, but the stories it most reminds me of are:

1. Murray Leinster's "Sidewise in Time": An event has induced a sort of earthquake that spawns time & distance across universe - so a patch of earth is replaced with another patch that is from somewhere else in space-time.
2. Jack Williamson's "The Metal Man" (download text scans): An isolated place on earth that no one visits, or can visit, hides utterly alien life-forms & culture.

Story summary.

A recent earthquake near a hill or mountain called Huascan in Peru has created an impenetrable mist over a localized region. Seven young girls walked into it & haven't returned. Locals are terrified.

The narrator, an anthropologist, goes in to investigate, & a major adventure begins...

Fact sheet.

First published: Fantastic Universe, May 1954.
Rating: B.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, or Manybooks.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner; fiction from 1950s.