Henry Kuttner's "The Time Trap" (novella, adventure, free)

This is readable enough, but in a mindless sort of way.

Story summary.

A disparate group of apparently good samaritans come together from several eras - hero from 1930s, heroine & hero's sidekick from 5000 years ago from what is now Arabia, & a friend from sometime in future. They're chasing two villains - both from future - through time. In the process, they'll have lot of adventures in exotic locales & among exotic species at different times in earth's history.

Two curious things stood out for me. One is a factual error - in the story, the moon has come much closer to earth in far future; I thought it is going away a few centimeters every year. Other is something you see a lot on pulp magazine covers but not in actual stories - here, heroine is nude at least a half dozen times - sometimes an object of lust, other times as part of torture, yet another time as part of worship! I haven't read many stories from Marvel, but I wonder if the magazine specialized in titillation?

Title refers a metallic device that looks like a pair of obelisks, planted in some remote corner of Arabia by the main villain. The device will live to the end of earth, & is a trap: whenever someone is within range of device &, simultaneously, lightening strikes the device, the person is sent to about 3000 BC!

Fact sheet.

First published: Marvel Science Stories, November 1938.
Download full text from AlfaLib.
Rating: B.
Nominated for Retro Hugo Awards 1939 in novella category.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner.

Henry Kuttner's "Extrapolation" (short story, satire, free): Science fiction vs fantasy wars in fandom

Author tells us why there won't be any science fiction or fantasy magazines after 1958, a decade after this story was published.

He's using some sort of prescience to find this, but no details are given. And there is suggestion it's not humans doing the editing in 1958, just before the end of the genre.

Fact sheet.

First published: Fanscient, Fall 1948.
Download full text as part of the magazine it originally appeared in, or read online as HTML.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner.

Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "The Mask of Circe" (novel, supermen, free): Gods of Greek mythology are actually mutants & machines!

This is an adventure - a science fictional retelling of some Greek legends. But an adventure more in line with "doc" Smith's soap opera - enjoy the unbelievable fun ride but don't think much, please. I didn't enjoy first half - there is just too much unfamiliar Greek mythology, but second half was easy to follow.

Story summary.

A modern man, while playing subject for a new sedative drug, ends up importing the memories of a long dead ancestor from 3000 years ago! And through much of the story, he is magically transported back 3000 years, to the time of this ancestor - to have adventures in time of Greek legend.

Notes.

1. Some commentators have noted that this story is a tribute to Abraham Merritt's "Ship of Ishtar". I haven't personally read this Merritt story.
2. "Mask" of title refers to a machine that holds the brain dump of someone long dead; its wearer assumes the personality of that long dead individual. "Circe" of title is a women who fell in love with the hero, hero who won't be born for another 3000 years! "Mask" is to help her meet him when he's eventually born!

Fact sheet.

First published: Startling Stories, May 1948.
Read online at UNZ.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner, C L Moore.

Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "Dream's End" (short story, recursive dreaming, free)

It has at least one episode of recursive dreaming - dream within a dream. I'm not sure of the other episodes - they're either independent hallucinations, or even deeper dream in a dream in a dream...

I'll put it among the less interesting stories of authors.

Story summary.

A doctor in a sanatorium has found what he thinks is a cure for most forms of insanity - what he call "empathy surrogate therapy". It involves a device whose electrodes are put on the head of the sane doctor & of insane patient. And something happens involving empathy. Only the first experiment seems to have gone seriously wrong - for the doctor, at least...

See also.

1. Henry Kuttner's "All is Illusion" (read online): A much better story about dreaming.

Fact sheet.

First published: Startling Stories, March 1947.
Read online at UNZ.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner, C L Moore.

Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "The Dark Angel" (short story, superman, free)

What happens when one member of a couple is a prodigy? In this case, the wife is superhuman - first of the new species of homo superior. Story is about the reactions of the couple to this realization.

Fact sheet.

First published: Startling Stories, March 1946.
Read online at UNZ: part 1 & part 2.
Note: Story begins several pages down on part 1; last page of part 1 is the same as first page of part 2.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner, C L Moore.

Henry Kuttner's "Sword of Tomorrow" (novella, adventure, free)

This is a complicated & very pulpish adventure in far future.

Story summary.

A US soldier is a prisoner of war of Japan near the end of WWII, held captive somewhere in China. From a fellow prisoner, he learns Tibetan "self-hypnotism", & goes into hibernation to avoid questioning.

War ends. A bombing raid destroyed his prison, & entombed him. No one finds him. There he lay hibernating for eons.

Eventually, he wakes into a future where continents don't look familiar & stars aren't familiar. Humans have since fallen to savagery, & again built a civilization, but historical trauma has made it impossible for them to conceive weapons, though they can build all other kinds of gadgets.

A would be dictator would see an opportunity when our hero comes into his time...

Fact sheet.

First published: Thrilling Wonder Stories, September 1945.
Read online at UNZ. Or download HTML from Arthur's Bookshelf or BookReader.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner.

Henry Kuttner's "Before I Wake..." (short story, dreaming, free)

What is more real - conscious or unconscious, waking state or dreaming state? In this story, the distinction is blurred.

Story summary.

A young boy, somewhere on Florida coast in the US, has read too many fairy tales & believes them in all innocence. He dreams of sailing to places with magical & colorful characters & things. Until his the world of imagination begins to appear far more desirable than the real world...

Fact sheet.

First published: Famous Fantastic Mysteries, March 1945.
Read online at UNZ.
Note: The text at the link above appears to end abruptly. Story appears complete, but the link has a lot more text beyond the end of the story, with no clear marker to end the story, leading to feeling of abrupt ending.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner.

Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "Baby Face" (novelette, body snatching, free): "Baby's Day Out", from many decades earlier

So now we know the story of the "Baby's Day Out" (1994) is at least this old!

Story summary.

To figure out why a baby is crying, a mad scientist uses his latest invention: to exchange the mind of his friend, minding the baby, with the baby - so friend in baby's mind can find out what is wrong!

That's when Nazi spies steal the brain exchange gadget. So we are left with: the grown up man is in baby's body, baby in grown up man's body, & scientist injured & unconscious. And the man in baby's body overheard the spies will pass on the gadget to a contact on circus that night.

So now it's up to the hero, in baby's body, to ensure the gadget doesn't fall in enemy hands...

Fact sheet.

First published: Thrilling Wonder Stories, March 1945.
Read online at UNZ.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner, C L Moore.

Henry Kuttner's "Music Hath Charms" (short story, detective, free)

An ace detective solves a complex murder attempt at Sky City, a city hollowed into an asteroid. A rather colorful murder attempt: some animals escape from a zoo, a virus on a far off world to which locals are immune, a business where one partner is trying to swindle the other, ...

Fact sheet.

First published: Startling Stories, December 1943.
Read online at UNZ.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner.

Henry Kuttner's "No Greater Love" (novelette, fantasy, free): Too much love can kill!

A man with no morals comes to possess a charm, built for a pixie, that makes everything around love you. Everything, i.e., including stray sparrows, dogs, people, pixies, ...! Pixie owner of the charm is after the man to get it back.

Eventually, getting in a tight corner, man will invade the pixie charm shop again, & take charge of another charm too - the one that grants 3 wishes everyday. And will quickly discover how deadly a combination the wish charm makes when combined with the love charm...

Fact sheet.

First published: Unknown, April 1943.
Read online at UNZ.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner.

Henry Kuttner's "The Uncanny Power of Edwin Cobalt" (as by Noel Gardner) (short story, weird, free)

"It seemed if I doubted the existence of anything, that thing ceased to exist. And the power was retroactive. The thing never had existed."

That is the basic conceit of the story: when narrator begins to doubt the existence of something, that thing not only ceases to exist, but had never existed in the first place! This is the story of him realizing his power, & eventually beginning to doubt if he himself existed...

Fact sheet.

First published: Fantastic Adventures, October 1940.
Read online at UNZ.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner.

Henry Kuttner's "The Elixir of Invisibility" (short story, free)

This is a mad adventure using invisibility & visibility potions. Drink from the red labeled vial, & you become invisible; drink from green, to become visible again.

A whole lot of crazy things happen. Reporters disbelieving the inventor receive parcels containing invisible frogs! A thief steals a couple of vials, uses it for a bank robbery. An invisible dog, & sundry other invisible people at public places cause chaos, etc.

Fact sheet.

First published: Fantastic Adventures, October 1940.
Read online at UNZ: part 1, part 2, & part 3.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner.

Henry Kuttner's "Pegasus" (short story, fantasy, free)

This is a very minor story.

A farm boy believes flying horses exist, & will find one with the help of a stranger dwarf. When his dad finds out, he wants to milk it for money - to clip its wings & use it as a race horse. Boy will eventually save horse.

Fact sheet.

First published: Famous Fantastic Mysteries, May/June 1940.
Read online at UNZ.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner.

Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "All is Illusion" (short story, humor, free): Never pick up a fight with a magician...

A man picks up a fight with a midget magician in a bar, & gets cursed: "I lay on you the curse of illusion. The blight of the five senses! I put upon you the veil of Proteus!"

And the fun begins... others sometime get a foul smell out of him but he himself cannot smell it, others hear funny noises from his stomach when he cannot, other see a duck or a horse where he is, ...

Fact sheet.

First published: Unknown, April 1940.
Read online at UNZ.
Note: If you are using an Android tablet, here is a way to pick up this file as a pdf from Google Drive: note 1 & note 2. This method doesn't, however, work at least in my Firefox on Windows XP, & Android browsers don't let me copy the URL of pdf.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner, C L Moore.

Arthur K Barnes & Henry Kuttner's "The Energy Eaters" (novelette, monster, free): When a human city was overrun with electricity eaters!

This is another "Hollywood on the Moon" story. Set mostly in the lunar city of Hollywood on the Moon, but no movie shooting here.

Image on the right is a picture of Henry Kuttner included with the original magazine publication of the story.

Story summary.

Gerry Carlyle, the interplanetary adventurer, is a headache for Nine Planet Films, Inc: whenever they release a movie featuring exotic life forms of other worlds, she goes there & brings back live animals to earth - so people prefer going to zoo rather than movie theater!

Anthony Quade of Nine Planet has an idea: to bribe her with an exotic alien animal no one has seen, in return for promise to not spoil the company's movie releases. To this end, he's captured some "Promethians", little furry-looking creatures from the "day side" of Mercury. Creatures that feed on electricity & radiation.

Before anyone can do anything, the cute little creatures overrun the city of Hollywood on the Moon, threatening the lives of everyone...

See also.

1. Fredric Brown's "The Waveries": Electricity eating alien invaders make use of electricity impossible on earth.

Fact sheet.

First published: Thrilling Wonder Stories, October 1939.
Read online at UNZ.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner.

Henry Kuttner's "Suicide Squad" (novelette, space stuntmen, free)

This is the third movie-filming story I've read of Kuttner in a row, though it doesn't mention "Hollywood on the Moon". Its movie studios are located on Callisto, & action scenes are shot presumably in space near it.

Main movie shooting story is framed in another story of a giant, powerful, & corrupt space corporation that ruins careers of its pilots as it finds scapegoats for its own sins. A pilot harmed this way & his friend will go become movie space-stuntmen.

Fact sheet.

First published: Thrilling Wonder Stories, December 1939.
Read online at UNZ.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner.

Henry Kuttner "Doom World" (novelette, adventure, free): A precursor to Jurassic Park!

This is a sequel to author's "Hollywood on the Moon", & is completely set on moon.

There is too much similarity to Jurassic Park that was still many decades into future. Artificially engineered dangerous beasts at a place that is not their natural habitat. Nature takes over, safeguards break down, & mayhem results.

Story summary.

The story happens on the sets of a movie named "Doom World". Set is in the caverns under the city of "Hollywood on the Moon" on the far side of moon. Set is supposed to model the jungles of radioactive Pluto, with its many dangers!

Beasts on the set are biologically engineered, with radio-controlled electronic implants in their brains to control them. Story calls them robots, but they're not like any robots you've read about.

In the course of the story, nature takes over & the electronic implants serve little more than to irritate the animals. Hell breaks loose in the artificial jungle of the set, & the heroes & the film crew will have to face it...

Fact sheet.

First published: Thrilling Wonder Stories, August 1938.
Read online at UNZ.
Note: I read it on an Android tablet with Firefox, & the document was a rather badly behaved one. Each page would allow only partial reading... until I move tablet to landscape orientation, & then back to portrait! On PC, it seems to display ok.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner.

Henry Kuttner's "Hollywood on the Moon" (novelette, free): Adventure on an asteroid

Much of it is old fashioned adventure on an alien world with many local dangers - a man & a girl traveling through its many perils. The alien world in question is Ganymede, not the moon of Jupiter but an asteroid.

Other parts are mostly set on moon. Far side of moon is smaller than near side, has a huge crater where a city has been built - "Hollywood on the Moon". And yes, it's a tinsel town. A film director will go for shooting to asteroid & have adventures there.

Note.

There are two curious things here that were popularized by other works later. But this is probably the earliest mention I've seen of these technologies.

1. James Blish's "Cities in Flight" has New York city uprooted from ground along with its atmosphere & turned into a spaceship & has galactic adventures. In this Kuttner story, the city on moon has a local atmosphere held there by magical hand-wave while rest of the moon has no atmosphere; this is not really a domed city but one like in "Cities in Flight", only grounded.
2. Inhabitants of lunar city prefer artificial radio-controlled animals for pets to the real thing. Sounds a bit like PKD's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep"?

Fact sheet.

First published: Thrilling Wonder Stories, April 1938.
Read online at UNZ: part 1, part 2, part 3.
Note: These parts links are not natural divisions of the story, but posting mistake. Last page of each part is the same as first page of next part; so begin it at second page for part 2 & 3.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner.

Henry Kuttner's "When the Earth Lived" (short story, doomsday, free): When a mad scientist defeated God

This appears to be among the earliest science fiction stories of Kuttner.

Story summary.

Our universe is but an atom in a larger "super-universe". Alien scientists experimenting in one of their labs have been subjecting some matter to the "cosmic ray" generated by a device in their lab - the ray that creates life! "The power of the cosmic ray--the life ray--at first gave life to only those elements which could readily acquire it--organic entities, protoplasm, evolving to man. Now that the cosmic ray is stepped up, the mysterious life force is spreading to all things throughout the Universe."

So the universe has gone bonkers - with rock, sand, metal, & sundry artifacts acquiring a will of their own! Our mad scientist will debug the cause & build a machine to destroy the alien source of cosmic ray. Recently animated matter goes back to its animate state because it hasn't been alive long enough, so life can go on!

Fact sheet.

First published: Thrilling Wonder Stories, October 1937.
Read online at UNZ.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner.

Large online collection of Henry Kuttner stories

UNZ lists online copies of 155 of his stories - generally magazine scans. There ought to be a way to save these as pdf but I cannot figure out how. But one I tried loaded well in their in-browser reader - far less convenient than pdf, but they have stories I haven't seen elsewhere.

Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "The World is Mine" (as by Lewis Padgett) (novelette, humor, free)

This is part of authors' well known series featuring Gallagher, the mad scientist. I used to love these stories when I first encountered them; I'm no longer as much a fan, but this is still a light fun read.

Story summary.

Gallaghar wakes up from his yet another drinking bout to find a series of curiosities - 3 rabbit-like Martians ("Lybblas") from 500 years into future who want to conquer earth, a time machine focused on his backyard that cannot be turned off & that he apparently invented when his genius unconscious was in control, & a series of corpses of himself from future each with a ray gun hole through his chest.

The story is about putting the puzzle together, inventing a couple of other gadgets along the way.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, June 1943.
Download full text as part of the scans of the magazine it originally appeared in.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner, C L Moore (as by Lewis Padgett).

"Astounding Science Fiction", December 1942 (ed John W Campbell, Jr) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents

"The Weapon Shop" is among the best known stories of the genre. "Piggy Bank" is among the more pulpish stories of Kuttner/Moore, but features a very curious robot.

Where I have a separate post on a story, link on its title goes there. Link on author's name fetches more fiction of author.

Note: Flash fiction pieces in this issue don't have their individual entries in table of contents, but are bunched together in a single entry called "Probability Zero".

Table of contents.

1. [novelette] A E van Vogt's "The Weapon Shop": "The shop was small--a little place that materialized out of nowhere. Yet, though the old man didn't realize--all the power of a world empire could not break it!"
2. [novelette] Cleve Cartmill's "Some Day We'll Find You" (B): Three groups of capitalists want to fund the commercialization of a certain invention by a broke engineer...
3. [novelette] Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "Piggy Bank" (as by Lewis Padgett) (B): "The robot was a rabbit--or had that psychology. He had a diamond-studded body, & was trained to be untouchable. Even his owner could not touch him--without giving information that was suicide!"
4. [ss] A E van Vogt & E Mayne Hull's "The Flight That Failed" (as by E M Hull) (C): Making a future happen where Germany loses the WWII!
5. [ss] Ross Rocklynne's "Interlude" (B): When a caveman freed an advanced civilization of a dictator...
6. [ss] Frank Belknap Long's "To Follow Knowledge": "A strange tale of pluralities of worlds, of a theory based on the hypothesis that, in infinity, everything must happen not once, but many times."
7. [ss] Robert Moore Williams' "Johny Had a Gun": "Johny was a gangster, a small-time punk. But Johny showed up with a gun one night, in an alley fight, that was not small-time stuff--"
8. [ff] William M Danner's "True Fidelity".
9. [ff] Stanley Woolston's "The Human Bomb".
10. [ff] Jack Bivins' "Valadusia".
11. [ff] T D Whitenack, Jr's "O'Ryan, the Invincible".
12. [ff] Frank J Smythe's "My Word!".
13. [ff] L M Jensen's "Take-Off".

Fact sheet.

Labeled: Vol XXX No 4.
Download scans as a CBR file. [via David T @pulpscans]
Related: Fiction from Astounding/Analog (only from issues edited by John Campbell) (whole issues only); old pulps; 1940s.

2 minor stories

Both are online via scans of Astounding, July 1950.

1. [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.
2. [novelette] Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "Heir Apparent" (as by Lawrence O'Donnell) (B): This one has a rather complex plot.
   
   Computers used to solve problems of this solar system spanning humanity are so complex they need a minimum of 7 humans ("Integration Team") to operate them. A team that interacts with computer & other team members via special equipment that lets the personality of the team merge - to yield something far smarter than any ordinary
   human.
   
   When a member of a team was dismissed for not being fit, he joined Venusian rebels that want to split from earth. And for them, he put together another, very unusual,
   Integration Team.
   
   Hero will foil this rebel Integration Team.

"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.

Free fiction: Audio: Henry Kuttner's "Raiders of the Spaceways"

@Protecting Project Pulp. [via QuasarDragon]

Henry Kuttner's "Hercules Muscles In" (as by Kelvin Kent) (novelette, time travel, humor, free)

Two friends in New York end up time traveling to "city of Tiryns ... in the Peloponnesos" in Greece of "Beyond 700 BC. Maybe 800 BC", to possess the body of two locals - one of them Hercules of the legend, other a run-away slave. They must use their wits to survive, & end up bringing bits of American life to Greece & helping write some of the Herculean legends...

Fact sheet.

First published: Thrilling Wonder Stories, February 1941.
Note: ISFDB describes this as an essay, but it's clearly a story.
Download full text from this unnamed site.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner.

Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "A Wild Surmise" (short story, free): What's real & what's imaginary?

This is nonsense. Or may be not. But quite funny.

Story summary.

Timothy Hooten is being treated by a psychiatrist, Dr Scott, at 2 pm, & by Dr Rasp at 2 am. He's human in one, but a bug in another. Which one is "real"?

It becomes really interesting when he gets an appointment from both doctors for the same time.

See also.

1. Rog Phillips' "The Yellow Pill" (download): Psycho patient thinks the doctor is really the patient...

Fact sheet.

First published: Star Science Fiction Stories, February 1953.
Read online at Scribd (slow page load, may need Flash enabled in browser).
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner, C L Moore.

Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "The Sky is Falling" (as by C H Liddell) (novelette, doomsday, free)

One of the really minor stories of authors.

Johnny Dyson is a crew member on a ship sent to Mars to mine some ore that might help prevent an almost certain apocalypse ("Blow-Up") on earth. But he loves his life too much, doesn't want to return from Mars to die.

So chase & drama on Mars. He will fail, & will be forced to return. Only it will be too late to return...

Fact sheet.

First published: Planet Stories, Fall 1950.
Download full text.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner, C L Moore, as by C H Liddell.

Free fiction: Kuttner's "Don't Look Now" & Keys' "Flowers for Algernon"

1. "Don't Look Now" at Internet Archive. [via Marooned]
2. "Flowers for Algernon" here. [via Linda Taber]

Former is an alien invasion story - aliens hiding among us & driving us without our knowledge. Later is one of the most loved classics of the genre.

Henry Kuttner's "The Creature From Beyond Infinity" aka "A Million Years to Conquer" (novel, free): Superfast evolution considered harmful

This one is for Kuttner fans. If you aren't one already, begin with one of his first rate stories instead (there are several of them). This is among his more pulpy ones.

Story summary.

There are actually two stories here.

First is of Ardath, the sole survivor of a group of super-advanced aliens shipwrecked on a pre-life earth while escaping doom of their own world, Kyria. He's, in fact, the sole survivor of his race. Passing the civilization of their race to something intelligent will become his mission in life. He can already foresee there will be intelligence on earth; his project is to collect individuals with good potential from various eras to eventually build a super-race here.

Over the eons, he will periodically awaken from hibernation - to choose a potential candidate for his future super race. We see three stories here: of a Roman hero, of a pristess from Atlantis, & of a war strategist from somewhere in Asia.

Second is of a plague. Sol is apparantly passing through some weird part of space, & a strange & highly contagious disease has began affecting individuals - their bodies go through future evolution at a superfast pace. Only, there is no time for them to mentally mature with their advanced body; they've become ... kind of ... monsters.

Stephen Court, a genius scientist will identify the disease & work towards eradicating it. Of course, he will be eventually helped by the alien guardian angel of earth.

Fact sheet.

First published: Startling Stories, November 1940.
Download full text from Manybooks, Feedbooks, or this unnamed site.
Download audio from LibriVox.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner.

The origins of Barry N Malzberg's pseudonym "K M O'Donnell"

Rich Horton tells us at rasfw that "it's a tribute to Kuttner, Moore, and one of their best known pseudonyms, Lawrence O'Donnell."

Related: Stories of Barry N Malzberg.

Real science: The first step towards "The Proud Robot"!

Recall Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's hilarious story, "The Proud Robot" (download).

Someone seems to have actually built a rather primitive version of Joe - a beer delivering robot for folks hard at work! Here is the 2:47 minutes video ("Beer Me, Robot") of robot in action , & the project description.

[via lal_truckee@rasfw]

Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "Open Secret" (as by Lewis Padgett) (short story, free): Men have created a monster

Not among the better stories of authors, & with many familiar plot elements.

Story summary.

Mike Jerrold has accidentally discovered the existence of intelligent robots - something that is not supposed to exist. As he gets deeper into the discovery, he finds that they're actually the masters of humanity - driving the world towards a destiny of their own choosing, & there is nothing anyone can do about it.

We're given a hypothesis about how they came to be: "Suppose you make a perfect solvent. What would happen? It would dissolve anything you put it in. You could make it, but you couldn't keep it. Intelligent robots are like that." The first successfully created robot "processed the scientist [its creator], so Dr Jones thought he had failed; it left another, useless robot in its place, & it went out & hid. It didn't like this world. It wanted something different. So it simply set out to change the world".

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, April 1943.
Download full text as part of the scans of Astounding issue where it originally appeared.
Rating: B.
Among the stories from John Campbell's Astounding/Analog.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner, C L Moore (as by Lewis Padgett).

Henry Kuttner's "Dark Dawn" (as by Keith Hammond) (short story, adventure, free)

Among the least interesting I've seen from Kuttner so far, & the only one where I've seen him advocating slavery!

Story summary.

A new kind of atom bomb test somewhere in the Pacific changed Daniel Gresham (who was looking at the blast) unusually: he lost his vision, but gained the power to telepathically take over brains of lesser animals like sharks & birds. So, in spite of being now blind, he can still see the world through the eyes of these creatures.

And at the bottom of the sea, two races of intelligent sea animals live - a ruling race called "Swimmers" with their cities, & a slave race of "dark" animals called "Others". Blast disrupted machines that kept Others enslaved, & now a Swimmer has telepathically connected with Gresham, seeking help.

A bit of adventure. Slaves overrun the masters. This gives Gresham a mission in life - to exterminate the former slaves for daring to dream freedom!

See also.

1. Similar telepathically living in another's mind also occurs in Olaf Stapledon's "Star Maker".
2. Feeling of exhilaration in a human who can telepathically live inside a stronger animal & explore environments normally inaccessible to him is the main theme in Poul Anderson's "Call Me Joe" (download audio or comic book adaptation.) & Clifford D Simak's "Desertion" (download scans as part of a larger package) too.

Fact sheet.

First published: Thrilling Wonder Stories, August 1947.
Download full text.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner; Telepathy in fiction.

"Thrilling Wonder Stories", Spring 1945 (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents

Scans of this magazine in CBR format are available as part of a larger package.
Caution: CBR probably has a few pages missing; when I renamed it as RAR, I had to extract with WinRAR's extraction dialog's "Keep Broken Files" switch on because of errors.

Table of contents.

1. [novel] Jerry Shelton's "Devils from Darkonia": When strange demons drive him haywire, Professor Bradley learns that if you advertise for the Devil, that worthy - or a reasonable facsimile of same - is sure to appear!"
2. [novelette] Ross Rocklynne's "Venus Sky-Trap": "With a girl's life at stake, Reg Mason & Pirate Aarn take a chance to balk a villain!"
3. [novelette] Henry Kuttner's "Baby Face": "When a tough sergeant reverts to infancy he just won't be weaned from fighting mankind's foes!"
4. [ss] Arthur G Stangland's "The Plant Man": "Jefferson Smith becomes a most remarkable being".
5. [ss] Frederic Arnold Kummer, Jr's "Delvers in Destiny": "A conquest-mad dictator flees back into the past".
6. [ss] Polton Cross' "Mark Grayson Unlimited": " Dr Grayson's image goes marching on!"
7. [ss] Sam Merwin, Jr's "No Greater Worlds": "Agonto Tenodin's ship roars into outer space".

Related:

Related.

1. Fiction from Thrilling Wonder Stories.
2. "Pulp" magazines.
3. Fiction from 1940s.

Henry Kuttner's "Dr Cyclops" (novelette, mad scientist, free): Revenge of the men reduced to tiny size

Very pulp-era adventure with an oft-used trope.

Story summary.

A mad scientist has reduced unwelcome peeping Toms to tiny size. Then he finds something about these tiny ones that makes him want to kill them immediately.

Story is of the flight & fight of the tiny ones against this monster. Happy ending for 3 of the group; monster & others would be killed.

Notes.

1. From Answers.com: "Some film sources erroneously describe the story as the genesis for the 1940 Universal movie Dr. Cyclops, directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack, while others correctly identified it as a novelization of the screenplay. A somewhat longer version (which Kuttner denied was his work), credited to the pseudonym Will Garth, appeared at a later date in hardcover (and was reprinted in 1976), also led to some confusion. But because of the movie's enduring appeal as a finely crafted special-effects showcase and a very exciting sci-fi chase thriller, Kuttner's Dr. Cyclops became one of his most well-known and oft-reprinted stories".
   
   I've seen other online sources calling the movie an adaptation of Kuttner's story. Am not really clear on the correct state of affairs.
   Update 7 June 2010: An editor of Thrilling Wonder Stories clarifies in comments below that the story indeed is based on the movie.

Fact sheet.

First published: Thrilling Wonder Stories, June 1940.
Download full text.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner.

New at Project Gutenberg (30 May 2010)

Links on author, publisher, or year fetch more matching fiction.

1. Henry Kuttner's "The Secret of Kralitz"; download; Weird Tales, October 1936: "the shocking revelation that came to the twenty-first Baron Kralitz".
2. Dwight V Swain's "Henry Horn's X-Ray Eye Glasses"; download; Amazing Stories, December 1942: "Henry Horn had a new invention; a pair of glasses that worked on the x-ray principle. But he didn't expect them to reveal Nazi secret agents and their works of sabotage!"
3. Roger Phillips Graham's "The Old Martians"; download; If, March 1952: "They opened the ruins to tourists at a dollar a head but they reckoned without The OLD MARTIANS".
4. Horace Brown Fyfe's "Let There Be Light"; download; If, November 1952: "No matter what the future, one factor must always be reckoned with--the ingenuity of the human animal."
5. Tom Leahy's "Tape Jockey"; download; If, March 1954: "Pettigill was, you might say, in tune with the world. It wouldn't even have been an exaggeration to say the world was in tune with Pettigill. Then somebody struck a sour note..."
6. Sam Merwin's "The Ambassador"; download; If, March 1954: 'All Earth needed was a good stiff dose of common sense, but its rulers preferred to depend on the highly fallible computers instead. As a consequence, interplanetary diplomatic relations were somewhat strained--until a nimble-witted young man from Mars came up with the answer to the "sixty-four dollar" question.'
7. Basil Wells' "Stalemate"; download; If, November 1954: "The rules of a duel between gentlemen are quite different from the rules of war between nations. Is it because gentlemen do not fight wars, or is it that men in war cease to be gentlemen?"

Related: Fiction from old "pulp" magazines.

Henry Kuttner's "What Hath Me" (novelette, adventure, free): Good & evil posthumans fight, using a man as tool

A cocktail of many much-hashed themes here, & while not entirely unreadable, I'll put it among the most meaningless pieces from Kuttner.

Story summary.

1000 years ago, evolution speeded up for 7 humans - a step that magically transformed them into posthumans millions of years in advance of normal humanity. They became the source of Norse legends - "Aesir", & "John Starr and Lorna". We also see a related legend of "Asgard" "where the Aesir lived and ruled the worlds of Man".

Two of these posthumans are "good" - John Starr & Lorna, collectively called "Protectors". Other 5 are evil; they're Aesir - a species of their own. Aesir live on an artificial world in Asteroid belt called Asgard, & frequently take sacrifices - humans, Venusians, Martians, ... - apart from ultimately ruling these worlds via puppet native rulers.

Protectors have been trying to destroy Aesir through centuries, without success. Now using Derek Stuart as a tool, they'll succeed in their mission.

See also.

1. E E "doc" Smith's "Lensman" series. Aesir & Protectors sounded a lot like Eddorians & Assyrians.
2. Henry Kuttner's "The Creature from Beyond Infinity": Another story where evolution suddenly speeds up greatly for some people.
3. Aesir "feed" on their victim's intangible "human warmth" - another trope that has been used in many stories. See, e.g., Eric Frank Russell's "Sinister Barrier", & C L Moore's "Shambleau" (download) & "Black Thirst" (in the last one, the evil aliens "eat" the "beauty" of victim girls!)
4. We meet some of the agents of Aesir, as well sometimes Aesir themselves, where their manifestation is as a luminosity or "star lights" - a not uncommon rendition for advanced aliens in fiction. One of the most famous story of this kind is Abraham Merritt's "The Moon Pool" (download); less well known are Eric Frank Russell's "Hobbyist" & Kono Tensei's "Hikari" (included in this collection).

Fact sheet.

First published: Planet Stories, Spring 1946.
Download full text from Internet Archive or this unnamed site.
Rating: C.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner.

Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "Jesting Pilot" (as by Lewis Padgett) (short story, free): Hypnotized are looking for reality

Here is a subject where may be no one has had a good enough story. It's readable, but among the more mundane ones from these authors.

Story summary.

An impenetrable fortress where everyone is kept "sane" under permanent hypnosis! Fortress was created 600 years ago in a world gone bonkers.

Now the hypnosis is failing for one of the city's "citizens". How do the "controllers" help him?

He will eventually get help. But "controllers" are now beginning to doubt reality as well...

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, May 1947.
Download full text.
Rating: B.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner, C L Moore (as by Lewis Padgett); fiction from 1940s.

Henry Kuttner's "The Eyes Of Thar" (short story, first contact, free): A meeting of two universes

Among the less interesting stories of Kuttner. And there is a distinct feel of early C L Moore here.

Story is set on Mars. Title refers to two moons of Mars - the twin "Eyes of Thar", according to a local legend.

Story summary.

Samuel Dantan, a human, long hunting the "men" of Martian "Redhelm Tribe" as price of his revenge for killing of his (Martian?) girlfriend long back in a raid by Redhelms, is finally cornered - alone, unarmed, pursued by a group of Redhelms.

This is the situation in which he discovers the ancient buried lab of a Martian scientist named Sanfel, now dead for centuries. Lab has a device that opens a portal into a world called "Zha" in another universe - a universe with different laws of Physics, where even time behaves very differently.

Sanfel built this gateway to help Quiana, a "woman" there cornered by an "Enemy". Since Sanfel is long dead, Dantan will end up helping Quiana, & will in turn get help ridding of his own Redhelms pursuers.

See also.

1. C L Moore's "The Bright Illusion": Aliens who're unsafe to look at for humans because of the light patterns they make. A man must be especially armored to look at them.
   Aliens in this story are similarly unsafe to look at unarmored.

Fact sheet.

First published: Planet Stories, Fall 1944.
Download full text from Internet Archive or from this unnamed site.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner.

Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "The Children's Hour" (as by Lawrence O'Donnell) (novelette, love story, free): Earth as playpen for kids of super-aliens!

This is supposed to be one of the better known stories of authors, though I cannot see why. It's not a bad read, but the best works of these authors tend to be superlative.

Story summery.

A job qualification requirement made Sergeant James Lessing undergo psychoanalysis. And the good doctor, Lieutenant Dyke, discovers a major block in his mind - something that his unconscious keeps suppressing.

Slow work over many sessions with unravel what the unconscious doesn't want to see. His courtship of Clarissa - a very unusual girl, with an even more unusual "aunt"...

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, March 1944.
Download full text.
Rating: B.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John W Campbell, Jr.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner, C L Moore (as by Lawrence O'Donnell); Fiction from 1940s.

Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "Android" (as by C H Liddell) (novelette, paranoia, free): Androids are quietly replacing humans!

The idea is not new - a conspiracy of things non-human to quietly impersonate humans, sometimes killing the originals they're replacing; see, e.g., John Campbell's "The Brain Stealers of Mars" (read online), or Philip K Dick's "The Father-Thing" (read online). Stylistically, there is some similarity with Kuttner's own "Don't Look Now" (download) about a man's paranoia that Martian imposters among humanity are driving our destiny.

We also see here a favorite theme of Kuttner: children think in ways that are fundamentally different from adults.

Story summary.

James Philips Bradley has incontrovertible evidence that his boss, Arthur Court, is an android rather than human! In fact, his work has convinced him that a sizable number of people he sees around are actually androids. And he thinks they're working towards eventually replacing humanity, though their numbers may not be that big today.

This is the story of his quest (to save humanity). And its strange climax.

Fact sheet.

First published: F&SF, June 1951,
Download full text.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner, C L Moore (as by C H Liddell); fiction from 1950s.

Henry Kuttner's "We Guard the Black Planet!" (novelette, adventure, free): Some North Europeans are actually aliens!

James Beale, an evil archeologist, along with Captain Morse Damon, has setup an expedition in search of the Black Planet that is supposed to exist beyond the orbit of Pluto. A planet that is not actually black but invisible, covered as it is in an artificial "negasphere"; it doesn't occlude any starfield. On Mars, they'll force the spaceman Nils Esterling to go with them.

The Black Planet is the world of winged people - men & women who fly, the "Valkyries" of the (Norse?) legend. People who once had advanced technology that's now forgotten. A world that once revolved around another sun, but was moved as a ship by its inhabitants to escape a war, & finally parked on the outskirts of Sol.

Here Nils will find his own roots & his lady love. And their tragic end that will leave them wingless & earth bound, after he's forced to kill the two crooks.

Fact sheet.

First published: Super Science Stories, November 1942.
Download full text.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner, from 1940s.

Henry Kuttner's "The Graveyard Rats" (short story, horror, free): Grave robber meets something nastier

This is the first published story of Kuttner.

I've sometimes felt H P Lovecraft was a major influence on Kuttner. A lot of Kuttner's work can be called horror, though he normally presents it in an uncreepy way. Ending of at least 2 of his stories are directly inspired by the very cool ending of Lovecraft's "The Shadow Over Innsmouth".

And this story seems inspired by Lovecraft even in its creepiness, though Kuttner doesn't depend as much on reader's prejudices to invoke creepiness as Lovecraft does. This story will probably appeal more to Lovecraft fans than to regular Kuttner fans.

Story summary.

A graveyard overrunning with huge rats burrowing in very wide tunnels. Cases of many graves robbed of the bodies. Many hints that rats are controlled by a subterranean intelligence, old folk's dread of old rat infested houses, unexplained disappearance of previous graveyard keeper, etc.

Current graveyard keeper is a crook, robbing graves himself. When rats rob him of his prey, he goes after them. Of course, he won't be alive by the end.

Fact sheet.

First published: Weird Tales, March 1936.
Download full text from Internet Archive or from this unnamed site.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner, H P Lovecraft; rats & mice in fiction; fiction from 1930s.