H B Fyfe's "The Wedge" (short story, first contact, free)

A sole human exploring a far away world in his scout-ship is captured by local aliens. Aliens are interested in learning about the capabilities of humans, so our hero plays a dumb animal...

Fact sheet.

First published: If, September 1960.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, Feedbooks. [via Becky@ClassicScienceFiction]
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of H B Fyfe.

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

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

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

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

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

Related: Stories of James H Schmitz.

James H Schmitz's "Aura of Immortality" (short story, mad scientist, free)

Prof Mantelish, well known inventor, has just returned to Maccadon after a research stint to Tang among its native hominid aliens. He's returned with several liters of their immortality potion, & is careless enough to mention it on TV immediately on landing. So, of course, criminals want it...

Fact sheet.

First published: If, May/June 1974.
Download full text from Baen CD.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of James H Schmitz.

Edward W Ludwig's "The Lonely Ones" (short story, first contact, free): Stone age man is modern man what modern man is to...

Man has looked through the Sol - all the way from Mercury to Pluto; no animal life anywhere. Now a party of 6 is on its way to Proxima Centauri to look. And they do find it there, but ... this is not what they wanted to find...

Fact sheet.

First published: Galaxy or If, July 1953.
Note: Project Gutenberg's HTML copy includes image of If's cover with the story, but attributes the story to Galaxy. ISFDB attributes it to If.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Edward W Ludwig; first contact fiction.

Free fiction: Recently posted to Project Gutenberg

1. Alex Apostolides & Mark Clifton's "We're Civilized!"; download; Galaxy, August 1953: "Naturally, the superior race should win ... but superior by which standards ... and whose?"
2. Edward W Ludwig's "The Lonely Ones"; download; If, July 1953: "The line between noble dreams and madness is thin, and loneliness can push men past it..." 

Related: Fiction from old "pulps".

Jack Vance's "Sjambak" (short story, free)

One of the minor stories of Vance. A TV journalist exposes a jihadi conspiracy...

Fact sheet.

First published: If, July 1953.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, Feedbooks. [via John@ClassicScienceFiction]
Download audio from LibriVox.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Jack Vance.

Lester del Rey's "No Strings Attached" (short story, free): Summoning demons considered hazardous!

Henry Aimsworth, married many years to Emma, is now in love with Shirley Bates & bored with his wife. In fact, he's contemplating killing his wife!

That's when he finds an ancient book of wizardry, & ends up summoning a "demon" - an alien from a parallel universe. Demon will grant his wish, or rather far more than he wished...

Fact sheet.

First published: If, June 1954.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, Feedbooks. [via QuasarDragon]
Download audio from LibriVox.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Lester Del Rey.

Hal Clement's "Raindrop" (novella, farming): Exploring a weird artificial world

Background is an over populated earth; even the seas are mostly occupied by floating artificial cities. So little sunlight reaches the surface - even at sea. Too many people, too few farms. So, why not build farms in the sky! Raindrop, of title, is the first such experimental farm in the earth orbit.

Farm itself is a huge globe of water, collected from ... asteroids? ... I forget; one of those heavenly bodies. Initially contained in an artificial skin; later replaced with genetically engineered algae that love the sunny surface & quickly heal any tears created by micro-meteors.

A lot of genetically engineered weeds & microbes have been introduced here; & they keep quickly evolving. A little station exists just below surface, entered through an airlock, that also has entry into water below. Silbert is the only permanently resident employee, & he tries to spend most of his time up in a space station in a geosynchronous orbit a half mile above Raindrop.

Adventure in the story is provided by Aino Weisanen, one of the private owners of the Company that recently purchased Raindrop from government, & wants to convert it into a city from original farm. He's here with his pregnant wife Brenda, & an assistant Bresnahan.

These 3, accompanied by Silbert, will go exploring the dark interior of Raindrop in a specially built vehicle; that's where they intend to build their home. An altercation & we have stranded people in core & a hopeless rescue effort. Of course, all ends well.

Notes.

Story features two curious gadgets I've not seen in fiction before:

1. Adventurers are stranded deep inside the dark Raindrop interior, with no clue of direction towards surface. How to they go? They throw a bubble; because of low gravity, it moves slowly, but still surely towards to surface where pressure is less!
2. Transport from Raindrop to orbiting station is unusual. While going from station to raindrop, they just jump (I think, but am not sure). While returning, jump is still possible because of very low gravity, but station presents a very tiny target; if you miss it, you'll go out to empty space. So men on surface can ask the station to deploy a sort of foldable net-cum-ladder; you jump towards the net, & then do some gymnastics to reach the station.

Fact sheet.

First published: If, May 1965.
Rating: A. 
Related: Stories of Hal Clement.

Fox B Holden's "A Gift For Terra" (short story, first contact, free): There's no such thing as a free lunch

First ever human ship to Mars has crashed there. Ship destroyed, one of the 2 member crew is dead. Johnny Love is the survivor. Two more 2-crew ships are to follow 20 days apart, & will land depending on success of previous missions. But Johnny will likely be dead before the first of them lands.

Johnny will be rescued by child-like Martians humans didn't suspect existed. He will be offered the ultimate free gift to take back for humanity - knowledge humanity won't discover on its own for a 1000 years!

Only there is no such thing as a free lunch...

See also.

1. Damon Knight's "To Serve Man" (download): Another story about aliens offering free lunch to humanity. Among the most famous stories of science fiction, & with a funny ending.

Fact sheet.

First published: If, September 1954.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, Feedbooks.
Rating: B.

Walter M Miller, Jr's "Check and Checkmate" (novelette, diplomacy, free): An unusual weapon for diplomatic haggling & espionage

Much of it sounds like Indo-Pak "talks" we constantly seem to have! If individuals were doing it rather than countries, we would have called them neurotic.

Story summary.

This is a cold war story - US vs Soviet Union. Only both are replaced by complicated alternate tags: "Western Federation of Autonomous States" & "Asian Proletarian League", respectively.

After a 4 decade of isolation, the two have now opened a communications channel - their Presidents have began talking to each other. Over the course of the story, one will learn, too late, that the other has an unusual weapon that gives its side TOTAL advantage over the other...

Fact sheet.

First published: If, January 1953.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, Feedbooks.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Walter M Miller.

Alan E Nourse's "Marley's Chain" (short story, racism, free): What if racial prejudice in the US reversed color?

Not the first story with this idea - people with black skin dominating & hating whites - see, e.g., Arthur Clarke's "Reunion". Clarke's is a mild story & uses racist allusion for amusement; this one is emotionally intense. I've never been able to identify with such stories, but that could be because I've never faced discrimination based on physical appearance.

Story summary.

Nuclear wars, fought among the whites, have turned them into a minority; majority of those living are now blacks (I guess author is referring only to US?) There is some sort of uprising, bringing out centuries of stored hatred - so it's now a black man's US where whites ("Sharkies") aren't welcome.

Tam Peters, a white man, has just returned after many years of work on other planets to find his US has no place for him anymore. He will eventually resolve his dilemma the way of Kurt Vonnegut's "The Big Trip Up Yonder" (download)!

Notes.

1. One of the characters tells us an "old Christmas story" which ties the title to the plot: "an evil man who went through life cheating people, hating and hurting people, and when he died, he found that every evil deed he had ever done had become a link in a heavy iron chain, tied and shackled to his waist. And he wore that chain he had built up, and he had to drag it, and drag it, from one eternity to the next--his name was Marley".

Fact sheet.

First published: If, September 1952.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, Feedbooks.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Alan E Nourse.

Noel Miller Loomis' "You Too Can Be A Millionaire" (short story, insurance dystopia, free): Another kind of "Midas Plague"

This story appeared two years before Frederik Pohl's far better known "Midas Plague". Pohl's version is closer to today's "download dystopia", if such a thing exists - far too much content than anyone can consume.

Story summary.

A funny evolution of frivolous insurance claims has led to a society where nobody works - automated machinery produces plenty. But you need "points" to buy stuff. You get a certain number of fixed points from the "Machine" - a sort of central agency coordinating everything, & where you need to get your points "balanced". You can earn more points by duping others into signing theirs over to you! And machine expects that you not be in too much debt - you should expect bad but unspecified things in such cases.

This is the story of Mark Renner & Penelope, two individuals bored by lack of work who've turned their talents to become perfect crooks! They amass so many "points" that they've been noticed by the Machine...

Fact sheet.

First published: If, November 1952.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg or Manybooks.
Rating: A.

Winston K Marks' "Tabby" (short story, alien invasion, free): Spiders as aliens' weapon to kill all land life on earth!

Aliens apparently want our land, minus any life. Or may be it's the easier way to rid of humans, & then plant their own ecology. In any case, they've landed little especially engineered flies all over earth: flies that breed very fast, & are easy prey for spiders. Enough numbers of spiders, & we're doomed...

See also.

1. Insects, including spiders, as dangerous adversaries: Murray Leinster's "The Mad Planet" (download).

Fact sheet.

First published: If, March 1954.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Winston K Marks; Alien invasion fiction.

New at Project Gutenberg (20 June 2010)

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

1. Paul Ernst's "Mask of Death"; download; Weird Tales, August-September 1936: "a strange criminal who called himself Doctor Satan, and the terrible doom with which he struck down his enemies".
2. John York Cabot's "Rats in the Belfry"; download; Amazing Stories, January 1943: "This house was built to specifications that were strange indeed; and the rats that inhabited it were stranger still!"
3. Stanton A Coblentz's "The Cosmic Deflector; download; Amazing Stories, January 1943: "It's one thing to force the Earth out of its orbit, and another to force it back in again!"
4. Lee Francis' "Phantom of the Forest"; download; Amazing Stories, November 1948: "Every year men slaughter deer by the thousands; it seems only fitting that the tables be turned once in a while..."
5. Noel Miller Loomis' "You Too Can Be A Millionaire"; download; If, November 1952: 'Money was worthless, yet no man dared go broke. It was all pretty confusing to Mark until "Point-Plus-Pearlie" told him--YOU TOO CAN BE A MILLIONAIRE'.
6. Bryce Walton's "The Victor"; download; If, March 1953: "Under the new system of the Managerials, the fight was not for life but for death! And great was the ingenuity of--The Victor."
7. Bryce Walton's "Thy Name Is Woman"; download; If, March 1953: "Women of earth had finally attained their objective: a new world all their own and--without men! But was it?"
8. William Campbell Gault's "The Huddlers"; download; If, May 1953: "He was a reporter from Venus with an assignment on Earth. He got his story but, against orders, he fell in love--and therein lies this story."
9. Thomas L Sherred's "Cue for Quiet"; download; Space Science Fiction, May & July 1953: "a man with a headache--who found a cure for it! And the cure gave him more power than any man could dream of."
10. A H Phelps' "The Merchants of Venus"; download; Galaxy, March 1954: "A pioneer movement is like a building--the foundation is never built for beauty!"
11. Stephen Marlowe's "Home is Where You Left It"; download; Amazing Stories, February 1957: "How black is the blackest treachery? Is the most callous traitor entitled to mercy? Steve pondered these questions. His decision? That at times the villain should possibly be spoken of as a hero."

Related: Fiction from old "pulp" magazines.

New at Project Gutenberg (19 June 2010)

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

1. P F Costello's "Death Makes A Mistake"; download; Amazing Stories, January 1943: "Mr Demise had Reggie Van Fiddler's name in his book, but Reggie didn't want to be on any list, so he set out to correct the mistake!"
2. E J Liston's "Castle of Terror"; download; Amazing Stories, November 1948: "What strange dimension was this where giants, gangsters, Lucretia Borgia, dwarfs and Rip Van Winkle lived at the same time?"
3. Richard Stockham's "Circle of Flight"; download; If, May 1953.
4. Robert E Gilbert's "Thy Rocks and Rills"; download; If, September 1953: "They were out of place in the Manly Age--Stonecypher, a man who loved animals; Moe, a bull who hated men. Together, they marched to inevitably similar destinies..."
   This has been at BaenCD & Webscription a long time, as part of the anthology "The World Turned Upside Down". I don't think I liked the story, & I don't recollect many details; very brief summary is included in my anthology post.
5. Henry M Stanley's "My Dark Companions And Their Strange Stories"; download; unknown year of original publication: This looks like a "people telling stories around a campfire" type of thing. I'm not sure whether it's best seen as a short story collection or novel. A cursory glance does suggest it's genre.

Related: Fiction from old "pulp" magazines.

New at Project Gutenberg (18 June 2010)

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

1. [novel] Jean Ingelow's "Mopsa the Fairy"; download; 1919.
2. C L Moore's "The Tree of Life"; download; Weird Tales, October 1936: "A gripping tale of the planet Mars and the terrible monstrosity that called its victims to it from afar--a tale of Northwest Smith".
3. H B Hickey's "Beyond The Thunder"; download; Amazing Stories, December 1948: "What was this blinding force that came out of a hole in the sky, and was powerful enough to destroy an entire city? Case thought he knew..."
4. Paul Orban and Con Pederson's "The Genius"; download; If, May 1954: "Sethos was a great artist, a talented man, quite possibly the most famous man of his time and world. But, alas!--there were other worlds. And is not the grass always greener...?"
5. Richard Stockham's "Perchance to Dream"; download; If, May 1954: "If you wish to escape, if you would go to faraway places, then go to sleep and dream. For sometimes that is the only way..."
6. William Douglas Morrison's "Bedside Manner"; download; Galaxy, May 1954: "Broken, helpless, she had to trust an alien doctor to give her back her body and mind--a doctor who had never seen a human before!"
   
   While I've not read this story, plot sounds a lot like Arthur Clarke's "Playback".
7. Alan Cogan's "In the Cards"; download; Galaxy, June 1956: "It is one thing to safeguard the future ... and something else entirely to see someone you love cry in terror two years from now!"

Related: Fiction from old "pulp" magazines.

New at Project Gutenberg (17 June 2010)

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

1. Edmond Hamilton's "The Door into Infinity"; download; Weird Tales, August-September 1936.
2. Walter M Miller's "Check and Checkmate"; download; If, January 1953: "Victory hinges not always on the mightiest sword, but often on lowly subterfuge. Here is a classic example, with the Western World as stooge!"
3. Robert Abernathy's "When the Mountain Shook"; download; If, March 1954: "Dark was the Ryzga mountain and forbidding; steep were its cliffs and sheer its crevasses. But its outward perils could not compare with the Ryzgas themselves, who slept within, ready to wake and conquer..."

Related: Fiction from old "pulp" magazines.

Winston K Marks' "Forsyte's Retreat" (short story, humor, free): Fun managing a 4D hotel!

If you've read Heinlein's "--And He Built a Crooked House--" (download), you can already guess the fun.

Only here the 4D part is not in fourth spatial dimension but in future time: Room A404 is in, say, year 1960; Room B404 occupies the same 3D physical space but in year 1970! And "fields" maintaining them keep collapsing - so guests in Rooms A404 & B404 keep ending up in the same space & time...

Fact sheet.

First published: If, May 1954.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, Feedbooks.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Winston K Marks.

New at Project Gutenberg (12 June 2010)

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

1. Robert Turner's "Success Story"; download; If, January 1953: "What is to be will be. Our only refuge lies in that which might not have been."
2. Walter M Miller's "The Ties That Bind"; download; If, May 1954: "The Earth was green and quiet. Nature had survived Man, and Man had survived himself. Then, one day, the great silvery ships broke the tranquillity of the skies, bringing Man's twenty-thousand-year-lost inheritance back to Earth..."

There is also a collection titled "The Great Keinplatz Experiment and Other Tales of Twilight and the Unseen" (download) by Arthur Conan Doyle that may be genre, but I'm not sure.

Related: Fiction from old "pulp" magazines.

New at Project Gutenberg (10 June 2010)

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

1. Robert E Howard's "Red Nails"; download; Weird Tales, July-October 1936: "a barbarian adventurer, a woman pirate, and a weird roofed city inhabited by the most peculiar race of men ever spawned".
2. Leroy Yerxa's "One-Way Ticket to Nowhere"; download; Amazing Stories, December 1942: "Like a ghost in the night a whole Mono train vanished. And it was up to Jeff Blake to find out where it had gone..."
3. Chester S Geier's "The Sphere of Sleep"; download; Amazing Stories, December 1942: "Brad Nelson had a perfect way to kill Big Tim without any danger of being accused. Then his foot slipped and he was hurled into an unknown world."
4. Mari Wolf's "The First Day of Spring"; download; If, June 1954: "a love story of two young people who met under the magic of festival time. One was Trina, whose world was a gentle make-believe Earth. The other was Max, handsome spaceman, whose world was the infinite universe of space..."
5. Jack Taylor's "The Moralist"; download; Galaxy, June 1956: "Aye, 'tis a difficult thing to be a lady on a far world--but who needs them there?"

Related: Fiction from old "pulp" magazines.

Roger Dee's "The Anglers of Arz" (short story, perspective inversion, free): Some very unusual "fishing"

Three human explorers on an alien world have been seeing a rather unusual sight every morning: an islet visible from port of their ship always have "two pinkish, bipedal Arzian fishermen" in the morning, flying dragons swoon down to kill them just after sunrise, then some sort of squid rise up the sea & take the dragons.

What's the mystery? Why do some Arzian fishermen let them get butchured by lizards every morning?

See also.

1. Harry Bates' "Farewell to the Master" (download): A much better known story with similar issues of perspective inversion.

Fact sheet.

First published: If, January 1953.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, Feedbooks.
Rating: A. 

New at Project Gutenberg (9 June 2010)

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

1. Winston K Marks' "Mate in Two Moves"; download; Galaxy, May 1954: "Murt's Virus was catastrophically lethal, but it killed in a way no disease had ever thought of--it loved its victims to death!"
2. Raymond F Jones' "The Unlearned"; download; If, August 1954: "The scientists of Rykeman III were conceded by all the galactic members to be supreme in scientific achievement. Now the Rykes were going to share their vast knowledge with the scientists of Earth. To any question they would supply an answer--for a price. And Hockley, of all Earth's scientists, was the stubborn one who wanted to weigh the answers with the costs..."
3. Richard Stockham's "The Valley"; download; If, June 1955: "If you can't find it countless millions of miles in space, come back to Earth. You might find it just on the other side of the fence--where the grass is always greener."

Related: Fiction from old "pulp" magazines.

New at Project Gutenberg (8 June 2010)

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

1. Dave Dryfoos' "Uniform of a Man"; download; If, March 1954: "After rescue, revenge was uppermost in Chet Barfield's mind; the hideous, bestial Agvars had to be taught a lesson they'd never forget. His rescuers seemed to disagree, however--until Chet learned his lesson too!"
2. Louis Trimble's "Probability"; download; If, April 1954: "If you ever get to drinking beer in your favorite saloon and meet a scared little guy who wants to buy you the joint, supply you with fur coats and dolls and run you for Congress--listen well! That is, if you really want the joint, the fur coats, the dolls and a seat in Congress. Just ask Mike Murphy..."
3. Winston K Marks' "Forsyte's Retreat"; download; If, May 1954: "Sextus Rollo Forsyte had his trouble with the bottle, but nothing out of a bottle ever produced such a hotel as the Mahoney-Plaza: only 260 rooms ... only two guests to a room ... but accommodating 5200 guests--all at the same time!... Floor please?"
4. Arthur Dekker Savage's "Fly By Night"; download; If, May 1954: "A young man and a young woman alone on the first over-the-moon ship. The world cheered them as the most romantic adventurers in all history. Do-gooders decried them as immoral stunters. Gaunt, serious militarists pronounced them part of the most crucial experiment ever undertaken..."

Related: Fiction from old "pulp" magazines.

New at Project Gutenberg (7 June 2010)

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

1. Earl Peirce's "Doom of the House of Duryea"; download; Weird Tales, October 1936: "the dreadful thing that happened in a lone house in the Maine woods."
2. Roger Phillips Graham's "Cube Root of Conquest"; download; Amazing Stories, October 1948.
3. Berkeley Livingston's "Death of a B.E.M."; download; Amazing Stories, October 1948: "The writer hated to create bug-eyed monsters, but they hated him too!"
4. Stanley Mullen's "Shock Treatment"; download; If, September 1952: '"I'll give you the cure for the most horrible disease," Songeen said. "The sickness of life itself." Newlin replied, "Fine. But first, give me a couple of minutes to kill your husband. Then we'll go on from there."'
5. Jack McKenty's "Wait for Weight"; download; Galaxy, October 1952: "Sometimes the best incentive is to tell a man that success will throw him out of a job!"
6. Betsy Curtis' "The Trap"; download; Galaxy, August 1953: "She had her mind made up--the one way they'd make her young again was over her dead body!"
7. Stephen Arr's "Mr President"; download; Galaxy, November 1953: "He had been overwhelmingly elected. Messages of sympathy poured in, but they couldn't help ... nothing could."
8. Harry Warner's "Cancer World"; download; Imagination, May 1954: "Greg tried desperately to find an illegal method of joining his family on Mars; for the law said that no healthy man could land on a ... Cancer World".
9. Darius John Granger's "Disaster Revisited"; download; Amazing Stories, March 1957: 'It annoyed Jason Wall that everybody talked about death but nobody did anything about it. So he decided to eliminate the pesky nuisance. But in the end he longed for a chance to say, "Fellas--I was only kidding!"'
10. Phillip Hoskins' "Feet Of Clay"; download; If, February 1958: "Life is pretty strange when a god who is good and benevolent must prove that he has ... Feet of Clay".

Related: Fiction from old "pulp" magazines.

New at Project Gutenberg (6 June 2010)

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

1. Robert Moore Williams' "Planet of the Gods"; download; Amazing Stories, December 1942: "Two planets circling Vega! But a more amazing discovery waited the explorers when they landed!"
2. [novel] E E Smith's "Triplanetary"; download; 1948: This is chronologically the first book in author's well-known "Lensman" series of space opera.
   
   Original shorter version of this story that appeared in Amazing Stories in 1934 is already online at Project Gutenberg; newly posted version appears to be a later novelization.
3. Frank Quattrocchi's "The Sword"; download; If, March 1953: "There were but three days in which to decipher the most cryptic message ever delivered to earth."
4. Paul W Fairman's "Deadly City"; download; If, March 1953: "You're all alone in a deserted city. You walk down an empty street, yearning for the sight of one living face--one moving figure. Then you see a man on a corner and you know your terror has only begun."

Related: Fiction from old "pulp" magazines.

New at Project Gutenberg (5 June 2010)

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

1. Chester S Geier's "Cold Ghost"; download; Amazing Stories, November 1948: "All Hager had to do was slow the dogsled to a walk, and his partner died. A perfect crime--no chance to get caught!"
2. Knut Enferd's "Day of the Druid"; download; Amazing Stories, November 1948: "Be'al, all-powerful god, drank the blood of his victims. Would Gaar be able to save Marna, whom Be'al kept in eternal sleep, and avenge her people?"
3. Alfred Coppel's "The Invader"; download; Imagination, February 1953: "Invading Earth was going to be a cinch, the Triomed scout decided. But to make certain he must study its inhabitants--as one of them!"
4. George H Smith's "The Ordeal of Colonel Johns"; download; If, June 1954: "Colonel Johns, that famous Revolutionary War hero, had the unique--and painful--experience of meeting his great-great-great-great granddaughter. Now maybe you can't change history, but what's there to prevent a soldier from changing his mind about the gal he is going to marry?"
5. Raymond F Jones' "The Colonists"; download; If, June 1954: 'If historical precedent be wrong--what qualities, then, must man possess to successfully colonize new worlds? Doctor Ashby said: "There is no piece of data you cannot find, provided you can devise the proper experimental procedure for turning it up." Now--about the man and the procedure...'
6. Robert Moore Williams' "The Next Time We Die"; download; Amazing Stories, February 1957: "We journey to far places, driven on by ideals. We fight for lost causes, sacrificing our lives because the things we fight for seem worthwhile. But are we right? Are they worth being killed over? Perhaps. Then again, maybe we'll know better--The Next Time We Die".

Related: Fiction from old "pulp" magazines.

Short fiction from old pulps, posted to Project Gutenberg today (4 June 2010)

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

1. Arthur B Waltermire's "The Doors of Death"; download; Weird Tales, October 1936: "a banker whose only fear was that he might be buried alive, like his grandfather before him".
2. Clark South's "The Time Mirror"; download; Amazing Stories, December 1942: "Here was a strange mirror indeed! It reflected an image all right, but not an image from the same era in history!"
3. Clee Garson's "Direct Wire"; download; Amazing Stories, January 1943: "Mort and Mike got strange calls on this phone; they didn't come through Central!"
4. Frank M Robinson's "The Worlds of Joe Shannon"; download; If, March 1954: "Strumming a harp while floating on a white cloud might be Paradise for some people, but it would bore others stiff. Given an unlimited chance to choose your ideal world, what would you specify--palaces or log cabins?"
5. Edward W Ludwig's "The Holes and John Smith"; download; If, June 1954: "He was something out of a nightmare but his music was straight from heaven. He was a ragged little man out of a hole but he was money in the bank to Stanley's four-piece combo."
6. Winston K Marks' "The Test Colony"; download; If, September 1954: "Benson did his best to keep his colony from going native, but what can you do when the Natives have a rare human intelligence and know all about the facts of life?"

Related: Fiction from old "pulp" magazines.

New at Project Gutenberg (3 June 2010)

Links on author, publisher, or year fetch more matching fiction. Link on a magazine issue leads to its annotated ToC; sometimes, magazine's download link will be found there.

1. William P McGivern's "The Chameleon Man"; download; Amazing Stories, January 1943: "Perfect adaptation, that's what it was. When a human being can blend with his surroundings, funny things can happen!"
2. [novel] Leigh Brackett's "Black Amazon of Mars"; download; Planet Stories, March 1951:  "Grimly Eric John Stark slogged toward that ancient Martian city--with every step he cursed  the talisman of Ban Cruach that flamed in his blood-stained belt. Behind him screamed the hordes of Ciaran, hungering for that magic jewel--ahead lay the dread abode of the Ice Creatures--at his side stalked the whispering spectre of Ban Cruach, urging him on to a battle Stark knew he must lose!"
3. Rory Magill's "The Last Gentleman"; download; If, January 1953: "No one knew, no one cared. For a great lethargy was overcoming the people and their only salvation was--"
4. Roger Dee's "The Anglers of Arz"; download; If, January 1953: "In order to make Izaak Walton's sport complete, there must be an angler, a fish, and some bait. All three existed on Arz but there was a question as to which was which."
5. Roger Phillips Graham's "Ye of Little Faith"; download; If, January 1953: "It matters not whether you believe or disbelieve. Reality is not always based on logic; nor, particularly, are the laws of the universe..."
6. Daniel F Galouye's "Spillthrough"; download; Imagination, January 1953: "Ships switching from hyper to normal space had to do it in a micro-second--if the crews were to live. But it would take Brad suicidal minutes!"
7. William Tenn's "Project Hush"; download; Galaxy, February 1954: "The biggest job in history and it had to be done with complete secrecy. It was--which was just the trouble!"
8. Stephen Bartholomew's "The Standardized Man"; download; If, February 1958: 'The dilemma of "The Man in the White Suit" was but a minor irritation compared to Charles and his "all-weather" suit!'

Related: Fiction from old "pulp" magazines.

Ed M Clinton, Jr's "The Small World of M-75" (short story, free): When a "servomech" tending a nuclear pile became sentient!

Fast paced action story.

Story summary.

Hot Room of a nuclear power plant is manned by three "servomechs" - sort of robots, but not completely autonomous. Periodically tended by lead-suited human repairmen who can enter the place of robots but only briefly.

Now, one of these robots, M-75, has mysteriously gained sentience, & wants to explore his little room & the world beyond with the curiosity of a baby! Only, he's too radioactive, & his baby curiosity has thrown the whole plant into panic...

Fact sheet.

First published: If, July 1954.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks.
Rating: A.

New at Project Gutenberg (1 June 2010)

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

1. Pearl Norton Swet's "The Medici Boots"; download; Weird Tales, August-September 1936: "The amethyst-covered boots had been worn by an evil wanton in medieval Florence--but what malefic power did they carry over into our own time?"
2. Ronal Kayser's "In the Dark"; download; Weird Tales, August-September 1936: "a tale of sheer horror that old Asa Gregg poured into the dictaphone".
3. Paul Compton's "The Diary of Philip Westerly"; download; Weird Tales, August-September 1936: "the terrible fear inspired by a man's horrendous reflection in a mirror".
4. David H Keller's "Tiger Cat"; download; Weird Tales, October 1937: "A grim tale of torture, and the blind men who were chained to pillars in an underground cave".
5. Gerald Vance's "Monsoons of Death"; download; Amazing Stories, December 1942: "Ward Harrison got himself into a barrel of trouble when he accepted a job at the Martian Observation Station. There were fearful "things" on Mars..."
6. Horace Brown Fyfe's "The Envoy, Her"; download; Planet Stories, March 1951: "The Emperor must be getting old, they thought, to deal so mercifully with the upstart Jursan Rebels--which was quite true. He was not too young to dream..."
7. Raymond Alfred Palmer's "The Hell Ship"; download; If, March 1952: "The passengers rocketed through space in luxury. But they never went below decks because rumor had it that Satan himself manned the controls of The Hell Ship."
8. Lyn Venable's "Time Enough at Last"; download; If, January 1953: "The atomic bomb meant, to most people, the end. To Henry Bemis it meant something far different--a thing to appreciate and enjoy."
9. Malcolm B Morehart's "Restricted Tool"; download; Imagination, January 1953: "Finders, keepers, is an unwritten law. But the gadget Clark accidentally found had a special set of rules governing its use by whom--and when!"
10. Waldo T Boyd's "The Salesman"; download; If, March 1953: "SALESMAN'S GUIDE, RULE 2: The modern 1995 customer who enters Tracy's Department Store is not always right, but as far as you are concerned, he is."
11. Richard Wilson's "Back to Julie"; download; Galaxy, May 1954: "The side-shuffle is no dance step. It's the choice between making time ... and doing time!"

Related: Fiction from old "pulp" magazines.

New at Project Gutenberg (31 May 2010)

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

1. Franz Habl's "The Long Arm"; download; Weird Tales, October 1937: "Creeping, writhing, insidiously crawling and groping, the long arm reached out in its ghastly errand of death".
2. F L Wallace's "Accidental Flight"; download; Galaxy, April 1952: "Outcasts of a society of physically perfect people, they couldn't stay and they couldn't go home again--yet there had to be some escape for them. Oddly enough, there was!"
3. Winston K Marks' "Tabby"; download; If, March 1954: "Tabby was peculiar, of course, but seemed harmless: just a little green fly that couldn't even protect itself from ordinary spiders. So the spiders fed, and grew, and fed, and grew..."

Related: Fiction from old "pulp" magazines.

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.

New at Project Gutenberg (29 May 2010)

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

1. Manly Wade Wellman's "The Golgotha Dancers"; download; Weird Tales, October 1937: "an artist who sold his soul that he might paint a living picture".
2. Forrest J Ackerman's "Micro-Man"; download; Fantasy Book, Vol 1 No 1 (1947): "The little man dared to venture into the realm of the Gods--but the Gods were cruel!"
   
   Note: I didn't know Ackerman wrote fiction too. I used to think he was the ultimate science fiction fan.
3. Richard S Shaver's "Of Stegner's Folly"; download; If, March 1952: "When a twenty-foot goddess walked out of the jungle, they knew Stegner wasn't kidding."
4. Don Thompson's "The Telenizer"; download; Galaxy, March 1954: "Langston had technicolor delusions; inanimate objects came alive in his hands; THEY were persecuting him, out to get him ... what a relief it was to know he wasn't going insane!"

Related: Fiction from old "pulp" magazines.

New at Project Gutenberg (28 May 2010)

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

1. John Murray Reynolds' "The Golden Amazons of Venus"; download; Planet Stories, Winter 1939: "Dakta death, horrible beyond the weirdest fever-dreams of Earth-men, faced Space Ship Commander Gerry Norton. The laconic interplanetary explorer knew too much. He stood in the dynamic path of Lansa, Lord of the Scaly Ones, the crafty monster bent on conquering the fair City of Larr and all the rich, shadowless lands of the glorious Amazons of Venus."
2. Robert Moore Williams' "The Lost Warship"; download; Amazing Stories, January 1943: "Jap bombs rained down, there was a tremendous blast--and a weird thing happened to the Idaho".
3. Howard Carleton Browne's "Twelve Times Zero"; download; If, March 1952: "It was a love-triangle murder that made today's headlines but the answer lay hundreds of thousands of light years away!"
4. Ralph Sholto's '"And That's How It Was, Officer"'; download; If, July 1952: "When Uncle Peter decided to clean out the underworld, it was a fine thing for the town, but it was tough on the folks in Tibet."
5. Murray Leinster's "The Ambulance Made Two Trips"; download; Astounding, April 1960: "If you should set a thief to catch a thief, what does it take to stop a racketeer...?"
   
   Note: This appears to be a repost or update. I'd read it long back. An adventure involving a gadget that acts as a lucky charm, or something.

Related: Fiction from onld "pulp" magazines.

E G von Wald's "Fair and Warmer" (short story, free): Where intellectual curiosity is a disease!

In some ways, this is a van Vogt style story. Not as much impact, but an interesting read. And a funny one too.

Story summary.

There are now may be 30 or 100 "humans" in the world - no one has counted for centuries. These are immortals, telepathic, have telekinetic abilities, can manufacture drugs in their body at will, ... And have a curious social system where "administrators" are morons compared to mere citizens! This is a contented society, where curiosity is considered a disease!

A while back, some aliens arrived on the world, & are now camping somewhere. One man, Tensor, however, is feeling curious about them - an alarming situation, this curiosity, according to his doctor! Finally doctor prescribes an untried medication - go satisfy your curiosity, & we get to learn something about the aliens...

Fact sheet.

First published: If, July 1954.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks.
Rating: B.
Related: Fiction from 1950s.

New at Project Gutenberg (23 May 2010)

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

1. Geoff St Reynard's "The Giants From Outer Space"; download; Imagination, May 1954: "Grim terror lurked in the void many light years from Earth. But Pinkham and his men were unaware of it--until suddenly they discovered--The Giants From Outer Space".
2. Fox B Holden's "A Gift For Terra"; download; If, September 1954: 'The good Martian Samaritans rescued Johnny Love and offered him "the stars". Now, maybe, Johnny didn't look closely enough into the "gift horse's" mouth, but there were others who did ... and found therein the answer to life...'
3. Edmond Hamilton's "The Legion of Lazarus"; download; Imagination, April 1956: "Being expelled from an air lock into deep space was the legal method of execution. But it was also the only way a man could qualify for--The Legion Of Lazarus".
4. G L Vandenburg's "Moon Glow"; download; Amazing Stories, November 1958: "That first trip to the moon has been the subject of many stories. Mr. Vandenburg has come up with as novel a twist as we've ever read. And it could happen."

Also, at Internet Archive today: Benjamin Lumley's utopian novel, "Another world; or, Fragments from the star city of Montalluyah" (as by Hermes) (1873).

Related: Fiction from onld "pulp" magazines.