Free fiction: Universe, #1 (June 1953)

Someone posted scans of this issue as pdf via a torrent.

Includes a then controversial story of Theodore Sturgeon, & one of the minor stories of Murray Leinster (assuming I'm recollecting the right story of Leinster!) Other notable authors include Mack Reynolds & Mark Clifton.

Related: Old pulps; fiction from 1950s.

"Astounding Science Fiction" (British Edition), June 1947 (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents

Links on author fetch more fiction by author.

British editions used to be mostly reprints from US editions rather than original stories.

Table of contents.

1. [novelette] Theodore Sturgeon's "Mewhu's Jet": 'Mewhu came from--somewhere. He wrecked his spaceship on landing, but the "parachute" he had was something decidedly super--an atomic jet job! The problem was to get into communication--they thought.'
2. [novelette] Clifford D Simak's "Hobbies": "The cities were deserted, save for one. The men & women of that city had hobbies--but no accomplishments. The robots they had left behind were doing better..."
3. [novelette] George O Smith's "Trouble": '"It takes two to make a quarrel" doesn't mean two different people, really--just two different viewpoints!"
4. [ss] Mark Champion's "The Unforeseen": "A prison break is successful only when it employs some factor which neither foresight nor past experience has called to the attention of the guards. The key to freedom is--the unforeseen."
5. [ss] A Bertram Chandler's "Tower of Darkness": "The planet was a deadly place--deadly not to men, but to their ambition. It seemed to be cursed by the Tower, & against the Tower neither strong will, nor the flame of human ambition succeeded. It took something quite different--& unanswerable."

Fact sheet.

Labeled: Vol V No 10 (British Edition).
Download scans as a CBZ file. [via someone@pulpscans]
Note: I could not locate editor's name, but it's probably John Campbell.
Related: Fiction from Astounding/Analog (whole issues only); old pulps; 1940s.

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

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

Table of contents (best first, unread last).

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

Fact sheet.

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

"Galaxy Science Fiction", August 1958 (ed H L Gold) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents & review

Links on author fetch more of author's fiction. If I have a longer post on a story, link on story title goes there.

Table of contents (best first, unread last).

1. [ss] J T McIntosh's "In Black & White" (B): A salesman launches a target audience towards a more prosperous future, so they can later feel the need for the product he's selling!
2. [ss] Daniel Keyes' "The Trouble with Elmo": An AI on the death row, with the help of its human operator, figures out a way to stay alive...
3. [novella] Theodore Sturgeon's "To Marry Medusa": "Problem: the human race is complex; answer: put the problem in a nutshell--& this was the organization that could do exactly that!"
4. [novelet] Poul Flehr's "Seven Deadly Virtues": "With fares so high & colonists so scarce, something had to be done to prevent frontier killings ... like ruthlessly enforcing the ..."
5. [ss] Charles Scatterfield's "Third Offence".

Fact sheet.

Download full text from Internet Archive (does not include the text of 3 stories - "To Marry Medusa", "Seven Deadly Virtues" & "Third Offence"; "In Black & White" has a few sentences missing near end).
Labeled: Vol 16 No 4.
Related: Fiction from Galaxy (whole issues only); fiction from "pulps"; fiction from 1950s.

"Venture Science Fiction", #9 (Vol 2 No 3) (May 1958) (ed Robert P Mills) (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 authors fetch more fiction by author. Where I have a separate post on a story, link on story title goes there.

1. Edmond Hamilton's "The Dark Backward": "In winter, on an island off New England coast, you get used to wind-lashed surf, to hardship & struggle, to the cold, lonely life. May be you get so used to it that you don't want to hear when the bright future calls..."
2. [non fiction] Isaac Asimov's "The Big Bang": "Neutronium, as everybody knows, is heavier than anything...& doesn't exist. Dr Asimov here gives details of what it would be--& what it might actually have been!"
3. Arthur C Clarke's "Cosmic Casanova" (A): "I was two months out on solo galaxy scouting trip, & I was ... restless. And then I contacted an unknown planet that might be one of Earth's lost colonies... Could be a date was closer than I thought."
4. [novelet] Rog Phillips' "Ground Leave Incident": "To a young country couple on an isolated, hardship planet, a spaceship visit is a special event. There is the trip to town, new clothes, the smell of fresh food & spices... There are also the hot, demanding eyes of women-hungry crew."
5. [non fiction] Theodore Sturgeon's "On Hand...Offhand".
6. Gordon R Dickson's "Fleegl of Fleegl": "Fleegl was a rabbity-looking sort, with four arms, a force field, & a conviction that people were demented. He also had an extraordinary space tube a missionary's zeal, & a regrettable resistance to fission bombs & reason..."
7. Algis Budrys' "A World Named Mary" (as by Robert Marner): "Bill & Mary found the planet, & it was beautiful. Which pleased Mary, but didn't surprise her--she was accustomed to getting what she wanted. Then Bill named the planet after her--& everything changed..."
8. Isaac Asimov's "Buy Jupiter!": "The aliens were strong enough simply to take Jupiter, but for some reason they wanted it all legal. And the price they offered was fine. Thing was--why did they want the gassy old thing...?"
9. [novelette] Theodore Sturgeon's "The Comedian's Children": "Everybody--almost everybody--loved unsmiling Heri Gonza, the world's funniest man. Look how he took over when that frightening children's disease was brought back from Iapetus. He gave wholly of himself, gave his money, his love, his talent... The one thing he didn't give was a cure. That seemed to be locked in the mind of Gonza's most dedicated enemy--& on the frozen surface of Saturn's eighth satellite..."
10. [non fiction] Robert P Mills & Judith Merril's "Venturings".

See also.

1. Fiction from old "pulp" magazines.
2. Fiction from 1950s.

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

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

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

Table of contents. 

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

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

See also.

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

Theodore Sturgeon's "What Dead Men Tell" (novelette, puzzle, free): Need to pass test to join immortality brigade

I've mixed feelings about the works of Sturgeon: while he's given a couple of superb stories for grown ups ("More Than Human", "Microcosmic God" (download comic book adaptation)), most of his work seems to be adventures targeted at 12 year olds: "It!" (download comic book adaptation), "Killdozer" (download text as part of a  larger package), this story ... I could name a half dozen others if I looked up my notes. Nothing wrong with writing for young audiences, only it's difficult to figure out the target profile without actually reading the story!
Note: Original short story version of "More Than Human", "Baby is Three", is also online as part of one of the magazine scans I've linked in the past (I've personally read only the novel version).

Central idea here is a variant of the ancient Sanskrit story of the enchanted pool from Mahabharat: someone vastly more powerful is going to kill the protagonist unless he "correctly" answers certain questions, mostly of a moral nature. In this story, moral questions are mixed with some physics & mathematics questions too.

Story summary.

A group of responsible immortals are out recruiting, & Hulon looks like a likely candidate. So they approach him with the offer: if he passes a test, he joins their ranks; else he'll be killed because he will know too much.

Test comprises lonely walk through a tunnel with curious topological & gravitational properties. Death awaits him here, & when he thinks he's conquered it, he will be asked certain questions that he must correctly answer.

Quotes.

1. "What is basic is important.
   
   What is basic is simple.
   
   So what is complicated isn't important. It might be interesting or exciting--it might even be necessary to something else that's complicated--but it's not important."
2. "People think if it's bigger, it's better. They think if a little is good, a lot has just got to be wonderful. They can see the sense of balance in a diet or in bridge, but they stop too easily at things like that, & don't try to balance enough other things. Or enough other kinds of things".

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, November 1949.
Download full text as part of the scans of Astounding issue it originally appeared in.
Rating: B.
Among the stories from Analog/Astounding issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of Theodore Sturgeon; immortality fiction.

"Astounding Science-Fiction", Vol XXVIII No 2 (October 1941) (ed John W Campbell, Jr) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents

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

"By His Bootstraps" & "Universe" (download MP3 of radio adaptation) are among Heinlein's best known stories. Though not among his best stories, in my opinion. Former appears in "The Adventures in Time & Space"; later in "The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two A".

Table of contents. 

Links on author fetch more fiction by author. Where I'm aware of other online copies of a story, I include them too.

1. [novella] Robert Heinlein's "By His Bootstraps" (as by Anson MacDonald) (B); download MP3 of radio adaptation; grandfather paradox: "Bob Wilson met himself--in a highly redundant sort of way. He met himself several times in fact, & became inextricably tangled in Time--"
2. [novelette] Robert Heinlein's "Common Sense": 'The sequel to "Universe", a tale of a civilization that developed aboard a giant spaceship lost in interstellar space for 4,000 years--"
3. [ss] Isaac Asimov's "Not Final!": "The Jovians wanted to get out & destroy every other living thing in the Solar System. They would--if they could find a way to retain their terrific atmosphere in a spaceship--"
4. [ss] Winston K Marks' "Manic Perverse": "Only mechanical violence could bring death in that era--& the force field kept men from committing suicide. And that alone was enough to make some mad--"
5. [ss] Theodore Sturgeon's "Two Percent Inspiration": "A Martian might be as good as any Earthman in most things--but when it came to a short hike on Mercury--"

See also.

1. Fiction from Analog/Astounding (only issues edited by Harry Bates, John Campbell).
2. Stories written by John Campbell.
3. Fiction from old "pulp" magazines.
4. Fiction from 1940s.

Note: I could not find any mention of editor's name either on cover or on ToC page or with signature at the end of editor's column. ISFDB, however, note that the editor is John W Campbell, Jr.

And the Campbell Award goes to ... novel that Campbell would have disliked most!

Andrew Wheeler has some observations on the subject, in the context of this year's Campbell & Sturgeon award winners announced a couple of days back.

Related.

1. "best of" lists.
2. Fiction authored or edited by John Campbell.
3. Stories of Theodore Sturgeon.

"Astounding Science Fiction", January 1956 (ed John W Campbell, Jr) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents

Available online at Internet Archive in multiple formats.
Note: I'd posted this link, sans ToC, sometime back. Regulars might already have it on their disk.

Has a lot of pages missing, among them at least two of the stories - "The Executioner" & "Won't You Walk-". Means the only complete story is "Indirection".

Table of contents (4 stories).

Links on author fetch more matching fiction.

1. [novelette] Algis Budrys' "The Executioner": Not available in online copy linked above.
   
   Not read.
2. [novelette] Theodore Sturgeon's "Won't You Walk-": Not available in online copy linked above.
   
   Not read.
3. [ss] Everett B Cole's "Indirection" (B): "The best way to keep a secret is to publish it in a quite unbelievable form—and insist that it is the truth."
4. [serial - conclusion (probably part 3/3] Frank Herbert's "Under Pressure": "There was a factor present that held the men together under that grinding, unendurable pressure ... that wouldn't fit into the psychodynamic equations. Essentially, they weren't machines, and the dynamics of machines didn't apply!"
   
   Not read.

See also.

1. Fiction from Analog/Astounding (only issues edited by Harry Bates, John Campbell).
2. Stories written by John Campbell.
3. Fiction from 1950s.
   
4. Old "pulp" magazines.

Graham Sleight recommends the "best" of Theodore Sturgeon's short fiction

At Locus Roundtable.

Related: Stories of Theodore Sturgeon; "best of" lists.

Free fiction: Comic book adaptations of 3 important stories

In four issues of comic book anthology series Starstream, at Crosseyed Cyclops. [via QuasarDragon]

Among the lot are:

1. John W Campbell, Jr's "Who Goes There?": This already has several versions online - at least one comic version, original text, some text scans, as well as a movie adaptation.
2. Poul Anderson's "Call me Joe".
3. Theodore Sturgeon's "Microcosmic God": With the exception of fix-up novel "More Than Human" (& its original short story, "Baby is Three"), this is probably the best known story of Sturgeon.

These 3 are among the best of science fiction. At least their original texts were, in my book anyway.

Free fiction: Comic book adaptation of Theodore Sturgeon's "It!"

At Hairy Green Eyeball.

I haven't read it yet, but I recall having seen the original text version in one of the volumes of "Isaac Asimov Presents Great SF Stories" series.

Free fiction: Some short fiction by famous authors

1. C L Moore's "Song in a Minor Key"; download: One of the early Moore stories, & part of the interplanetary adventure series featuring the macho man Northwest Smith. I'm not as much a fan of NWS series as some others are.
2. Theodore Sturgeon's "The Man Who Lost the Sea" (C); download; F&SF, October 1959: An apparently pioneer vehicle to Mars has crashed there, exposing its apparently lone human crew to lethal radiation doses from ship's atomic plant.
   
   Story is mostly the ramblings of this dying man in his delirium.
3. A Bertram Chandler's "Last Day" (download), "Naval Engagement" aka "Left-Hand Way" (download), "Reaping Time" (download), "Two Can Play" (download), & "UFO" (download). Sidebar for each of these links shows a few more Chandler stories, but I'm not able to get their URL (they run JavaScript to generate links, but its JS doesn't run in my Firefox).

[via QuasarDragon & Free SF Reader]

Rich Horton names a couple of Sturgeon stories Erdmann Nexus seems to be based on

Nancy Kress' "The Erdmann Nexus" is on this year's Hugo Novella ballot. It's not yet online, & I haven't read it.

Horton thinks there is a lot of similarity with Theodore Sturgeon's "To Marry Medusa" & "The [Widget], the [Wadget], and Boff". I haven't read any of these either.

This post is really a note to self to check the references when/if Kress' stories comes up online.

Theodore Sturgeon's "Thunder and Roses" (novelette, nuclear apocalypse, free): Finding hope for humanity in an angry world

The most interesting thing about this story is contrast with Arthur Clarke's "The Last Command". Both are about nuclear war & total annihilation of one side. In both stories, the annihilated side still has enough firepower left to annihilate the other side. Both stories are written with military men as protagonists or major characters. Both differ from umpteen stories about nuclear doom in their theme of forgiveness.

In Clarke's version, US has destroyed USSR. A USSR crack team capable of punitive retaliation is stopped to give humanity a chance, even if it's without USSR.

In Sturgeon's version, it's US that is annihilated by unnamed enemies. And while there is enough ammunition to retaliate, there are survivors awaiting imminent death that are working to give humanity a chance - even if it will be without the US.

Title comes from the lyrics of a song I'm unfamiliar with:

"When you gave me your heart, you gave me the world,
You gave me the night and the day,
And thunder, and roses, and sweet green grass,
The sea, and soft wet clay."

Collected in.

1. David Drake, Jim Baen, & Eric Flint (Ed)'s "The World Turned Upside Down".
2. John W Campbell, Jr (ed)'s "The Astounding Science Fiction Anthology".

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding Science Fiction, November 1947.
Rating: B
Download full text.
Related: All stories of Theodore Sturgeon.

** Theodore Sturgeon's "Microcosmic God" (novelette, science fiction)

A genius inventor has concluded that even the most prolific inventors rely on slowly gathered insights of many men. To speed up progress, he's created a fast evolving new life form - far far smarter than humans in that they can solve impossible problems that will take humans forever, & for the moment they are contained in a closed habitat in an island. But who can say how long they will remain there? What will mankind do when they decide to come out?

Collected in.

1. Robert Silverberg (Ed)'s "The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume One, 1929-1964".
   

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, April 1941.
Rating: A
Related: All stories of Theodore Sturgeon.

Note: Why is this post so short?

Theodore Sturgeon's "More Than Human" (novel): "Homo Gestalt" is born to succeed "Homo Sapiens"!

This book has the curious tendency of turning up among top 5 of just too many "all time best sf" lists. And for a very good reason - it's a good book.

One way of looking at this novel is as a collection of 3 closely linked but otherwise independent novellas, titled

1. "The Fabulous Idiot" (A)
2. "Baby is Three" (A)
3. "Morality" (B)

"Baby is Three" is the original story, initially published in October 1952 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction. Other two were slapped on a year later to turn it into a novel. Original story is narrated first person, other two by an all-knowing narrator. While I find the original story good, first one is much better, & third so-so.

I will be making separate posts for each of the 3 stories as I find time, & link from titles above. This post is to sum up the whole, & look at common issues.

Ostensible aim of the book is to look at one possible next step in the evolution of humans - a kind of hive entity of many independent humans connected telepathically, with one of them serving as sort of central control point. More importantly, it looks at humanity & its mental makeup - prejudices, idiosyncrasies, ... And makes a point that even the most undesired among us (socially, psychologically, physically) has something to contribute to make the whole richer.

In my reckoning, it's not quite a science fiction novel, even though it has telepathy, teleporting, antigravity, etc. They are side issues. This book should be looked at as general fiction - likely to appeal to audiences outside the sf fold too.

First part, "The Fabulous Idiot", is essentially a character portrait. Not of one individual, but of many. In fact, it introduces all characters that will appear in the novel - though the two subsequent sections will develop one character each in great detail. A lot of characters introduced here never make an appearance in subsequent parts. Very colorful & rich portrayal. Mostly negative characters, but the author manages to convey hope & possible deliverance, & sometimes makes you smile too.

"Baby is Three" is about a single super-successful psychotherapy session at a psychiatrist's office. In walks a 15 year old misfit who has just murdered a lady for being kind to him, & out walks a transformed evil telepath out to take his revenge on a world that has been unkind to him.

"Morality" examines, in detail, one of the victims of the evil man we met at the end of second part. But its end is very tame - villain repents his sins rather quickly after realizing the folly of his path.

Fact sheet.

"More Than Human", novel, review
First published: 1953. Original story, "Baby is Three" originally published in Galaxy Science Fiction, October 1952.
Rating: A
Related: All stories of Theodore Sturgeon.