The book in hand contains some 19 stories, from names which are still well known today (Robert Bloch, Lester Del Ray, L. Sprague De Camp, A.E. Van Vogt, Isaac Asimov etc.) to the less well known nowadays (Eando Binder, Nelson Bond, Joseph E. Kelleam). Isaac Asimov provides an introduction to each story, and the book gives the reader an opportunity to travel back in time some sixty years.
So what does this reader get from a collection of stories some twenty years older than he? In the order in which they appear:
I, Robot. Eando Binder. (Amazing Stories, January 1939).
Asimov introduces this story by referring to his reading this story and beginning work on his own 'Robbie' some months later, and his subsequent reluctance to have his collection of robot short stories entitled the same as this story.
The story is written from the perspective of one Adam Link, a robot created by a scientist in his own home. He is the first intelligent robot, but does he have a soul? The story progresses rapidly, and a torch-bearing pack eventually pin the robot down. The similarity to Frankenstein is drawn within the story, and it is interesting to note that James Whales' film Frankenstein only predates this story by a few years. The introduction refers to other stories in Amazing Stories which feature Adam Link, and a quick browse of ISFDB shows the July 1939 issue of Amazing featuring the story 'The Trial of Adam Link'.
n.b. Binder was in fact a pseudonym used by brothers Otto and Earl Binder for jointly written stories. Interestingly, the Encylopedia of Science Fiction states that the Adam Link stories were written by Otto alone).
The Strange Flight of Richard Clayton. Robert Bloch. (Amazing Stories, March 1939).
A millionaire inventor/scientist is the one man crew on an atomic propulsion flight to the planet Mars. The flight will take several years, and to the scientist's horror, once in flight the ship continues to make an ear-splitting noise and make a bond-juddering vibration. He descends into virtual madness and the journey takes it toll on him.
His return to Earth provides to be traumautic. [ spoiler ]
Very much of its time in its depiction of a solo flight, with a gung-ho character. The glass control panel shatters on take off (as if they wouldn't have thought of that!) and the crew quarters are camped with little recreational activities or reading matter, save for a few magazines!
Trouble with Water. H.L. Gold. (Unknown, March 1939.)
Golden Age of SF humour. Greenberg is out fishing on a lake, bemoaning the lack of any piscine interest. The cause of the lack of interest swims into view, a most peculiar water gnome, whose responsibility is rainfall control on the lake and surrounding area. Greenberg takes umbrage, and the gnome departs, but not without having delivered upon Greenberg a very strong reaction to water in all forms.
Greenberg returns to his family, a very keenly portrayed Jewish family, and finds that he cannot drink, cannot shave, cannot bathe. He can only drink beer for sustenance.
As you might imagine, he gradually sees the error of his ways, and with the help of another stereotypical character (Oirish Cop), makes his peace with the water gnome.
Cloak of Aesir. Don. A. Stuart (aka John W. Campbell). (Astounding Science Fiction, March 1939.)
'A memorable and moving contribution to the literature of science fiction' writes IA in his introduction. Hmm, I'm not sure I would concur.
A lengthy tale of the far future, in which humanity has been under the thumb of the Sarn, a race which has fled their own planet and settled on Earth, enslaving us for four millenia.
But humanity is a resilient race, and opposition to the Sarn's rule is beginning. The Cloak of Aesir is a high-tech device which absorbs energy, and enables one leader of humanity to challenge the ancient Mother Sarn.
By an ingenious method, the cloak is able to drive the Sarn from their capital city: the mind of a man suffering from chronic depression is transmitted across the city, causing the Sarn to flee.
The Day is Done. Lester del Ray. (Astounding Science Fiction, May 1939).
Prehistoric SF - written from the perspective of a Neanderthal, who is struggling with the encroaching,more advance, Cro-Magnon species. Nicely handled, although IA's introduction stating that he himself was in tears when reading the story is a little OTT. Interesting that some sixty years later, during 2000 there was renewed interest in exactly what happened to the Neanderthals, including a major television series from the BBC. The story, by its nature, stands the test of time more so than other stories in the volume which rely on now-dated scientific ideas.
The Ultimate Catalyst. John Taine. (Thrilling Wonder Stories, June 1939).
One that stands up to the test of time quite well, with distinct Lucius Shepherd tones perhaps?
In the Amazon jungle, the dictator Kabir is ruling with a rod of iron. Dr. Beetle, the only American amongst the community, goads the dictator, and using his expertise to create fruits which have a very meat-like taste and texture. These fruits go down very well, as the fare has been for some time of a purely vegetarian nature.
But Dr. Beetle's secret ingredient in the greenbeefo is snake blood, and further still, he experimentation leads to dramatic effects upon those who have eaten his greenbefo. There is a definite sense of horror as his daughter flees the community, the members of whom are quickly degenerating into vegetative states (in more ways than one!)
John Taine was mathematician Eric Temple Bell's pseudonymous fiction-writing persona.
The Gnarly Man. L. Sprague de Camp. (Unknown, June 1939).
A story which has been revisited many times - an extremely long-lived prehistoric man living in the present. In this case the sideshow freak is a neanderthal who has been constantly on the move throughout his long, long life. And once again he is forced to move on, as scientists alerted to him plan kidnap and vivisection!
Black Destroyer. A.E. van Vogt. (Astounding Science Fiction, July 1939.)
One of the better known stories in this collection, later incorporated into 'The Voyage of the Space Beagle'.
A ship from Earth lands on a planet that shows evidence of a long-dead civilization, but lurking in the shadows is the fearsome Coeurl, a dark, ancient predator, whose like were responsible for the devastation wreaked on the planet. Part of the story is chillingly told through the eyes of Coeurl, as he gains entrance to the space ship and starts to reduce the number of the crew.
He eventually escapes the ship whilst in space, but his lack of knowledge of the basics of space travel prove his undoing.
Greater than Gods. C.L. Moore. (Astounding Science Fiction, July 1939).
The first female writer to make an appearance in this volume.
The story looks at the potential for alternate futures based on decisions made in the present. Bill Cory is pondering whom to ask to marry him (no mention of whether the putative brides would have any say in the matter!), and as he stares longingly at their faces in holograms on his desk, he is contacted by descendants of his through each potential time line. He is revered in two alternate time lines: one as the progenitor of a female-led Earth which gradually ends up in an idyllic, ambrosian future, and one in which a male-dominated military dictatorship is the case.
He has to make a choice, but which one?
By today's standards, a fairly clumsy mechanism for exploring these issues. (Oh, and if you want to know the decision: [ spoiler ]
Trends. Isaac Asimov. (Astounding Science Fiction, July 1939).
A first attempt at space flight is made, and, as with the Bloch story above, a millionaire scientist and a small team are behind the attempted flight.
But the flight is challenged by reactionary forces, who are opposing science as blasphemy, and the inaugural flight is a disaster.
The team make another attempt, and this time the politics are more in favour of their endeavours.
The Blue Giraffe. L. Sprague de Camp. (Astounding Science Fiction, August 1939).
A game park in Africa reports some very strange developments.
Athelstan Cuff investigates, and finds some biological changes affecting the wildlife, and also the people living on the park - baboon people!
He escapes potential wedlock with one of the baboon people (this is a humorous story!), and is able to stop the mechanism which has been interfering with the genes of the animals and people in the locality.
The Misguided Halo. Henry Kuttner. (Unknown, August 1939).
More humour, in this case a story that actually made me laugh out loud at one point!
By an embarrasing mis-understanding, K. Young is given a halo as benefitting his status as a saint (the angel conferring this mistook him for a Tibetan monk somewhat worthier of the honour).
He has to get to work, necessitating him travelling on the subway wearing a very huge theatrical prop shako on his head, and attempts to behave so badly that he will not be allowed to retain the halo. But this is not quite as straightforward as it might be.
Certainly this story stands up well today and could easily be passed out as an example to anyone attempting to write funny short SF these days.
Heavy Planet. Milton A. Rothman. (Astounding Science Fiction, August 1939).
Hal Clement's rightly acclaimed novel 'Mission of Gravity' gives a scientifically rigorous description of life on a planet of immense gravity. Rothman's similar planet is somewhat different in that the denizens are colossal Herculaen strongmen, waging a war against each other and against the elements.
As in the Clement novel, representatives from Earth (presumably) visit, but with somewhat less effect: they end up as squished red jelly inside their spacecraft.
Ennis, on patrol on the viscous sea, discovers the crashed ship and attempts to retain sovereignty over it until his comrades turn up, and has a struggle so to do, due to enemy soldiers appearing first. Enjoyable stuff.
Life-line. Robert A. Heinlein. (Astounding Science Fiction, August 1939)
The very first story of Heinlein's published.
Dr. Pinero has invented a device through which it is possible to measure accurately the length of a person's life. Using the person's birth date and weight, and current weight, the person's duration in the dimension of time can be divined.
The scientific community is in uproar, and Pinero makes matters worse by refusing to reveal the principle behind his device. He has to resort in the end to practical demonstration to prove his invention.
However, many are unhappy once the invention is proven and business is booming, and Pinero himself finds his scientific detachment tested, and shattered, by one young couple who visit.
Ether Breather. Theodore Sturgeon. (Astounding Science Fiction, September 1939).
An entertaining romp through the far future media land as envisaged by Sturgeon. A new form of colour television system is being used to showcase the protagonist's play, and he is mortified to find that the words in one advert break are most unkind about the play itself. Similar instances take place, and there is confusion over what is being transmitted and what is being received.
At one stage the playwright records the transmission on his home tv set, but Sturgeon doesn't quite forecast video accurately, as the film used to make the recording has to be taken away to be processed!
It transpires that the new form of transmission is affecting some strange creatures inhabiting the wavelength of that transmission.
Pilgrimage. Nelson Bond.(Amazing Stories, October 1939).
This is is particularly interesting, on a number of points.
Firstly, it is an anthropological fantasy tale written from the perspective of a young woman entering womanhood, in a matriarchal society. Yup, the type of story of which many a tale has recently been written, with Ursula K Le Guin being a major teller of such tales. As such the story is very, very similar to, purely as an example, to Lucy Sussex's post-apocalyptic New Zealand matriarchical polyandry story 'The Queen of Erewhon', collected in Years Best SF 5 Hartwell 2000, (although not down to the occassional explicit sexual reference - this was 1939 after all).
Secondly, the way in which the female and the male characters are handled is very contemporary - it is worth pointing out that in the other stories women have a very, very minor role to play.
And thirdly, the resolution of the tale is straight out of the ending of Pierre Boule's Monkey Planet/Planet of the Apes, as the heroine stares at the male faces carved into Mt Rushmore to realise that the gods she has been worshipping are male and not female.
Rust. Joseph E. Kelleam. (Astounding Science Fiction, October 1939).
The first story in the collection tells of a humanoid robot. This latter tale is a bleaker affair, with humanity evidently wiped off the face of the Earth following a global war in which war robots took their orders to kill rather too far, killing all humans rather than those of the opposing forces.
A small group of robots struggle to remain active in a gradually decaying city, and one robot is finally alone, struggling to make sense of what has happened and what has been lost. Touching stuff.
Four-sided triangle. William F. Temple. (Amazing Stories, November 1939.)
Another story fairly in tune with contemporary writing. If the use of a device to create duplicates of objects, and of living things (eventually), was replaced with the more current cloning, you would have a story looking at some of the issues in stories such as Walter Jon Williams 'Lethe'.
Two male scientists and a female one develop the said machine, and when one of the men finally wins the hand of the female, the scientist who has lost out in love comes up with the solution. Why not create a duplicate which he can marry? Why not indeed!
However, the alacrity with which the woman allows a duplicate to be made of herself is somewhat offputting!
Star Bright. Jack Williamson. (Argosy, November 1939).
Still going strong today, in this Williamson story a somewhat hen-pecked husband wishes upon a star, and his wish comes true, albeit with the slight problem caused by the star, a micrometeorite, burying itself deep in his brain.
He is gifted the power to create and destroy matter, and attempts to use this power to achieve a higher status in the eyes of his spendthrift wife and young son. But all does not go as smoothly as he would wish.
One thing interests me in this story: I had always believed that 'teenagers' didn't come along until the 1950s, but Young's son is as obnoxious a c17yr old as you will ever come across. Perhaps Britain was some way behind and it was us who had to wait until the 1950s before there was a stage in life between childhood and adulthood.
Misfit. Robert A. Heinlein. (Astounding Science Fiction, November 1939).
Heinlein's second published story. A young recruit on a military mission to transform an asteroid into a space station finds his previously untapped mathematic prowess (not quite an idiot savant) a boon. Heinlein's military background is obvious in the writing and dialogue.
Conclusion.
A majority of stories from this collection are from Campbell's Astounding Science Fiction, and many are clearly identifiable as being of the Golden Age of SF.
Of the non-Astounding stories, those from Amazing Stories are less easily identifiable as being sixty years old, and the three (I, Robot, Pilgrimage. and Four Sided Triangle) all probe 'the human condition'.
I would be interested to find out if the collection in this volume is a true reflection of the best of the year, or has a bias towards Astounding Science Fiction stories. A browse through ISFDB's index to Amazing Stories for 1939 doesn't throw up much which looks like a glaring omission, although as a Brit I would be interested in John Wyndham's 'Judson's Annihilator'.
If you want to get a hold of a copy of this book, why not follow the Alibris link at the top of the page, which will carry out a search of their database for you.
