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A.E. van Vogt. Co-operate, or else! Isaac Asimov. Reason. Fredric Brown. Arena. Hal Clement. Fireproof. Paul Carter. The Last Objective. Clifford D. Simak. Huddling Place. Eric Frank Russell. Hobbyist. Philip Latham. The Xi Effect.

Aldiss and Harrison produced a 'Year's Best SF' anthology for several years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and also produced this anthology, and companions for the 1950s and 1960s.

They introduce this volume with a quick recap of the history of SF magazines, giving due praise to 'Astounding Science Fiction' (from whence all the stories in this volume came).

A. E. Van Vogt. Co-operate - or else!

An interesting story, written as it was during the Second World War. Professor Jamieson finds himself stranded on the planet Eristann II, with only the dangerous indigineous life, and a representative of the ezwal race - sworn enemies of humanity.

Can Professor Jamieson, and humanity survive? Can the Professor use his native human cunning to outwit both the psychopathic alien and the dangers of Eristann II. And can different species co-operate in the face of a more threatenig species?

You betcha he can! (Astounding is known for stories of this type).

I haven't read a huge amount of Van Vogt, but this didn't read like a classic to me. It comes across as heavy-handed, and the earthman as hero outwitting massive odds is somewhat cliched. The story isn't of the nine Van Vogt stories from the 1940s collected in 'The Best of A E Van Vogt', so go figure.

Isaac Asimov. Reason.

I read a huge amount of Asimov in the early and mid 70s as a teenager. I still have fond memories of buying a copy of 'The Martian Way' collection and taking it home and reading in virtually one sitting. This was my first introduction to Asimov, and I spent the next couple of years devouring everything I could lay my hands on by him.

This robot story is a good representative of Asimov's work. A robot with higher level intellectual capabilities is built on a spaceship - all find and dandy until he starts getting very existential and wondering about what it is he is doing and why. He has a cybernetic epiphany, and declares himself a follower of a greater power.

The humans one the ship are rendered superfluous to the work of the station, and at first are most concerned at the robots bizarre (mis)beliefs.

A pleasent enough story, although Asimov ignores his own Three Laws at the point where the spacers are suffering at the hand of the robot!

Fredric Brown. Arena.

Carson, en route to a final war between humanity and an alien race, finds himself lying on blue sand under a blue dome. The dome is separated by an invisible force field, and on the other side is a representative from the warring race.

Can Carson use his ingenuity to find a way to defeat his potential nemesis, who appears to be the strong of the two?

You betcha he can! Mind you, knocking himself senseless in order to roll across the force field which has otherwise proved impenetrable doesn't say much for humanity's problem-solving skills!

Hal Clement. Fireproof.

One of the earliest of exponents of hard SF, the plot relies on a lack of knowledge of a chemical process, but is otherwise an engaging story about people.

An infiltrator on a mining station is determined to wreak sabotage. But he is watched every step of the way, and is ultimately not only unsuccesful, but finds his lack of knowledge of basic science is his downfall. He learns a painful (terminal) lesson.

Paul Carter. The Last Objective.

The last known of the authors in this volume - ten short stories and one novel (with Gregory Benford) in six decades not being the kind of output necessary to make oneself noticed!

A curious story. Set in the depths of the Earth, mole-like warships are tunneling their way through rock whilst on the lookout for the enemy. Humanity has been brought to subterranean warfare due to cataclysmic surface conflict, and when a vessel of the Combined Western Powers meets an oriental enemy, terrible battle ensues.

The build-up to, and subsequent battle, are grim enough (if slightly steampunk in their militariness). However, the ending is a surprise one, as the western battlemole springs a nuclear leak, and two noble gentlement do the decent thing and remove the vessel to a safe place, where it blows up. The oriental vessel has been commandeered, but the true horror of the final weapon in the war, and the final weapon for humanity, is revealed in its flesh-melting horror.

Clifford D. Simak. Huddling Place.

An interesting perspective on humanity reaching out to the Stars. Technical advancement and robotics lead to many members of society living a remote life with little contact with others. Will the stars still hold them in thrall and beckon them?

Eric Frank Russell. Hobbyist.

Steve Ander and his sole companion, a talking parakeet, crash land on a lonely planet. Without the wherewithal to take off again, Steve has to face up to spending the rest of his life on the planet. As he explores it, though, he realises that something is not quite right.

On his travels he sees at a distance a pillar of golden light, evidence of something much more advanced than he was expecting to find. Further exploration finds an enormous building filled with cabinets containing preserved specimens of life.

Fortunately he finds metal which will help fuel his ship and get him offplanet, but what fate has he narrowly managed to avoid?

Philip Latham. The Xi Effect.

An intriguing story to finish the collection. Read out of context, the slightly stilted relationship between the male scientists would be the only real indicator of the age of this story, and it would not be out of place in a current issue of Analog.

The two scientists discover a strange anomaly with their experiment - only to soon find out, as does the rest of the world, that there are major changes taken place in some very fundamental principles. Just how major they find out as the story develops, with a scientist giving a very detached view of the imminent end of existence, whilst an actor and a crowded auditorium respond on a more human level.

Conclusion

An interesting read. Difficult to say how representative of the 1940s this collection of stories from Astounding is, without either having been there or studied the decade in more detail. The stories are for the most part very much of their era, with the exception of the Latham story,

There are probably dozens of copies of this book sitting forlornly on dusty bookshelves across the world - why not click the Alibris button and see if you offer one a loving home?