The Seventh Science Fiction Megapack
Page 88
“Moon Dog,” by Arthur C. Clarke, originally appeared in Galaxy MAgazine, April 1962. Copyright © 1962 by Arthur C. Clarke. Reprinted by permission of the author’s estate.
“Why I Left Harry’s All-Night Hamburgers,” by Lawrence Watt-Evans, originally appeared in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, July 1987. Copyright © 1987 by Lawrence Watt-Evans. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Doorstop,” by Reginald Bretnor, originally appeared in Astounding Science Fiction, November 1956. Copyright © 1956 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc. Copyright renewed. Reprinted by permission of the author’s estate.
The Time Dissolver, by Jerry Sohl, originally appeared in 1957.
“Prototype,” by John Gregory Betancourt, originally appeared in Isaac Asimov’s I-Bots. Copyright © 1996 by John Gregory Betancourt. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Galactic Chest,” by Clifford D. Simak, originally appeared in Science Fiction Stories, September 1956.
“Do Unto Others,” by Damien Broderick, originally appeared in Cosmos (February/March 2013). Copyright © 2013 by Damien Broderick. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Keep Out,” by Fredric Brown, originally appeared in Amazing Stories, March 1954.
“The Chapter Ends,” by Poul Anderson, originally appeared in Dynamic Science Fiction, January 1954.
“The Swordsmen of Varnis,” by Geoffrey Cobbe, originally appeared in Slant, Spring 1950.
“Do Unto Others,” by Mark Clifton, originally appeared in If Worlds of Science Fiction, June 1958.
“The Servant Problem,” by Robert F. Young, originally appeared in Analog Science Fact Science Fiction, November 1962.
“The Slizzers,” by Jerome Bixby, originally appeared in Science Fiction Stories 1953.
And Then the Town Took Off, by Richard Wilson, originally appeared in 1960.
“Space Opera,” by Michael R. Collings, first appeared in Space Eldritch, copyright © 2012 by Michael R. Collings. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“I Am Tomorrow,” by Lester del Rey, originally appeared in Dynamic Science Fiction, December 1952.
“Ripeness is All,” by Jesse Roarke, originally appeared in Fantastic Stories of Imagination, May 1962.
“Through Time and Space with Ferdinand Feghoot (94)” is taken from The Collected Feghoot (1992). Copyright © 1992 by Reginald Bretnor. Reprinted by permission of the author’s estate.
Starman’s Quest, by Robert Silverberg, originally appeared in book form in 1958. Copyright © 1958 by Robert Silverberg.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
POUL ANDERSON (1926–2001) was an American science fiction author who began his career during one of the Golden Ages of the genre and continued to write and remain popular into the 21st century. Anderson also authored several works of fantasy, historical novels, and a prodigious number of short stories. He received numerous awards for his writing, including seven Hugo Awards and three Nebula Awards.
SIR ARTHUR CHARLES CLARKE, CBE, FRAS, Sri Lankabhimanya, (1917–2008) was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, famous for his short stories and novels, among them 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and as a host and commentator in the British television series Mysterious World. For many years, Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Clarke were known as the “Big Three” of science fiction.
JOHN GREGORY BETANCOURT is a writer of science fiction, fantasy, and mystery books and short stories. He has worked as an assistant editor at Amazing Stories and editor of Horror: The Newsmagazine of the Horror Field, the revived Weird Tales magazine, the first issue of H. P. Lovecraft’s Magazine of Horror (which he subsequently hired Marvin Kaye to edit), Cat Tales magazine (which he subsequently hired George H. Scithers to edit), and Adventure Tales magazine. He is the writer of four Star Trek novels and the new Chronicles of Amber prequel series, as well as a dozen original novels. His essays, articles, and reviews have appeared in such diverse publications as Writer’s Digest, The Washington Post, and Amazing Stories.
JEROME BIXBY (1923–1998) was an American short story writer, editor and scriptwriter, best known for his work in science fiction. He also wrote many westerns and used the pseudonyms D. B. Lewis, Harry Neal, Albert Russell, J. Russell, M. St. Vivant, Thornecliff Herrick and Alger Rome (for one collaboration with Algis Budrys). He is most famous for the 1953 story “It’s a Good Life,” which was the basis for a 1961 episode of The Twilight Zone and which was included in Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983). He also wrote four episodes for the Star Trek series: “Mirror, Mirror”, “Day of the Dove”, “Requiem for Methuselah”, and “By Any Other Name”. With Otto Klement, he co-wrote the story upon which the classic sci-fi movie Fantastic Voyage (1966), television series, and novel by Isaac Asimov were based.
MARION ZIMMER BRADLEY (1930–1999) was an American author of fantasy novels such as The Mists of Avalon and the Darkover series. Many critics have noted a feminist perspective in her writing.
REGINALD BRETNOR (1911-1992) was never a prolific writer—he wrote only a handful of books and about 100 short stories (and more than 120 short-short “Feghoots” under his GRENDEL BRIARTON pseudonym)—over a 45-year writing career. In addition to wars, weaponry, and science fiction, Bretnor’s broad interests included cats. (And puns. Did we mention the horrible puns?)
DAMIEN BRODERICK (born 22 April 1944) is an Australian science fiction and popular science writer and editor of more than 50 books. His science fiction novel The Judas Mandala is sometimes credited with the first appearance of the term “virtual reality,” and his 1997 popular science book The Spike was the first to investigate the technological Singularity in detail. Check out his novel, Adrift in the Noosphere, available from Wildside Press.
FREDRIC BROWN (1906–1972) was perhaps best known for his use of humor and for his mastery of the “short short” form—stories of 1 to 3 pages, often with ingenious plotting devices and surprise endings. Humor and a somewhat postmodern outlook carried over into his novels as well.
MARK CLIFTON (1906–1963) was an American science fiction writer. About half of his work falls into two series: the “Bossy” series, about a computer with artificial intelligence, was written either alone or in collaboration with Alex Apostolides or Frank Riley; and the “Ralph Kennedy” series, which is more comical, and was written mostly solo, including the novel When They Come From Space. Clifton gained his greatest success with his novel They’d Rather Be Right (a.k.a. The Forever Machine), co-written with Riley, which was awarded the Hugo Award.
MICHAEL R. COLLINGS is an Emeritus Professor at Pepperdine University and Senior Publications Editor for JournalStone publications. His one-hundred-plus books include novels (SF, Horror, and Mystery), poetry, criticism and scholarship, and reviews. He is a two-time Finalist for the HWA Bram Stoker Award® and frequent guest and participant at conventions.
LESTER DEL REY (1915–1993) was an American science fiction author and editor. Del Rey was the author of many of the Winston Science Fiction juvenile SF series, and the editor at Del Rey Books, the fantasy and science fiction branch of Ballantine Books, along with his fourth wife Judy-Lynn del Rey. Del Rey first started publishing stories in pulp magazines in the late 1930s, at the dawn of the so-called Golden Age of Science Fiction. He was associated with the most prestigious science fiction magazine of the era, Astounding Science Fiction, and its editor, John W. Campbell, Jr. In the 1950s, del Rey was one of the main science fiction writers writing for adolescents (along with Robert A. Heinlein and Andre Norton).
C.J. HENDERSON is the creator of the Jack Hagee hardboiled detective series, both the Teddy London and Piers Knight supernatural investigator series and many more. With 75 books and hundreds upon hundreds of short stories and comics on the shelf, it’s no wonder he’s so well-known. But, what prompted New Mystery Magazine to say “If, as some argue, the hardboiled private eye mystery story is a literary form on a par with the Japanese haiku or the Irish ballad, then Mr. Henderson deserves the mantle of literar
y master” can only be tied to his remarkable talent. For more of his relentless self-aggrandizement, please feel free to visit him at www.cjhenderson.com.
MICHAEL KURLAND (born 1938) is an American author, best known for his works of science fiction and detective fiction. Kurland’s early career was devoted to works of science fiction. His first published novel was Ten Years to Doomsday (written with Chester Anderson) in 1964. Other notable works include The Unicorn Girl and two novels set in the world of Randall Garrett’s Lord Darcy, Ten Little Wizards and A Study in Sorcery (available from Wildside Press). Following the success of The Infernal Device, which was nominated for an Edgar Award (as was his earlier A Plague of Spies), Kurland turned his attention to detective fiction. Several of his subsequent novels feature Sherlock Holmes’s nemesis, Professor Moriarty.
EDWARD M. LERNER worked in high tech for thirty years, as everything from engineer to senior VP. His novels range from technothrillers, like Small Miracles and Energized, to traditional SF, like the InterstellarNet series, to, collaborating with Larry Niven, the space epic Fleet of Worlds series of Ringworld companion novels. He has published three books with Wildside Press, Countdown to Destruction, Creative Destruction, and A Stranger in Paradise.
MIKE RESNICK is, according to Locus, the all-time leading award winner, living or dead, for short fiction. He has 5 Hugos, plus other major awards from the USA, France, Poland, Spain, Croatia, Catalonia, and Japan. Mike is the auhot or 84 novels, over 260 stories, and 3 screenplays., and has edited 41 anthologies. Among his books for Wildside Press are 3 collections of his fan essays, Once a Fan..., ...Always a Fan, Resnick at Large, and Resnick on the Loose, plus the books on writing, I Have This Nifty Idea: . . . Now What Do I Do with It? and Putting It Together: Turning Sow’s Ear Drafts into Silk Purse Stories.
ROBERT SILVERBERG (born January 15, 1935) is an American author, best known for writing science fiction. He is a multiple winner of both Hugo and Nebula awards. He is a 1999 inductee into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.
CLIFFORD D. SIMAK (1904–1988) was an American science fiction writer. He was honored by fans with three Hugo Awards and by colleagues with one Nebula Award. The Science Fiction Writers of America made him its third SFWA Grand Master and the Horror Writers Association made him one of three inaugural winners of the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement.
JERRY SOHL (1913–2002) was an American scriptwriter for The Twilight Zone (as a ghostwriter for Charles Beaumont), Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Outer Limits, Star Trek (using pseudonym “Nathan Butler”), and other shows. He also wrote novels, feature film scripts, and the nonfiction works Underhanded Chess and Underhanded Bridge in 1973.
LAWRENCE WATT-EVANS is the author of about fifty novels and over a hundred short stories, mostly in the SF, fantasy, and horror fields. He won the Hugo award in 1988 for his short story, “Why I Left Harry’s All-Night Hamburgers,” and was president of the Horror Writers Association for two years. His most recent book from Wildside Press is The Sorcerer’s Widow, a new short novel set in the same universe as The Misenchanted Sword and many of his finest fantasy novels.
RICHARD WILSON (1920–1987) was a Nebula Award winning American science fiction writer and fan. He was a member of the Futurians. His books included the novels The Girls from Planet 5 (1955); 30-Day Wonder (1960); and the collections Those Idiots from Earth (1957) and Time Out for Tomorrow (1962).
ROBERT F. YOUNG (1915–1986) was an American science fiction writer born in Silver Creek, New York. His works—starting in 1953 in Startling Stories, then Playboy, The Saturday Evening Post, and Collier’s—mainly consisted of short stories with a poetic and romantic style that made him compared to Ray Bradbury and Theodore Sturgeon.