Judith Merril (1923–1997)

It is next to impossible to talk about a collection this old without talking about how kindly or unkindly time treats its subjects. So, I won’t try not to.

In this case, in general, time has been kind. And the reason, in no small part, is because the authors represented herein are some of the genre’s giants. Damon Knight, Avram Davidson, Ray Bradbury, Gordon Dickson, Clifford Simak – if you know anything about the genre, you know these names and know these are skilled artists who write show more well, no matter when they completed the work.

The one thing that has changed in these many years is the approach of the stories. In this collection, feel like they are relying more on the idea –that the idea is the raison d’etre for the stories existence. I’m not talking techie, I’m talking about the idea coming out a little more front and center than the current way stories are written. This is not a problem, just a change in style.

Meaning that, in spite of a slight change in style, these are generally strong stories that do more than just tell a story. And many still resonate with our current experiences.

“The Sound Sweep” by J. G. Ballard is the story of a mute whose job it is to sweep sound out of the walls. Seems the world has gotten so noisy that there is no more room for the old noises which are escaping and cluttering the aural landscape. Someone needs to clean them up, and the mute is one of the best at the job. But, Ballard doesn’t just stop with the idea, because this is the story of how this mute interacts with a former famous opera singer who, in a world that has changed without her, is trying to get back her past glory. The story of any individual being left in the dust of change can still hit any of us far too closely to home.

“The Man Who Lost the Sea” by Theodore Sturgeon starts with a man trapped(?) on a beach, watching a small boy walk by. The story does not start out clearly, but the clues of what is occurring are embedded in a way that our realization happens at just the right moment. It is a story of disaster and triumph – the type that, when told well, will always resonate with a reader.

“Day at the Beach” by Carol Emshwiller is set post apocalypse. It follows a small family that is trying to still maintain some semblance of urban life (living in the normal tract house, commuting to work, taking care of the boy). They decide to spend a day going to the beach. Nothing is normal around them – including the beach – but the wife tries to maintain her optimism. In spite of events that are not pleasant, and in spite of the unpleasantness of their situation (unpleasant is an understatement as is revealed throughout the story), they try to live their lives. However, this is not necessarily a story of hope, but one that questions when hope is just hiding from reality. (And if that doesn’t feel like today, I don’t know what does.)

Oh yeah, this collection also contains Daniel Keyes’ “Flowers for Algernon” and, if you haven’t read that one, go do something quickly to fill in that tremendous gap in your knowledge.

Notice I didn’t even mention the Bradbury, or the Simak, or the Dickson, or the Davidson. That’s how good this collection is.

Yeah, there are some stinkers in here – stinkers that stink not because they have gotten old, but because they just weren’t that good in the first place. And a few have taken a few dings from the passage of time.

One in particular I want to point out. “The Other Wife” by Jack Finney is a well-told story. Interesting ideas that postulate situations we haven’t thought of before. In fact, it would be a top story but for one thing. (At this point, I should technically say “spoiler alert”, so I’ll do so. But I’m not sure it’s really necessary.) The protagonist, tired of his life, accidently finds himself in an alternate universe, one where he has married the woman who got away. He lives there for a while, and then realizes he misses his old life. He figures out the talisman that allowed him to move between universes and goes back to his original life. Maybe not a bad story if it stopped there – realization that the grass isn’t always greener, etc. However, the story goes a little further, ending with the protagonist talking about how this talisman will now allow him, every time he gets tired of the wife in a certain timeline, to switch to the other one any time he wants. Yeah, he’s found a way to cheat and make it all okay.

That one doesn’t stand up quite so well in today’s environment. And let me remind you that the editor is female. Not sure exactly what that says, but it sure says it.

And one comment about the editor, Judith Merril. And let me note that one of the things I enjoy in short story collections are the introduction for each story. Many people don’t like these, but I am a fan. But the introductions in this collection have a weird vibe. In particular, Ms. Merril seems to be taking the opportunity to lash out at Kingsley Amis. I don’t know what was going on here (and it is so old an issue that it does not seem worth researching), but the effect is to turn the introductions into weird diatribes that don’t seem to have much to do with anything. (Of particular irony, the first attack on Mr. Amis comes in the introduction to Jack Finney’s story.)

Oh well, stuff happens.

The point is that, if you find this collection, then it is well worth picking up/buying/stealing and reading. A few clunks, but the majority of the contents are great stories I’ve read before, great stories I hadn’t read before, and good-solid story telling from when the genre was beginning to really expand show less

A rocketing, sensational exposé of sin in space: a story about a drug deadlier than heroin, more vicious than morphine, this was the Martian narcotic that drenched a planet in crime and perversion.

This was the blurb that screamed from the back cover of the Galaxy re-publication of the novel written by husband and wife writing team Cyril M. Kornbluth and Judith Merril which was originally serialised in 1951. The blurb in this case is totally misleading as I have rarely read such a 'grown show more up' thoughtful novel from this era of pulp fiction.

Sin in Space was the 1961 reprint, but the original story had the title of Mars child, then [Outpost Mars]. The story starts with a difficult birth of a child in a struggling close knit human colony on the planet Mars: not so many science fiction books would have started with a birth scene. Tony Hellman is the doctor in attendance and he is also part of the democratically elected ruling committee of the community of Sun Lake. It is a community that prides itself on its complete sexual equality and is desperately trying to be self sufficient so that it can loosen its ties with an overcrowded and corrupt planet earth. The birth of a child is a big event in the colony which relies on drugs to enable them to breathe a rarefied atmosphere. The community receives a visit from the nearby Brenner Pharmaceutical corporation: an industrial concern that manufacture the addictive drug Marcaine. Brenner accuses the community of stealing a shipment of his drugs and demands that a search be carried out for the guilty culprit. Brenner knows that such a search would cause the release of radioactive material which could destroy the colony. The arrival in the twice yearly rocket supply ship from earth of journalist Douglas Graham, who is planning a feature book on the life of the planet, becomes a focal point for the struggle between the colony and the industrialists.

This is a well written story that also describes the hard grind of a relatively new colony trying to forge its own future on a planet where life is difficult, but whose participants have sacrificed everything to escape from planet earth. The birth of the Mars child proves to be a significant event in the life of the community and in accordance with the aims of the community the novel provides equal opportunity for both women and men to play significant roles. It is pulp fiction, but still a refreshingly good read and so 4 stars. show less

I'm actually quite surprised, i don't know why but i wasn't expecting to like these 3 novellas that much. The writing is straightforward but.. i was going to say everything's easy to picture but thats not quite true, its just that everything has great... verisimilitude, lets go with that. I completely bought into each fiction even when elements were confusing or should have felt sillier if written differently.

Project Nursemaid [4/5]
This is so like a script for a low-budget 50's sci-fi show more film. Half-way through i realised i was picturing it all in black & white :P . It all takes place almost entirely in little offices as if they're trying to save money on sets :lol. Dashing young doctor as the protagonist, plenty of smoking, drinking and flirting, only some of the social issues would have prevented it being made into a 50's film. Really its just a professional drama with sci-fi elements, not sure why i liked it so much but i did.

Daughters of Earth [4/5]
Far less hard sci-fi than the previous one, this is an epistolary story and is somewhat confused and fragmented. Some elements akin to the show 'Earth 2' from the '90s. But at its core is about a woman trying to connect with her estranged/somewhat daughter. Reminded me of the voice over sections of 'Arrival' movie in places.

Homecalling [4/5]
Kind of like the [b:The Wee Free Men|34494|The Wee Free Men (Discworld, #30; Tiffany Aching, #1)|Terry Pratchett|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1443764106s/34494.jpg|62580] in space... thats a terrible analogy. This one is almost philosophical, its cute and interesting and kind of messed up, Its a 'Disney' movie in waiting ;) . At one point i had to check if my e-copy was damaged, it wasn't, there's a bit of almost cut-up- technique used in places that part was confusing but makes sense given the strange circumstances. Kind of leaves you hanging at the end but provokes a lot of thoughts :) .

Edit: Available from the openlibrary.org . show less

A blast from the past! A really excellent Berserker story from Fred Saberhagen ("Fortress Ship"), a Cordwainer Smith story ("Drunkboat") that's even more confusing than the average, and much more. Very good collection. These are stories from 1964, the authors whose work I checked out of the library as a pre-teen in the late 1960s. Sadly, those pulp fiction paperback bindings don't hold up well and the battered copy I picked up at a thrift store is missing 60 pages out of the middle -- plus, show more and this really rankles, a page with a cartoon deliberately removed (they annotated it). Alfred Bester didn't write enough stories... and I so wanted to read this one. Lloyd Biggie, same. Maybe I can get my hands on another copy... show less