Charles Nuetzel

Enough is surprisingly good for me to give it an extra star. I think Nuetzel and I are more simpatico than I am w/ most more famous editors.

I chose by title, because what is "if this goes on" but a near synonym for "what if" which is what I read SF for? I don't read for the adrenaline, but for the exploration, and that is what I found here.

Much thanks to whoever included the ToC. There is also an unimportant introduction by Ackerman and a preface by Nuetzel.

•The Test by Richard Matheson show more - I know RM from novels, but now I want to find more of his short stories. This is typically sentimental, but short enough, with enough punch, to be effective.

•The Earth Killers by A. E. van Vogt - the author updated this 1949 story in 1964 for this collection. A novella because the author had political commentary about the nature of a hero to make in addition to the punch. Very nicely anti-racist, too.

•The Racer by Ib Melchior - points for speed and for knocking down the pedestrians; I've seen it before, maybe even the same trope in other stories.

•"All the Trouble of the World" by Isaac Asimov (variant of All the Troubles of the World) - another consideration of machine intelligence, by the man who did so much exploration of robots and of Multivac.

•Friends and Enemies by Fritz Leiber - nice (but not amazing), title is as spoilery as I want to go in this post-apoc. setting

•No Land of Nod by Sherwood Springer - Adam & Eve tale w/ a flaw at the end Dad didn't have to have sex with his daughters, but could've used artificial insemination

•A Very Cultured Taste by Charles Nuetzel [as by George Frederic] - weakest, most cliched

•The Mute Question by Forrest J. Ackerman - bad joke

•The Homo Sap by Charles Nuetzel - weak 'ironical' flash fiction

•Aquella by Donald A. Wollheim (variant of The Planet Called Aquella) - I'm not sure I get it. If I do, if 'that' is all he's saying, he didn't say it effectively imo.

•The Climbing Wave by Marion Zimmer Bradley - novella of a sort of utopian colony or post-apoc., exact setting isn't important but just the author's opinions about society, interesting but flawed (what to do with those who don't quite fit in?)

•Your Life In "1977" essay by Willy Ley [as by Willie Ley] - heh, cute to see what he got right & what wrong.

•Preposterous by Fredric Brown - anecdote, a bit of a Dad Joke. Nice to see my fave author included. show less