The Best of Henry Kuttner

How can you not enjoy a book whose introduction contains: If you have arrived at this book and look to Kuttner for religious instruction, secular improvement, or moral renovation...you had best retreat to forms of literate navel-lint plucking with which the sophomores of the world bug each other?

A bit of a mixed collection from Henry Kuttner. While I enjoyed a few of them a lot, others felt quite dated. Most are built around intriguing ideas, in some cases ideas that later authors would come back to and build on (e.g., "Mimsy Were the Borogroves" and "The Twonky"). Several of them are quite funny. My favorite was "The Misguided Halo" an exceedingly funny story about a man who has been mistakenly made a saint. It's been a long time since a sixteen-page short story made me laugh uncontrollably at least three times. I also particularly enjoyed "The Big Night," an adventure tale set in a time when a romantic era of space travel is being supplanted by new technology, and "Absalom" about a brilliant parent who faces the prospect of show more being eclipsed by his even more brilliant son. My least favorite was "The Proud Robot," which was no doubt a groundbreaking "man-robot relationship" tale of its day, but which failed for me on multiple levels.

The strangest thing about this book (and the forward by Ray Bradbury) is its complete avoidance of any acknowledgement that virtually everything Kuttner wrote after 1940 was co-authored with his wife, C.L. Moore. show less

An anthology of Kuttner's short fiction, including 2 Hogben stories (Exit the Professor and Cold War), along with 15 other stories which include Mimsy Were the Borogroves, The Twonky, and Or Else.

The stories are quite dated - the 40s and 50s as can be deduced from the domestic settings of the stories, but this doesn't detract from the story concept. The other thing that dates the stories is that technology is analogue. About the main SF element in the various stories is time travel (and to a lesser extent what would now fall into urban fantasy - pixies and the like, and the Hogben family).

An interesting read; I enjoyed dipping into the stories, but they do rather jar on modern sensibilities. Quite apart from the female characters being show more largely wives and mothers, they all smoke like chimneys and drink like fish. show less

Mimsy Were the Borogroves, 4 stars
A Wonderful story about a box of "toys," from somewhere else in time, that a 7 year old boy picks up and brings home and shares with his 2-year-old sister. Since the toys are from somewhere else in time, they teach the children what the children from somewhere else in time learn. How to go to another dimension?
It was kind of weird how the mother had no other job than to make cocktails for her husband. And a professor from the University made enough money for them to have a full-time maid.

Two-handed Engine, 2 stars
In the future, mankind has lost his conscience; he can no longer feel any love for his fellow mankind. So, robots decide by themselves, that in order for mankind to survive (because they're show more killing each other off), they need to be mankind's conscience. Thus, if you kill another man, very soon a robot called a Fury will begin to follow you. You will never be able to lose him, and other people will be staring at you, knowing that your time is short, when the robot will kill you. This is a deterrent for crime.
Kind of lame story, and also slightly reminiscent of The Minority Report.

The Proud Robot, 2 stars
Rather unlikely tale about an inventor who drinks so much, I don't know how he stands up, and his can-opener robot.
Listen to how the top most popular studio is run:
" 'televisors are installed free. We never sell 'em; we rent them. People pay according to how many hours they have the set tuned in. We run a continuous show, stage plays, wire-tape films, operas, orchestras, singers, vaudeville--everything. If you use your televisor a lot, you pay proportionately. The man comes around once a month and reads the meter. Which is a fair system. Anybody can afford a Vox-View. Sonatone and the other companies do the same thing, but Sonatone's the only big competitor I've got. At least, the only one that's crooked as hell. The rest of the boys -- they're smaller than I am, but I don't step on their toes. Nobody's ever called me a louse,' Brock said darkly."

The Misguided Halo, 2 stars
The best thing about this story was the dog:
" 'hello, Filthy, said Young. 'Morning.'
He was not addressing his wife. A small and raffish Scotty had made its appearance, capering hysterically about its Master's feet, and going into a fit of sheer madness when the man pulled its hairy ears. The raffish Scotty flung its head sideways upon the carpet and skated about the room on its muzzle, uttering strangled squeaks of delight. Growing tired of this at last, the Scotty, whose name was Filthy McNasty, began thumping its head on the floor with the apparent intention of dashing out its brains, if any."
Adorable.

The Voice of the Lobster, 1 star
Misogynistic.
"At the first convenient doorway McDuff paused and looked at Ao. She was worth looking at. She stood in the doorway, thinking of nothing at all. She didn't have to think of anything. She was too beautiful." show less