Of rather uneven stylistic quality, but vast occasional power in its suggestion of lurking worlds and beings behind the ordinary surface of life, is the work of William Hope Hodgson, known today far less than it deserves to be. Despite a tendency toward conventionally sentimental conceptions of the universe, and of man’s relation to it … Continue reading William Hope Hodgson & Algernon Blackwood: Edwardian Occult Detectives
Tag Archives: Short Stories
Alexei Panshin: The “Rite Of Passage” Stories
The Ships were launched just over two hundred years ago to carry survival colonies away from an overpopulated and depleted Earth on the hysterical edge of self-destruction. Seven Ships founded some one hundred colonies. And now, all these many years later, the only movement between the stars is the seven Great Ships on eternal motherly … Continue reading Alexei Panshin: The “Rite Of Passage” Stories
T.J. Bass: The Short Stories
He stood up and walked to the still form of his assailant. A female. Her abdominal muscles were still twitching, but no breath moved through her open mouth. He felt no pulse. Between her breasts he saw his brown-stained heel print. The sternum was depressed and made gritty sounds when he palpated it. Fractured. And … Continue reading T.J. Bass: The Short Stories
More About “Anti-Agathic”
From beneath the bushy V of satanic eyebrows, Rachs’ jet eyes seemed to shower sparks at him. As usual, that immobile face was incandescent, and Toring fancied he could almost hear the creaking of a carbon-arc in the brain of his superior. The Hungarian’s incredible energies frightened, rather than soothed patrons, and for years he … Continue reading More About “Anti-Agathic”
James White: The Outlying “Sector General” Short Stories
Like a sprawling, misshapen Christmas tree the lights of Sector Twelve General Hospital blazed against the misty backdrop of the stars. From its view-ports shone lights that were yellow and red-orange and soft, liquid green, and others which were a searing actinic blue. There was darkness in places also. Behind these areas of opaque metal … Continue reading James White: The Outlying “Sector General” Short Stories
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Robert Sheckley: The AAA Ace Stories
[Gregor] pushed the list aside, found a pack of tattered cards, and laid out a hopeless solitaire of his own devising. Minutes later, Arnold stepped jauntily in. Gregor looked at his partner with suspicion. When the little chemist walked with that peculiar bouncing step, his round face beaming happily, it usually mean trouble for AAA … Continue reading Robert Sheckley: The AAA Ace Stories
Edgar Pangborn: The “Darkening World” Cycle
And still I persist in wondering whether folly must always be our nemesis. Edgar Pangborn, “My Brother Leopold” (1973) Edgar Pangborn had a great name—not enough people mention that, I feel. He’s the latest author to feature in my intermittent project of rereading classic-but-not-now-famous science-fiction stories from my formative years—the sort of stories that some … Continue reading Edgar Pangborn: The “Darkening World” Cycle
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Colin Kapp: The Unorthodox Engineers
“In my youth I thought I was the world’s worst crackpot screwball. The I met up with you and found that, in comparison, I was merely a sane, sensible, hard-working engineer. I never got over the disappointment of that realization. […]” Colin Kapp, “The Railways Up On Cannis” (1959) If you were a teenage science-fiction … Continue reading Colin Kapp: The Unorthodox Engineers
Anti-agathic
ˌæntɪəˈɡæθɪk anti-agathic: serving to prevent death; a drug that has this function This is a science fiction word. It was coined during the 1950s by James Blish as a key concept for his Cities in Flight series of novels, to designate the drugs that his characters took to give them potential immortality, allowing them to … Continue reading Anti-agathic
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Paul McAuley: The “Jackaroo” Short Stories
Ever since first contact, when the Jackaroo kicked off a global war on Earth, and swindled the survivors out of rights to most of the solar system in exchange for a basic fusion drive and access to a wormhole network linking a couple of dozen lousy M-class red dwarf stars, aliens had been tricking, bamboozling, … Continue reading Paul McAuley: The “Jackaroo” Short Stories