Last Friday, September 16, was the first day of the Planned Parenthood book sale and it will continue through Sunday, September 25. We went to the book sale on both Friday and Saturday. (And we will go back again tomorrow, and Saturday and Sunday.)
My goal this year was to cut back on short story book purchases, since I have so many, both in print editions and on the Kindle. Yet I went ahead and purchased these three books for various reasons. I have not sampled any of them yet. So, here they are.
MASH UP: Stories Inspired by Famous First Lines
Gardner Dozois (Editor)
This is an anthology of science fiction and fantasy stories. The subtitle describes the theme. Each author picked a first line of a favorite classic and use it as a first line in a short story. There are thirteen stories in the 400 page book, and each one is around 30 pages in length. My son found this book for me, and I am glad he did.
Isaac Asimov Presents the Golden Years of Science Fiction: Third Series
Isaac Asimov & Martin H. Greenberg (Editors)
This anthology is 633 pages, with 20 short stories and novellas by various authors from 1943-1944. Each story is preceded by short introduction by Asimov and Greenberg.
In this case the authors are not listed on the cover, so I will include a list of the stories, from the Goodreads summary:
- The Cave by P. Schuyler Miller
- The Halfling by Leigh Brackett
- Mimsy Were the Borogoves by Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore [as Lewis Padgett]
- Q.U.R. by Anthony Boucher
- Clash by Night by Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore [as Lawrence O'Donnell]
- Exile by Edmond Hamilton
- Daymare by Fredric Brown
- Doorway into Time by C. L. Moore
- The Storm by A.E. van Vogt
- The Proud Robot by Henry Kuttner [as Lewis Padgett]
- Symbiotica by Eric Frank Russell
- The Veil of Astellar by Leigh Brackett
- City by Clifford D. Simak
- Arena by Frederic Brown
- Huddling Place by Clifford D. Simak
- Kindness by Lester Del Rey
- Desertion by Clifford D. Simak
- When the Bough Breaks by Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore [as Lewis Padgett]
- Killdozer! by Theodore Sturgeon
- No Woman Born by C.L. Moore
A Rare Benedictine
by Ellis Peters, Clifford Harper (Illustrator)
This last book contains only three short stories, from the Brother Cadfael series by Ellis Peters. I already had a copy of this in paperback, but I jumped at the opportunity to get this hardback copy, mainly for greater ease of reading. It also is enhanced by lovely illustrations, so I am doubly happy to have it. My husband found this book for me; I am very grateful that he did.
11 comments:
I had to laugh at you buying so many books of short stories. Snap. I am so prone to this. You'd think that was all I read which is so not true. I looked at my autumn shelf the other day and realised I'd put more anthologies on there than I'll ever manage to read. That said, I'm ploughing through two at the moment, H.G. Wells and a British Library 'wierd stories' collection. Ooooh! I don't think I knew there was a volume of 3 Cadfael stories. I must not go and look for this... I must not go and look for this... I must not...
These all look really interesting, Tracy. I'll have to tell my husband (he's our resident SciFi reader) about the Asimov. He's an Asimov fan, so he might already have read it, but I'll mention it. And I do like the Brother Cadfael character. I hope you'll like all of these when you get to them.
Wow! Three winners! I haven't seen MASH-UP before so I'll be tracking that anthology down. I read the Asimov years ago but remember it fondly.
A nice haul. The Asimov/Greenberg is a hardcover omnibus of two anthologies, one each drawing on sf published in '43 and in '44 (surprise!), published initially as paperback originals. If Goodreads ever fails you with contents, ISFDB can come to your rescue...for example, for this "instant remainder" volume, you get this linked TOC, with links to the original publication sites and a selection of other books and magazines that might've reprinted the story in question over the years: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?15756
3 • Introduction (Isaac Asimov Presents The Golden Years of Science Fiction: Third Series) • essay by uncredited
11 • The Cave • (1943) • novelette by P. Schuyler Miller
30 • The Halfling • [Earth (Brackett)] • (1943) • novelette by Leigh Brackett
57 • Mimsy Were the Borogoves • (1943) • novelette by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore [as by Lewis Padgett]
91 • Q. U. R. • [Quinby's Usuform Robots] • (1943) • short story by Anthony Boucher
113 • Clash by Night • [Keeps • 1] • (1943) • novella by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore [as by Lawrence O'Donnell]
172 • Exile • (1943) • short story by Edmond Hamilton
178 • Daymare • (1943) • novelette by Fredric Brown
219 • Doorway Into Time • (1943) • short story by C. L. Moore
238 • The Storm • [Mixed Men] • (1943) • novelette by A. E. van Vogt
271 • The Proud Robot • [Gallegher (Henry Kuttner)] • (1943) • novelette by Henry Kuttner [as by Lewis Padgett]
306 • Symbiotica • [Jay Score / Marathon • 3] • (1943) • novelette by Eric Frank Russell
352 • The Veil of Astellar • [The Asteroid Belt] • (1944) • novelette by Leigh Brackett
381 • City • [City] • (1944) • novelette by Clifford D. Simak
409 • Arena • (1944) • novelette by Fredric Brown
438 • Huddling Place • [City] • (1944) • short story by Clifford D. Simak
457 • Kindness • (1944) • short story by Lester del Rey
473 • Desertion • [City] • (1944) • short story by Clifford D. Simak
486 • When the Bough Breaks • (1944) • novelette by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore [as by Lewis Padgett]
513 • Killdozer! • (1944) • novella by Theodore Sturgeon
584 • No Woman Born • (1944) • novella by C. L. Moore
Cath, books of short stories are so tempting, especially as e-books, because you can sample an authors' writing. Although I have found that some authors write differently in short stories than in longer fiction. And short stories on the Kindle I can read more easily than novels.
I have read mixed reviews on the three short stories about Cadfael but I am sure that they are worth trying.
Margot, I was especially interested in the books of science fiction and fantasy short stories because I don't have that many anthologies of those genres. And some of the authors in the Asimov anthology were of interest.
George, I think the stories in MASH UP will be interesting, and some authors there I haven't heard of before. I will be on the look out for more of the Isaac Asimov anthologies.
Todd, thanks for supplying that additional information from ISFDB. I do love how the information about year the story was originally published and novella vs. novelette vs. short story is added. Sometimes I have problems searching there, but if I used it more regularly I am sure I would do better.
This year I have hardly looked at paperbacks at the book sale because I have a real problem with the small print. But I am sure I will get around to them before the sale ends.
That is indeed part of what makes anthologies and fiction magazines still interesting to me, it the days where I'll never read everything I have a copy of...one never knows what one will find. The short story I've just finished reading is apparently the only published story by its probably reasonably young Australian writer, which desperately needed editing and another draft to get to anything like professional-level work, and that might well be why he (apparently) never published again, while perhaps wondering why his first Got Through (a hole in the issue that needed filling ASAP?). So, even less than stellar work can be of some interest.
I need my reading glasses nowadays for typical pb small print from the bad old days of cheap pb binding...that and not wanting to break those bindings encourage Other Means of reading certain texts, indeed...
Todd, some of the older anthologies I have include a lot of authors I am not familiar with, and sometimes that means I discover a new author. And often the quality of a story bears no relation to whether the author is well known or not. So reading short stories can be adventurous for me.
Most small print I can only read with a lot of extra lighting, plus my glasses. It makes using an e-reader much more attractive than it used to be but I cannot do that at night and nighttime is my favorite time to read.
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