First published 1966. Faber paperback, 1975, pp 252, c.85,000 words.
The sixth volume of science fiction stories edited by Crispin contains work by some of the masters of the genre: names like Ray Bradbury, J. G. Ballard, Brian Aldiss, James Blish, Fredrick Pohl. There are fourteen stories here, each by a different author, and there isn’t a dud amongst them.
The Waitabits by Eric Frank Russell is the standout. Earth is trying to conquer all the galaxy but comes unstuck when they come across a planet with a very unusual feature. A very clever and very funny story, beautifully told.
Aldiss’s contribution is Old Hundredth, an elegiac tale from the end of the Earth, evoking a mysterious time in the far future when civilisation is dying. There is no cataclysm, simply a finely evoked fading with a cleverly realised, recognisable, but strangely distorted Earth. A haunting tale.
Ballard focuses his story of the consequences of a teeming, over-populated planet on the lives of a few individuals, presenting us with a nightmare vision. This was a common theme of science fiction of the period, and Ballard is well known for his dystopian novels.
Kuttner’s is one of the longest stories in this collection. It is an action piece with spaceships. However it is the subtle way plans come undone that lifts this well out of the ranks of pulp stories.
Blish’s contribution is about creativity and what constitutes a work of art. Crispin rates his ability to write about music very highly, and he should know as he was also a composer of substance as well as editor of science fiction anthologies.
Crispin introduces each story with a paragraph, and these explain why he chose the story and how it fits within science fiction and more widely. They are not didactic, more like the opinion of a well-informed friend who wants you to appreciate these stories as much as he does. It is a very fine collection indeed.
© William John Graham, May 2022