Customer Reviews

AWARD SCIENCE FICTION READER: The Dancing Girl of Ganymede; The Last Evolution; The Traveling Crag; Exile of the Eons; Ship of Darkness; You'll Never Go Home Again; The Star Beast

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_Award Science Fiction Reader_ (1966) is an anthology consisting of seven short stories and novelettes: Theodore Sturgeon's "The Traveling Crag" (_Fantastic Adventures_, 1951), Arthur C. Clarke's "Exile of the Eons" (_Super Science Stories_, 1950), A.E. van Vogt's "Ship of Darkness" (_Fantasy Book #2, 1948), Clifford D. Simak's "You'll Never Go Home Again" (_Fantastic Adventures_, 1951), Leigh Brackett's "Dancing Girl of Ganymede" (_Thrilling Wonder Stories_, 1950), Poul Anderson's "The Star Beast" (_Super Science Stories_, 1950), and John W. Campbell, Jr.'s "The Last Evolution" (_Amazing_, 1932).

The anthology wins no prizes for honesty in advertising. None of the stories won an award (unless you count an editor's check). Alden H. Norton is credited as the editor, and Sam Moskowitz gives Norton a glowing tribute in his introduction. But in fact, Moskowitz ghost-edited the volumn himself. The publishers claim that none of the stories were previously published in book form. But the Clarke and the Anderson pieces were previously collected-- more than once. And the van Vogt, while not previously collected in book form, had been reprinted in _Fantastic_ in 1961 with an introduction by Moskowitz.

But what about the stories themselves? Well, there are no classics here; but most of them are fairly good pieces. The Sturgeon is about a writer with a variable personality, a clever agent, a loyal secretary, an Average American Girl, a Bat Dursten space opera, and a special place. It is more coherent than I have made it sound. The Clarke is about a dictator named the Master who gets his just desserts far too late. The van Vogt is about a big ship, big distances, and a big jump in time that dissolves into a hoary old chestnut of an ending. It is the weakest story in the collection.

The Brackett and the Anderson are stories in which the authors played upon pulp conventions-- planetary romance and space opera, respectively-- and produced something better than average. The Brackett is about a lovely alien woman who is rescued by a hero with a palindromic name. The Anderson is a reworking of Frank Stockton's "The Lady or the Tiger?" It is far more ingenious than the original. These two stories are the best in the book.

Nothing could withstand the care and the planning and the might of a beachhead from Earth. Until... The Simak story is workmanlike and carefully told. It reminded me of the lines from Kipling: "Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,/ Lest we forget-- lest we forget!" ("Recessional," stanza 1). But the ending was not quite believable to me.

The Campbell is an old space opera from the days when JWC was imitating Doc Smith and Stanley Weinbaum. But if you look closely, you can see touches of the mood writing that he was later to use in his "Don A. Stuart" pieces. It is old fashioned but readable.

Why in the _hell_ couldn't the publishers have given this collection a different title and given proper credit to the actual editor? (Moskowitz is a name more recognizable in the field than Norton.) And why couldn't they have been more straightforward about the publication history of the stories? Still, you may want to take a peek at this collection of some lesser known pieces by some famous authors.