Aristotle and the Gun and Other Stories (Five Star Speculative Fiction Series) [Hardcover]

L. Sprague de Camp (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

This slim, high-quality volume contains seven vintage short pieces by the late L. Sprague de Camp and his uncredited collaborator, his wife Catherine. There are the three stories about Sir Reginald Rivers, the time-traveling big-game hunter, of which only "A Gun for a Dinosaur" is commonly reprinted. There are a humorous take on immortality, "The Gnarly Man"; a humorous twist on classic quest fantasy, "Two Yards of Dragon"; and the title story, a not-so-humorous tale of a transtemporal technological leak. Finally, there is one of the classics of sf/fantasy humor, "Nothing in the Rules," in which a mermaid enters a swimming contest. Introducing them all is Harry Turtledove, who is the closest thing to a still-writing de Camp, and his contribution matches the stories in outstanding merit. Consider this a necessary acquisition wherever all these stories aren't otherwise and for sure in the collection. And let there be more and more of their fellows, until all the de Camps' many well-chosen words are again available. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Five Star (ME); Library edition edition (August 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786243112
• ISBN-13: 978-0786243112
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,989,029 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars long out of print stories, October 25, 2004

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Aristotle and the Gun and Other Stories (Five Star Speculative Fiction Series) (Hardcover)

A short collection of decades-old tales that deserve renewed life amongst a new generation of science fiction readers. To expose them to the talent that was L Sprague de Camp, who died just recently. He had been writing continuously since before World War 2. Mostly short stories, like those in this collection.

Harry Turtledove weaves a nice editorial thread that gives some background on de Camp and his stories. Shows that Turtledove is as skilled an editor as he is an author.

4.0 out of 5 stars Back to the Future (with a Mastadon), May 23, 2006

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theboombody (Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Aristotle and the Gun and Other Stories (Five Star Speculative Fiction Series) (Hardcover)

The author of these stories seemed fond of guns. They're in five out of the seven stories in the collection. He seemed to like ancient history and time travel as well.

"A Gun for Dinosaur" is by far the best story in the book. Two other 'time traveling to hunt prehistoric animals' stories follow up after this one, bringing back the same characters to further enjoy. Unfortunately the two latter stories don't pack the same punch the first one does.

The author does a pretty good job of coming up with theories to make his science fiction plausible, especially since these stories were written so long ago. I think there were only one or two times I felt the material was technologically dated (although I did imagine the dinosaur-hunting guns shooting lasers instead of bullets). His background education in engineering served him well.

I kind of like the Aristotle story too, echoing the all-too-familiar theme of screwing up the past when you try to alter it.

I'll close by saying I got a good laugh out of the book's last story, when the knight got busted for killing a dragon without a hunting license.

4.0 out of 5 stars A pleasant read, July 3, 2005

By 

D. D Lawson (Pasadena, Calif. USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Aristotle and the Gun and Other Stories (Five Star Speculative Fiction Series) (Hardcover)

A good light read that introduces hopefully the author to a new generation of SF readers. If you like this one then go read "Lest the Darkness Fall" by the same author.