Customer Reviews

Looking forward: An anthology of science fiction

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Milton Lesser was the pseudonym of Steven Marlowe. He is represented in _Looking Forward_ (1953) with one story, "Lion's Mouth," published under his own name. When I was in eighth grade, I read novels by Lesser like _Earthbound_ (1952) and _Stadium Beyond the Stars_ (1960). I thought that Lesser was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Well, I am a bit older, now. My childhood enthusiasm for Lesser is-- shall we say-- more restrained.

But when I saw this old anthology in a used book bin, I snapped it up. I wanted to see how well Lesser did with his only science fiction anthology. Of the twenty stories in this volumn, there were only five that struck me as being really outstanding: Jack Williamson's "The Man from Outside," Lewis Padgett's "We Kill People," Raymond F. Jones's "Production Test," Ray Bradbury's "In This Sign," and Eric Frank Russell's "Ultima Thule".

The Williamson is about alien agents on Earth in the wake of atomic bomb explosions wrestling with the ethical question: What action (or inaction) should they take with those upstart humans? The Padgett involves one of the damndest forms of Murder, Inc. that I have encountered in fiction. The Jones is an old-fashioned hard sf yarn about problems with new spacesuits, though the basic cause of the problem would probably be avoided by most modern engineers. The Bradbury is a marvolous dramitization of the conflict between the desire to stay on the spiritual mountain and the demand to return to the valley of sinful men. The Russell is a warmly human account of the trials of a spaceman in deep freeze.

The other fifteen stories are solid pieces of craftsmanship that are frequently entertaining. There's not an outright clunker in the lot. There are three fairly minor tales-- the Marlowe, Robert Lowndes's "Highway," and Don Wilcox's "The Voyage that Lasted Six Hundred Years". But I can think of a number of good arguments for reprinting these three stories-- especially the Wilcox. I am glad that Lesser included them.

The remaining stories are: Chad Oliver's "Win the World," Walter M. Miller, Jr.'s "The Little Creeps," Edmond Hamilton's "Exile," Murray Leinster's "The Power," Mack Reynolds's "The Man in the Moon," Isaac Asimov's "Victory Unintentional," Poul Anderson's "The Last Monster," Jack Vance's The King of Thieves" (a Magnus Ridolph tale), John Christopher's "Man of Destiny," Lester del Rey's "Into Thy Hands," and Arthur C. Clarke's "Transience".

The editorial notes contain a few period oddities. Lesser refers to the brand new term for science fiction, _stf_ (as opposed to our equally odious modern term _sci fi_). He mentions that brand new quality movie, _Destination Moon_. And he refers to "Mr. Padgett," apparently unaware that this was a pen name of Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore. But on the balance, I believe that Milton Lesser did pretty well as an editor. Readers who like science fiction with a slightly old-fashioned flavor may enjoy this book. I do, and I did.

I loved this book as a kid just discovering sci-fi in the 70s--long out of print, and actually most of the stories are fairly forgettable. The editor's comments and story introductions are pretty wince-worthy, and the short stories range from pure pulp to a few classics. If you remember this book from child/early teenhood and are thinking of buying a used nostalgia copy, yes--it's pretty much as you remember it!