Customer Reviews

Ships in the Night, and Other Stories

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I never did see the movie "Logan's Run" because it came along in the years following my passion for science fiction. I do remember its success. I've always assumed that the author of the book that led to the film was a science fiction writer and no more, but it turns out that is not the case.

"Ships in the Night and Other Stories" demonstrates that William F. Nolan is a skilled writer in many genres, almost as many as there are stories in this book: ten. From auto racing to barnstorming, detective, mainstream, western...I found it interesting to watch a writer change faces so frequently, yet with in some sense a common voice.

The best of the stories are beautifully written, with complex endings that take you where you thought you'd never be. Nolan seems to excel at action adventure, which he often invests with psychological depth. In "Encounter with a King," for example, he puts us inside a boxer, a flashy contender, who gets kayoed because he begins to feel compassion for the great ex-champion he is taking apart. Afterward, the defeated is forced by his disgusted manager to face the awful truth--that as a pugilist he has a fatal flaw: his empathy. My favorite story of all though is "Two Coffees," in which the soul of a salesman is finally exposed fully to public view. But then I'm forgetting "The Grackel Question," the most delightfully tongue-in-cheek sci fi yarn I've yet encountered.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit and it introduced me to a fine American a writer I hadn't known--one with an amazing range. I do recommend "Ships in the Night."