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The Star Beast and Other Stories
 
 

The Star Beast and Other Stories [Kindle Edition]

Damon Knight
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Product Description

Six vintage stories from Science Fiction Grand Master, Damon Knight. First published in the 1940s & 50s, these stories show his diversity from galactic adventure to nihilistic philosophy.

Doorway to Kal-Jmar—Two men had died before Syme Rector's guns to give him the key to the ancient city of Kal-Jmar—a city of untold wealth, and of robots that made desires instant commands.

The Beachcomber—Alice saw the Beachcomber as a glorious hunk of man; Maxwell saw him as a super being from the future. Tragically, he was both!

The Star Beast—They called this strange tentacle-headed blob that had floundered into the System Oscar. They were to learn a better name.

The Worshipers—Destiny reached out a hand to Algernon Weaver—but he was a timid man, at first. But on the strange world of Terranova, there was much to be learned—of destiny, and other things....

Blackout— A short short story that mentions Charles Fort. And it has an idea as strange as any conjectured by Mr. Fort.

The Earth Quarter—The Niroi permitted refugees from Earth to live in their cramped little ghetto conditionally: that they do so peacefully. But there will always be patriotic fanatics, like Harkway and Rack, who must disturb the peace ...

Product Details

  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 195 KB
  • Publisher: Wonder Publishing Group (March 18, 2010)
  • Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B003CYLCXK
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • Lending: Enabled
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #222,669 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
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Customer Reviews

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Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Now this is fun, September 5, 2011
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This review is from: The Star Beast and Other Stories (Kindle Edition)
Enjoy this book. Even after all this time, each story is thought provoking and entertaining--even topical. I had a good time reading this, and know that I'll return now and then for a good chuckle.
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4.0 out of 5 stars Science Fiction Noir, December 27, 2010
By 
Elliot (Irvine, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Star Beast and Other Stories (Kindle Edition)
By the 1940s, the cynical, fatalistic style of literature we now call "noir" was well-established in the crime/mystery genre, but was still a a rarity in science fiction. These six early stories by famed science fiction author-critic-editor Damon Knight are an exception-- his characters may battle their fate, but can never overcome it.

Knight's characters are a varied lot: a criminal seeking to pull off the greatest heist in the solar system; a missionary trying to bring God to the inhabitants of an alien world; a time traveller from the far future trying to save the future earth; the crew of a space ship trying to solve a murder on board the ship. What ties them all together is the ultimate futility of their efforts, no matter how ingenious or well-intentioned. In fact, all of the stories in this anthology can be summed up with a quote from one of them: "When every action led to disaster, those who did nothing were damned equally with those who acted."

The longest story in this collection, "The Earth Quarter" (1955), turns all of science fiction's Golden Age optimism on its head. Humanity achieves interstellar travel only to discover that we are the only violent, aggressive species in the galaxy; humans become interplanetary pariahs, crowded into ghettos on other planets so that we will not infect other species with our violence.

This is not a long anthology-- five short stories (one of them very short) and one novelette-- but the quality of the writing is very high and the anthology is well-formatted for the Kindle, with no typos, good navigation and bibliographic information about the date and place of original publication of each of the stories.
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