Page:Stirring Science Stories, March 1942.djvu/66

ally oblivious to the magnificent classics Lovecraft created. We think we ought to emphasize here and now the entire bias of this book. Mr. Stong has carefully chosen stories to represent what he considers the average rather than the exception. He has not sought for good writing; he has deliberately avoided good writing. His message throughout seems to be that the material in puip magazines is poor and infantile, more to be apolized for than upheld. To foster this impression, he left the introductory editorial remarks before the opening of stories exactly as they originally appeared, even when in some cases these are meaningless outside of the magazine's clientele. Certainly there can be no motive for that than to emphasize the "lowly" origin of these yarns and to fix that in the reader's mind. For his second section, Phil Stong draws heavily from the wilder and more elementary, type of science-fiction magazine. Here are paraded as examples of outstanding fantasy such stories as "Adam Link's Vengeance" by Eando Binder, "Truth is a Plague" by David Wright O'Brien, "A Comedy of Eras" by Kelvin Kent, "The Man Who Knew All the Answers" by oDnald Bern. These stories have no business in a book and we think the original editors and writers would admit that. They are written for a certain type of reader—a reader catered to by an elementary plot and a deliberately hack written-down style of writing. (Our authority for this opinion is the actual statements of the editor of most of them) They were certainly not intended for the audience that can afford to pay $2.50 for a book. Mr. Stong states that he considers the only criterion of good fantasy the condition that the story should be utterly impossible. Since no fantasy writer can take such an attitude and continue to sell, obviously he is expressing a private opinion which must arrive at the conclusion that since these stories are impossible nonsense, why worry about good writing? We must mention one really first rate story here: "Alas, All Thinking!" by Harry Bates. Its inclusion is all the more curious insofar as Stong states that he does not consider time-travel of interplanetary themes worth while. This "devotee" considers such stories trash. The "Strange Ideas" section does not, of course, include the real thought-variants and new twists. Some of the tales do have clever angles but we would not consider them the best examples of really startlingly original thought. Included here is the only Weinbaum story in the book: "The Adaptive Ultimate" by "John Jessel." Every editor and fan knows that John Jessel is Stanley G. Weinbaum; the great authority, of course, does not. Other stories included here are "The Considerate Hosts" by Thorp McClusky, "The House of Ecstacy" by Ralph Milne Farley, "Escape" by Paul Ernst, and "The Pipes of Pan" by Lester del Rey. We do not mind saying that in general this book makes us feel slightly nauseated. It could have been so great; it is so utterly incapable. The anthologist deliberately turned down virtually all the great weird and science-fiction, to parade a set of mediocre material. The average would be passable for a single issue of a magazine but for permanent book publication, no. Someday the classics of pulp fanatsy will get their due. That day is not yet. The publishers ask $2.50 for this book. You could buy more and better stories for a quarter that price on any newsstand. Better still, a year's subscription to Stirring Science Stories will easily be a better investment for fantasy reading pleasure.—Daw.

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