Tales from Super-Science Fiction - Hardcover

Robert Silverberg; James Gunn; A. Bertram Chandler (as George Whitely); Robert Bloch; Jack Vance; Robert Moore Williams; J. F. Bone; Daniel F. Galoyue

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1893887480 ISBN 13: 9781893887480

Publisher: Haffner Press, 2012

Synopsis

Table of Contents Introduction by Robert Silverberg "Catch 'em All Alive" by Robert Silverberg "Who Am I?" by Henry Slesar "Every Day is Christmas" by James E. Gunn "I'll Take Over" by A.Bertram Chandler "Song of the Axe" by Don Berry "Broomstick Ride" by Robert Bloch "Worlds of Origin" by Jack Vance "The Tool of Creation" by J.F. Bone "I Want to Go Home" by Robert Moore Williams "Hostile Life-Form" by Daniel L. Galouye "The Gift of Numbers" by Alan E. Nourse "First Man in a Satellite" by Charles W. Runyon "A Place Beyond the Stars" by Tom Godwin "The Loathsome Beasts" by Dan Malcolm (aka Silverberg)

About this title

About the Author:

Robert Silverberg has won five Nebula Awards, four Hugo Awards, and the prestigious Prix Apollo. He is the author of more than one hundred science fiction and fantasy novels -- including the best-selling Lord Valentine trilogy and the classics Dying Inside and A Time of Changes -- and more than sixty nonfiction works. Among the sixty-plus anthologies he has edited are Legends and Far Horizons, which contain original short stories set in the most popular universe of Robert Jordan, Stephen King, Ursula K. Le Guin, Gregory Benford, Greg Bear, Orson Scott Card, and virtually every other bestselling fantasy and SF writer today. Mr. Silverberg's Majipoor Cycle, set on perhaps the grandest and greatest world ever imagined, is considered one of the jewels in the crown of speculative fiction.

Review:

Knowledgeably compiled and deftly edited with introductory comments by the renowned science fiction author Robert Silverberg, "Tales from Super-Science Fiction" is a 400-page compendium showcasing fourteen of the best sci-fi stories by some of the best authors from the all-to-brief glory days of science fiction pulp magazine 'Super-Science Fiction' which was a bi-monthly publication that ran from December 1955 to October 1959. Beginning with Robert Silverberg's 'Catch 'Em All Alive' and 'The Loathsome Beasts'; to Robert Bloch's Broomstick Ride' and Alan E. Nourse's 'The Gift Of Numbers', all the stories comprising this outstanding anthology are timeless entertainments. Of special note are the faithfully reproduced magazine covers in full color in the end papers. A true treasure, "Tales from Super-Science Fiction" is enthusiastically recommended to any and all science fiction fans and for community library Fantasy & Science Fiction collections. --Midwest Book Review

Fans of old-fashioned science fiction will delight in this collection of stories from a relatively unknown 1950s pulp magazine. Super-Science Fiction only ran for 18 issues, but for young authors like Silverberg (now a SFWA Grand Master), the magazine s princely two-cents-a word rate was a gold mine. Silverberg stories bookend the collection: Catch em All Alive, the first story from the first issue, highlights editor W.W. Scott s enthusiasm for exploration-team adventure stories, while The Loathsome Beasts follows the magazine s switch to monster stories, piggybacking on 1950s America s love for monster movies. Robert Bloch s Broomstick Ride reveals a blasted heath complete with witches on an alien world. Worlds of Origin by Jack Vance is a dramatic tale of murder and mystery. James E. Gunn s Every Day Is Christmas sharply satirizes the consumerist impulse. These stories, illustrated with artwork by pulp luminaries like Frank Kelly Freas and Ed Emshwiller, reveal the promise of many now-famous authors at the start of their careers. --Publishers Weekly

Super-Science featured stories by well known authors. Not often the superstars no sign of Heinlein, Bradbury, or Arthur C. Clarke in its pages. The magazine did manage to snag at least one story by Isaac Asimov (omitted from the present anthology) and Jack Vance (his story, happily, is included in the book). But issue after issue there would be stories by the likes of James Gunn, Tom Godwin, Alan E. Nourse. They weren t ground-breaking works and they weren t their authors best efforts. Silverberg reports that Super-Science paid 2¢ a word pretty good rates for the Eisenhower Era . . . The publisher of Super-Science Fiction tried to jump on the bandwagon of monster magazines that had begun with Forrest J. Ackerman s Famous Monsters of Filmland, emphasizing the monster aspect of the stories in each issue. But the tactic failed, and Super-Science Fiction disappeared. Its eighteenth and final issue was dated October, 1959. During its eighteen-issue run Super-Science sported covers by Kelly Freas and Ed Emshwiller, both of them highly respected for their work for magazines higher on the food chain. The Haffner Press anthology features an eye-catching Freas cover, recycled from the August, 1958 issue, and a wonderful array of cover reproductions as its end papers . . . Tales from Super-Science Fiction is a first rate revisiting of a minor but still noteworthy chapter in science fiction history. --Richard A. Lupoff, Locus Magazine

About this edition

• Publisher: Haffner Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1893887480
• ISBN 13: 9781893887480
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400
• Editor: Robert Silverberg
• Illustrator: Frank Kelly Freas