Amis, Kingsley (Editor) - Spectrum, an anthology Tailored OCR

322 Pages·2017·16.64 MB·English

SPECTRUM I
'One of the premier series of anthologies.,
Books and Bookmen
'In Spectrum, two intelligent authors of the modern
generation - both poets and prose writers whose
success has been in other fields of literature - have,
in effect, made a selection of science fiction to con
vince the disbeliever of the quality of this writing.
May I say that no one should ever condemn SF - or
even sneer at it - until they have read Spectrum. After
they have read it I do not believe they can do either.'
John Arlott, BBC
Also available in Pan Books
SPECTRUM II
CONDITIONS OF SALE
This book shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out
or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of
binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without u similar
condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
The book is published at a net price, and is supplied subject to the Publishers
Association Standard Conditions of Sale registered under the Restrictive Trade
Practices Act, 1956,
SPECTRUM I
A Science Fiction Anthology
edited by
KINGSLEY AMIS.
and
ROBERT CONQUEST
0
00
UNABRIDGED
PAN BOOKS LTD: LONDON
First published 1961 by Victor 'Gollancz Ltd.
This edition published 1964 by Pan Books Ltd.,
33 Tothill Street, London S.W.l
ISBN 0 330 02711 5
2nd Printing 1964
3rd Printing 1971
© Kingsley Amis and Robert Conquest, 1961
Printed in Great Britain by Richard Clay (The Chaucer Press), Ltd.,
· Bungay, Suffolk
CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION 9
THE MIDAS PLAGUE Frederik Pohl 13
LIMITING FACTOR Clifford D. Si"mak 71
THE EXECUTIONER Algis Budrys 87
NuLL-P William Tenn 125
THE HOMING INSTINCT OF JOE VARGO
Stephen Barr 137
SPECIAL FLIGHT John Berryman 157
INANIMATE OBJECTION H. Chandler Elliott 201
PILGRIMAGE TO EARTH Robert Sheckley 219
UNHUMAN SACRIFICE Katherine MacLean 231
BY HIS BOOTSTRAPS Robert A. Heinlein 263

ACKNO\VLED GEM ENT S
These stories are copyright by their authors and
The lvfidas Plague, which first appeared in Galaxy, 1951,
by the Galaxy Publishing Corporation.
Limiting Factor, which first appeared in Startling
Stories, 1949, by Better Publications Ltd.
The Executioner, which first appeared in Astounding
Science Fi'ction, 1955, by Street and Smith Publi
cations Inc.
Null-P, which first appeared in Worlds Beyond, 1951,
by Hillman Periodicals Inc. (and by permission of
Scott Meredith Literary Agency Inc.).
The Homing Instinct ofJ oe Vargo, which first appeared
in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction,
1959, by Mercury Press Inc.
Special Flight, which first appeared in Astounding
Science Fiction, 1939, by Street and Smith Publica
tions Inc.
Inanimate Object£on, which first appeared in Galaxy,
1954, by Galaxy Publishing Corporation.
Pilgrimage to Earth, which first appeared in Playboy,
1956, by HMH Publishing Co. Inc.
Unhuman Sacrifice, which first appeared in Astounding
Science Fiction, 1952, by Street and Smith Publi
cations Inc.
By His Bootstraps, which first appeared in Astounding
Science Fiction, 1941, by Street and Smith Publi
cations Inc.
Their light of pocket-torch, of signal flare,
Licks at the edge of unsuspected places,
While others scan, under an arc-lamp's glare
Nursery, kitchen sink, or their own faces.
INTRODUCTION
0 NE o F the editors of this collection recently published a
book about science fiction.* Its reviewers divided sharply into
two classes. Some, though they often disagreed with what was
said, showed intimate and appreciative knowledge of the sub
ject. Others had clearly read little or nothing in this field,
without feeling this to be a bar to judging it as a whole: 'I
readily admit that I have not read many of these lucubrations,'
wrote one such on the book page of a glossy weekly, 'but I am
sure that I have read enough to disagree with Mr Amis ... I
am sure that the claims he makes for them are much too wide.'
We wannly support the idea that people should not read
what they do not like. On the other hand, those prone to make
authoritative-sounding pronouncements on science fiction in
clude professional academics who claim the whole of litera
ture as their subject, and whose own standards should have
compelled them to read it in bulk. At the more straightfor
wardly journalistic level, the matter can perhaps be summed
up by remarking that a useful qualification for reviewing a
book on Georgian cutlery is the ability to tell a knife from a
fork.
However, it is to the habitual non-reader that prefaces of
this sort are mainly directed. The science-fiction fan, after a
quick skim, will simply go ahead with the stories, condemning
(with the hearty agreement of one of the editors) the repre
sentation of Author A by a particular piece, or (with the firm
support of the other) the inclusion of anything at all by B:
such is collaboration. But, before the fan leaves us, let us say
something to all parties about the particular contents of this
book.
First of all, we have not tried to make a collection of writing
that uses methods, techniques or modes of treatment familiar
to the reader of general fiction. That is, we have not selected
a team with a view to its being able to compete, on their own
ground and under local rules, with 'short story writers' of the
* New Afaps of Hell, by Kingsley Amis, 1960, Gollancz, London,
1961.
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