The Arbor House treasury of science fiction masterpieces

554 Pages·1983·10.34 MB·English

by  compiled by Robert Silverberg and Martin H. Greenberg.

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PIECES
INTRODUCTlON BY
ROBERT SILVERBERG
COMPILED BY
ROBERT SILVERBERG
and MARTIN H. GREENBERG

r.L Pollock
Rlldyarcl Kipling Poul Alldenon
M.P. Shiel Cordwainer Smith
Julian Huxley Alfred Bester
Jack Williamson Theodore Sturgeon
Miles J. Breuer rred Saberhagen
Harry Bates Barry rt. Malzberg
Stanley G. Weinbaum Arthur C. Clarke
P. Schuyler Miller James Tlptree, Jr.
Clifford D. Slmak Joanna Russ
Murray Lelnster Michael Kurland
Peter Phillips Robert Silverberg
Gregory Benford Carter Scholz
Isaac Aslmov Ursula K. I.e Guin
ISBN: 0-677~5-~~5-3
BOOKS BY ROBERT SILVERBERG
WORLD OF A THOUSAND COLORS
MAIIPOOR CHRONICLES
LoRD VALENTINE'S CASTLE
DYING INSIDE
THE BooK OF SKULLS
THE STOCHASTIC MAN
NIGHTWINGS
SHADRACH IN THE FURNACE
BOOKS EDITED BY ROBERT SILVERBERG WITH MARTIN H. GREENBERG
THE ARBOR HOUSE TREASURY OF MODERN SCIENCE FICTION
THE ARBOR HOUSE TREASURY OF GREAT SCIENCE FICTION SHORT NOVELS
OTHER BOOKS EDITED BY MARTIN H. GREENBERG
THE ARBOR HOUSE TREASURY OF GREAT WESTERN STORIES
(WITH BILL PRONZINI)
THE ARBOR HousE CELEBRITY BooK oF HoRROR STORIES.
(WITH CHARLES G. WAUGH)
ToMORRow. INc.-SF STORIES ABOUT BIG BusiNESS
RUN TO STARLIGHTo SPORTS THROUGH SCIENCE FICTION
THE ARBOR HOUSE
TREASURY OF
SCIENCE
FICTION
MASTERPIE(_£~
ROBERT SILV ERj
COMPILED BY
ANnMARTIN H. GREENE-
•
ARBOR HOUSE r,,,.k
.\'t>ll
Copyright C> 1983 by Agberg, Ltd. and Martin H. Greenberg
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
Published in the United States of America by Arbor House Publishing Company and in
Canada by Fitzhenry & Whiteside, Ltd.
Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number:
83-074065
ISBN: 0-87795-445-3
Manufactured in the United States of America
10987654321
This book is printed on acid free paper. The paper in this book meets the guidelines for
pennanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity
of the Council on Library Resources.
CONTENTS
MELLONTA TAUTA EDGAR ALLAN PoE II
IN THE YEAR 2889 JULES VERNE 21
SOLD TO SATAN MARK TWAIN 32
THE NEW ACCELERATOR H. G. WELLS 39
FINIS FRANK LILLIE POLLACK 49
AS EASY AS A.B.C. RUDYARD KIPLING 58
DARK LOT OF ONE SAUL M. P. SHIEL 78
R.U.R. KAREL CAPEK 96
THE TISSUE-CULTURE KING JULIAN HuxLEY 144
THE METAL MAN JACK WILLIAMSON 160
THE GOSTAK AND THE DOSHES MILES J. BREUER 169
ALAS, ALL THINKING HARRY BATES 182
THE MAD MOON STANLEY G. WEINBAUM 210
AS NEVER WAS P. SCHUYLER MILLER 227
DESERTION CLIFFORD D. SIMAK 239
THE STRANGE CASE OF JOHN KINGMAN MvRRA y LEINSTER 249
DREAMS ARE SACRED PETER PHILLIPS 261
MISBEGOTTEN MISSIONARY ISAAC ASIMOV "!.79
DUNE ROLLER JULIAN MAY 291
WARM ROBERT SHECKLEY 321
A BAD DAY FOR SALES FRITZ LEIBER 328
MAN OF PARTS H. L. GoLD 334
THE MAN WHO CAME EARLY PouL ANDERSON 344
THE BURNING OF THE BRAIN CoRDWAINER SMITH 363
THE MEN WHO MURDERED MOHAMMED ALFRED BESTER 371
THE MAN WHO LOST THE SEA THEODORE STL"RGEO~ 381
GOODLIFE FRED SABERHAGEN 39 I
THE SLICED-CROSSWISE ONLY-ON-TUESDAY WORLD
PHILIP JOSE FARMER 408
GEHENNA BARRY N. MALZBERG 4~0
A MEETING WITH MEDUSA ARTHL'R C. CLARKE 4~4
PAINWISE JAMES TIPTREE. JR. 455
NOBODY'S HOME JoANNA Rl'SS 4"ll
THINK ONLY THIS OF ME MICHAEL KL'RLANO 4~~
CAPRICORN GAMES ROIIERT SIL \"ERBERG 4'l'l
THE AUTHOR OF THE ACACIA SEEDS AND OTHER
EXTRACTS FROM THE JOURNAL OF THE ASSOCIATION
OF THEROLINGUISTICS URSULA K. LE GUIN 513
TRAVELS CARTER SCHOLZ 519
DOING LENNON GREGORY BENFORD 528
INTRODUCTION
SCIENCE FICTION, once a relatively obscure branch of the American pulp
magazine fiction industry, has risen since the end of World War U to a major
position in the global consciousness. First the atomic bomb, then jet planes, color
television, the electronic computer and a host of other technological innovations,
all foretold in one manner or another by science fiction writers, drew attention to
this innovative field of fiction. By the coming of the ftrst voyages into space in
the 1960s science fiction was firmly established in the public awareness. Today it
is not at all unusual to find two or three science fiction novels on the bestseller
lists-a situation that would have been unthinkable a generation ago, when science
fiction was published only in garish little magazines with names like Thrilling
Wonder Stories and Astounding Science Fiction.
Paradoxically, though, this very new publishing phenomenon is actually one of
the oldest forms of literature, going back to the earliest days of the storyteller"s
art. Certainly in ancient Greece and Rome, and probably in Sumer. and, for all we
know, in the caves of the Cro-Magnon folk as well, it was a customary form of
delight to propose hypotheses and suppositions about the mysteries that lay beyond
the current horizon of knowledge-to speculate. to ask. "What if?"
And so the ancient Mesopotamian king Gilgamesh went looking for the secret
of immortality, in what may be the oldest science fiction story that has survived
to our times. Homer sang of the strange monsters and ensorcelled isles in the far
comers of the Mediterranean. Plato, in his Timaeus and Critias. told tales of the
lost continent of Atlantis, etc. etc. The bibliography of science fiction in the classical
age and onward through medieval times to the early Industrial Era is a lengthy one.
taking in such famed works as Thomas More's Utopia. Francis Bacon's The New
Atlantis, Swift's Gulliver's Travels, Johannes Kepler's Somnium. Rostand's \!ov·
ages to the Moon and the Sun, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and on and on.
In more recent times the tradition of speculative thought in fiction was carried
on by such writers as Jules Verne and H. G. Wells. by Edward Bellamy in his
Looking Backward. by Aldous Huxley in Bra•·e New World. by George Om ell in
1984. No one would deny their works a respected place in literature; and yet it is
difficult to equate them with the gaudy and hectic adventures of space pirates and
mad robots found in the primitive science fiction magazines of mid-twentieth·
century America.
What happened. alas. was that for a time this honorable branch ,,f imaginallve
literature was captured by the purwyors of simple-minded thriller-tiction. During
the 1930s and 1940s it was largely confined to the realm of cheaply printed mag-
azines read mainly by boys, which debased the coinage, somewhat, and made
science fiction into a genre for subliterate readers. Science fiction was a long time
coming out of that unfortunate detour.
What we have attempted to do in this book, a companion to our earlier anthol
ogies, The Arbor House Treasury of Modern Science Fiction and The Arbor House
Treasury of Great Science Fiction Short Novels, has been to trace the evolution of
today's science fiction by linking the earlier "mainstream" s-f literature to the best
of the pulp-magazine work of modem writers. Since our aim was not to produce
a textbook, we have not reached back to Gilgamesh, Plato and Kepler, but instead
have set the bounds of our pastward range at Edgar Allan Poe, some hundred and
fifty years ago. From Poe to Verne to Wells, the progression is clear; and we have
carried it onward through the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth to
reveal that Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling and other writers of worldwide fame
ventured occasionally into speculative fiction. With the groundwork thus estab
lished. our book moves onward into the era of Heinlein and Asimov and Clarke
and of the finest younger science fiction writers of today, to demonstrate that there
is an unbroken line of evolution connecting the early and current traditions of
imaginative exploration of created worlds.
Our intention, though, is neither antiquarian nor primarily historical. The first
test for the inclusion of any story in this book was its value as entertainment: food
for the mind, stimulation for the questing intellect. Our hope is to have shown the
unfailingly exciting nature of the best science fiction of the last century and a half.
ROBERT SILVERBERG
MARTIN H. GREENBERG