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sfian's review
3.0
More pulpy goodness from the pen of one of SF Grand Masters, and I enjoyed the stories in this one more than in volume one.
Yes, they are dated but the writing still grabs you (if not quite as much as today's proponents) and, if you can get beyond what now seems silly, there is some genuine excitement to be found. These stories were written when the Theory of Relativity was still relatively (ahem) new and a few of the stories name-check it. The heroes are square-jawed, the women invariably pretty and, usually, at the end of the story both end up getting together.
Once again the stories are reprinted in date order and, with them being submitted to different magazines (five different ones in this volume) across a space of less than a year and a half, there are a couple of recurring themes. They come from a time when vast underground alien civilizations could exist in the Antarctic, when Martians could still invade (aggressively or benignly), when rockets could be built by individuals in their back garden, when unexplained portals could transport you to alien worlds and when scientists could create miniature planets in a lab (although Williamson himself admits that he didn't really think this one through). Space Opera is represented by the two part The Stone From The Green Star, while alien invasion, werewolves and even zombies are mashed up in The Wolves Of Darkness. Perhaps the strangest story is the endless Twelve Hours To Live, published as a competition to find an ending once Williamson's original had been rejected by the publishers. Thankfully, the appendix also reprints the winning entries.
Yes, they are dated but the writing still grabs you (if not quite as much as today's proponents) and, if you can get beyond what now seems silly, there is some genuine excitement to be found. These stories were written when the Theory of Relativity was still relatively (ahem) new and a few of the stories name-check it. The heroes are square-jawed, the women invariably pretty and, usually, at the end of the story both end up getting together.
Once again the stories are reprinted in date order and, with them being submitted to different magazines (five different ones in this volume) across a space of less than a year and a half, there are a couple of recurring themes. They come from a time when vast underground alien civilizations could exist in the Antarctic, when Martians could still invade (aggressively or benignly), when rockets could be built by individuals in their back garden, when unexplained portals could transport you to alien worlds and when scientists could create miniature planets in a lab (although Williamson himself admits that he didn't really think this one through). Space Opera is represented by the two part The Stone From The Green Star, while alien invasion, werewolves and even zombies are mashed up in The Wolves Of Darkness. Perhaps the strangest story is the endless Twelve Hours To Live, published as a competition to find an ending once Williamson's original had been rejected by the publishers. Thankfully, the appendix also reprints the winning entries.
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