The Mammoth Book of Classic Science Fiction: Short Novels of the 1930's

Asimov's 'The Mammoth Book Of...' series

by Mike Ashley (Editor), Charles G. Waugh (Editor), Martin H. Greenberg (Editor)

The Mammoth Book of Classic Science Fiction: Short Novels of the 1930's
Contents:
Introduction: Science Fiction Finds Its Voice by Isaac Asimov;
* The Shadow Out of Time / H. P. Lovecraft;
* A Matter of Form / Horace L. Gold;
* Jane Brown’s Body / Cornell Woolrich;
* Who Goes There? [as by Don A. Stuart] / John W. Campbell, Jr.;
* Sidewise in Time / Murray Leinster;
* Alas, All Thinking! / Harry Bates;
* Seeker of Tomorrow / Eric Frank Russell, Leslie J. Johnson; Johnson given as Leslie T.
* Dawn of Flame / Stanley G. Weinbaum;
* Divide and Rule / L. Sprague de Camp;
* Wolves of Darkness / Jack Williamson.

Within "The Mammoth Book Of..." series, the first of Asimov's 6 book anthology series, highlighting science fiction thru the 30's (Classic), 40's (Golden Age), 50's (Vintage), 60's (New World), 70's (Fantastic) and 80's (Modern).

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies

572 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Michael Raymond Donald Ashley is the author and editor of over sixty books that in total have sold over a million copies worldwide. He lives in Chatham, Kent.

Reviews

[Stephanie Ricker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oy, very much a mixed bag of novellas here. I dispute the validity of "classic" in the title. Short reviews of each story below:

--The Shadow out of Time by HP Lovecraft: 4 stars, typical Lovecraft in that the buildup is the best part, but overall quite good.
--A Matter of Form by Horace L. Gold: 2 stars, never did solve the problems it creates, everything just magically resolves at the end. Rampant abuse of adverbs.
--Jane Brown's Body by Cornell Woolrich: 3,5 stars. Intriguing, fairly well written, but certainly not overly concerned with realism.
--Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell, Jr.: 5 stars. Supremely excellent scifi/horror, masterfully created atmosphere. By far the best of the bunch.
--Sidewise in Time by Murray Leinster: 2.5 stars, interesting premise but ultimately anticlimatic with extremely annoying, flat characters.
--Alas, All Thinking by Harry Bates: 1 star. What the heck?? I don't even know where to start. Frame narrative is totally unnecessary and boring, main character is a psychopath, somehow everyone in the story thinks murder is funny. Author also wrote the short story upon which the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still was based.
--Seeker of Tomorrow by Eric Frank Russell and Leslie T. Johnson: 2 stars. Again with the useless frame narrative. Such a forgetable time travel story that I've already forgotten it.
--Dawn of Flame by Stanley G. Weinbaum: 3.5 stars. This one has a lot of potential, and I feel like a novel series could be set in this universe easily. The characters seemed much more interesting in this, but I admit it could be because so many of the ones in the stories that came before were atrociously dull.
--Divide and Rule by L. Sprague de Camp: 2 stars. Interesting premise, but the second half of the story was just unremittingly dumb.
--Wolves of Darkness by Jack Williamson: 2 stars. Mediocre werewolf story that felt like it stole heavily from Lovecraft.

[Cheryl]

P'raps esp. for Leinster's alt-history, called 'seminal' by some, Sidewise in Time.

[Monique Truter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Every story that did not have a female character, was good. Everytime a female character did appear, she was almost always written terribly and made the story, worse because of it.

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some good stuff in here, even if the tone of most stories feels very dated (to me, anyway). Women, in particular, do not make a great showing in any of these, and what was inventive futuristic science at the time is not so much today. However, as Asimov points out in his introduction, these stories were brilliantly inventive for the time, and some of them still feel fresh. The original story that inspired the Thing (Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell, Jr.) is great, A Matter of Form by Horace L. Gold and Divide and Rule by L. Sprague de Camp both still felt original and fun. All in all, a good read for fans of sci-fi history as well as sci-fi, and the short-story set-up made this easy and enjoyable to read on my lunch hour.