13 Above the Night

by Groff Conklin (Editor)

Contents:

Introduction, by Groff Conklin
Founding Father, by J.F. Bone
Mating Call, by Frank Herbert
Nice Girl with Five Husbands, by Fritz Leiber
Prone, by Mack Reynolds
The Education of Tigress McCardle, by C.M. Kornbluth
Now Inhale, by Eric Frank Russell
The Back of Our Heads, by Stephen Barr
Button, Button, by Isaac Asimov
The Deep Down Dragon, by Judith Merril
The Kappa Nu Nexus, by Avram Davidson and Morton Klass
Idiot Solvant, by Gordon R. Dickson
Counter Security, by James White
The Dreistein Case, by J. Lincoln Paine

Genres: Science Fiction, Anthologies, Short Stories, Fiction

286 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 1, 1965

About the author

Edward Groff Conklin (September 6, 1904, Glen Ridge, New Jersey - July 19, 1968, Pawling, New York) was a leading science fiction anthologist. Conklin edited 41 anthologies of science fiction, wrote books on home improvement and was a freelance writer on scientific subjects. From 1950 to 1955, he was the book critic for Galaxy Science Fiction.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is yet another of Conklin's anthologies with a number in the title. It sounds like it should be a collection featuring horror or at least somewhat dark tales, but for the stories are a broad mix of traditional sf fare, with more than a few humorous pieces. A few have aged poorly, but it's still a nice selection for the most part. I most enjoyed the stories from Mack Reynolds, Frank Herbert, Isaac Asimov, Eric Frank Russell, James White, and C. M. Kornbluth. My favorite was Fritz Leiber's Nice Girl With Five Husbands.

[James Reyome · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a little gem of a book. I love the Dell paperbacks of the 60s...they are true "pocket books" that you can actually fit in a pocket. You need never be without a book!

Of course that does make this particular book almost 50 years old, so stuffing it into a convenient pocket tends to be detrimental to the cover. I had to tape and retape it to make it last. I'm glad I did, as this one is a keeper. I'd never heard of Groff Conklin, but the man apparently was quite well respected as an editor, and he did a LOT of books like this one, which my wife picked up for fifty cents at our favorite used book store. The first store was so weirdly intriguing that I had to postpone the balance of my Christmas books to read this. It was worth it!

Not a single story I had read before. And a few of the authors too. They're all good, and some of them are pretty amazing. Dated, yes, and some of them border on sexist (J F Bone's "Founding Father" being chief among them) but they're also wildly entertaining. Eric Frank Russell's "Now Inhale" is probably the most gripping of the lot, but Frank Herbert's "Mating Call" easily sweeps the board in terms of humor. A wonderful concept superbly done. "Button Button" by the inimitable Dr. Asimov is also wickedly funny.

The lesson in this book is that you shouldn't ignore the creaky, crumbly old paperbacks, because they often contain rare treasures. And fifty cents for a pocketful of wonders...well, that's just priceless. Keep your eyes open for Conklin's collections. You won't be sorry.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the title and cover art I expected this to have stories that were a darker or scarier, but many of them were fairly lighthearted and even whimsical to a degree. Regardless, I enjoyed most of them quite a bit. There were only a few I didn't really like, including a couple I didn't really get, but it was still very much a worthwhile collection. My favorite was probably "The Back of Our Heads" by Stephen Barr, in which an immortal organism observes humanity throughout history--but what is it about quantum theory? By observing something you change it... (This novelette is available on its own for Kindle for 99 cents.)

[Snood · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was disappointed by this collection. An unusually large number of the stories seemed to be comedic, which isn’t my favorite subgenre. Only Prone stuck out as particularly funny.

There were a couple standouts such as Founding Fathers, Idiot Solvant, and Counter Security, but these weren’t phenomenal by any means and I can’t say I would recommend this compared to the countless similar compilations.

[Carey Smoak · Rating 2 out of 5]

A couple of good stories by Eric Russell and Isaac Asimov. But most of the stories are ok.

[Earl Truss · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was published in 1965. Most of the stories have aged well. The first half of the stories were good but then they started to descend into silliness.