The Best of Jack Williamson

by Jack Williamson

Contents:
The Metal Man (1928)
Dead Star Station (1933)
Nonstop to Mars (1939)
The Crucible of Power (1939)
Breakdown (1942)
With Folded Hands (1947)
The Equalizer (1947)
The Peddler's Nose (1951)
The Happiest Creature (1953)
The Cold Green Eye (1953)
Operation: Gravity (1953)
Guinevere for Everybody (1955)
Jamboree (1969)
The Highest Dive (1976)

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Collections, Speculative Fiction

386 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 1, 1978

About the author

John Stewart Williamson who wrote as Jack Williamson (and occasionally under the pseudonym Will Stewart) was a U.S. writer often referred to as the "Dean of Science Fiction".

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Best of Jack Williamson is a collection that was published by Del Rey in 1978, precisely fifty years after he began writing science fiction professionally. He remained active in the field for over a quarter of a century beyond that, and it's remarkable that his career not only stretched for so long but that the quality of his work through all of those changing decades remained high. I recommend his autobiography from 1984, Wonder's Child. It's fascinating!) This book collects fourteen stories, ranging from The Metal Man from a 1928 issue of Amazing Stories to The Highest Dive from a 1976 issue of Science Fiction Monthly. The version of The Metal Man included here was slightly revised for inclusion in another collection in 1969, but it's still remarkable to see how his style and skill changed and improved across the years. With Folded Hands, his most famous and successful story, is included, and my other favorites are Guinevere for Everybody (1953) and Jamboree (1969). The nice Ralph McQuarrie cover illustrates With Folded Hands. There's a good introduction by Frederik Pohl and Williamson contributes an insightful afterword.

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ack. Very pulp, sexist, awkward, etc. Might have been interesting as historical but liberties have been taken with the 'editing': The first story was written in 1928 but refers to "fall-out shelter" and I cannot find any other pre-WWII reference to the term/ concept. "Breakdown" was an interesting exploration of the dread power of labor unions... from the perspective of 1941. Some interesting aspects in a few stories, but honestly I think I only managed to finish because I'm too sick for anything good.

[David Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published between 1928 and 1978, these stories reflect SF's shift from heroic optimism to skepticism or outright dismay about technology. Williamson says in his afterword that after retiring from teaching, he anticipated "several more decades" as a writer, and as he lived another 28 years, he correctly predicted his own future.

[Scartaris · Rating 3 out of 5]

El hombre metálico (The Metal Man) ***
La muchacha de Marte (The Girl From Mars) **.
El expreso cósmico (The Cosmic Express) ****.
La muchacha del meteoro (The Meteor Girl) ***.
A través de la nube púrpura (Through The Purple Cloud) ****.
Condenación desde el planeta 4 (The Doom From Planet Four) ***.
Doce horas de vida! (Twelve Hours to Live!) ****.
El terror de Plutón (The Plutonian Terror) ****.
Salvamento en el espacio (Salvaje in Space) ****.
No somos mendigos (We Ain't Beggars) ***.
La estación de la estrella muerta (Dead Star Station) ****.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve read a smattering of science fiction over the years but I will confess that I was unfamiliar with Jack Williamson’s works, a little embarrassing considering he received a Nebula award in honor of his life’s work. That being said, I can’t recommend this book based on writing style, yet it is a must-read as a piece of sci-fi history!

Not knowing the publishing dates of the stories, I was struck by the pulp fiction style; it reminded me of the original Buck Rogers’ movies. The descriptions of science and technology, though using some real basics, were very dated. Yet, when dealing with the realities of human nature, the stories still ring true. Once you realize that these stories range from 1928 (Williamson’s first published story) to 1974, you can recognize how innovative they were.

Outdated scientific speculation aside, these stories suffered from two faults apparent to modern readers. First, as with much sci-fi writing, the female characters are either non-existent or merely accessories to the male characters (in the most dated stereotypes). Second, the stories were often overwritten. Williamson had some imaginative & even gruesome twists (With Folded Hands, The Cold Green Eye, Guinevere for Everybody) that reminded me of Ray Bradbury, and often still-current themes (AI taking over; mining other planets; alien invasion) but the tales were sometimes repetitive and long-winded. Still, any sci-fi fan should add Williamson to their reading list as an early & influential voice in the genre.

[Greg Frederick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first I've read of Jack Williamson's work. I thoroughly enjoyed each story, and absolutely relished a few of them. With Folded Hands was my favorite, as it tells a creative story which is at once terrifying and realistic. I have always enjoyed sci-fi most for its intriguing concepts, and Williamson is full of them.

One thing that sets Williamson apart from many of his contemporaries is his ability to bring characters to life in the short story format. I absolutely love Asimov, but his lack of character development makes reading his stories a bit dry after a bit. This book could have been much longer, and I still would have been thoroughly immersed.

I recommend this book to all sci-fi nerds. I look forward to reading more by this author, and will definitely re-read this again.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

Contains the stories:

1The Metal Man (1928) -
Dead Star Station (1933) -
Nonstop to Mars (1939) -
The Crucible of Power (1939) -
Breakdown (1942) -
With Folded Hands (1948) - 4/5 - it’s so hard to get good domestic help these days (later expanded into the novel The Humanoids)
The Equalizer (1947) -
The Peddler's Nose (1951) -
The Happiest Creature (1953) -
The Cold Green Eye (1953) -
Operation: Gravity (1953) -
Guinevere for Everybody (1955) -
Jamboree (1969) -
The Highest Dive (1976) -

[Lawrence · Rating 2 out of 5]

http://gnomeship.blogspot.com/2018/07...

[Johan Haneveld · Rating 4 out of 5]

8,3 I really enjoyed this collection of stories by an author whose career spanned the largest part of science fiction as a genre up to the seventies - his first story sold in 1928, even before the term 'science fiction' was coined - when it was still called scientifiction. As an author Jack Williamson started out firmly in the era of pulp SF, with engineers as hero's. He transitioned into the golden age SF with idea driven stories and then plunged into the 'New Wave' by experimenting with perspective and style. His afterword charting his own history as an SF-author is very interesting (and he published his final stories in our century! Talk about a long career ... He is the author to coin the term 'terraforming' by the way!). He grew up in a poor farming community and started writing in the twenties, and these stories mainly reflect the social and gender dynamics of those days. Some reviews on this site decry them as 'very pulp, sexist, awkward ...' but one has to read these not in the same way one does modern SF. And while one would not be able to describe these stories as 'progressive' or very inclusive, Williamson did describe a female scientist in 'Nonstop to Mars' who is the one to find out what's going wrong with our world and he tried to give his characters depth (more than e.g. Asimov managed in the same era). Due to his start in the pulp era even his later stories manage to stay clear from the pure rational speculation of a Clark and Asimov and include some tense action scenes and imaginative descriptions. It reminded me of my own writing style - I too love some pulpy adventure elements in my stories. I enjoyed the weird large planet and the adventure of 'The Highest Dive' for example and the tension in 'Operation Gravity'.
Also, I found several stories perfectly applicable to our own day and age. Even though from the afterword I do not think I agree with Williamsons politics in every respect, he shows an interest in the way technology not only influences individual lives but also societies as a whole. Thus in 'The Crucible of Power' we find a world thrown in disarray because of energy crises and a pandemic that has an effect on the world that we do recognize from our day and age (he maybe used the 1918 flu pandemic as a model). Also in 'With folded hands' the humanoids taking over human work and even creativity can easily be seen as prefiguring the AI's that threaten to suck the joy out of our lives today. Then in 'The Equalizer' Williamson comments on the way democracies descend into states of authorianism due to the division of labor (all too clearly demonstrated in the US today) and envisions a post scarcity society based on a new energy source that reminded me of the 'Zero Marginal Cost Society' proposed by Jeremy Rifkin. Williamson manages to see both positive and negative aspects in technological developments, in the process giving us in 'Jamboree' a haunting dystopia ...
These stories span his career and show a remarkable range, but with a style that stays very readable. I liked them a lot and can recomment this collection to everyone who likes his SF infused with a bit of pulpy adventure and is interested in the history of our beloved genre.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of classic science fiction covering Williamson’s career with over 50 years of stories. A little something for everyone, but the volume also serves as a good representation of how sci-fi has changed over the decades, from pulps to “New Wave”-ish, to the era of Star Wars.

[Xabi1990 · Rating 3 out of 5]

5/10. Media de los 7 libros leídos del autor : 6/10

Con diferencia de este autor me quedo con "La legión del espacio". Y este son cuentos cortos, que no es mi género.

[Robert Pullen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good classic Sci Fi if you don't want today's politically correct catered to the sensitive.

[Graham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting stories, a bit dated, but then some were written before WW2.

[Reet · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Pretty sexist. "The man and the girl" stuff all the time. Just once, I would like to read a story about"the woman and the boy (35-year-old boy)."

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A selection of 50 years from a master.