Extreme Hardboiled Sci-fi from 1950s & 1960s

by H.L. Gold, Alan E. Nourse, James Causey

It’s always exciting when I discover a new batch of classic, hardboiled sci-fi shorts and novellas from the golden age of the genre.
I titled this 220-page compilation as “Extreme Hardboiled” because that’s exactly what it is. There is no time for niceties, fluff or sentimentality in these masterpieces from an era when blood and guts, good detectives and nasty space monsters reigned supreme. The illustrations also capture the golden era and bring it to the inner sanctum of your imagination.

If you are like me, this collection will bring back some great memories and sadly make you realize what is missing in so much of today’s sci-fi.

Chet Dembeck

Nook

First published April 9, 2010

About the author

Horace Leonard Gold was a science fiction writer and editor most noted for bringing an innovative and fresh approach to science fiction while he was the editor of Galaxy Science Fiction, and also wrote briefly for DC Comics. Born in Canada, Gold moved to the United States at the age of two. He also published under the pseudonyms Clyde Crane Campbell, Dudley Dell, Christopher Grimm, and Leigh Keith.

Reviews

[Isaac S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are many collections of SF from the Golden Age of SF. I've found most to be of highly variable quality. So I was pleasantly surprised when every one of the stories included to be first class with compelling thought experiments at their center. I won't say more for fear of spoiling these short stories for you.

[Benjamin Chandler · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having a title like "Extreme Hardboiled Sci-fi from 1950s & 1960s," I expected this book to be a little more hardboiled. I was hoping for detectives and toughs, femme fatales and crime, but there really isn't very much of that here. I'd argue only a couple of the stories here could be classified as hardboiled, and the rest are just run-of-the mill scifi tales with monster cliches, homesick aliens, and terraforming bombs.

The final story, by David E. Fisher, "You Don't Make Wine Like the Greeks Did," was the most fun, though it had no detectives or crime, but it did involve a psychologist getting mixed up with a time traveler and his seductive wife. Not hardboiled, but humorous and clever.

[Raymond Spitzer · Rating 3 out of 5]

They were stories I have never read before. They caught my attention and I thoroughly enjoyed the book.