Ivan Howard

A fine collection of retro-future short stories from the 50s which run the gamut from Flash Gordon-like pulp in "Escape to Earth", to the more sobering "Doomsday's Color-Press" in which a newspaper editor discovers the deadly powers that can be unleashed with a bit of biased journalism (written decades before the term "fake news" was even coined). The gender-bending "Temple of Despair" gives a novel spin to the concept of slavery; "A Big Man with the Girls" makes light of a first contact scenario; and "If the Court Pleases" points out the legal ramifications of time travel.… (more)

This marvel, which I just found at the local used bookstore, contains a wealth of short stories (or novelets, if you prefer) by the masters. I couldn't resist it, based on the cover alone, which is an exact mirror image of a book I'd already picked up. "The Solarians" by Norman Spinrad, has this same cover. Spinrad does NOT appear in this collection, and it's a fine example of thrift, either by the artist in selling this to more than one publisher, or the publisher of Spinrad's book, who may have purchased assets of Belmont Productions.

It also contains the following:

Ultrasonic God, by L. Sprague de Camp
The Chapter Ends, by Poul Anderson,
"A" As In Android, by Milton Lesser
...And The Truth Shall Make You Free, by Clifford D. Simak
Night Fear, by Frank Belknap Long
I Am Tomorrow, by Lester del Rey
Testament of Andros, by James Blish
The Possessed, by Arthur C. Clarke

It's a gift from the past that I'd never seen, and I appreciate it.… (more)