The Square Root of Man

by William Tenn

A collection of SF stories with elements of fantasy and horror, an American classic of fantasy literature.
A charming story about an intergalactic adventure, witches, vampires and a mysterious journey of a man to the stars...

Featuring man's staggering journey to the stars...
In a Tenn's-eye view of the world, "staggering" can be interpreted in more ways than one, of course.

Notably -
The warm, human interpretation
The feminist interpretation
The green-transparent-bubble interpretation
The man-in-the-street interpretation
Mr. Tenn has included a charming witch tale, a really delicious vampire item, and a superior machine (intergalactic hit) story. These have nothing to do with man's staggering journey to the stars. They are simply here to add to the confusion.
Then again, why couldn't they have something to do with the square root of man?

Stories:
- Alexander the Bait
- The Last Bounce
- She Only Goes Out at Night
- My Mother Was a Witch
- The Jester
- Confusion Cargo
- Venus is a Man's World
- Consulate
- The Lemon-Green Spaghetti-Loud Dynamite-Dribble Day

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

220 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

William Tenn is the pseudonym of Philip Klass. He was born in London on May 9, 1920, and emigrated to the United States with his parents before his second birthday. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York. After serving in the United States Army as a combat engineer in Europe, he held a job as a technical editor with an Air Force radar and radio laboratory and was employed by Bell Labs.

He began writing in 1945 and wrote academic articles, essays, two novels, and more than 60 short stories.

His first story, 'Alexander the Bait' was published in Astounding Science Fiction in 1946. Stories like 'Down Among the Dead Men', 'The Liberation of Earth', and 'The Custodian' quickly established him as a fine, funny, and thoughtful satirist.

Tenn is best-known as a satirist, and by works such as "On Venus Have We Got a Rabbi" and "Of Men and Monsters."

His stories and articles were widely anthologized, a number of them in best-of-the-year collections. From 1966, he was a Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature at The Pennsylvania State University, where he taught, among other things, a popular course on science fiction.

In 1999, he was honored as Author Emeritus by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America at their annual Nebula Awards Banquet.



More information at: http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topi...

Reviews

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book from a rack at Powell's in Portland that was showcasing old sci-fi paperbacks with really strange cover art. I thought this one had lame cover art but a very cool title and bought it for about $1.95. I had somehow never heard of William Tenn, but these stories are terrific. I especially liked the stories The Last Bounce and My Mother Was A Witch. I'm going to try to find someone who will appreciate the stories and hand this book off to keep it moving.

[Warwick Stubbs · Rating 2 out of 5]

Massively disappointing considering how much I enjoyed Of All Possible Worlds and The Wooden Star. I felt like the stories had no bite to them. There was humour, and a few little jabs, but there were also what appeared to be a very serious story ('The Last Bounce') that lacked pathos and a firm grip on tension and action. This said story had the basis for a great film, much in the vain of Starship Troopers, or maybe something more somber and thoughtful. It kind of had a similar setting and story as Pohl's Gateway, but with enlisted soldiers doing the first jump into unknowable habitats. The first story I read, the one I got this book for, 'Venus is a Man's World', is a genuine standout with lots of Tenn's humour and side-nudges at the establishment, masculinity, feminism, and hierarchies. I recommend reading this story over any of the others. In fact, after reading 'Venus is a Man's World', I actually found it extremely difficult to stay focused on the other stories. None of the writing was gripping me with any interest.

[Vincent Hernot · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've always liked Tenn very, very much, but this is not his strongest collection I think. Some very good ones, and some lesser ones - it's also true that some bits have aged less well than we might like them to. Still, Tenn remains a major SF short-story writer.

[Althea Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short-story collection, of Golden-Age sf, published between the mid-1940s and the late 1960s. Not bad stuff, if somewhat outdated at times. Historically interesting!

includes:

Alexander the Bait - An ingenious entrepreneur uses men's innate greed to get them to embark on space travel and finally get to the moon.

The Last Bounce - The final mission of one of the adventurous Space Scouts - bold young men who explore new planets, but all too often don't make it back alive. Will he finally marry his fiancee and settle down - or meet his end in space?

She Only Goes Out at Night - What happens when the son of a respected country doctor falls in love with a vampire?

My Mother Was a Witch - A memoir-type reminiscence of the inventive curses of Jewish mothers...

The Jester - In the future, a comedian tries to use a robot to ghost-write his jokes for him... but the joke ends up being on him.

Confusion Cargo - A doctor, passenger on an interstellar liner, is unwillingly pulled into a situation when illegal female stowaways are found on board, and is asked to witness against them. But the doctor has a secret too...

Venus Is a Man's World - On Earth, dominant women outnumber men - but on the rough colonies of Venus, the opposite holds true. A boy gets taken by his sister, who's in search of a husband, on a trip out to Venus - and when he finds a stowaway on board, unwittingly throws a chain of events into play...

Consulate - A couple of men out fishing get picked up by aliens and find out about the massive interstellar federation out there... but are they ready to be consuls for Earth?

The Lemon-Green Spaghetti-Loud Dynamite-Dribble Day ["Did Your Coffee Taste Funny This Morning?"] - The requisite 1960's acid trip story.

[Rhys · Rating 4 out of 5]

The weakest of Tenn's story collections I have read so far, though because it is Tenn it's still quite a good book. The best story in this volume is the first, which also happens to be Tenn's first ever published story. 'Alexander the Bait' is about the mirage of profit as a motivation for science and engineering. 'Consulate' is also an excellent story, another early piece, with a very strange extended scene that involves a boat and the water it's floating on (including a mackerel) being lifted up and conveyed through space to Mars by unimaginable forces controlled by ultra-advanced aliens. Of the other stories, 'The Jester' was also quite amusing... But generally speaking the tales in this collection have not dated as well as the stories in (for example) The Wooden Star

[Bfett25 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought an old copy of Amazing Stories because it had stories by Frank Herbert and Philip K Dick in it. It also had one by William Tenn, whom, I admit, I'd never heard of. The story was great and I sought out more of his stuff, finding a copy of Square Root in a used bookstore. It's one of the best collections of golden age sci fi I've ever read. If you dig that kind of thing, definitely get it. His Men and Monsters novel isn't bad either, but not as good as his short fiction.

[Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

A disappointment. I quite liked his short story collection, "Of All Possible Worlds," the only other thing I've read by this author. This book is made up mostly of Tenn's early stories from the 1940's and 50's. Of the bunch, I preferred "The Last Bounce" and "Consulate," both of which managed to recreate that old SF sense of wonder. Also included were two short stories from the mid-60's, which were faster paced and more hip, but inconsequential. Read "Of All Possible Worlds."