The Unexpected Dimension

by Algis Budrys

I award top billing to The Unexpected Dimension by Algis Budrys, who if all goes well may become the best science fiction writer since Wells. - Kingsley Amis in The Observer

First to Serve
The tragic story of a robot who could be human but who is destroyed by the authorities who on;y want mindless robots who will blindly accept orders.

The Distant Sound of Engines
In which a dying man, who has crashed on returning to earth from another planet, passes on to the patient in the next bed vital scientific data he has brought back with him - believing in error that the other patient will convey it to the authorities.

The End of Summer
Mankind has achieved immortality. And everyone alive is at least ten thousand years old. A world where no one ages and no one is born.

The Burning World
Society has frozen in another way. It is the story of the earth after the bomb.

Here is science fiction at its most brilliant, tales from an unexpected dimension close, often uncomfortably close, to home.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, Collections

159 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1960

About the author

Algis Budrys was a Lithuanian-American science fiction author, editor, and critic. He was also known under the pen names Frank Mason, Alger Rome, John A. Sentry, William Scarff, Paul Janvier, and Sam & Janet Argo.

Called "AJ" by friends, Budrys was born Algirdas Jonas Budrys in Königsberg in East Prussia. He was the son of the consul general of the Lithuanian government, (the pre-World War II government still recognized after the war by the United States, even though the Soviet-sponsored government was in power throughout most of Budrys's life). His family was sent to the United States by the Lithuanian government in 1936 when Budrys was 5 years old. During most of his adult life, he held a captain's commission in the Free Lithuanian Army.

Budrys was educated at the University of Miami, and later at Columbia University in New York. His first published science fiction story was The High Purpose, which appeared in Astounding Science Fiction in 1952. Beginning in 1952 Budrys worked as editor and manager for such science fiction publishers as Gnome Press and Galaxy Science Fiction. Some of his science fiction in the 1950s was published under the pen name "John A. Sentry", a reconfigured Anglification of his Lithuanian name. Among his other pseudonyms in the SF magazines of the 1950s and elsewhere, several revived as bylines for vignettes in his magazine Tomorrow Speculative Fiction, is "William Scarff". He also wrote several stories under the names "Ivan Janvier" or "Paul Janvier." He also used the pen name "Alger Rome" in his collaborations with Jerome Bixby.

Budrys's 1960 novella Rogue Moon was nominated for a Hugo Award, and was later anthologized in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two (1973). His Cold War science fiction novel Who? was adapted for the screen in 1973. In addition to numerous Hugo Award and Nebula Award nominations, Budrys won the Science Fiction Research Association's 2007 Pilgrim Award for lifetime contributions to speculative fiction scholarship. In 2009, he was the recipient of one of the first three Solstice Awards presented by the SFWA in recognition of his contributions to the field of science fiction.

Budrys was married to Edna Duna; they had four sons. He last resided in Evanston, Illinois. He died at home, from metastatic malignant melanoma on June 9, 2008.

Reviews

[Jeanette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good. At least 5 out of the 7 short stories were excellent. Budrys really knows how to make you feel despair.

[Emmalyn Renato · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another from my physical TBR pile. A collection of short stories that were mostly published in pulp magazines in the 1950's. Also a mixed bag for me. Some were good but a couple haven't aged well.

[KeyRos · Rating 2 out of 5]

"El tiempo es insignificante. Y especialmente aquí, donde evitamos casi enteramente la ley de las partes proporcionales. Pero hay variosusos para el tiempo, y concibo unos mejores que éste".

[Zantaeus Glom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice collection of sf short stories by Budrys. Two of them are especially potent works. Reminded me a bit of Christopher Priest's collection in terms of intensity. Worthwhile read for imaginative prose addicts.