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Universe 3
Volume 3 in editor Terry Carr's original anthology series from the late 60's through the 70's.
189 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 1, 1973
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About the author
Terry Carr
219 books31 followersCarr was born in Grants Pass, Oregon. He attended the City College of San Francisco and the University of California, Berkeley from 1954 to 1959.
Carr discovered science fiction fandom in 1949, where he became an enthusiastic publisher of fanzines, which later helped open his way into the commercial publishing world. (He was one of the two fans responsible for the hoax fan 'Carl Brandon' after whom the Carl Brandon Society takes its name.) Despite a long career as a science fiction professional, he continued to participate as a fan until his death. He was nominated five times for Hugos for Best Fanzine (1959–1961, 1967–1968), winning in 1959, was nominated three times for Best Fan Writer (1971–1973), winning in 1973, and was Fan Guest of Honor at ConFederation in 1986.
Though he published some fiction in the early 1960s, Carr concentrated on editing. He first worked at Ace Books, establishing the Ace Science Fiction Specials series which published, among other novels, The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin and Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin.
After conflicts with Ace head Donald A. Wollheim, he worked as a freelancer. He edited an original story anthology series called Universe, and a popular series of The Best Science Fiction of the Year anthologies that ran from 1972 until his death in 1987. He also edited numerous one-off anthologies over the same time span. He was nominated for the Hugo for Best Editor thirteen times (1973–1975, 1977–1979, 1981–1987), winning twice (1985 and 1987). His win in 1985 was the first time a freelance editor had won.
Carr taught at the Clarion Workshop at Michigan State University in 1978, where his students included Richard Kadrey and Pat Murphy.
Carr discovered science fiction fandom in 1949, where he became an enthusiastic publisher of fanzines, which later helped open his way into the commercial publishing world. (He was one of the two fans responsible for the hoax fan 'Carl Brandon' after whom the Carl Brandon Society takes its name.) Despite a long career as a science fiction professional, he continued to participate as a fan until his death. He was nominated five times for Hugos for Best Fanzine (1959–1961, 1967–1968), winning in 1959, was nominated three times for Best Fan Writer (1971–1973), winning in 1973, and was Fan Guest of Honor at ConFederation in 1986.
Though he published some fiction in the early 1960s, Carr concentrated on editing. He first worked at Ace Books, establishing the Ace Science Fiction Specials series which published, among other novels, The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin and Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin.
After conflicts with Ace head Donald A. Wollheim, he worked as a freelancer. He edited an original story anthology series called Universe, and a popular series of The Best Science Fiction of the Year anthologies that ran from 1972 until his death in 1987. He also edited numerous one-off anthologies over the same time span. He was nominated for the Hugo for Best Editor thirteen times (1973–1975, 1977–1979, 1981–1987), winning twice (1985 and 1987). His win in 1985 was the first time a freelance editor had won.
Carr taught at the Clarion Workshop at Michigan State University in 1978, where his students included Richard Kadrey and Pat Murphy.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 28, 2025
Despite the lazy cover art (even by golden age standards), Universe 3 is a solid entry in the long-standing anthology series curated by none other than workhorse, Terry Carr. I'm not sure I would place this 1973 collective into the high tiers of praise, but this proved the perfect and reliable traveling companion in my subway/bus commutes. Solid, reliable, consistent.
The Death of Dr. Island • [Archipelago] • (1973) • novella by Gene Wolfe - this novella won a Nebula, and deservedly so. Three youngsters are stranded on a pixellated remote island where the only other intelligence is a 'voice', one that possesses the native monkeys as much as it does the offshore winds. The 'voice' is clearly a therapist, a machine-made enlightenment both judge and jury, and the reader pretty understands that this is a therapeutic exercise in both survival and sanity. Wolfe is really good here, undeniably grim with an offshore touch of Defoe and Ballard. Top shelf.
The Ghost Writer • (1973) • short story by George Alec Effinger [as by Geo. Alec Effinger] - Effinger is a dog-eared thespian through and through, and his tales from the 1970s typically channel the artist's role against society, and the fruitless hopes that one artist can make an impact on the rest of the damaged and darkening world. Here, modern poets and writers become vessels for the downloading of long-dead classical scribes. It's a unique parable that divines the artist's natural selection versus the artist's pre-fabricated program. Art has become cheap no matter what way you look at it. Grim with little hopeful light, this is a precursor to his magnificent novel, 'The Wolves of Memory', where the computer-hive, TECT, makes its dominance known here for the first time. Good.
Many Mansions • (1973) • novelette by Robert Silverberg - a competent tale if not a bland one. The theme of time travel is a hit or miss with most writers. You don't add anything fresh to it, you're stuck with page after page of repetition and rehash. Of course, the manly Silverberg highlights a failing married couple who both desire traveling back in time to kill relatives in order to bleach their partner out of existence. Old hat, definitely yes. While Silverberg always has a knack for eye-rolls, he is competent as always, but still, the old 'ball and chain' married couple with a time machine bit runs a bit dry.
Randy-Tandy Man • (1973) • short story by Ross Rocklynne - old schooler, Rocklynne, plays with parody as if he's an old dog learning a new trick. If the Randy Tandy Man tells you to be happy, you better listen. Reminiscent of genre wild scribes, R.A. Lafferty and Fredric Brown, this one has its charms even though you've probably read countless tales about a married couple on the down slide within a pre-programmed suburb.
The World Is a Sphere • [Tales of a Darkening World] • (1973) • novelette by Edgar Pangborn - after the limp 'Tiger Boy' in the prior Universe entry, Pangborn redeems himself in volume 3. Espionage comes into play as the flatlander scholars seek the truth in an authoritarian, anti-science government. One noble scholar is visited by a shifty merchant who sells him an inflatable globe of the earth. Once in his possession, will our scholar's plea to the pantheon go on deaf ears, or bring him a martyr's doom?
The Legend of Cougar Lou Landis • (1973) • short story by Edward Bryant - part of Bryant's 'Cinnabar' cycle, this one is a disjointed mindfuck where the reader rarely gets a grasp on the narrative. Hip and hot Cougar Lou finds a sick man dying in the desert. She hits him up with a dream cube of sorts, delivering him a dose of other's memories as sedative, as deliverance. Then Cougar Lou ruminates the ways of her error. That's it, really. An experiment more than an actual piece. I've heard much about Bryant's short work as exemplary, but so far, not impressed with his Cinnabar entries (although his collection 'Particle Theory' is in wait).
Free City Blues • (1973) • novelette by Gordon Eklund - if you can't stand another story where there's a whore-with-a heart-of-gold fumbling about a new society/city (see Candy in Terry Southern's counterculture hit mid-60s novel) then give this one a shot. Meandering with a bubble-gum veneer, this aimless entry moves fast but really offers little in the way of memorable. So what if Rodelphia is super hot, unbridled and enticing even though wearing a sack dress, and how she can make other humans act like ducks, snakes and rabbits seems like Eklund was the only one having some fun. While not entirely a failure, I've enjoyed episodes of 'Bewitched' more than this one.
So, right in the middle as always, I'm kind of hooked on collecting all these Universe anthologies (from Popular Library, Zebra, and later, Tor). ***
The Death of Dr. Island • [Archipelago] • (1973) • novella by Gene Wolfe - this novella won a Nebula, and deservedly so. Three youngsters are stranded on a pixellated remote island where the only other intelligence is a 'voice', one that possesses the native monkeys as much as it does the offshore winds. The 'voice' is clearly a therapist, a machine-made enlightenment both judge and jury, and the reader pretty understands that this is a therapeutic exercise in both survival and sanity. Wolfe is really good here, undeniably grim with an offshore touch of Defoe and Ballard. Top shelf.
The Ghost Writer • (1973) • short story by George Alec Effinger [as by Geo. Alec Effinger] - Effinger is a dog-eared thespian through and through, and his tales from the 1970s typically channel the artist's role against society, and the fruitless hopes that one artist can make an impact on the rest of the damaged and darkening world. Here, modern poets and writers become vessels for the downloading of long-dead classical scribes. It's a unique parable that divines the artist's natural selection versus the artist's pre-fabricated program. Art has become cheap no matter what way you look at it. Grim with little hopeful light, this is a precursor to his magnificent novel, 'The Wolves of Memory', where the computer-hive, TECT, makes its dominance known here for the first time. Good.
Many Mansions • (1973) • novelette by Robert Silverberg - a competent tale if not a bland one. The theme of time travel is a hit or miss with most writers. You don't add anything fresh to it, you're stuck with page after page of repetition and rehash. Of course, the manly Silverberg highlights a failing married couple who both desire traveling back in time to kill relatives in order to bleach their partner out of existence. Old hat, definitely yes. While Silverberg always has a knack for eye-rolls, he is competent as always, but still, the old 'ball and chain' married couple with a time machine bit runs a bit dry.
Randy-Tandy Man • (1973) • short story by Ross Rocklynne - old schooler, Rocklynne, plays with parody as if he's an old dog learning a new trick. If the Randy Tandy Man tells you to be happy, you better listen. Reminiscent of genre wild scribes, R.A. Lafferty and Fredric Brown, this one has its charms even though you've probably read countless tales about a married couple on the down slide within a pre-programmed suburb.
The World Is a Sphere • [Tales of a Darkening World] • (1973) • novelette by Edgar Pangborn - after the limp 'Tiger Boy' in the prior Universe entry, Pangborn redeems himself in volume 3. Espionage comes into play as the flatlander scholars seek the truth in an authoritarian, anti-science government. One noble scholar is visited by a shifty merchant who sells him an inflatable globe of the earth. Once in his possession, will our scholar's plea to the pantheon go on deaf ears, or bring him a martyr's doom?
The Legend of Cougar Lou Landis • (1973) • short story by Edward Bryant - part of Bryant's 'Cinnabar' cycle, this one is a disjointed mindfuck where the reader rarely gets a grasp on the narrative. Hip and hot Cougar Lou finds a sick man dying in the desert. She hits him up with a dream cube of sorts, delivering him a dose of other's memories as sedative, as deliverance. Then Cougar Lou ruminates the ways of her error. That's it, really. An experiment more than an actual piece. I've heard much about Bryant's short work as exemplary, but so far, not impressed with his Cinnabar entries (although his collection 'Particle Theory' is in wait).
Free City Blues • (1973) • novelette by Gordon Eklund - if you can't stand another story where there's a whore-with-a heart-of-gold fumbling about a new society/city (see Candy in Terry Southern's counterculture hit mid-60s novel) then give this one a shot. Meandering with a bubble-gum veneer, this aimless entry moves fast but really offers little in the way of memorable. So what if Rodelphia is super hot, unbridled and enticing even though wearing a sack dress, and how she can make other humans act like ducks, snakes and rabbits seems like Eklund was the only one having some fun. While not entirely a failure, I've enjoyed episodes of 'Bewitched' more than this one.
So, right in the middle as always, I'm kind of hooked on collecting all these Universe anthologies (from Popular Library, Zebra, and later, Tor). ***
May 30, 2020
The third volume of Carr's Universe series of original anthologies came out in hardback from Random House. It is a bit thinner than the first two volumes that Ace printed, containing only seven stories, but they're all good ones. There are no interior illustrations (the Ace pair had a nice Alicia Austin for each story), and the hardback doesn't even have a cover illustration, just a futuristic-looking large type font. The stories include good ones from Gordon Eklund and Edgar Pangborn, a very good time-travel-paradox from Robert Silverberg, an amusing look at writing and creativity and ghosts by the under-appreciated George Alec Effinger, a new-wavish surprise from old-timer Ross Rocklynne, and a classic Gene Wolfe novella, The Death of Doctor Island, which he would later expand into my favorite of his books, The Death of Doctor Island and Other Stories and Other Stories. My favorite in this book is by Edward Bryant, The Legend of Cougar Lou Landis. The Universe series was one of the best original lines of its time, and Carr excelled at getting good work from up-and-coming writers as well as those well established in the field.
April 26, 2012
I picked this up at a used bookstore in Chicago during the summer after college graduation. Decent stories, respected authors.
December 28, 2008
some good SF stories. The best one here is by Edward Bryant.
Currently reading
January 5, 20267 stories:
(4/7 read)
***** The Death of Dr. Island • Gene Wolfe
**** The Ghost Writer • George Alec Effinger
**** Many Mansions • Robert Silverberg
**** Randy-Tandy Man • Ross Rocklynne
The World Is a Sphere • Edgar Pangborn
The Legend of Cougar Lou Landis • Edward Bryant
Free City Blues • Gordon Eklund
(4/7 read)
***** The Death of Dr. Island • Gene Wolfe
**** The Ghost Writer • George Alec Effinger
**** Many Mansions • Robert Silverberg
**** Randy-Tandy Man • Ross Rocklynne
The World Is a Sphere • Edgar Pangborn
The Legend of Cougar Lou Landis • Edward Bryant
Free City Blues • Gordon Eklund
Read
December 18, 2024Nice little collection of 7 sci-fi stories of varying length. A nice variety of themes and styles. Silverberg's time travel story was fun and I enjoyed the story from Gordon Eklund whom I was not familiar with before reading this.
January 3, 2015
An excellent collection of seven stories from 1973. Editor Terry Carr had a good grasp of what makes a good story, and with his finger on the pulse of the '70s/New Wave, picked some great stuff from some (then-) up-and-comers in the field.
"The Death of Doctor Island" by Gene Wolfe is the standout, a lengthy novella about a psychiatric satellite A.I. and three of its young patients. Wolfe, as always, delivers a layered and complex read interwoven with literary and mythological allusion. Very readable, but also a deep story you can spend a lot of time thinking about. Good stuff.
"Many Mansions" by Robert Silverberg is the ultimate look at the "grandfather paradox" of time-travel. Ted is an unfaithful husband who fantasizes about losing his wife, Alice. Alice is a frustrated housewife who fantasizes about killing her husband, Ted, or at least having an extramarital affair. Martin is a dirty old man who fantasizes about his grandson Ted's wife Alice. Enter time-travel, and an endless array of possible futures (and pasts). Problematic sexism, but one of the most proficient and creative stories in the collection.
"The World is a Sphere" by Edgar Pangborn is a post-apocalyptic vision of state control, where a few good (old) men argue the benefits of science and reason to an Emperor who'd rather be rid of them. A bleak but thought-provoking story in the same universe as the author's Davy.
"The Ghost Writer," an early George Alec Effinger, shows a society that's lost the power of creativity, but has the technology to bond "writers" with the spirits of dead writers, pulling story fragments from the past.
"The Legend of Cougar Lou Landis" by Edward Bryant is a well-crafted story of identity and heroism, in a trippy imagined future.
"Free City Blues" by Gordon Eklund is a picaresque post-holocaust adventure about a psi-capable mutant girl lost in a totalitarian big-city. I felt it was the weak leg in the collection, lacking focus and a bit overwritten with the adverbs, I wrote crisply. (And frankly.)
"Randy-Tandy Man" by Ross Rocklynne is a look at a society that instructs its citizens how to direct their hatred; stylish writing buoys up a thin tale.
"The Death of Doctor Island" by Gene Wolfe is the standout, a lengthy novella about a psychiatric satellite A.I. and three of its young patients. Wolfe, as always, delivers a layered and complex read interwoven with literary and mythological allusion. Very readable, but also a deep story you can spend a lot of time thinking about. Good stuff.
"Many Mansions" by Robert Silverberg is the ultimate look at the "grandfather paradox" of time-travel. Ted is an unfaithful husband who fantasizes about losing his wife, Alice. Alice is a frustrated housewife who fantasizes about killing her husband, Ted, or at least having an extramarital affair. Martin is a dirty old man who fantasizes about his grandson Ted's wife Alice. Enter time-travel, and an endless array of possible futures (and pasts). Problematic sexism, but one of the most proficient and creative stories in the collection.
"The World is a Sphere" by Edgar Pangborn is a post-apocalyptic vision of state control, where a few good (old) men argue the benefits of science and reason to an Emperor who'd rather be rid of them. A bleak but thought-provoking story in the same universe as the author's Davy.
"The Ghost Writer," an early George Alec Effinger, shows a society that's lost the power of creativity, but has the technology to bond "writers" with the spirits of dead writers, pulling story fragments from the past.
"The Legend of Cougar Lou Landis" by Edward Bryant is a well-crafted story of identity and heroism, in a trippy imagined future.
"Free City Blues" by Gordon Eklund is a picaresque post-holocaust adventure about a psi-capable mutant girl lost in a totalitarian big-city. I felt it was the weak leg in the collection, lacking focus and a bit overwritten with the adverbs, I wrote crisply. (And frankly.)
"Randy-Tandy Man" by Ross Rocklynne is a look at a society that instructs its citizens how to direct their hatred; stylish writing buoys up a thin tale.
September 2, 2016
There are some really great stories in this collection.
May 26, 2015
A good mini-binge of short science-fiction stories.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews