What's it Like Out There?

by Edmond Hamilton

What's It Like Out There? is a collection of the best stories from Edmond Hamilton's remarkable 40 year career of writing Science Fiction.

Contents:
What's It Like Out There?
The King of Shadows
Castaway
Serpent Princess
The Stars, My Brothers
Dreamer's World
Twilight of the Gods
Sunfire!
The Inn outside the World
The Watcher of the Ages
Transuranic
The Isle of the Sleeper

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

Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Edmond Moore Hamilton was a popular author of science fiction stories and novels throughout the mid-twentieth century. Born in Youngstown, Ohio, he was raised there and in nearby New Castle, Pennsylvania. Something of a child prodigy, he graduated high school and started college (Westminster College, New Wilmington, Pennsylvania) at the age of 14--but washed out at 17. He was the Golden Age writer who worked on Batman, the Legion of Super-Heroes, and many sci-fi books.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of a dozen stories by Hamilton that first appeared from 1941 to 1962. Hamilton was known as a master of space opera, but only four of these are from science fiction magazines, two each from the pulp Thrilling Wonder Stories and the digest-sized 1962 Amazing Stories. One is from an early Sam Moskowitz anthology, and all of the rest are from Weird Tales. It was surprising to me that the writer of Captain Future did so much horror and fantasy earlier in his career. (I later learned that he wrote tons of DC comics back in the day, too.) This volume appeared in 1974 and isn't as definitively representative as "The Best of" volume that came out three years later (there's surprisingly little overlap between the two), but it has some good and interesting stuff. The title story is something of a classic, and I also especially remember liking Transuranic, The Inn Outside the World, and most especially Castaway.

[Sara]

Transuranic
the story our
and life at start
our laughing over many atom lab
without oth many time pass
and we wait to what
to kill the begning
why at our sad moment was there
wounded to kill baby
soul in many oval
but how much we want to see that face
by toy killed
our laugh will countino
the hero like us
what asuny future was wait us
plz our eys wait moment
the love and miss there was
and by toy we kill a baby
to be hero as phill
wounded haert
crazy to belive what we done

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thrilled I found these Hamilton shorts in the wild. Enjoyed the grim journey of a an astronaut going home in “What’s It Like Out There” and “Transuranic” could be adapted to a Trek episode. “Sunfire” reminded us that we may be playing second fiddle to what or who is out there.

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read this when I was a teenager. Then I spent decades trying to find it again. Finally, just last year, I was able to find a copy. It is every bit as good as I remember.

I recommend this to any SF fan, most especially fans of classic SF.

[Forked Radish]

What’s it Like Out There? *
The King of Shadows
Castaway
Serpent Princess
The Stars, My Brothers *
Dreamer’s World *
Twilight of the Gods *
Sunfire! *
The Inn Outside the World
The Watcher of the Ages ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “A light that shined and never went out.” .. The only “vain dream” was the hope that man would ever become even an iota wiser.
Tranuranic *
The Isle of the Sleeper *
*See separate listing

[Mckinley · Rating 3 out of 5]

What's It Like Out There? Reflection on tour of Mars

[Forked Radish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Space travel isn’t all fun and games.

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story about some one returning to normal life