The Best of L. Sprague de Camp

by L. Sprague de Camp, Darrell Sweet (Illustrator), Poul Anderson (Introduction)

Ballantine Del Rey paperback, first printing, 1978. Includes introduction, “L. Sprague de Camp -- Engineer and Sorcerer” (essay) by Poul Anderson, and these Hyperpelosity (1938); Language for Time Travelers (1938, essay); The Command [Johnny Black] (1938); The Merman (1938); Employment (1939); The Gnarly Man (1939); "Reward of Virtue" (1970, poem); Nothing in the Rules (1939); The Hardwood Pile (1940); The Reluctant Shaman (1947); The Inspector's Teeth [Viagens Interplanetarias] (1950); The Guided Man (1952); "The Ameba" (1973, poem); Judgment Day (1955); A Gun for Dinosaur [Reginald Rivers] (1956); The Emperor's Fan [Novaria] (1973; Two Yards of Dragon [Incorporated Knight] (1976); "The Little Green Men" (1976, poem); Author's Afterword (1978).

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction, Short Stories, Collections, Anthologies, Classics

362 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 1, 1978

About the author

Lyon Sprague de Camp was an American author of science fiction, fantasy and non-fiction literature. In a career spanning 60 years, he wrote over 100 books, both novels and works of non-fiction, including biographies of other fantasy authors. He was a major figure in science fiction in the 1930s and 1940s.

Reviews

[Stewart Tame · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've known de Camp's work long enough that I no longer recall when I first became aware of it. Certainly I read The Compleat Enchanter and Tales From Gavagan's Bar back in high school (early to mid-80's.) And even then, his name was familiar from reading classic SF anthologies. I'm honestly surprised by how many of the stories in Best of were unfamiliar to me. I recognized "Nothing In the Rules" and "A Gun for Dinosaur," but that's it.

I'm also impressed by the age of these stories. For some reason, I've had it in my head that SF as a genre didn't really start to get good until the 40's and 50's. But fully half this book is all from the late 30's. And they're good stories! Yes, some of the depictions of women and minorities made me wince. But I suspect it was more societal standards of the time than any deeply-held beliefs on de Camp's part. Heck, compared to some of his contemporaries, he's positively progressive.

In general, the book is quite good. "Language for Time Travelers" is a fascinating look at linguistics and how language can shift over the centuries (okay, I also found it kind of boring, but I managed to get through it.) "Two Yards of Dragon" and "The Emperor's Fan" show de Camp working in more of a Fantasy mode. I'm not sure if publication dates support this, but perhaps they were forerunners of his tales of Harold Shea (collected in The Compleat Enchanter?)

Also worth mentioning is "The Guided Man" which made me chuckle aloud. It's, for lack of a better word, "naughty." Had it been written ten years later (it was first published in 1952), it likely would have run in Playboy or some similar publication. So our hero and a few companions–including a girl he's sweet on--are skinny-dipping at an estate she's house-sitting, when the owners return unexpectedly. So they flee into the woods and over the fence to a neighboring property which just happens to be a nudist resort … It was contrived enough to make me laugh, but also a fun story.

The comics fan in me was delighted by the Richard Corben cover.

All in all, The Best of L. Sprague de Camp lives up to its title. It's a fine collection of vintage SF and Fantasy from one of the masters of the form. Highly recommended!

[Ira (SF Words of Wonder) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Check out a discussion on this collection of short stories with Matt and Richard HERE.
These short stories and poems were fun, absurd, witty, humorous and entertaining for the most part. There were a lot of stories about animals in the beginning that I ended up liking more than I thought I would. Then there are some interesting/different/questionable stories in the middle. Finishing off with time travel and fantasy stories. De Camp takes a lot of these stories in unpredictable directions, which kept me engaged, wondering what he was going to do next. Overall, I would recommend this collection to people wanting to see the uniqueness of de Camp writing, just space them out to avoid absurdity overload.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good collection of de Camp's short fiction with a nice introduction by Poul Anderson and a striking Darrell Sweet cover. The majority of the stories appeared in John W. Campbell's Astounding (science fiction) or Unknown (fantasy) magazines in the Golden Age years. There are none of his collaborative stories with Fletcher Pratt, nor any of his Conan stories that were co-authored by Lin Carter and/or based on Robert E. Howard's notes or fragments, but I think it's still a good, representative look at his career. (Calling any such volume "The Best Of..." is always an invitation to debate.) The Gnarly Man and A Gun For Dinosaur are favorites.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume provides a generous collection of the science-fiction and fantasy of L. Sprague de Camp. There is also a non-fiction essay on language, three poems, and a short auto-biographical "Afterword".
The tone of most of the stories is lightly satiric and humorous but "Judgement Day" is a powerful and very dark piece indeed.

Personally, I think that the author's work is at its best in the collaborations with Fletcher Pratt. Nonetheless, though the quality of the individual selections is variable, this is a book that those interested in "Golden Age" science fiction will want to have.

[Skallagrimsen]

I wouldn't call L. Sprague de Camp a great science fiction writer. In essence, I think he was more of an intellectual than a storyteller. But he was clever and could be entertaining. “A Gun For Dinosaur,” included in this collection, is rightfully regarded as one of his best stories. The plot involves four big game hunters on a safari, via a time machine, to the Cretaceous period. Their ambition is to make a trophy of Earth’s ultimate predator: Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Loosely adapted like Westworld or The Man In the High Castle, I think this classic story would make a good premise for a TV series. Dinosaurs, of course, have perennial appeal, but the Jurassic Park/World franchise is so tired/dumb now (really, it has been for most of its existence). We need a new pop cultural vehicle to explore and express our collective fascination of these giants of evolutionary history. I nominate “A Gun For Dinosaur.”

update 10/18/23:

I had faint hopes that 65, the schlocky sci-fi/thriller flick released earlier this year, which pits a time traveling Adam Driver against an array of late Cretaceous carnivores, might step in to fill the void. But I doubt it will. While it was a mild box office success, at least when measured against its modest budget, 65 doesn't seem to have captured either the popular zeitgeist or much critical esteem. Nor did it seem like the sort of film whose premise was likely to spawn a franchise. For my part, outside of one or two effective jump scares, I found it almost unwatchable. I'm glad I waited for the Redbox release and only wasted $2 on it.

The good news is that the nature documentary series Prehistoric Planet was also released this year. To suggest it's a worthy successor to Jurassic Park is to flatter Jurassic Park. I've only seen one complete episode so far, but if the others are of comparable quality, as they are indeed said to be, then Prehistoric Planet must be easily and by far the best dramatization of dinosaurs anywhere to date. It contains what are surely the most beautifully animated and convincingly depicted extinct animals ever to appear on the screen. And it's is narrated by none other than the great Sir David Attenborough! If you're even remotely interested in this sort of thing, you must see it.

Prehistoric Planet, however, does not fulfill the impossible fantasy of humans interacting directly with actual dinosaurs. The void in the popular culture remains. We still need "A Gun for Dinosaur."

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

L. Sprague de Camp (1907-2000) was one of the first science fiction writers that I read, particularly his short stories. This book is a collection of his short stories, many of which I read and even remember (!), especially "A Gun for Dinosaur," "The Gnarly Man," and "Judgment Day." "A Gun for Dinosaur" remains my favorite of all his short stories, although now I find the idea of utilizing a time machine to send safaris back to the Mesozoic to hunt dinosaurs to be a ludicrous idea. But I still enjoy the story!

[Jerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read a lot of these before, though I don’t remember where. They are clearly memorable, however, especially “Hyperpilosity”, a lesson on how to make money on the stock market.

The collection also includes “Language for Time Travelers” which is really an education on language for writers about time travel, who tend to assume language to be static no matter how far in the future someone goes (though they usually get it right when someone goes to the past).

There’s a story about how difficult it is for an intelligent creature with no vocal apparatus to communicate with drugged-out humans.

And a story about—this may sound familiar—the dangers of reanimating prehistoric creatures for entertainment purposes.

“Two Yards of Dragon” has a great ending line, which makes it a great final story in the collection. I find these individually and as a whole very enjoyable—more enjoyable than de Camp’s novel-length fiction, at least so far. They tend to be focused on one or two weird things, and reasonably take into account the secondary effects of the weirdness.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

De Camp is always pretty solid, and this collection of some of his stories (plus one famous essay about how English might change over the coming centuries) is pretty good. My favorites would be "The Command" and "Hyperpilosity" (two very early sci-fi pieces) and "The emperor's fan" and "Two yards of dragon," two later fantasy tales. "Hyperpilosity" is a satirical story, perhaps most interesting because De Camp describes a prion-based disease long before prions were even known to exist. "The command" features a convincingly depicted nonhuman protagonist, but to say more would be a bit of a spoiler. "The emperor's fan" is about a magical fan that can cause people to disappear, and how it an absent-minded, somewhat incompetent emperor misuses it. "Two yards of dragon" is a very clever romance about a squire on a quest to slay a dragon, but who completely disregards chivalry and the conventions of such stories. The other stories are mostly pretty good, but a few drag on too long.

[Alien · Rating 4 out of 5]

Einfallsreich, oft absurd, immer humorvoll.
Die märchenhaften Fantasy-Stories gefielen mir am besten. Sie sind wirklich sehr gekonnt gemacht.
Am besten gefiel mir "Der Teppich und der Stier" über einen Zauberer, der eine Serienproduktion von fliegenden Teppichen aufziehen will.

In der deutschen Ausgabe fehlen leider einige der Stories aus dem Original.

[Samuel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I smiled, I giggled, I learnt. De Camp's short stories are unlike any other, no matter whether he attempt horror, fantasy or science fiction, the result is always similarly whimsical. In reality I feel that these stories should be quizzically frowned at, or shrugged off as juvenile and absurd, but it's hard to do so. Despite utter madness such as mankind becoming hairy and liking it, an intelligent bear saving the world, or the reanimation of a mammoth fossil, these stories are all tongue-in-cheek charming. Daft, maybe, but they're guaranteed to raise a stifled smile.

[Johan Haneveld · Rating 4 out of 5]

8+ A collection of solidly entertaining science fiction by L. Sprague de Camp. A contemporary of authors like Asimov, Clarke and Heinlein, he doesn't reach the heights those authors did, be it not in prose then in sciencefictional ideas. I don't think his stories are as well constructed as those by those other authors were, and his conclusions not as powerful. Most could do with trimming a couple of pages. But his stories are entertaining in other ways.
First he has an interest in paleontology - which is one of my favorite subjects as well. I already knew his story 'A gun for dinosaur', that managed to evoke a cretaceous atmosphere very convincingly and had some great descriptions of dinosaurs and bumbling big game hunters. But there's also a story here about prehistoric mammals, in a precursor of Jurassic Park, in which a Dinocyon and a Mammoth wreak havoc. And there's a story about a Neanderthal man too.
Then there's the stories about non-human beings having to prove they're worthy of being treated like humans. Here Sprague de Camp shows a humanistic bent. He manages to cast the net wide to include a lot of different being inside the banner of humanity, and his stories manage not to other women or people from other cultures (at least not in my opinion. Not too much at least). There's a mermaid entered into a swimming competition, an uplifted black bear who has to rescue the human race (very fun story that one), a reptiloid alien trying to enter a student organization and a dryad living in a pile of wood fighting for her right to exist.
On the other side of the equation Sprague de Camp had no use for bullies. He describes being bullied and the effects it has on ones later life with such insight that I wonder if he speaks from personal experience. Anyway, 'Judgment Day' wonders what someone who was bullied as a young boy would do given a means to end the world, and bullies come to a bad end in other stories as well.
The author is also very interested in linguistics. In most stories someone speaks in an accent or dialect, lovingly transcribed by the author, and in an essay he extrapolated how speech will develop in the future and why time travelers from our time will have trouble understanding English four hundred years hence. In the final story 'Two Yards of Dragon' he has fun with a medieval way of speaking and asks the question how a rational person would go about hunting a dragon. He describes the dragon having to shed his skin and thus having opaque eyes, which I found an interesting detail.
In the opening story he manages to describe prions long before they were discovered, not a mean feat!
Sprague de Camp is good in writing action scenes as well (and especially those concerning animals are well realised!).
There are also some funny poems in between the stories.
If you want to read some entertaining science fiction from the 'golden age' of science fiction, and especially if you like a bit of paleontology in your fiction, I can wholeheartedly recommend this collection.

[Phil Giunta · Rating 4 out of 5]

When we think of the writers who comprised the golden age of SF, names like Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, Lester del Rey, and Ted Sturgeon might be the first to spring to mind. There were many others, but to my dismay, they’re fading into the brume of antiquity—folks like Henry Kuttner, Clifford Simak, A.E. Van Vogt, Fritz Leiber, and L. Sprague de Camp to name a few.

Which is why I’m always excited to peruse used book shops and book dealer tables at conventions. I never fail to leave without a stack of golden age gems. One such recent find is the The Best of L. Sprague de Camp. Known in his time as a humor writer in the fields of SF and fantasy, the stately de Camp was also a historian, scientist, and engineer, all of which influenced his fiction.

This “Best of” compilation is an eclectic showcase of de Camp’s humor and intellect. My favorites include:

“The Command” - A chemically altered bear that can read, reason, and even operate some machinery, stops an evil chemist and his henchmen bent on world domination.

“Nothing in the Rules” - The desperate coach of a woman’s swim team knows they cannot beat the opposition without an advantage, but his solution is downright mythical.

“The Hardwood Pile” - Loggers cut down a Norwegian Maple that happened to be home of a wood nymph. After all attempts to reason with the company owner fail, the nymph uses her magical abilities to ensure he can’t sell the lumber made from her tree.

“The Reluctant Shaman” - The indigenous American owner of a trinket shop is burdened with temporary custody of the legendary Gahunga, elemental beings of the Seneca tribe who use their magic in the service of their caretaker. However, when the shop owner asks them to drum up more business for his shop, he soon regrets it.

“A Gun for Dinosaur” - Things go sideways when a time-traveling dinosaur hunter takes two clients back to the Late Mesozoic era. One customer is too small in stature to handle a dinosaur gun and the other is a belligerent hothead who disregards the guide’s advice and fires at every creature he sees.

“The Emperor’s Fan” - The Emperor of Kuromon comes into possession of a magical fan. Simply wave it at an enemy and watch them disappear, but what happens when the fan falls into the hands of an unexpected adversary?

“Two Yards of Dragon” - In order to achieve knighthood and win the hand of a lovely maiden, a young man travels far from home to slay a dragon and return with two yards of its hide. Little does he know that dragons are now protected game, he has no hunting license, and worse, dragons are out of season.

[Redsteve · Rating 2 out of 5]

I generally like de Camp's works, but overall I found this collection disappointing. Most of it felt like f basic mid-20th Century SF/Fantasy, often with a (more or less) humorous spin added to it. I'm not certain why, but the stories were also originally published in three 'blocks' of time - 1938-40, 1947-56, and 1970-76, with nothing outside of those periods (the book itself was published in 1978). The collection also includes a handful of poems, and one nonfiction piece, "Language for Time Travelers," which was largely speculation of how the English language might continue to evolve over time. My reactions to most of the stories ranged from "meh" to "that's cute." Also, over time, his phonetic spelling of various comedic accents (Spanish, French Canadian, Brooklyn, space alien, etc.) really started to get on my nerves. Allowing for a generous use of the term 'favorite,' my favorites were "The Command," "A Gun for Dinosaur," and "Two Yards of Dragon." Since I do love his time travel novel LEST DARKNESS FALL and several of the books he wrote with Fletcher Pratt, maybe de Camp just doesn't work for me in a short story format. 2.5 stars.

[Rina.P · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lyon Sprague de Camp: Ein Dämon mit kleinen Fehlern

Zdim ist ein Dämon, der gezwungen wird auf der Ebene der Menschen seinen Dienst abzuleisten. Es waren wirklich paar witzige Passagen dabei aber leider so langweilig beschrieben, dass man sich nur gedacht hat wenn .....dann hätte ich auch lachen können.
Bei den Dämonen der 12. Ebene muss man die Befehle ganz genau ausdrücken, sonst passiert es halt mal, dass der Lehrling gefressen wird. Wegen dieser falsch ausgedrückten Befehle wechselt Zdim einige male die Besitzer um dann für das Volk seiner letzen Besitzerin noch einen Krieg zu organisieren.
Es fehlt einfach so ein bisschen der satierische Humor, der mit diesem Dämon zusammen hängen könnte. Schade. Ich könnte es leider nicht weiterempfehlen.

[Kevin K · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can see why L. Sprague de Camp is considered one of the science fiction greats.

While some of the language and pacing is a dated, the ideas behind the stories in this anthology are all compelling. I especially enjoyed the short stories "Hyperpilosity", "The Command", "Employment" and "Judgment Day", with the best story (in my opinion) being "A Gun for Dinosaur". The short essay "Language for Time Travelers" was also very compelling.

Throughout, you can see the story telling nuggets that have become cornerstones of sci-fi, and the stories therein really do cement L. Sprague de Camp as one of the science fiction greats

[David Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

De Camp was educated across history, science and language, and his stories are slightly fussy as a result, and not particularly deep. They're amusing, though, like the one about the haunted house that is disassembled, leaving behind haunted lumber. Whimsical, unpretentious tales of a type that long ago fell out of favor, and we may be the poorer for that. Also, "A Gun for Dinosaur" treats the idea of a time-traveling safari more rigorously, but less poetically, than did Bradbury.

[Viktor · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice collection from the 4th ever SF Grand Master and 3rd Gandalf Grand Master de Camp. Most of the stories here are lighthearted and are nicely told, but they're not earthshaking. The lightness tends to wear thin after too many stories in a row. That being said, "Judgement Day" is as dark as it gets.

I liked it a lot, but I didn't love it.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a younger man I read a number of his books and short stories. I seem to be revisiting some of the books of my youth. Most of the included stories are fun to read. I can imagine him smiling as he wrote most of them (with his tongue definitely in his cheek). There is a really nice afterword by de Camp talking about how he came to be a writer.

[Karl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice collection of science fiction and fantasy stories, most with a light comedic touch. Some of them play with the absurdities of the fantastic (either of science or the supernatural) intersecting awkwardly with the mundane world.

5 Star Stories (some light spoilers)
“The Gnarly Man”: The idea of the immortal is a fascinating one, and this tale adds a nice anthropological twist to the concept. Gaffney is a great protagonist with a unique perspective on Humanity and history.

“Judgment Day”: A brutal and devastating story about alienation and revenge. A scientific discovery prompts an apocalyptic choice which driven by bitterness to an inevitable conclusion. Semi-autobiographical, it paints a grim picture of Humanity and the mistreatment of those arbitrarily chosen as whipping-horses by society.

“A Gun for Dinosaur”: This tragic-comic story about time travel and ego has been reprinted many times, for good reason. This has a nice sense of humor and would inspires several sequels. I don’t know if this is the first “time travel to hunt dinosaurs” story, but it is a classic.

The rest of the collection:
Hyperpilosity (3 stars)
Language for Time Travelers (4 stars)
The Command (4 stars)
The Merman (3½ stars)
Employment (4 stars)
Nothing in the Rules (3½ stars)
The Hardwood Pile (4 stars)
The Reluctant Shaman (3½ stars)
The Inspector's Teeth (3 stars)
The Guided Man (3 stars)
The Emperor's Fan (4½ stars)
Two Yards of Dragon (4½ stars)

The poems, “Reward of Virtue,” “The Ameba,” and “The Little Green Men,” are also entertaining.

[Keith Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

De Camp was a master of a special style of short story that was published in the pulp magazines of the Forties and Fifties. These are humorous stories in which one element of fantasy or speculative science gets introduced into the everyday world and the consequences are logically worked out. For example, what if a virus caused all its victims to grow fur, or what if dryads turned out to be real. I love this type of story, but very few writers attempt this style anymore.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been awhile since I read any of de Camp's shorter work. Really good to reread some of his stories. Really enjoyed "Hyperilosity", "The Gnarly Man", "The Hardwood Pile", "The Reluctant Shaman", "Judgment Day", and, of course, "A Gun for Dinosaur". Heck, I enjoyed all the stories in this anthology, and his essay, "Language for Time Travelers". I highly recommend this book. I also recommend his novel, "Lest Darkness Falls".

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't compare to much other stuff he's written. I'd read Lest Darkness Fall, and maybe one other book by him.

The stories were pretty hit and miss. A couple were great. Some were ok. A couple didn't really have anything in them. I wouldn't say any were BAD, at least.

It was a light read-after reading The Brothers Karamazov, that was my main concern.

[Christian · Rating 4 out of 5]

DeCamp was a contemporary of Asimov, Bradbury, Heinlein, etc, who got his start in John Campbell's Astounding Science Fiction magazine, as most of 'em did. This is a collection of his short stories. They range from entertaining to mildly profound.

[Tom Fredricks · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection was remarkable for the out of the box and humorous nature of the stories. I also especially enjoyed De Camp's dialogue. He takes pains to write in the vernacular of whatever character he's speaking for.

Excellent collection of stories, well worth the read.

[Norman Felchle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good solid old time SF. A lot of stories from the 30's including, "Employment" from 1939. About bringing back pre-historic creatures through their DNA.
An idea like that would make a good movie.......

[bluetyson]

The Best of L. Sprague De Camp by L. Sprague de Camp (1978)