Out of this world 9: an anthology of science fiction.

by Amabel Williams-Ellis (Editor), Michael Pearson (Editor)

The diamondwood trees / by James H. Schmitz --
Allamagoosa / by Frank Russell --
A message for zoo directors / by Gerard Klein --
The vanishing man / by Richard Hughes --
At daybreak / by Italo Calvino --
Rich and strange / by Amabel Williams-Ellis --
Blemish / by John Christopher --
Catharsis / by John Rackham --
Mantrap / by Kathleen James --
Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow / by Kurt Vonnegut.

191 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Amabel Williams-Ellis was an English writer, critic, and early member of the Bloomsbury Group. Over the course of her life, Amabel Williams-Ellis wrote more than 40 books. These included novels, books for children, and histories. She wrote regularly for periodicals, and edited multiple volumes of folk legends, fairy tales, and science fiction. She was significantly inspired by the writer and explorer Mary Kingsley, who she had met in childhood, and who she described as 'an anthropologist before anthropology'. The Times described Amabel Williams-Ellis as someone who 'wrote books to find things out, and seemed prepared to take on anything.'
She died on 27 August 1984, at the age of 90. Shortly before her death, she published a memoir: “All Stracheys Are Cousins”.

Reviews

[Jeanette Greaves · Rating 5 out of 5]

A re-read. A re-read after a long time, but my feeling of familiarity with the book shows that I've read it several times before. It was published in the early 1970s, but the 'Barnados' sticker on the front cover means that I bought it after 1988. See, I coulda been a detective.
It's an ex library book - Bramhall High School Library, to be exact. It still has the index card and date stamp, which suggests it was taken out of circulation in or after 1984. It still has its plastic library cover. I love a book with history. The book consists of nine stories ... two of them in translation ... curated by the anthologists Amabel Williams-Ellis and Michael Pearson.
A two page preface ponders the nature of sf and the puzzling scarcity of stories that originate outside the USA and Britain.
The first story is 'The Diamondwood Trees' by James H Schmitz. It's a hugely satisfying story about colonisation, what it means to be human, and the importance of respecting the local ecology.
Frank Russell's 'Allamagoosa' is a straight faced study of rules v reality and what happens when they collide. I love this story, it could have been written at almost any point in the last century.
Gerard Klein's 'A Message for Zoo Directors' allows sf to meet horror in this translation from the original French. It's a tale of messages from an unusual source and the men who went in search of the truth.
'The Vanishing Man' by Richard Huges is a very short story describing what has become a trope of modern sf ... interdimensional travel and the physical dangers thereof. It reminded me of the premise of Pratchett and Baxter's 'Long Earth' series.
'At Daybreak' by Italo Calvino is the other translated story in the book, a gentle tale of physics, creation, and a First Family that deserves the name.
'Rich and Strange' is the only original story in the book, and is by the anthologist, Amabel Williams Ellis. It's a story very much of the earlier part of the twentieth century, and concerns scientists young and old exploring an interesting theory from two very different viewpoints.
John Christopher's 'Blemish' has a Twilight Zone vibe to it. Earth is heavily civilised, developed, and run on very strict principles. It has one blemish, a village that runs on older ideas. An inspection from an alien civilisation arrives to decide if Earth is fit to join the galactic culture. The Expected happens. The really sad thing about this is that what read as a dystopian Earth forty years ago now reads as something I would happily trade for the dystopia we're living in now.
John Rackham's 'Catharsis' was originally published in 'New Writings in SF 11'. It's a simple story of a man who is so focussed on his work that he is dying because of it. The solution, as envisaged by another highly focussed man, is drastic and very troubling.
'Mantrap' by Kathleen James is my favourite story in the book. Following the capture of a colonist from a rogue planet, the authorities send back a spy who has been surgically altered and trained to impersonate the colonist and to send back regular reports. Blending in becomes far too easy a task.
'Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow' brings in the big guns. Kurt Vonnegut's story is an amusing and fun take on extended life and youth, and the implications for later generations. Going back to Pratchett (I wonder if he ever read this story) I'm reminded of Nanny Ogg and her constant rearranging of the family portraits in the living room.
I loved revisiting this book. At only nine stories long, it's a nicely curated study of sf in the early seventies, reaching back in style as far as the forties but also reaching forward to the feminist sf that was beginning to make its mark.