The Future Is Ours: The Collected Science Fiction of Edward D. Hoch

by Edward D. Hoch, Steve Steinbock (Editor)

Edward D. Hoch was and is the undisputed master of the mystery short story. His total output of published short fiction hovers just under 1,000 stories (estimates are in the neighborhood of 960 stories). Hoch (pronounced "Hoke") is best remembered for his fair-play and impossible crime short stories, particularly the series featuring Dr. Sam Hawthorne, a small-town physician who unraveled seemingly impossible "problems" in 1920s New England. His other popular series characters included British Intelligence codebreaker Jeffrey Rand and thief-for-hire Nick Velvet. While a vast majority of Ed Hoch's stories were mysteries, he enjoyed horror and science fiction. Of his nine-hundred-plus output, he wrote several handfuls of horror and science fiction stories that appeared in various magazines and anthologies. It could be argued that his first published story, "Village of the Dead" (which appeared in the December 1955 issue of the pulp magazine Famous Detective Stories), is as much horror as it is a mystery. In that story, the mass suicide of an entire village is investigated by Simon Ark, a mysterious—possibly two-thousand year old—Coptic Priest. Here, then, are 29 tales of the future, the fantastic, and the improbable by a master of the Edward D. Hoch, writer extraordinaire!

Genres: Science Fiction

238 pages, Paperback

First published December 2, 2014

About the author

Edward D. Hoch is one of the most honored mystery writers of all time.

* 1968 Edgar Allan Poe Award (Mystery Writers of America): "The Oblong Room", The Saint Mystery Magazine, July 1967
* 1998 Anthony Award (Bouchercon World Mystery Convention): "One Bag of Coconuts", EQMM, November 1997
* 2001 Anthony Award (Bouchercon): "The Problem of the Potting Shed", EQMM, July 2000
* 2007 Ellery Queen Readers Choice Award (awarded 2008): "The Theft of the Ostracized Ostrich", EQMM, June 2007
* Lifetime Achievement Award (Private Eye Writers of America), 2000
* Grand Master (Mystery Writers of America), 2001
* Lifetime Achievement Award (Bouchercon), 2001

Reviews

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short Stories, neatly executed, are like jewels that sparkle for a while but leave lasting impressions. Edward D. Hoch is an undisputed master of that craft that results in the creation of short stories. This book is a collection of his thrity-one short stories. Although dubbed as Science Fiction, not all of them belong to that category. Instead, they cover almost the entire gamut of speculative fiction.
Following an informative 'Introduction' by Steve Steinbock, we have~
(a) Strange Futures: Nine Science Fiction stories that, as per Hoch's rule, are more about the human feelings and instincts than the futuristic ambience;
(b) Future Crimes: Eight good, short mysteries, with scientific observations at their centres;
(c) Tales of the dark: Nine stories with hearts of darkness— either as horror or as something utterly unexpected;
(d) History Retold: Five fantasies, which can also be read as various types of 'What If'-s.
Many of these stories have been anthologised in various famous collections. Some of them have become almost legendary, without the name of the author getting tagged. But every one of them are enjoyable, as they bear Hoch's signatures~ lucid writing, realisitic characters, wry humour, and neat conclusions that fit the story.
Highly recommended.

[Sean Randall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of Hoch's short stories were pretty interesting, but the opening of the book and the introduction about the author dragged on. A worthy collector for fans, but not a very accessible work for those new to him.