A Scatter of Stardust

by E.C. Tubb

“His reputation for fast-moving and colourful SF writing is unmatched by anyone in Britain.” Michael Moorcock



In this collection, magic and science, mind and matter, strange worlds and deadly weapons fill the universes created by E. C. Tubb.

Strange bells that toll tales of death…

A quick trip to Paradise…

A deal with an outdated demon…

Mankind’s final pilgrimage…

The telepathic death sentence…

Ginney, a little girl who wasn’t there but left the world a present anyway…

One criminal left in a universe of his own…

Mark Conway, psychologist, a modern magician without a wand who seeks to dispel an ancient magic…

Vivid and brilliant, A Scatter of Stardust are classic science fiction tales that will grip you until the last page. A perfect introduction to the writings of E. C. Tubb.

Edwin Charles Tubb was a British writer of science fiction, fantasy and western novels. The author of over 140 novels and 230 short stories and novellas, Tubb is best known for The Dumarest Saga (US collective Dumarest of Terra) an epic science-fiction saga set in the far future. He has used 58 pen names over five decades. Edwin died in 2010.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories

137 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 1, 1972

About the author

Edwin Charles Tubb was a writer of science fiction, fantasy and western novels. He published over 140 novels and 230 short stories and novellas, and is best known for The Dumarest Saga (US collective title: Dumarest of Terra) an epic science-fiction saga set in the far future.

Much of Tubb's work has been written under pseudonyms including Gregory Kern, Carl Maddox, Alan Guthrie, Eric Storm and George Holt. He has used 58 pen names over five decades of writing although some of these were publishers' house names also used by other writers: Volsted Gridban (along with John Russell Fearn), Gill Hunt (with John Brunner and Dennis Hughes), King Lang (with George Hay and John W Jennison), Roy Sheldon (with H. J. Campbell) and Brian Shaw. Tubb's Charles Grey alias was solely his own and acquired a big following in the early 1950s.

An avid reader of pulp science-fiction and fantasy in his youth, Tubb found that he had a particular talent as a writer of stories in that genre when his short story 'No Short Cuts' was published in New Worlds magazine in 1951. He opted for a full-time career as a writer and soon became renowned for the speed and diversity of his output.

Tubb contributed to many of the science fiction magazines of the 1950s including Futuristic Science Stories, Science Fantasy, Nebula and Galaxy Science Fiction. He contributed heavily to Authentic Science Fiction editing the magazine for nearly two years, from February 1956 until it folded in October 1957. During this time, he found it so difficult to find good writers to contribute to the magazine, that he often wrote most of the stories himself under a variety of pseudonyms: one issue of Authentic was written entirely by Tubb, including the letters column.

His main work in the science fiction genre, the Dumarest series, appeared from 1967 to 1985, with two final volumes in 1997 and 2008. His second major series, the Cap Kennedy series, was written from 1973 to 1983.

In recent years Tubb updated many of his 1950s science fiction novels for 21st century readers.

Tubb was one of the co-founders of the British Science Fiction Association.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Ace double has Technos, the seventh novel in Tubb's long-running Dumarest series, on one side, and A Scatter of Stardust, a short fiction collection, on the other. The Ace doubles were published from the early 1950s through the late '70s in tête-bêche format; each volume consisted of two books printed upside down in opposition to each other with a separate cover on each title, so there was no front-and-back, just two fronts. Harry Borgman did the Technos cover, a very green futuristic cityscape, and A Scatter of Stardust has one of Karel Thole's most delightful paintings. Technos is a standard Dumarest adventure; Earl is following clues in an attempt to find his long-lost home, Earth, and gets side-tracked by the politics of feuding planets and ends up meeting some lovely ladies and fighting with some authoritarian men and the red-robed Cyclan minions are in hot pursuit. I was pleasantly surprised by A Scatter of Stardust; I've read little by Tubb other than Dumarest books, and I thought that the short fiction demonstrates a wide range of theme and topic. It contains eight stories originally published between 1957 and '66, one from the U.S. magazine Infinity and the others from the U.K. magazines New Worlds (four) and Science Fantasy (three). The Ace edition does not have a table of contents, which is weird and annoying. The Bells of Acheron is a good alien encounter story, very descriptively written. Anne is a short A.I./future war fable. Return Visit is a straight deal-with-the-devil fantasy story, very Unknown-like; I never knew Tubb wrote fantasy. The Shrine was my least favorite; I didn't get the point at all. It's about pilgrims in the far-future being transformed... or something. Survival Demands is an interesting look at alien telepaths and genocide and the nature of kindness. Little Girl Lost was my favorite from the book; it's a very memorable story with a minor sf element. The Eyes of Silence, from Infinity, is a unique look at the boredom of interstellar travel and problems that it can cause, very much in the spirit of Eric Frank Russell. The final story is the longest, Enchanter's Encounter, another fantasy with a predictable twist of science versus magic, but an enjoyable tale. It's an altogether enjoyable and entertaining volume.

[Bandit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh the golden oldies of science fiction. Every so often there’s a treasure one might find. This short story collection, for example. Tubb is a somewhat inconsistent author, but this was by far the most enjoyable of his works. He wanders off the scifi path with the best results. I can’t seem to remember the titles of the stories, but the one with the demon was just great. These are tales with a twist, not quite Black Mirror style (genre’s paragon in my books), but definitely reminiscent of the finest speculative fiction of the time. What may be lacking in substance and profundity as it were, is well compensated for with a certain whim and whimsy. Objectively, these stories are quite light and occasionally over simplistic, but they are very entertaining and lots of fun, making for a quick and enjoyable read.

[Ian Massey · Rating 3 out of 5]

A curiosity that only sits in my collection because I bought Technos to help complete the Dumarest Saga and the only format I could get it in was this Ace Double. Arguably I should have listed it as one book.

Ten short stories, all older than me, which are entertaining rather than thrilling. I would suggest they are all very much of their time, but I'm no scholar qualified to justify that. A mix of SF and fantasy/horror (the latter in its lightest sense), with some neat twist endings included.

The Bells Of Archeron - do the dead live again in the sounds of a far away planet?
Anne - a wounded spaceship pilot gets an unusual vision. My least favourite in the book.
Return Visit - man summons demon, what happens next? Amusing.
The Shrine - members of a fractured humanity visit a mysterious shrine. I didn't get this one.
Survival Demands - the consequence of what happens when Man finds aliens
Little Girl Lost - a scientist is grieving the death of his daughter. Can he be helped?
The Eyes if Silence - a criminal is sent to a remote space station, but why?
Enchanter's Encounter - is magic real?

[Liedzeit Liedzeit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Science Fiction stories by one of my favourite writers. Okay, but not really very good. I did like The Bells of Archeron about a man who finds his way back to sanity by trying to help a young widow who is about to let the Bells take possession of her. And the lady was an actor hired to be rescued. This story is also the one where the spectacular style of Tubb is easily recognisable. The best one though is Enchanter’s Encounters about a clash between the rational psychologist and the mystic. The hero wants to marry a young lady who is under the spell of the mystic. But things are not as they appear. Great dialogues.

One thing bad about this edition is that it is full of mistakes. It seems the book was scanned and printed from OCR. Modern becomes modem. One story The Shrine ends so suddenly that it seems to me the end is actually missing. There is a blank page following the story.

[Shanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good collection of short stories, mostly science fiction, and some fantasy. Themes ranged from heartbreaking to hopeful. "The Shrine" and "Survival Demands!" provide an interesting take on what alien life might think of humans. The stories are a bit male-centric, which is typical of the time period when the stories were written.

[L. Shosty · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first three stories were good to great, but the rest of the book left me wanting. I had high expectations for a book like this, given Tubb's extensive publishing history.

[Geoffrey van Dijk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely palette cleanser between books.

[SciFiOne]

ACE Double novel 79975

[Paula R C R. C. Readman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great little book with amazing stop-to-think type stories. A quick easy read, if you are looking for thoughtful Sci-Fi stories.

[Venture Press · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is published by Venture Press.