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American Science Fiction: Four Classic Novels 1960-1966: The High Crusade / Way Station / Flowers for Algernon / . . . And Call Me Conrad
The tumultuous 1960s was a watershed decade for American science fiction. While acknowledged masters from the genre’s golden age reached the height of their powers, a new wave of brilliant young voices emerged, upending the genre’s pulp conventions with newfound literary sophistication. SF writers experimented and crossed boundaries, questioning their predecessors’ often utopian faith in technological progress and boldly imagining new possibilities of human existence in novels that continue to astonish today.
Here, in the first volume of a two-volume collector’s set, editor Gary K. Wolfe gathers four trailblazing novels that reveal the full range of the decade’s creative intensities. In The High Crusade (1960), Poul Anderson celebrates the space operas of the pulp era, but with a madcap twist: when technologically advanced aliens touch down among the seeming primitives of medieval England, they find they have met their match. Clifford D. Simak’s Hugo Award–winning Way Station (1963) follows the progress of an unassuming Civil War veteran whose rural Wisconsin homestead has, unbeknownst to his neighbors, become an unlikely nexus of intergalactic battle.
Daniel Keyes’s much-loved best seller Flowers for Algernon (1966) imagines a near-future in which intelligence can be enhanced artificially—but Keyes downplays the speculative and technical possibilities of his premise in favor of intimate character study, taking the SF novel in daring new directions. In the postapocalyptic thriller This Immortal (1966)—published here under the author’s preferred title . . . And Call Me Conrad—Roger Zelazny weaves a skein of ancient myth and legend into his tale of mutant humans and blue aliens with the allusive daring and stylistic virtuosity that exemplify the New Wave at its best.
Here, in the first volume of a two-volume collector’s set, editor Gary K. Wolfe gathers four trailblazing novels that reveal the full range of the decade’s creative intensities. In The High Crusade (1960), Poul Anderson celebrates the space operas of the pulp era, but with a madcap twist: when technologically advanced aliens touch down among the seeming primitives of medieval England, they find they have met their match. Clifford D. Simak’s Hugo Award–winning Way Station (1963) follows the progress of an unassuming Civil War veteran whose rural Wisconsin homestead has, unbeknownst to his neighbors, become an unlikely nexus of intergalactic battle.
Daniel Keyes’s much-loved best seller Flowers for Algernon (1966) imagines a near-future in which intelligence can be enhanced artificially—but Keyes downplays the speculative and technical possibilities of his premise in favor of intimate character study, taking the SF novel in daring new directions. In the postapocalyptic thriller This Immortal (1966)—published here under the author’s preferred title . . . And Call Me Conrad—Roger Zelazny weaves a skein of ancient myth and legend into his tale of mutant humans and blue aliens with the allusive daring and stylistic virtuosity that exemplify the New Wave at its best.
738 pages, Hardcover
Published November 5, 2019
103 people are currently reading
220 people want to read
About the author
Gary K. Wolfe
33 books44 followersGary K. Wolfe is Emeritus Professor of Humanities at Roosevelt University and the author, most recently, of Evaporating Genres: Essays on Fantastic Literature and Sightings: Reviews 2002–2006. He writes regular review columns for Locus magazine and the Chicago Tribune, and co-hosts with Jonathan Strahan the Hugo-nominated Coode Street Podcast.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
May 17, 2020
And done! With volume one. :) These are indeed some good representative novels from the time period, and they show some of the breadth of science fiction in the early sixties. High adventure and medievalism in "The High Crusade" -- hey were people pretending "humans are the badass warrior race of the galaxy" was a new concept? Pohl Anderson was a founding member of the SCA so is this the first SCA novel? Just a thought. ;)
"Way Station" was great to read in quarantine since it's about a man who lives alone in a sealed house. It peppers in all kinds of ideas, like do imaginary friends have souls? And can we use math to predict wars? Lots of "skiffy" things and all the varied aliens... and of course a "Force" that balances the universe...
"Flowers for Algernon" plays hard on Keye's background in psychology and you really get a feel for what was the state of the art back then. (And, sadly, how 'hard' SF often ages the fastest.)
"...And Call Me Conrad" is a picaresque adventure with heavy dashes of mythological references and a post-apocalyptic human diaspora that isn't as bad as most... sure there are 'hot zones' mutant monsters and cannibal tribes, but civilization continues centered on the islands of Earth, with a planetary capital in Haiti. (I like anything that has Haiti come out on top.)
This also showcased the limitations of the time period in what they have in common. Women are mysterious or petty or both... it's interesting how blind the narrators are to the pressures forcing these women into these roles. Wow, how was anyone sane in a world where she couldn't have ambitions of her own? I digress. Keyes tries to dig a little deeper, Anderson has his queen redeemed, and Zelazny at least has two female characters along for the whole adventure, one a spy, and the ladies do help out.
Of the four, "High Crusade" is the best plotted. The others all have passages that feel like digressions or filler. Possibly an artifact of these authors all starting in short stories?
I'm looking forward to Volume Two. The sixties were a dynamic decade and I expect the second four novels to have a very different feel.
"Way Station" was great to read in quarantine since it's about a man who lives alone in a sealed house. It peppers in all kinds of ideas, like do imaginary friends have souls? And can we use math to predict wars? Lots of "skiffy" things and all the varied aliens... and of course a "Force" that balances the universe...
"Flowers for Algernon" plays hard on Keye's background in psychology and you really get a feel for what was the state of the art back then. (And, sadly, how 'hard' SF often ages the fastest.)
"...And Call Me Conrad" is a picaresque adventure with heavy dashes of mythological references and a post-apocalyptic human diaspora that isn't as bad as most... sure there are 'hot zones' mutant monsters and cannibal tribes, but civilization continues centered on the islands of Earth, with a planetary capital in Haiti. (I like anything that has Haiti come out on top.)
This also showcased the limitations of the time period in what they have in common. Women are mysterious or petty or both... it's interesting how blind the narrators are to the pressures forcing these women into these roles. Wow, how was anyone sane in a world where she couldn't have ambitions of her own? I digress. Keyes tries to dig a little deeper, Anderson has his queen redeemed, and Zelazny at least has two female characters along for the whole adventure, one a spy, and the ladies do help out.
Of the four, "High Crusade" is the best plotted. The others all have passages that feel like digressions or filler. Possibly an artifact of these authors all starting in short stories?
I'm looking forward to Volume Two. The sixties were a dynamic decade and I expect the second four novels to have a very different feel.
April 27, 2022
This review is for one of the novels in this volume, “ . . . And Call Me Conrad”: a post-apocalyptic, nearly depopulated Earth finds a small group of explorers dealing with with mutants and aliens in an effort to reclaim their world.
October 30, 2020
Cuatro novelas clásicas de la década de los años '60 del siglo pasado (¡que impresionante se escucha eso!): "The High Crusade" de
Poul ANDERSON
, "Way Station" de
Clifford D. SIMAK
, "Flowers for Algernon",
Daniel KEYES
, y finalmente ". . . And Call Me Conrad", de
Roger ZELAZNY
. La década de 1960 fue muy fértil para la ciencia ficción estadounidense. POr una parte, los maestros de la edad de oro del género alcanzaban la cima de sus capacidades literarias, mientras iba surgiendo una nueva ola de voces jóvenes, que revolucionaron las convenciones del género con propuestas frescas y novedosas donde cuestionaron la visión utópica de sus predecesores en el progreso tecnológico y abrieron el camino a las distopías de las dos décadas siguientes.
"The High Crusade" es divertidísima y muy original: alienígenas aterrizan en la Inglaterra medieval, y descubren que los aparentemente primitivos guerreros de ese entonces son rivales mucho más serios de lo que imaginaban...
Leí "Way Station" ¡el siglo pasado! y la relectura actual sirvió para apreciar mejor la calidad literaria de esta novela sobre un modesto veterano de la Guerra Civil, aparentemente inmortal, en cuya granja rural de Wisconsin (también inmutable e indestructible) guarda un enorme secreto que cambiará el curso de la Humanidad.
"Flowers for Algernon" es famosísima, pero hasta ahora la leí. Muy conmovedora, aunque la evolución del carácter de Charlie en la etapa en que "va de subida" me pareció odiosa.
". . . And Call Me Conrad" es, en mi opinión, la novela menos interesante de la colección. Es el típico thriller postapocalíptico donde el autor teje una madeja de antiguos mitos y leyendas en una historia de humanos mutantes y alienígenas azules.
April 2, 2020
This volume opens with Poul Anderson’s The High Crusade (1960), in which aliens intent on conquering Earth make the mistake of stopping first in an English village where an army is mustering for the invasion of France in the midst of the Hundred Years War. In Clifford D. Simak’s Hugo Award winning Away Station (1963), a Civil War veteran retires to rural Wisconsin and becomes the keeper of a secret transit station between the stars – but then the CIA and Cold War crises intervene, threatening not just his livelihood, not just Earth, but the peace of the Galaxy. Third comes Flowers for Algernon (1966), Daniel Keyes’ touching tale of Charlie Gordon, a mentally-deficient man whose IQ is boosted almost overnight to supergenius, and the psychological struggles that follow. The collection finishes with This Immortal (1966), where a man out of legend leads an alien through the landscapes of a war-blighted Earth, even as the world fades into myth once more.
July 13, 2020
So I have to admit I only got this book for “...And Call Me Conrad” because I’d already read the other three stories. However my rating is based on the fact that I love “Way Station” and “Flowers for Algernon” and this is a very good collection of stories. I don’t think “...And Call Me Conrad” should’ve tied for the Hugo award. It’s an interesting story but Dune is so much more in depth and coherent. “The High Crusade” is just a funny romp and an easy quick read.
July 17, 2025
This volume had my favorite novel by one of my all-time favorite sci-fi authors (Clifford Simak), a novel that I have returned to multiple times over the years (Keyes), and two stellar works by authors I had heard of but never experienced (Anderson and Zelazny).
The best of the bunch is Simak.
A trigger warning is necessary for Keyes, due to outdated slurs for the developmentally disabled.
Breakdown of individual scores for the four novels:
Anderson: 4 stars
Simak: 5 stars
Keyes: 4 1/2 stars
Zelazny: 4 stars
The best of the bunch is Simak.
A trigger warning is necessary for Keyes, due to outdated slurs for the developmentally disabled.
Breakdown of individual scores for the four novels:
Anderson: 4 stars
Simak: 5 stars
Keyes: 4 1/2 stars
Zelazny: 4 stars
October 10, 2022
American
Four very good sixties science fiction novels. What a great way to read these classic stories. Try this. You'll be glad you did.
Four very good sixties science fiction novels. What a great way to read these classic stories. Try this. You'll be glad you did.
June 22, 2023
The first story of this collection is very good. I loved the second story and it's my favorite of this collection.
August 10, 2021
Gary K. Wolfe's Introduction by itself isn't quite worth ordering this collection by inter-library loan. But having done just that, I found it well worth reading.
Poul Anderson The High Crusade . Anderson is one of the ever-reliables, of course. My tiny contribution to his praise is at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... for this one. While you're there, appreciate the several more-or-less attractive covers it's earned over the years.
Clifford D Simak Way Station . I find I have no clear overall impression of Simak's work, and looking at the Wikipedia article I think I can tell why--very highly varied material. At https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... I wrote, "An awful lot of philosophical meditation, but not really enough to bury the plot." Probably not fair, but it's what I've been thinking.
Daniel Keyes Flowers for Algernon . One of the best banned books ever. Highly recommended. And I just couldn't bring myself to reread this quiet tearjerker, so no GoodReads rating or review.
Roger Zelazny ... And Call Me Conrad, generally published as This Immortal . The one reason I ordered this collection. Couldn't imagine myself being disappointed by Zelazny, even very early Zelazny--I mean, this won the 1966 Hugo while "The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth" was winning the Nebula!--and there's nothing actually wrong with it. But still, I'm disappointed. I've said a little more at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....
Poul Anderson The High Crusade . Anderson is one of the ever-reliables, of course. My tiny contribution to his praise is at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... for this one. While you're there, appreciate the several more-or-less attractive covers it's earned over the years.
Clifford D Simak Way Station . I find I have no clear overall impression of Simak's work, and looking at the Wikipedia article I think I can tell why--very highly varied material. At https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... I wrote, "An awful lot of philosophical meditation, but not really enough to bury the plot." Probably not fair, but it's what I've been thinking.
Daniel Keyes Flowers for Algernon . One of the best banned books ever. Highly recommended. And I just couldn't bring myself to reread this quiet tearjerker, so no GoodReads rating or review.
Roger Zelazny ... And Call Me Conrad, generally published as This Immortal . The one reason I ordered this collection. Couldn't imagine myself being disappointed by Zelazny, even very early Zelazny--I mean, this won the 1966 Hugo while "The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth" was winning the Nebula!--and there's nothing actually wrong with it. But still, I'm disappointed. I've said a little more at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....
February 7, 2021
This is a collection of four classic science fiction novels from the early 60s. I read "The High Crusade" by Poul Anderson. It was published in 1960.
This book would not be written or published in 2021. The premise is that an alien invader lands in Medieval England in 1345. The local British warlord, Sir Roger de Tourneville, is just getting ready to head off to France to do battle. He rallies his men against the invaders from space and defeats the aliens using English courage and cleverness.
The English then end up flying the spaceship back to its home planet. They invade the biggest, most powerful empire in space. The moral is that English hardiness and common sense works anywhere. Sir Roger is a perfect example of the brilliant English general who combines daring, intrigue and bluster. He prevails by the sheer force of his English character.
This is a fun space opera. There is no ambivalence about who the good guys are. Anderson does a wonderful job showing how primitive weapons and tactics could work against technology and tactics that had forgotten them.
The story is told by a monk clerk. The clerk tells the story like a medieval miracle story. Anderson has a treacherous earl, a subplot about whether Sir Roger's wife is faithful, potential mutinies and several excellent battle scenes.
The story starts in a small village in rural England and keeps getting bigger. We go to a massive spaceship, to an alien planet, to the home planet of a space empire, and then to a planet jumping wars. Anderson packs a big story into 140 pages. Like most space operas and miracles stories, there are a fair amount of implausible plot turns but Anderson keeps everything moving so fast that you hardly notice them.
Today it would be more likely that the humans where savages and the aliens where beneficent. If there was war with aliens, the human hero would not be a white European aristocrat who was clearly superior to everyone else. There would be a female role other than the shrewish noble lady. The common folk would have a role other than as cannon fodder and grumblers. The moral of the story would not be, "nothing beats good old English pluck."
It still seems odd to read this type of pulp adventure story in a handsome volume in the Library of America series. The book comes in a slip case and has a ribbon for a page marker. The type is classic. There are learned endnotes translating a few of the Latin and medieval phrases Anderson threw in for color. This book has come a long way from its first publication as a serial in "Astounding Magazine"
This is a fun read and a good insight into the world in 1960.
This book would not be written or published in 2021. The premise is that an alien invader lands in Medieval England in 1345. The local British warlord, Sir Roger de Tourneville, is just getting ready to head off to France to do battle. He rallies his men against the invaders from space and defeats the aliens using English courage and cleverness.
The English then end up flying the spaceship back to its home planet. They invade the biggest, most powerful empire in space. The moral is that English hardiness and common sense works anywhere. Sir Roger is a perfect example of the brilliant English general who combines daring, intrigue and bluster. He prevails by the sheer force of his English character.
This is a fun space opera. There is no ambivalence about who the good guys are. Anderson does a wonderful job showing how primitive weapons and tactics could work against technology and tactics that had forgotten them.
The story is told by a monk clerk. The clerk tells the story like a medieval miracle story. Anderson has a treacherous earl, a subplot about whether Sir Roger's wife is faithful, potential mutinies and several excellent battle scenes.
The story starts in a small village in rural England and keeps getting bigger. We go to a massive spaceship, to an alien planet, to the home planet of a space empire, and then to a planet jumping wars. Anderson packs a big story into 140 pages. Like most space operas and miracles stories, there are a fair amount of implausible plot turns but Anderson keeps everything moving so fast that you hardly notice them.
Today it would be more likely that the humans where savages and the aliens where beneficent. If there was war with aliens, the human hero would not be a white European aristocrat who was clearly superior to everyone else. There would be a female role other than the shrewish noble lady. The common folk would have a role other than as cannon fodder and grumblers. The moral of the story would not be, "nothing beats good old English pluck."
It still seems odd to read this type of pulp adventure story in a handsome volume in the Library of America series. The book comes in a slip case and has a ribbon for a page marker. The type is classic. There are learned endnotes translating a few of the Latin and medieval phrases Anderson threw in for color. This book has come a long way from its first publication as a serial in "Astounding Magazine"
This is a fun read and a good insight into the world in 1960.
March 9, 2025
Though I appreciate the efficient, immediate, virtual, hyperlinked, searchable, relational-database-oriented world in which I am fortunate enough to live, I will, on occasion, ramble through legacy, tactile, legacy, flat-file-type organization without knowing what I'm looking for (e.g., The World Book Encylopedia - printed editions, or flipping through actual books from the shelves of my Local Library).
If I did previously encounter the Library of America, I had forgotten, so it was the names of Poul Anderson, Clifford D. Simak, Daniel Keyes, and Roger Zelazny on the spine that attracted my attention.
I am giving this book 5 stars based on the Library of America entity*, the introduction and curation by editor Gary K. Wolf, and the quality of the paper and printing**. This series is a treasure. I'll review the actual books separately.
Since it is difficult to find things on Library of America's website, here are some links to the science fiction offerings and wonderful editorials and context (these links are for info and context - not to encourage purchase - get these books out of your Local Library!):
American Science Fiction - Classic Novels of the 1950's
An interview with Gary K. Wolfe: why the 1950s were the golden age of the science fiction novel
American Science Fiction: Eight Classic Novels of the 1960s (boxed set)
The Future Is Female! More Classic Science Fiction Stories by Women
* The Library of America is "a non-profit organization, champions of our nation's cultural heritage by publishing America's greatest writing in authoritative new editions and providing resources for readers to explore this rich, living legacy."
** This Library of America series edition is printed on acid-free paper and features Smyth-sewn binding, a full cloth cover, and a ribbon marker.
If I did previously encounter the Library of America, I had forgotten, so it was the names of Poul Anderson, Clifford D. Simak, Daniel Keyes, and Roger Zelazny on the spine that attracted my attention.
I am giving this book 5 stars based on the Library of America entity*, the introduction and curation by editor Gary K. Wolf, and the quality of the paper and printing**. This series is a treasure. I'll review the actual books separately.
Since it is difficult to find things on Library of America's website, here are some links to the science fiction offerings and wonderful editorials and context (these links are for info and context - not to encourage purchase - get these books out of your Local Library!):
American Science Fiction - Classic Novels of the 1950's
An interview with Gary K. Wolfe: why the 1950s were the golden age of the science fiction novel
American Science Fiction: Eight Classic Novels of the 1960s (boxed set)
The Future Is Female! More Classic Science Fiction Stories by Women
* The Library of America is "a non-profit organization, champions of our nation's cultural heritage by publishing America's greatest writing in authoritative new editions and providing resources for readers to explore this rich, living legacy."
** This Library of America series edition is printed on acid-free paper and features Smyth-sewn binding, a full cloth cover, and a ribbon marker.
July 2, 2022
For this review, I read only one of the four books collected in this set, Clifford D. Simak's Way Station.
I discovered Way Station almost 40 years ago, as a young teenager bound and determined to read every work of science fiction in my neighborhood library. I loved the book then, and I love it now.
What a wonder! Simak's essential conceit is endlessly appealing to me: imagine spending more than a century (and that just for starters) administering a galactic way station, aging only an hour or two each day, and meeting an endless stream of alien intelligence. This is the life of Simak's protagonist, the Civil War veteran Enoch Wallace - a man whose experience I bitterly envy!
This time around, I found many of the novel's final passages more meaningful than I ever had before. In these passages, Simak writes more expansively, imagining Wallace's life as it is poised for powerful change - and, at the same time, allowing Wallace (and the reader) to experience heart-rending loss.
A powerful novel, and one of my all-time favorites. What a pleasure it was for me to return to it this weekend.
I discovered Way Station almost 40 years ago, as a young teenager bound and determined to read every work of science fiction in my neighborhood library. I loved the book then, and I love it now.
What a wonder! Simak's essential conceit is endlessly appealing to me: imagine spending more than a century (and that just for starters) administering a galactic way station, aging only an hour or two each day, and meeting an endless stream of alien intelligence. This is the life of Simak's protagonist, the Civil War veteran Enoch Wallace - a man whose experience I bitterly envy!
This time around, I found many of the novel's final passages more meaningful than I ever had before. In these passages, Simak writes more expansively, imagining Wallace's life as it is poised for powerful change - and, at the same time, allowing Wallace (and the reader) to experience heart-rending loss.
A powerful novel, and one of my all-time favorites. What a pleasure it was for me to return to it this weekend.
April 24, 2020
This volume opens with Poul Anderson’s The High Crusade (1960), in which aliens intent on conquering Earth make the mistake of stopping first in an English village where an army is mustering for the invasion of France in the midst of the Hundred Years War. In Clifford D. Simak’s Hugo Award winning Away Station (1963), a Civil War veteran retires to rural Wisconsin and becomes the keeper of a secret transit station between the stars – but then the CIA and Cold War crises intervene, threatening not just his livelihood, not just Earth, but the peace of the Galaxy. Third comes Flowers for Algernon (1966), Daniel Keyes’ touching tale of Charlie Gordon, a mentally-deficient man whose IQ is boosted almost overnight to supergenius, and the psychological struggles that follow. The collection finishes with This Immortal (1966), where a man out of legend leads an alien through the landscapes of a war-blighted Earth, even as the world fades into myth once more.
August 19, 2022
Easy science fiction of the old-fashioned type, divided into 4 novellas/novels 3 of which I had not read before. The 3rd one “Flowers For Algernon” I remember from long ago, I did skim it again and realized how sad it was but still pertinent in drug/psychological technologies of today needing extensive and sometimes patient studying.
The other 3 stories were all new to me, nicely done with aliens but quite different from today’s novels of extensive exotic aliens (but still quite exotic in their own ways). Lessons to be learned were quite evident as in “the Way Station” page 211 “ . . . with creation went responsibility and he was not equipped to assume more than the moral responsibility, . . . “.
I enjoyed all, a good 3.5 stars
The other 3 stories were all new to me, nicely done with aliens but quite different from today’s novels of extensive exotic aliens (but still quite exotic in their own ways). Lessons to be learned were quite evident as in “the Way Station” page 211 “ . . . with creation went responsibility and he was not equipped to assume more than the moral responsibility, . . . “.
I enjoyed all, a good 3.5 stars
September 30, 2022
I've written reviews of all the stories in this anthology elsewhere in Goodreads. This review is specific to Zelazny's ...And Call Me Conrad.
I have never gotten into Zelazny's writing and this book continues that trend. The backstory has the original version being sent back for a rewrite requiring a new opening to firmly ground the reader in the story.
I have no idea what happened to it because the new (and obvious) opening weakens the story. Too expository and not interesting.
Sorry, Roger. Not for me.
Regarding the remaining stories, gems.
I have never gotten into Zelazny's writing and this book continues that trend. The backstory has the original version being sent back for a rewrite requiring a new opening to firmly ground the reader in the story.
I have no idea what happened to it because the new (and obvious) opening weakens the story. Too expository and not interesting.
Sorry, Roger. Not for me.
Regarding the remaining stories, gems.
January 13, 2020
High Crusade, Way Station, and Flowers for Algernon are absolute classics. Would have gone 5 stars if the other story was on par with those.
Read
February 1, 2020Fiction A51278 1960-1966
Want to read
December 7, 2022The High Crusade (1960) • Poul Anderson
**** Way Station (1963) • Clifford D. Simak
** Flowers for Algernon (1966) • Daniel Keyes
... And Call Me Conrad (1961) • Roger Zelazny
**** Way Station (1963) • Clifford D. Simak
** Flowers for Algernon (1966) • Daniel Keyes
... And Call Me Conrad (1961) • Roger Zelazny
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews