The Fifth Galaxy Reader

Galaxy Reader #5

by H.L. Gold (Editor), Gordon R. Dickson (Contributor), Avram Davidson (Contributor)

Contents:

Introduction (The Fifth Galaxy Reader) by H. L. Gold
Inside John Barth by William W. Stuart
The Last Letter by Fritz Leiber
Perfect Answer L. J. Stecher, Jr.
Double Dare by Robert Silverberg
Pastoral Affair by Charles A. Stearns
Black Charlie by Gordon R. Dickson
$1,000 a Plate by Jack McKenty
Take Wooden Indians by Avram Davidson
The Bitterest Pill by Frederik Pohl
This Side Up by Raymond E. Banks
The Eel by Miriam Allen deFord
A Feast of Demons by William Morrison
Nightmare with Zeppelins by Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth
We Never Mention Aunt Nora by Frederik Pohl [as by Paul Flehr ]
When the People Fell [The Instrumentality of Mankind] by Cordwainer Smith

Genres: Science Fiction, Anthologies, Short Stories, Collections

241 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

Horace Leonard Gold was a science fiction writer and editor most noted for bringing an innovative and fresh approach to science fiction while he was the editor of Galaxy Science Fiction, and also wrote briefly for DC Comics. Born in Canada, Gold moved to the United States at the age of two. He also published under the pseudonyms Clyde Crane Campbell, Dudley Dell, Christopher Grimm, and Leigh Keith.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the fifth volume of selections of the best short fiction from Galaxy Science Fiction magazine as selected by the magazine's editor, H.L. Gold. It was his penultimate anthology of Galaxy stories. All but two of the stories originally appeared in 1958 and 1959. There are good stories by Fritz Leiber, Gordon R. Dickson, Robert Silverberg, Miriam Allen DeFord, and Cordwainer Smith. The star of the book is Frederik Pohl, who has a solo story, a (posthumous) collaboration with C.M. Kornbluth, and a third story under the pseudonym of Paul Flehr. Pohl became editor of the magazine the year that this book appeared, 1961, and remained at the helm into 1969.

[Johan Haneveld · Rating 4 out of 5]

7+ A pretty entertaining collection of short SF-stories. More core SF than the fourth Galaxy reader that I read before, there are more stories in the future and on other planets here, fitting with the title and the cover illustration. Yes, as with all the collections from this era it's clear these stories are of their time, with casual assumptions about race and gender in the background. The focus here is not on literary quality but on the strength of the idea - which I prefer. Some of those ideas would no longer work in modern SF, but that's why I enjoy these old pockets so much. Take the opening story, 'Inside John Barth' - a predecessor of sort of Bear's Blood Music, with a great twist. Fritz Leibers story is stingingly satirical (and his view of the future in our age of add infested social media prescentient). Perfect Answer was a bit dated, with a colonialist streak. Robert Silverbergs story is fun, but the aliens with funny sounding names definitely date this to the fifties or sixties. Charles E. Stearns story has an interesting twist, but is too political and anti-communist for me to really enjoy. Gordon R. Dickson's story Black Charlie on the other hand, with its ruminations on culture and what is considered art was one of the highlights of the collection. Jack McKenty's story is pretty forgettable and Avram Davidson is a bit too experimental for my taste, even though his story still has a pretty modern feel to it, about time travel and the art of woodcutting. I know I was tired when I read it, that didn't help, I guess. Frederik Pohl is satirical as well, and adds a killer ending. Raymond E. Bans story could also only have been written in the fifties, with a case of misinterpretation of human nature by an alien race. It's a bit long though and I was not blown away by the ending. Miriam Allen Deford's story is also resolutely 'golden age' about a criminal being tried in an alien system, who being as slippery as his name suggests finds a way to escape punishment. William Morrisons story of age reversal and nano technology (before its age, here it's called 'demons' after Maxwells demons) is a mirror of Pohls story and even the ending corresponds. Pohl returns in a collaboration with Kornbluth for another five star tale in this collection. Outstanding and bitterly cynical in an exploration of a alternative history, it's called 'Nightmare with zeppelins'. Great title! 'We never mention aunt Nora' is a bit of sci fi horror with a chilling conclusion. Cordwainer Smith ends the novel with a story about the colonization of Venus, it's fun but also rooted in a very fifties' view of the world and of other people than Americans. So, it's dated but the stories are still fun to read.

[Fraser · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not sure if I had read this specific collection previously or just come across some of the stories in other collections. Some of the stories I have definitely read before and some I had no recollection of at all, the ones I didn't remember weren't bad, so maybe I had come across the others in different collections.

I really should have started that database of short stories I thought about starting years ago :-)

Most of the stories were good, there were some that you could notice little things that would have kept them out of the Science Fiction Hall of fame collections (note these books are highly recommended). Little things that really date them, some authors can write stories that when you read it years or even decades later it can difficult to determine when it was written, or it just doesn't matter when it was written. Some of these stories got tripped up in that respect.

Things like mentioning the prices of things, or going into great detail about new technology at the time it was written. I accept that this may give some added punch at the time the story was written, but it causes the story to age as time rolls on. For example, an annual stipend of $35,000 is bugger all these days, but for a story written in the early sixties or late fifties I imagine it was huge amount. However, if the author had found some way of expressing it without specifying the exact dollar amount it would not be so jarring reading the story 50 or so years later.

Anyway, apart from the fact that some of these stories to date themselves, there are some very good stories in the collection. Probably a difficult book to find these days, but worth a read.

[Tbfrank · Rating 2 out of 5]

Decent set of stories from the "golden age" chiefly notable for the inclusion of Dickson's Black Charlie and Davidson's Take Wooden Indians and the Conradesque Nightmare with Zeppelins by Pohl and Kornbluth.

[Mick · Rating 4 out of 5]

An anthology of stories from the pages of Galaxy magazine, from the 50s. All are well worth reading, and in most cases they are charming and nostalgic.
A favorite was Fritz Leiber’s “The Lost Letter”. In the near future, all postal mail (and there is a good deal of it), is advertising material, sent by and for other machines. In a desperate attempt to make contact with a young lady, Richard Rowe sends an actual handwritten letter - and crashes the whole system. The authorities take a dim view of this. What will happen to poor young Richard?

[Dale Sanford · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most stories were either though-provoking or genuinely funny. Shows its age a bit, but holds up.