13 Above the Night

by Groff Conklin (Editor)

Contents:

Introduction, by Groff Conklin
Founding Father, by J.F. Bone
Mating Call, by Frank Herbert
Nice Girl with Five Husbands, by Fritz Leiber
Prone, by Mack Reynolds
The Education of Tigress McCardle, by C.M. Kornbluth
Now Inhale, by Eric Frank Russell
The Back of Our Heads, by Stephen Barr
Button, Button, by Isaac Asimov
The Deep Down Dragon, by Judith Merril
The Kappa Nu Nexus, by Avram Davidson and Morton Klass
Idiot Solvant, by Gordon R. Dickson
Counter Security, by James White
The Dreistein Case, by J. Lincoln Paine

Genres: Science Fiction, Anthologies, Short Stories, Collections, Fiction

286 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 1, 1965

About the author

Edward Groff Conklin (September 6, 1904, Glen Ridge, New Jersey - July 19, 1968, Pawling, New York) was a leading science fiction anthologist. Conklin edited 41 anthologies of science fiction, wrote books on home improvement and was a freelance writer on scientific subjects. From 1950 to 1955, he was the book critic for Galaxy Science Fiction.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is yet another of Conklin's anthologies with a number in the title. It sounds like it should be a collection featuring horror or at least somewhat dark tales, but for the stories are a broad mix of traditional sf fare, with more than a few humorous pieces. A few have aged poorly, but it's still a nice selection for the most part. I most enjoyed the stories from Mack Reynolds, Frank Herbert, Isaac Asimov, Eric Frank Russell, James White, and C. M. Kornbluth. My favorite was Fritz Leiber's Nice Girl With Five Husbands.

[James Reyome · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a little gem of a book. I love the Dell paperbacks of the 60s...they are true "pocket books" that you can actually fit in a pocket. You need never be without a book!

Of course that does make this particular book almost 50 years old, so stuffing it into a convenient pocket tends to be detrimental to the cover. I had to tape and retape it to make it last. I'm glad I did, as this one is a keeper. I'd never heard of Groff Conklin, but the man apparently was quite well respected as an editor, and he did a LOT of books like this one, which my wife picked up for fifty cents at our favorite used book store. The first store was so weirdly intriguing that I had to postpone the balance of my Christmas books to read this. It was worth it!

Not a single story I had read before. And a few of the authors too. They're all good, and some of them are pretty amazing. Dated, yes, and some of them border on sexist (J F Bone's "Founding Father" being chief among them) but they're also wildly entertaining. Eric Frank Russell's "Now Inhale" is probably the most gripping of the lot, but Frank Herbert's "Mating Call" easily sweeps the board in terms of humor. A wonderful concept superbly done. "Button Button" by the inimitable Dr. Asimov is also wickedly funny.

The lesson in this book is that you shouldn't ignore the creaky, crumbly old paperbacks, because they often contain rare treasures. And fifty cents for a pocketful of wonders...well, that's just priceless. Keep your eyes open for Conklin's collections. You won't be sorry.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the title and cover art I expected this to have stories that were a darker or scarier, but many of them were fairly lighthearted and even whimsical to a degree. Regardless, I enjoyed most of them quite a bit. There were only a few I didn't really like, including a couple I didn't really get, but it was still very much a worthwhile collection. My favorite was probably "The Back of Our Heads" by Stephen Barr, in which an immortal organism observes humanity throughout history--but what is it about quantum theory? By observing something you change it... (This novelette is available on its own for Kindle for 99 cents.)

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 2 out of 5]

This underwhelming anthology has turned me off reading anything edited by Groff Conklin for a while. I've only read three of his anthologies, but this was by far the worst. Although some stories here are not readily available in other sci-fi anthologies, the Kornbluth and the Reynolds are.

Stories were originally published from 1951 - 1962. This time around, Conklin chose mostly stories that he thought were humorous. Mostly, they aren't.

Selections:

* "Introduction" by Our Editor. Conklin is sick to death of people asking him, "Haven't all the ideas been done before?" He picked the stories not based on a theme, but because they serve as parables ... and he liked reading them, so there.
* "Founding Father" by J. F. Bone. Two aliens kidnap and enslave two humans, told from the male alien's point of view. At times, comparisons are made of humans to horses. Ultimately, a silly novellette, but does have some sobering comments on random killing of animals, especially pets and horses.
* "Mating Call" by Frank Herbert. Here, Herbert shows why he was best known for novels and not short stories. This was AWFUL. Misogyny, jokes about killing off an intelligent species, poor descriptions of aliens ... yeesh.
* "Nice Girl With Five Husbands" by Fritz Lieber. This rarely appears in anthologies, and I can see why. Our Protagonist is thick as a brick, deposited by a time wind into 2050 ... a world and civilization I highly doubt would ever come about.
* "Prone" by Mack Reynolds. A war between Earth and Mars has been going on for 100 years. A soldier finds a secret weapon in this incredibly silly and predictable story.
* "The Education of Tigress McCardle" by C. M. Kornbluth. This 1957 story looks at an ingenious way to reduce America's overpopulation problem, set in 1978. This 1978 predicted a Civil War Book of the Week Club, Elvis as a literal king, and cars that got 2 miles to the gallon.
* "Now Inhale" by Eric Frank Russell. A human "space scout" crash lands on a planet of extremely hostile humanoids. They have a strange custom. Before they execute anyone, the prisoner must first play a game. The human is sentenced to death by strangulation, so comes up with the ultimate game.
* "The Back of Our Heads" by Stephen Barr. A unified species breaks off a part to spy on humans in order to pass judgement on them. Yeah, it's a bit like Q, only more annoying and without a resolution.
* "Button, Button" by Isaac Asimov. Kind of amusing take on the problems of time travel, but the ending leaves you scratching your head.
* "The Deep Down Dragon" by Judith Merrill. Commissioned by the editor of Galaxy to write a story for a pre-paid cover image, Merrill came up with this. It's an unusual story for her, since it's full of action. It's quite difficult at first, but hang in there -- it all makes sense in the end. Sadly, Merrill catered to male readers' egos, which put a chilling end to what had been a decent sci-fi monster story. Conklin's intro reveals a major plot spoiler.
* "The Kappa Nu Nexus" by Avram Davidson and Morton Klass. Don't even bother.
* "Idiot Solvant" by Gordon R. Dickson. A good story about a drug trial, and the most significant volunteer in that trial.
* "Counter Security" by James White. My favorite story in this collection. A department store night watchman, who is also a science fiction fan, is faced with strange thefts, spitting, and mutilating Black dolls.
* "The Dreistein Case" by J. Lincoln Paine. Set in the early 1970s (then the near future), it's a series of White House memos about anti-gravity. Meant to be funny, but isn't.

[Tbfrank · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thirteen stories collected by the pre-eminent SF anthologist Groff Conklin, seven from the 1950s and six from the 1960s, that at the time had not appeared since published in their original magazine form. Ten authors’ names are well-known, four less so (one tale was a collaboration). All but two were new stories for me, including one by the Good Doctor Isaac Asimov that had escaped my notice (Button, Button).

The stories are a mixed bag and a reflection of the mores and appetites of the time, with a couple of cringe-worthy references. The stories I thought stood out were:

Counter Security (1963) by James White, a first encounter story in a setting once seen in a Dr. Who episode.

Nice Girl with Five Husbands (1951) by Fritz Lieber, a time portal story with a glimpse into the future that might be viewed as the 1970s.

The Back of Our Heads (1958) by Stephen Barr, a little known author whose story involves time travel via the concept of hypertime, the Heisenberg Principle, a collective named Unity before there was the Borg, and seems to have stumbled on man-splaning before the phrase came into common parlance.

[Snood · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was disappointed by this collection. An unusually large number of the stories seemed to be comedic, which isn’t my favorite subgenre. Only Prone stuck out as particularly funny.

There were a couple standouts such as Founding Fathers, Idiot Solvant, and Counter Security, but these weren’t phenomenal by any means and I can’t say I would recommend this compared to the countless similar compilations.

[Carey Smoak · Rating 2 out of 5]

A couple of good stories by Eric Russell and Isaac Asimov. But most of the stories are ok.

[Earl Truss · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was published in 1965. Most of the stories have aged well. The first half of the stories were good but then they started to descend into silliness.