Evil Earths

by Brian W. Aldiss (Editor)

Introduction (Brian Aldiss)
PART I
The last word (Chad Oliver and Charles Beaumont)
KILLING VLIES (J. Scott Campbell)
The WOUND (Howard Fast)
PART II
The GOLDEN MAN (Philip K. Dick)
The MAN Who WAS A GUEST (Allen K. Long)
The VALLEY (Richard Stockham)
PART III
BETWEEN The Dead (William Tenn)
UNDER The HAIRY NATURE HUMANS (R. A. Lafferty)
LATER THAN YOU HAD THOUGHT (Frits Leiber)
PART IV
The TIJDVAL (Henry Kuttner)
PART V
The MEN RETURN (Jack Vance)
SYSTEMATICALLY DENIGRATING Of The COLOSSAL GOD (Brian W. Aldiss)
IF I FORGET YOU, O EARTH ... (Arthur C. Clarke)
Night (John W. Campbell)
This bundle was compiled by noted science fiction writer BRIAN ALDISS. Especially for this book he selected the best stories from his own oeuvre and work out of equally well known and acclaimed fellow authors as JACK VANCE, ARTHUR CLARKE, PHILIP k. DICK, r. a. LAFFERTY, HENRY KUTTNER and many others.
Each s.f.-enthusiast knows these authors, and know that their involvement in the reader the very striking stories compelling calls that distinguishes reading a good science-fiction story.
Some of the chapters, written by Campbell, Stockham, Clarke and some others, date from a period when the science-fiction not yet took the place that they today, fortunately, and therefore only were read by a relatively small group of gourmets. The masterpieces, which are still on our contemporary civilization and the distant future cover-or could have-and they were well worth it for that reason alone in this bundle.
For the lover of good s.f.
Highly recommended by BRIAN ALDISS.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Fiction

318 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Pseudonyms: Jael Cracken, Peter Pica, John Runciman, C.C. Shackleton, Arch Mendicant, & "Doc" Peristyle.

Brian Wilson Aldiss was one of the most important voices in science fiction writing today. He wrote his first novel while working as a bookseller in Oxford. Shortly afterwards he wrote his first work of science fiction and soon gained international recognition. Adored for his innovative literary techniques, evocative plots and irresistible characters, he became a Grand Master of Science Fiction in 1999.
Brian Aldiss died on August 19, 2017, just after celebrating his 92nd birthday with his family and closest friends.

Brian W. Aldiss Group on Good Reads

Reviews

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Evil Earths is an anthology that belonged to my Dad and one I found stored in the garage during my moving process, the copy so old the front and back covers were missing as well as anything past the latter half of William Tenn's "Down Among the Dead". As such I can only review some of the stories here, starting with Chad Oliver's and Charles Beaumont's "The Last Word."
The story starts with a, uh, physicist? calmly noting his time machine has sent him so far into the future he found himself as the Last Man in the World, so he decides to go back so far he finds himself as the First Man in the World. The creation of humanity is apparently theorized here as having something to do with Martians, green men who leave him with a fifties housewife in an android body as a reward for him fixing their ship. Yep, a man helps some other dudes out and they actually reward him with a woman. With whom he has a super special son. He gets tired of the wifey machine, ditches her by traveling to the future, where he finds the Martians also rewarding him by saving humanity from anything that could kill us.
As a result, a highly complex machine runs the world and imprisons Claude for curiosity. Wifemachine Eve, who had stowed away, apparently "meshed circuits" with the machine, so Claude "killed" it by taking the advice of Son and unplugging it. Civilization is destroyed and Claude decides the best way to restart humanity is by producing a female child with Eve, as a wife for Son. What.
If you thought Nora Helmer was an exaggerated take on the role of women in the mid 1900's, read this story knowing it probably wasn't being ironic and it's pretty evident Henrik Ibsen had a point.
The most memorable story was probably Philip K Dick's "The Golden Man", which inspired the loose, looose film adaptation "Next". This is a strange story to read in the present day as it doesn't just bring up questions and observations about humanity's reaction to that which is different, but also provokes thoughts about the role of women as interesting and disturbing when applying fridge logic to it. Anita Farris's role takes a different meaning beyond being the Director of the Semantics Agency and Baines's fiance when the mutant Cris Johnson bursts into her room.
Anita is conveniently midway through undressing when he barges in on her and she is at first appropriately terrified and ready to strike him. When he touches her though, grabs her arms before she can attack him she finds herself captivated by his beauty and deduces he specifically came to her because he knew she wouldn't-couldn't-hurt him. She ends up so captivated by his beauty that she has sex with him, then gets him out of the building so he could escape while leaving her behind.
She realizes she had been tricked and the other agents figure out that this too is one of Johnson's powers beyond seeing the future, to be able to seduce women with just his looks to the point where they lose all sense, even their will as Anita thinks of it. Which means he essentially rapes them. This whole concept turns the main female character in the story into a major liability as well as a hapless victim of the male mutant, adding a whole new level of creepy to Cris Johnson.
Allen K. Lang's "Guest Expert" treats women in a similarly unfortunate fashion by pulling a Thanos' Snap with gender in mind. It also raises questions similar to that film, of how much better would the world be with significantly less life? Other stories like J.S. Campbell's "Film of Death", Howard Fast's "The Wound" and Richard Stockham's "The Valley" explore similar themes of humanity's effects on the ecological system as well as how we could possibly help, showing that while aspects of this anthology are dated as hell, others demonstrated at least some awareness of the state of things and used this to delve into some genuinely creative ideas about how to address it.

[Peter Tillman · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of a series of reprint mmpbs Aldiss put together of old science-fiction shorts, dating from the mid 1930s to the 195s, with his later commentary (book was published in 1975. Details are here: https://isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?283694

I rated the book as "A+" many years ago, and indeed there are come classic stories -- but my guess is, my rating on reread is going to be substantially lower when next read. Time will tell.

[Tommy Verhaegen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Zoals gewoonlijk met dit soort boeken is het een pot-pourri van stijlen en subgenres, iets langere en superkorte verhalen. Enkele grote namen dienen als blikvanger, een reeks onbekenden om het allemaal betaalbaar te houden. De verhalen staan geklasseerd volgens enkele subjectieve thema's , elk thema is voorzien van een woordje uitleg over het thema zelf, de bijhorende verhalen en de schrijvers.
Zoals zo vaak zit er wel iets tussen voor ieders smaak, en zoals even zo vaak zal niemand alle verhalen top vinden. Het zijn niet noodzakelijk de grote auteurs, die met dit soort korte verhalen vaak experimenteren, die het meest in de smaak zullen vallen.
Buitenwerelds, einde van de wereld, aktie, psychologie, ... een grote variatie maar zoals er ergens in 1 van de voorwoorden vermeld staat, alles toch met een overwegend pessimistische ondertoon. Wie er wil lachen en van dit boek vrolijk worden, komt van een kale reis thuis.
Al bij al belooft de verpakking meer dan de inhoud kan waarmaken.

[Sol]

For Leiber's "Later Than You Think"

[Johnny · Rating 1 out of 5]

A good selection of stories with a futuristic and Science Fiction feel. I can't say I enjoyed them apart from a story by Brian Aldiss entitled Heresies Of The Huge God and a story which I have read in another anthology and which was the only reason for my purchasing this book. The story details the history of the people of earth who endure the conditions related to the huge god as he appears on the surface of earth. It is seemingly a giant lizard creature who has landed on earth. So large that its body occupies most of the earth while its head projects out into space. Such a fun and intriguing little story. I really enjoyed it

[Sula · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gave up on this a third of the way through, skipping ahead only to read Arthur C. Clarke's '"If I Forget Thee, O Earth' which wasn't too bad. Other than that, the stories I read were uninspiring and chock-full of sexism.

[Chris Hulan · Rating 3 out of 5]

some good stories, some dated ideas and opinions
interesting as a look back at how SF developed