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A little catching up to do of stories I skipped reviewing:

"The Black Pits of Luna" (1947). I barely recovered losing (and finding) a son at the zoo. This guy does that on the Moon!

"--We Also Walk Dogs" (1941). This story wandered oddly. Bribing a scientist to implement a gravity altering technology for a government conference!

"Searchlight" (1962). Somebody ELSE got lost on the Moon. Music saves the day!

"Abdication" by A. E. Van Vogt and E. Mayne Hull (1943). Double crossed in outer space, with invisibility cloaks and goggles that let you see people wearing invisibility cloaks.

"The Hurkle is a Happy Beast" by Theodore Sturgeon (1949). An alien whose powers of invisibility are reversed on Earth, visits an Earth middle school classroom.

An excerpt from _The Skylark of Space_ (a novel) by Edward Elmer Smith, Ph.D. (1928). Wow! A nearly 100 year old science fiction story. It was one of my favorites in the collection. Astronauts face off against a vastly superior alien who can control matter at the atomic level, but, much like a Star Trek replicator that doesn't have the pattern, the alien is mystified and can't control human physiology.

“Science Fiction, The Sprit of Youth” by illustrator Frank R. Paul (1939) is the very first World Con guest of honor speech. Interesting from an historical perspective for sure.

"The Meaning of the Word 'Impossible'" by Willy Ley (1967), a speech he gave. Proving that the impossible is... possible!

"Sanity" by Fritz Leiber (1944). Up is down. Left is right. Sanity is insanity. And vice versa.

"The Long Watch" by Robert Heinlein (1949) which sounded so familiar, until I realized why--I already read this story as part of Heinlein's story collection, The Past through Tomorrow. c.f. https://www.goodreads.com/user_status... . My thoughts remain the same as before!

"The Prophets of Doom" by Hugo Gernsback (his World Con guest of honor speech in 1952) is a funny little speech where Hugo (the man the Hugo Awards are named after) belittles predictions across human history.

"Dust" by Lloyd Eshbach (1939) definitely suffers scientifically from having been written well before we humans figured out how to get to the Moon and back. I love how "neo-hydrogen" saves the main character's bacon from the infestation that befalls his spacecraft (that is Earth to Moon and back to Earth worthy).

"The Monster" by Lester del Rey (1951). Shades of the novel, Frankenstein, and also Asimov's early Robot stories, but set in a future society where humans are trying to wage war using expendable and short-lived constructs.

“Dog Star” by Arthur C. Clarke (1962). Short. Sweet. Dogs are humans’ best friends, even humans living on the moon.

“Who Goes There?” by John W. Campbell — what a treat to stumble across the story that The Thing (the movie) is based upon without knowing ahead of time that was the case! The movie is much better. The story is mostly talking and actually white boring. 😆

Gygax really had a lot of free time, didn’t he?

I’m starting over… again. Third time’s the charm! I mean it this time!

More bot, and still no murder.

“Daybroke” by Robert Bloch (1958) is a post-nuclear war survival story. Who wins in a nuclear war? The last line reveals the answer.

“It’s Great to Be Back!” (1946). I definitely should have seen that ending from a mile away!

Satisfying first story!

“The Last Question” by Isaac Asimov, and “How Beautiful with Banners” by James Blish, are two very different stories. One spans nearly an infinity of time and obsessed with the question, “can entropy be reversed?“ The other lasts but a minute or less and ponders the question, “did my virus bubble spacesuit just have an affair with a native Titanian?” What the…?

Unexpected ally! So good!

The last several installments have been essays and interviews about the genre. I don’t feel like reviewing them individually. Instead I have come with an idea for a story so I’m going to go write it while it is fresh!

The T-1000’s voice as Wolverine continues to crack me up!

Ah, Kender and gnomes. Classic Dragonlance!

“The Grief-Note of Vultues” by Bryn Hammond is a well-structured and fast-paced tale, but what the heck: gross giant vulture-human amalgams?! Great artwork by Gilead artist made it even more creepy.

“The Vapours of Zinai,” by J.M. Clarke features eldritch magic, demons, temples, slayers and lovers. A well defined plot and nice action drive this story to a satisfying but perhaps too soon end.

“The Beast of the Shadow Gum Trees,” by T.K. Rex, is a bit confusing. Creation, immortals, lovers and ecosystem elements converge in this story that seemed more visual than plot-driven.

The third story, “Old Moon Over Irukad,” by David C. Smith, has mystery, intrigue, action, death, magical resurrection, treasure hunting, and flirting! All great elements of a sword and sorcery story.