The Hated

Galaxy Science Fiction, April, 1952

Accidental Flight by F. L. Wallace

"Outcasts of a society of physically perfect people, they couldn't stay and they couldn't go home again—yet there had to be some escape for them. Oddly enough, there was!"

IF Worlds of Science Fiction, March, 1954

"Tabby" by Winston K. Marks

"Tabby was peculiar, of course, but seemed harmless: just a little green fly that couldn't even protect itself from ordinary spiders. So the spiders fed, and grew, and fed, and grew...."

If Worlds of Science Fiction, November, 1954

"Stalemate" by Basil Wells

"The rules of a duel between gentlemen are quite different from the rules of war between nations. Is it because gentlemen do not fight wars, or is it that men in war cease to be gentlemen?"

Galaxy Science Fiction, January, 1958

"The Hated" by Frederik Pohl (as by Paul Flehr)

"After space, there was always one more river to cross ... the far side of hatred and murder!"



Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team

The Long Arm

Weird Tales, October, 1937

"The Long Arm" by Franz Habl

"Creeping, writhing, insidiously crawling and groping, the long arm reached out in its ghastly errand of death."


Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team

The Old Martians

Amazing Stories, December, 1942

"Henry Horn's X-Ray Eye Glasses" by Dwight V. Swain

"Henry Horn had a new invention; a pair of glasses that worked on the x-ray principle. But he didn't expect them to reveal Nazi secret agents and their works of sabotage!"

If Worlds of Science Fiction, March, 1952

"The Old Martians" by Rog Phillips

"They opened the ruins to tourists at a dollar a head but they reckoned without The OLD MARTIANS."

If Worlds of Science Fiction, November, 1952

"Let There Be Light" by H. B. Fyfe

"No matter what the future, one factor must always be reckoned with—the ingenuity of the human animal."

IF Worlds of Science Fiction, March, 1954

The Ambassador by Sam Merwin, Jr.

"All Earth needed was a good stiff dose of common sense, but its rulers preferred to depend on the highly fallible computers instead. As a consequence, interplanetary diplomatic relations were somewhat strained—until a nimble-witted young man from Mars came up with the answer to the "sixty-four dollar" question."


"Tape Jockey" by Tom Leahy

"Pettigill was, you might say, in tune with the world. It wouldn't even have been an exaggeration to say the world was in tune with Pettigill. Then somebody struck a sour note...."


Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team

The Secret of Kralitz

Weird Tales, October 1936

"The Secret of Kralitz" by Henry Kuttner

"A story of the shocking revelation that came to the twenty-first Baron Kralitz."

Micro-Man

Amazing Stories, August, 1927

The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells

"But who shall dwell in these worlds if they be inhabited? . . . Are we or they Lords of the World? . . . And how are all things made for man?"--KEPLER (quoted in The Anatomy of Melancholy)

Fantasy Book, Vol. 1, number 1 (1947)

"Micro-Man" by Forrest J. Ackerman (as by Weaver Wright)

"The little man dared to venture into the realm of the Gods—but the Gods were cruel!"

If Worlds of Science Fiction, March, 1952

"Of Stegner's Folly" by Richard S. Shaver

"When a twenty-foot goddess walked out of the jungle, they knew Stegner wasn't kidding."

Galaxy Science Fiction, March, 1954

The Telenizer by Don Thompson

"Langston had technicolor delusions; inanimate objects came alive in his hands; THEY were persecuting him, out to get him ... what a relief it was to know he wasn't going insane!"




Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team

The Golgotha Dancers

Weird Tales, October, 1937

"The Golgotha Dancers" by Manly Wade Wellman

"A curious and terrifying story about an artist who sold his soul that he might paint a living picture."


Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team

Twelve Times Zero

Planet Stories, Winter, 1939

The Golden Amazons of Venus by John Murray Reynolds

"Dakta death, horrible beyond the weirdest fever-dreams of Earth-men, faced Space Ship Commander Gerry Norton. The laconic interplanetary explorer knew too much. He stood in the dynamic path of Lansa, Lord of the Scaly Ones, the crafty monster bent on conquering the fair City of Larr and all the rich, shadowless lands of the glorious Amazons of Venus."

Amazing Stories, January, 1943

The Lost Warship by Robert Moore Williams

"Jap bombs rained down, there was a tremendous blast—and a weird thing happened to the Idaho."

If Worlds of Science Fiction, March, 1952

Twelve Times Zero by Howard Browne

"It was a love-triangle murder that made today's headlines but the answer lay hundreds of thousands of light years away!"

If: Worlds of Science Fiction July 1952

"And That's How It Was, Officer" by Ralph Sholto

"When Uncle Peter decided to clean out the underworld, it was a fine thing for the town, but it was tough on the folks in Tibet."

Astounding Science Fiction, April 1960

"The Ambulance Made Two Trips" by Murray Leinster

"If you should set a thief to catch a thief, what does it take to stop a racketeer...?"


(Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan, Stephen Blundell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team)

Armageddon--2419 A.D.

Amazing Stories, August 1928

Armageddon—2419 A.D.  by Philip Francis Nowlan (The debut of Buck Rogers)

"Here, once more, is a real scientifiction story plus. It is a story which will make the heart of many readers leap with joy.

We have rarely printed a story in this magazine that for scientific interest, as well as suspense, could hold its own with this particular story. We prophesy that this story will become more valuable as the years go by. It certainly holds a number of interesting prophecies, of which no doubt, many will come true. For wealth of science, it will be hard to beat for some time to come. It is one of those rare stories that will bear reading and re-reading many times.

This story has impressed us so favorably, that we hope the author may be induced to write a sequel to it soon."

Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy, January, 1953

Deepfreeze by Robert Donald Locke

"Life and the future belong to the strong—so Dollard laughed as he fled Earth and Mankind's death agony. But the last laugh was yet to come...."

Galaxy Science Fiction, February, 1955

Rich Living by Michael Cathal

"No other planet in the entire Galaxy was at all like Rejuvenal ... it was the only world worth one's whole fortune for a short visit!"

Galaxy Science Fiction, March, 1955

"One Way" by Miriam Allen DeFord

"I thought of every way to save Hal from the Lydna Project and failed ... but the women didn't!"


"Big Stupe" by Charles V. De Vet

"Smart man, Bruckner—he knew how to handle natives ... but they knew even better how to deal with smart terrestrials!"


(Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell, Mary Meehan, Sankar Viswanathan and the Online Distributed Proofreading)

Escape! From Robot Island

Mr. Spaceship

Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy, January, 1953

"A human brain-controlled spacecraft would mean mechanical perfection. This was accomplished, and something unforeseen: a strange entity called—"

Mr. Spaceship by Philip K. Dick

Produced by Greg Weeks, Barbara Tozier 

and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team

Pledged to the Dead

Weird Tales, October, 1937

Pledged to the Dead by Seabury Quinn

"A tale of a lover who was pledged to a sweetheart who had been in her grave for more than a century, and of the striking death that menaced him—a story of Jules de Grandin"


Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team

The Brain

Amazing Stories, October, 1948

The Brain by Heinrich Hauser (as by Alexander Blade)

"America's greatest weapon, greater than the Atom Bomb, was its new, gigantic mechanical brain. It filled a whole mountain—and then it came to life...!"

Weird Tales, October, 1937

To a Skull on My Bookshelf

By ELIZABETH VIRGINIA RAPLEE

O bony relic of forgotten days,
Which, from my bookshelf, dominates the room,
Your empty sockets, with sardonic gaze,
Follow me weirdly in the deepening gloom!
I often think, if sudden speech returned,
You might reveal that secret, grisly jest
You're grinning at—or tell me what you've learned
Of that dark realm to which we're all addressed.

By what rude hands were you exhumed, and why
Wrenched from your body in its earthy bed?
Who knows but such indignity will I
Receive at other hands, when I am dead,
And, strangely resurrected, may adorn
The wall or desk of one as yet unborn!

Weird Tales, October 1936

Witch-Burning

By MARY ELIZABETH COUNSELMAN

They burned a witch in Bingham Square
     Last Friday afternoon.
The faggot-smoke was blacker than
     The shadows on the moon;
The licking flames were strangely green
     Like fox-fire on the fen ...
And she who cursed the godly folk
     Will never curse again.
 

They burned a witch in Bingham Square
     Before the village gate.
A huswife raised a skinny hand
     To damn her, tense with hate.
A huckster threw a jagged stone—
     Her pallid cheek ran red ...
But there was something scornful in
     The way she held her head.
 

They burned a witch in Bingham Square;
     Her eyes were terror-wild.
She was a slight, a comely maid,
     No taller than a child.
They bound her fast against the stake
     And laughed to see her fear ...
Her red lips muttered secret words
     That no one dared to hear.
 

They burned a witch in Bingham Square—
     But ere she swooned with pain
And ere her bones were sodden ash
     Beneath the sudden rain,
She set her mark upon that throng ...
     For time can not erase
The echo of her anguished cries,
     The memory of her face.

Swamp Demons

Weird Tales, August-September, 1936

By C. A. BUTZ

The lights that wink across the sodden moor

     Like phosphorescent eyes that beckon men

     To risk fell footsteps in the treacherous fen,

And sink in loathsome muck, without a spoor—
What ghosts of former days, what dread allure,

     Abides within this subterranean den?

     Or, reaching out, snares victims to its ken,

With wraith-like fingers, to a peril sure?

'Tis told that evil things lurk out of sight

     With human bones that fester in the ooze;

     Belike 'tis true, these bones that once were clothed

In fleshly form now harbor deadly spite

     Against the living, and this swamp still brews

Within its bubbling depths the curse men loathed

     Before they turned to leprous Things of Night!

The Legion of Lazarus

Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team

Imagination, May 1954

The Giants From Outer Space by Robert W. Krepps (as by Geoff St. Reynard)

"Grim terror lurked in the void many light years from Earth. But Pinkham and his men were unaware of it—until suddenly they discovered—The Giants From Outer Space."

If Worlds of Science Fiction, September 1954

"A Gift For Terra" by Fox B. Holden

"The good Martian Samaritans rescued Johnny Love and offered him "the stars". Now, maybe, Johnny didn't look closely enough into the "gift horse's" mouth, but there were others who did ... and found therein the answer to life...."

Imagination, April 1956

The Legion of Lazarus by Edmond Hamilton

"Being expelled from an air lock into deep space was the legal method of execution. But it was also the only way a man could qualify for—The Legion Of Lazarus."

Amazing Stories, November 1958

"Moon Glow" by G. L. Vandenburg

"That first trip to the moon has been the subject of many stories. Mr. Vandenburg has come up with as novel a twist as we've ever read. And it could happen."

The Buttoned Sky

Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy, August 1953

"Legends spoke of Earth's glorious past, of freedom and greatness. But this was the future, ruled by god-globes, as men gazed fearfully at—"

The Buttoned Sky by Robert W. Krepps (as by Geoff St. Reynard)

Isle of the Undead

Weird Tales, October 1936

Isle of the Undead by Lloyd Arthur Eshbach

"A gripping, thrilling, uncanny tale about the frightful fate that befell a yachting party on the dreadful island of living dead men."

Weird Tales, October 1937

"Here Lies" by Howard Wandrei (as by H. W. Guernsey)

"An ironic little story about a practical communist who taught his friend when to take him seriously."


"The Last of Mrs. DeBrugh" by H. Sivia

"Mr. DeBrugh was dead, but he still regarded his promise as a sacred duty to be carried out."

Weird Tales, October 1936

R. E. H.

Died June 11, 1936

By R. H. BARLOW

Conan, the warrior king, lies stricken dead  
   Beneath a sky of cryptic stars; the lute  
   That was his laughter stilled, and sadly mute  
Upon the chilling earth his youthful head.  
There sounds for him no more the clamorous fray,  
   But dirges now, where once the trumpet loud:  
   About him press old memories for shroud,  
And ended is the conflict of the day.
 

Death spilled the blood of him who loved the fight  
   As men love mistresses, and fought it well—  
   His fair young flesh is marble where he fell  
With broken sword that vanquished all but 
   Night; And as of mythic kings our words must speak  
   Of Conan now, who roves where dreamers seek.

Warrior of the Dawn

Amazing Stories, December 1942 and January 1943

Warrior of the Dawn by Howard Browne

"From the forest deeps came brutal killers, and Tharn, the Cro-Magnon, vowed that vengeance would be his...."

Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy, February 1953

"Pioneer" by William Hardy

"If you could travel through time to a few years hence you'd find a stone monument in honor and memory of a brave deed you may shy away from!"

Weird Tales, October 1937

After Two Nights of the Ear-Ache

By FRANCIS HARD

Most gentle Sleep! Two nights I wooed in vain; Thou wouldst not come to banish racking pain: For what is Sleep but Life in stone bound fast? Oblivion of the Present, Future, Past.

All In The Mind

Planet Stories, March 1951

"Duel on Syrtis" by Poul Anderson

"Bold and ruthless, he was famed throughout the System as a big-game hunter. From the firedrakes of Mercury to the ice-crawlers of Pluto, he'd slain them all. But his trophy-room lacked one item; and now Riordan swore he'd bag the forbidden game that roamed the red deserts ... a Martian!"

Galaxy Science Fiction, May 1952

Category Phoenix by Boyd Ellanby

"Man, it would appear, can adapt to any form of society ... but not one in which the knowledge of extending life becomes a passport to death!"

IF Worlds of Science Fiction, January 1953

"The Statue" by Mari Wolf

"There is a time for doing and a time for going home. But where is home in an ever-changing universe?

Galaxy Science Fiction, October 1953

"The Model of a Judge" by William Morrison

"Should a former outlaw become a judge—even if he need only pass sentence on a layer cake?"

If Worlds of Science Fiction, April 1954

"All In The Mind" by Gene L. Henderson

"When does life begin?... A well-known book says "forty". A well-known radio program says "eighty". Some folks say it's mental, others say it's physical. But take the strange case of Mel Carlson who gave a lot of thought to the matter."

If Worlds of Science Fiction, July 1954

The Thing in the Attic by James Blish

"Honath and his fellow arch-doubters did not believe in the Giants, and for this they were cast into Hell. And when survival depended upon unwavering faith in their beliefs, they saw that there were Giants, after all...."

Way of a Rebel

Amazing Stories, January 1943

Queen of the Flaming Diamond by Leroy Yerxa

"There it was, in a night club, the biggest diamond in the world. Why was it here when a whole race depended on it for existence?"

IF Worlds of Science Fiction, January 1953

"No Shield from the Dead" by Gordon R. Dickson

"No conceivable force could penetrate Terri's shield. Yet he was defenseless."

IF Worlds of Science Fiction, March 1953

"The Black Tide" by Arthur G. Stangland

"Space in its far dark reaches can be fickle with a man; it can shatter his dreams, fill him with fear and hate. It can also cure a man—if he is strong enough."

Galaxy Science Fiction, October 1953

At the Post by H. L. Gold

"How does a person come to be scratched from the human race? Psychiatry did not have the answer—perhaps Clocker's turf science did!"

If Worlds of Science Fiction, April 1954

"Way of a Rebel" by Walter M. Miller, Jr.

"No one knows the heart of a rebel until his own search for the reason of right or wrong is made. Lieutenant Laskell found the answer to his own personal rebellion deep beneath a turbulent Atlantic, and somehow, when the time came, his decision wasn't too difficult...."