Leo Margulies (1900–1975)

Collection of short stories. Authors such as Bowen, Friend, Daniels, Tracy, Carroll, Archibald, O'Sullivan, Sherman, Johnson, Mines, Keene, and Blaufox.
story of a group of American pilots during World War II. The book follows the adventures of the Flying Wildcats, a squadron of fighter pilots who are sent to the Pacific Theater to fight against the Japanese. The main character, Lieutenant Bill Grayson, is a talented pilot who quickly becomes a leader within the squadron. As the war rages on, the Flying Wildcats face dangerous missions and must work together to survive. Along the way, they encounter enemy fighters, treacherous weather conditions, and personal challenges.… (mais)

'There is No Defense' by Theodore Sturgeon was published in 'Astounding Science Fiction' in 1948. It starts with a meeting of the Joint Solar Military Council to deal with an invading spaceship from an unknown source. What is known is that it ignores any attempt to communicate with it and, so far, it's been pretty destructive to any human outpost or colony in our solar system that it has encountered. After a scene involving the council members watching gruesome footage of one military outpost and discussing what happened elsewhere, our protagonist, Belter, brings up 'The Death,' a weapon so deadly that it lead to the current pacifist attitude.

The Joint Solar Military Council has representatives from Earth, Mars, Phoebe-Titan Colonials, the Asteroid Belt, etc.; the non-human Jovians (who lost their war with humans), and the biggest name from Amalgamated Peace. The council is arguing about whether or not to use 'The Death' against the invaders. Hereford of Amalgamated Peace is against it. Belter, who heads the council, is a military man, and he believes that 'The Death' is warranted in this situation. Belter has to convince Hereford that the belief that there is never any excuse for resorting to violence is wrong.

This story is copyrighted 1948, only three years after World War II ended. If you think that Mr. Sturgeon was all gung ho about violence, no. A good clue to this is that the Martian colonists, who are the 'nuke them 'til they glow and shoot them in the dark' type, get no names. It's just 'the' or 'a' 'Martian'.

The invading ship is genuinely frightening, the attempts to save our solar system interesting, and the solution wasn't one I expected. I do appreciate the difference between Belter's and the Martians' attitudes. Four Stars.… (mais)

Weird Tales 1964
8 stories with different levels of weirdness. These are all easy reads and not too likely to keep you up out of fear.
1. “The Man Who Returned” by Edmond Hamilton (1934) is more a bizarre romp through the unexpected consequences—after you get past the horror of awakening in a coffin.
2. “Spider Mansion” by Fritz Leiber, Jr. (1942) is a horror story that is enough over-the-top to be cute.
3. “A Question of Etiquette” by Robert Bloch (1942) is more a description of the Devil’s recruitment policy.
4. “The Sea Witch” by Nictzin Dyalhis (1937) is an elder gods’ love story: retribution and reclamation. 5-stars.
5. “the Strange High House in the Mist” by H.P.Lovecraft (1931) is another story of elder gods, and like The Sea Witch is more a poem about the elder gods than a ghost story. 5-stars.
6. “The Drifting Snow” by August W. Derleth (1939) is too strange to be spooky: just what is a “snow vampire”? This could have been the inspiration for the movie “The Thing”.
7. “The Body-Masters” by Frank Belknap Long, Jr. (1935) is a true sci-fi story describing the flaws in love surrogates. We could call it a “social” horror story.
8. “Pigeons From Hell” by Robert E. Howard (1938) makes an excellent attempt at horror, except that the evil is killed much too easily. It's interesting how Howard is able to evoke real horror with his elegant writing style...and then loses mood through precipitous action and facile follow-ups.… (mais)

This collection of supernatural stories was first published in 1961. What caught my eye was that every one of the 11 stories was first published in the magazine "Weird Tales" between 1939 and 1951. The authors are almost all top notch talent with a couple obscure but excellent ones such as Margaret St. Clair. Overall this was a very good batch of tales. The stories are:

Introduction • (1961) • essay by Leo Margulies
The Professor's Teddy Bear • (1948) • shortstory by Theodore Sturgeon
Legal Rites • (1950) • novelette by Isaac Asimov and Frederik Pohl
The Strange Island of Dr. Nork • (1949) • novelette by Robert Bloch
Mrs. Hawk • (1950) • shortstory by Margaret St. Clair
The Handler • (1947) • shortstory by Ray Bradbury
The Automatic Pistol • (1940) • shortstory by Fritz Leiber
The Unwanted • (1951) • shortstory by Mary Elizabeth Counselman
The Valley Was Still • (1939) • shortstory by Manly Wade Wellman
The Scrawny One • (1949) • shortstory by Anthony Boucher
Come and Go Mad • (1949) • novelette by Fredric Brown
The Big Shot • (1949) • shortstory by Eric Frank Russell

The blurbs on the cover and inside the book promise the unexpected. The stories are over 60 years old and they show their age in the way the stories are told and their settings, but otherwise hold up well to time. One thing they share is a propensity to drop really big and often rather obscure or uncommon words here and there. It must have been an art in it's day. "But this time something made him turn slowly from the window, almost as though he never again expected to see that chiaroscuro of an early afternoon." Ha! "I will give lectures to young things about human destiny and the metempsychosis of Plato."

I thought the first story by Sturgeon "The Professor's Teddy Bear" was genuinely creepy and got this collection off to a good start . Unfortunately the long short story that followed, "Legal Rites" seemed too drawn out and told unevenly as it plodded along to a clever ending. It sort of beat a clever idea to death. The remaining stories varied, with the creepy ones I think holding up the best. Block disappointed. "Mrs. Hawk" by St. Clair is a well done short but disturbing modern retelling of the Circe myth. Bradbury's creepy "The Handler" about a creepy little man who ran a mortuary might make your skin crawl but it suffered from a wonky ending. Leiber's "The Automatic Pistol" set in the days of Prohibition is a nice little piece about a gun having it's revenge. I was reminded of how much I enjoyed Leiber's stories earlier in my life. Of the remaining stories "The Unwanted" was one of my favorite stories in the collection, about a census taker in the Alabama hills. Touching in a nice way, and like most all of these stories, with a little spooky or creepy twist. I also liked Manly Wade Wellman's tale set during the Civil War. My favorite story in the collection was also the longest, "Come and Go Mad" by Fredric Brown. Can't describe it without giving too much away, but it starts with a reporter asked to consider a tough assignment that becomes very personal.… (mais)