Margaret St. Clair (1911–1995)

La Tierra constituía un horrendo y fantástico lugar tras las espantosas epidemias sufridas. Los pocos seres humanos que sobrevivieron a ellas eran incapaces de soportar la presencia de unos a otros, viviendo en cavernas excavadas en las entrañas de la Tierra, donde las bombas atómicas eran incapaces para llevar su destrucción. Pero en un hombre en especial residía la esperanza del mundo, aunque él lo desconocía. San Sewell solo sabía que debía continuar su camino a pesar de los temibles peligros derivados de la oscuridad del pasado y ser rescatado por la sabiduría antiquísima de una misteriosa mujer, dotada de poderes mágicos, Despoina.… (mais)

As Amazon describes it : Twenty short stories from the trailblazing sci-fi writer Margaret St. Clair.

This is a 2021 collection. There is an earlier hard to find 1985 book with the same title with mostly different stories. Twenty short stories that are examples of good quirky 1950's science fiction. The little bits of St. Clair's writing I have run across in anthologies in recent years made me interested, so I was happy to see this new collection. She mostly wrote short fiction although there were also some novels by her, notably The Dolphins of Altair which I remember seeing when I was young. The vast majority of her fiction appeared between 1946 and 1962. We have 20 stories here and they are:

1. New Ritual, first published in The magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, January 1953 under pen name Idris Seabright

2. Starobin, first published in Future Science Fiction #34, Fall 1957. You can see and read it here: https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/sffaudio-usa/mp3s/StarobinByMargaretSt.Clair...

3. Flowering Evil, first published in Planet Stories, Summer 1950. where is Planet Stories when you need it - well, here: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/64745/64745-h/64745-h.htm

4. Thirsty God, first published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, March 1953 under pen name Idris Seabright

5. The Death of Each Day, , first published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1958 under pen name Idris Seabright

6. The Anaheim Disease, first published in Science Fictions Stories January 1959

7. Roberta, first published in Galaxy magazine, October 1962

8. Stawdust, first published in The magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, September 1956 under pen name Idris Seabright

9. The Heirophants, First published in Thrilling Wonder Stories, April 1949

10. Prott, first published in Galaxy Science Fiction, January 1953

11. The Man Who Sold Rope to Gnoles, first published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October 1951 and later appeared in a large number of anthologies.

12. Fort Iron, first appeared in Science Fiction Quarterly, November 1955

13. The Nuse Man, first appeared in Galaxy magazine, February 1960
and a follow-up story
14. The Airy Servitor, first appeared in Galaxy magazine, April 1960

15. The House in Bel Aire, first appeared in If, January 1961

16. Birthright, first published in Fantastic Universe, April 1958

17. The Death Wish, first published in Fantastic universe, June 1956

18. The Gardener, first appeared in Thrilling Wonder Stories, October 1949

19. Personal Monster, first published in The magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, September 1955 under pen name Idris Seabright

20. The Everlasting Food, first appeared in Thrilling Wonder Stories, December 1950

These are stories that you can feel the 1950's in them. You get in a rocket and zoom across the galaxy. Men from the future with super gadgets. They tell you a story. They have little twists. They are entertainments. Some of the stories such as 'Thirsty God' are just plain weird and I can't help but wonder what possessed the author to write it. Then, we get a poignant anti-war story like 'The Death of Each Day.' Then, 'The Anaheim Disease' a sort of alternate history woo-woo set during the 1918-1919 flu epidemic. These are mostly science fiction, with bits of fantasy, horror and whimsy. 'The Man who sold rope to Gnoles' contains all of those things.

St. Clair is different than most 50's authors, I'll say that. Some of these stories are appearing in this collection for the first time since their initial magazine appearance. There are a few too many twisted and oddball stories for my taste and so I can't say that I really liked this collection as a whole, but I can appreciate it. There are several excellent stories in here however.… (mais)