James Blish
Personal Information
Description
Blish trained as a biologist at Rutgers and Columbia University, and spent 1942–1944 as a medical technician in the U.S. Army. After the war he became the science editor for the Pfizer Pharmaceutical Company. His first published story appeared in 1940, and his writing career progressed until he gave up his job to become a professional writer. He married literary agent Virginia Kidd in 1947. He worked for the Tobacco Institute from 1962-1968. In 1968, he emigrated to England. Between 1967 and his death in 1975, he became the first author to write short story collections based on the TV series Star Trek. In total, he wrote 11 volumes of short stories adapted from episodes of the series, as well as an original novel, Spock Must Die! in 1970. He died midway through writing Star Trek 12; his second wife, J. A. Lawrence, completed the book, and later completed the adaptations in the volume Mudd's Angels.
Books
The Fantasy Hall of Fame [30 stories]
Trouble with water / H.L. Gold -- Nothing in the rules / L. Sprague de Camp -- Fruit of knowledge / C.L. Moore -- Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius / Jorge Luis Borges -- Compleat werewolf / Anthony Boucher -- Small assassin / Ray Bradbury -- [Lottery]( / Shirley Jackson -- Our fair city / Robert A. Heinlein -- There shall be no darkness / James Blish -- Loom of darkness / Jack Vance -- Man who sold rope to the gnoles / Margaret St. Clair -- Silken-swift / Theodore Sturgeon -- Golem / Avram Davidson -- Operation afreet / Poul Anderson -- That hell-bound train / Robert Bloch -- Bazaar of the bizarre / Fritz Leiber -- Come lady death / Peter S. Beagle -- Drowned giant / J.G. Ballard -- Narrow valley / R.A. Lafferty -- Faith of our fathers / Philip K. Dick -- Ghost of a Model T / Clifford D. Simak -- Demoness / Tanith Lee -- Jeffty is five / Harlan Ellison -- Detective of dreams / Gene Wolfe -- Unicorn variations / Roger Zelazny -- Basileus / Robert Silverberg -- Jaguar Hunter / Lucius Shepard -- Buffalo gals, won't you come out tonight / Ursula K. Le Guin -- Bears discover fire / Terry Bisson -- Tower of Babylon / Ted Chiang.
Again, Dangerous Visions
A collection of original science fiction stories by such noted authors as Ray Bradbury, Ben Bova, and Kurt Vonnegut.
Star Trek Adventures - Spock Must Die!
Captain Kirk and the crew of the starship Enterprise find themselves in the middle of an undeclared war waged by the Klingon Empire... The Organians should be consulted about the war but their entire planet has disappeared—or been destroyed... Mr. Spock entered the transporter chamber. His image would be flashed to Organia by the huge machine's faster-than-light tachyons. But the experiment failed. Suddenly there were two Mr. Spocks. One of them had to be destroyed... But which one?
Three for tomorrow
Three for Tomorrow (1969) contains three novellas written specially for the volume on the following theme selected by Arthur C. Clarke: "with increasing technology goes increasing vulnerability: the more man conquers Nature, the more prone he becomes to artificial catastrophe" (foreword, 8). As with most collections, Three for Tomorrow is uneven. Silverberg's installment is the best due to its intriguing social analysis of a city suddenly whose inhabitants are suddenly missing large swaths of the past. Zelazny's installment is completely unlike his other works. Instead of his trademark lyricism and intriguing fantasy-esque landscapes à la Lord of Light (1967), he churns out a run-of-the-mill James Bond inspired caper with some sci-fi elements albeit, told with some vigor and vibe. James Blish's contribution is an often hilarious satire of a future polluted world literally filled up with the refuse of boundless human consumption. Blish often lecture the reader about what will happen if we don't recycle but the environment/characters/motivations are so uproariously funny that these lectures are OK.
STAR TREK 3
An extraordinary journey into the supernatural! Seven chilling stories into the bizarre and unexpected with the crew of the starship Enterprise. Travel to the unknown regions of outer space, to worlds where uneartly powers can control human beings and where unspeakable horror becomes normal. Unimaginable new galaxies of strange beings, bizarre customs, unknown dangers and awesome excitement. A world threatened by tribbles, small and furry with no eyes or faces -- only a mouth. A killer planet where time and place change by telepathy. A monster robot that smashes planets and digests them. An alien being who comes to Earth to start World War III. A galactic ticket to infinite adventure.
The Future in Question
The Nature of the Title - essay by Isaac Asimov What's It Like Out There? - novelette by Edmond Hamilton Who Can Replace a Man? - short story by Brian W. Aldiss What Have I Done? - short story by Mark Clifton Who's There? - short story by Arthur C. Clarke Can You Feel Anything When I Do This? - short story by Robert Sheckley Why? - short story by Robert Silverberg What's Become of Screwloose? - short story by Ron Goulart Houston, Houston, Do You Read? - novella by James Tiptree, Jr. Where Have You Been, Billy Boy, Billy Boy? - short story by Kate Wilhelm If All Men Were Brothers, Would You Let One Marry Your Sister? - novella by Theodore Sturgeon Will You Wait? - short story by Alfred Bester Who Goes There? - novella by John W. Campbell, Jr. An Eye for a What? - novelette by Damon Knight I Plinglot, Who You? - novelette by Frederik Pohl (variant of I Plinglot — Who You?) Will You Walk a Little Faster? - short story by William Tenn (variant of "Will You Walk a Little Faster") Who's in Charge Here? - short story by James Blish The Last Question - short story by Isaac Asimov
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame -- Volume Two
That Only a Mother - short story by Judith Merril Scanners Live in Vain - novelette by Cordwainer Smith Mars Is Heaven! - short story by Ray Bradbury The Little Black Bag - novelette by C. M. Kornbluth Born of Man and Woman - short story by Richard Matheson Coming Attraction - short story by Fritz Leiber The Quest for Saint Aquin - novelette by Anthony Boucher Surface Tension - novelette by James Blish The Nine Billion Names of God - short story by Arthur C. Clarke It's a Good Life - short story by Jerome Bixby The Cold Equations - novelette by Tom Godwin Fondly Fahrenheit - novelette by Alfred Bester The Country of the Kind - short story by Damon Knight Flowers for Algernon - novelette by Daniel Keyes A Rose for Ecclesiastes - novelette by Roger Zelazny
One Hundred
Jackie Sees a Star by Marion Zimmer Bradley All Cats are Gray by Andre Norton Song in a Minor Key by C. L. Moore Travel Diary by Alfred Bester Pythias by Frederik Pohl The Good Neighbors by Edgar Pangborn The Sound of Silence by Barbara Constant The Intruder by Emil Petaja An Ounce of Cure by Alan Edward Nourse Longevity by Therese Windser The Ghost of Mohammed Din by Clark Ashton Smith Of Time and Texas by William F. Nolan Native Son by Thelma Hamm Evans Gorgono and Slith by Ray Bradbury The Eyes Have It by Philip K. Dick The Putnam Tradition by Sonya Dorman Gods of the North by Robert E. Howard Small World by William F. Nolan Nightmare on the Nose by Evelyn E. Smith Collector's Item by Robert F. Young Crossroads of Destiny by H. Beam Piper The Hoofer by Walter M. Miller, Jr. Doorstep by Keith Laumer The Jovian Jest by Lilith Lorraine Dream World by R. A. Lafferty Shatter the Wall by Sydney Van Scyoc The Big Engine by Fritz Leiber Misbegotten Missionary by Isaac Asimov The One and the Many by Milton Lesser The Glory of Ippling by Helen M. Urban Where There's Hope by Jerome Bixby 2BR02B by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Disqualified by Charles L. Fontenay No Strings Attached by Lester del Rey Zeritsky's Law by Ann Griffith Say Hello for Me by Frank W. Coggins Navy Day by Harry Harrison The Undersea Tube by Lucile Taylor Hansen Probability by Louis Trimble No Shield from the Dead by Gordon R. Dickson I'll Kill You Tomorrow by Helen Huber The Secret of Kralitz by Henry Kuttner Never Stop to Pat a Kitten by Miriam Allen deFord More than Shadow by Dorothy Quick The Monkey Spoons by Mary Elizabeth Counselman Witch of the Demon Seas by Poul Anderson The Piebald Hippogriff by Karen Anderson The Vampire of Wembley by Edgar Wallace Riya's Foundling by Algis Budrys Ask a Foolish Question by Robert Sheckley Flight From Tomorrow by H. Beam Piper Robots of the World! Arise! by Mari Wolf The Worlds of If by Stanley G. Weinbaum The Adventurer by C. M. Kornbluth Decision by Frank M. Robinson The Waker Dreams by Richard Matheson A Matter of Proportion by Anne Walker One-Shot by James Blish McILVAINE'S Star by August Derleth The Man with the Nose by Rhoda Broughton Operation Haystack by Frank Herbert The Nothing Equation by Tom Godwin The Man Who Saw the Future by Edmond Hamilton Common Denominator by John D. MacDonald The Natives by Katherine MacLEAN The Lonely by Judith Merril The Street That Wasn't There by Clifford D. Simak and Carl Jacobi Food for Friendship by E. C. Tubb Half Around Pluto by Manly Wade Wellman Project Hush by William Tenn Time Enough At Last by Lynn Venable Bride of the Dark One by Florence Verbell Brown The Cosmic Express by Jack Williamson The Next Logical Step by Ben Bova They Twinkled like Jewels by Philip José Farmer Shandy by Ron Goulart Tight Squeeze by Dean C. Ing Extracts from the Galactick Almanack by Laurence Janifer Postmark Ganymede by Robert Silverberg Hot Planet by Hal Clement The Tenth Scholar by Steve Rasnic Tem and Melanie Tem A Little Journey by Ray Bradbury Strain by L. Ron Hubbard The Time of Cold by Mary Carlson The Customs Lounge by Annie Proulx I, Executioner by Ted White and Terry Carr and many more
Star Trek - The Classic Episodes Vol. 1
ln the twenty-five years since it premiered on network television, bringing the planets of the Federation and the voyages of the Starship Enterprise™ into America’s living rooms and the national consciousness, Star Trek has become a worldwide phenomenon, crossing generations and cultures in its enduring universal appeal. Now, in celebration of Star Trek’s twenty-fifth anniversary, here are James Blish’s classic adaptations of Star Trek’s dazzling first-season scripts. And there’s more: A new introduction written especially for this omnibus by one of Star Trek’s creators, D. C. Fontana Blish’s original prefaces to each volume, annotated for this edition Production credits for each episode Production stills accompanying each story Explore the final frontier with science fiction’s most well-known and beloved captain, crew, and starship, with twenty-seven tales of high adventure, including “The Naked Time,” “Shore Leave,” “The Squire of Gothos,” “ Space Seed,” and “The City on the Edge of Forever.”
Star Trek 7
Join Up! Board the Enterprise and journey with her crew to far-off worlds where you will find: Greek gods and American Indians men who can live forever and other men who die of old age at twenty-nine a machine with the power to raise the dead and a woman whose tears can topple empires.
After Such Knowledge
Sixty years after the Holocaust, the author explores the difficult process of preserving an authentic version of its tragic events. As the Holocaust recedes in time, the guardianship of its legacy is being passed on from its survivors and witnesses to the next generation. How should they, in turn, convey its knowledge to others? What are the effects of a traumatic past on its inheritors? And what are the second generation's responsibilities to its received memories? In this meditation on the long aftermath of atrocity, Eva Hoffman--a child of Polish Jews who survived the Holocaust with the help of neighbors, but whose entire families perished--probes these questions through personal reflections, and through broader explorations of the historical, psychological, and moral implications of the second-generation experience. She examines the subterranean processes through which private memories of suffering are transmitted, and the more willful stratagems of collective memory. She traces the "second generation's" trajectory from childhood intimations of horror, through its struggles between allegiance and autonomy, and its complex transactions with children of perpetrators. As she guides us through the poignant juncture at which living memory must be relinquished, she asks what insights can be carried from the past to the newly problematic present, and urges us to transform potent family stories into a fully informed understanding of a forbidding history.
Science Fiction Hall of Fame--Volume Two B
The Martian Way - novelette by Isaac Asimov Earthman, Come Home - novelette by James Blish Rogue Moon - novella by Algis Budrys The Spectre General - novella by Theodore R. Cogswell (variant of The Specter General) [as by Theodore Cogswell] The Machine Stops - novelette by E. M. Forster The Midas Plague - novella by Frederik Pohl The Witches of Karres - novelette by James H. Schmitz E for Effort - novelette by T. L. Sherred In Hiding - novelette by Wilmar H. Shiras The Big Front Yard - novella by Clifford D. Simak The Moon Moth - novelette by Jack Vance
Devils Day
A cloistered monk desperately tries to close the Pandora's box opened by a mischievous weapons dealer who has recruited a powerful black magician to stir up trouble for humanity on the eve of Judgement Day.
Star Trek - The Classic Episodes Vol. 3
Features twenty-four classic adaptations from Star Trek's third season, plus a new introduction, production credits, and production stills