UNITED STATES AUTHOR · SCIENCE FICTION · FICTION
Raymond F. Jones
Gedanken, or thought, experiments are tests of hypotheses that take place in the imagination rather than the laboratory.
— from Out of this world
Most acclaimed
The secret people
Four young men face the conflicts of Australia's immense Red Center on camelback and discover the compromises they must make in a less civilized climate.
Flying saucers
Flying Saucers and Science Fiction - essay by Isaac Asimov What Is This Thing Called Love? - short story by Isaac Asimov Pagan - short story by Algis Budrys The Beholders - short story by A. Bertram Chandler Sense of Wonder - short story by A. Bertram Chandler Trouble with the Natives - short story by Arthur C. Clarke The Lizard of Woz - short story by Edmund Cooper The Grantha Sighting - short story by Avram Davidson The Merchant - short story by Larry Eisenberg The Mouse - short story by Howard Fast The Time for Delusion - novelette by Donald Franson Small Miracle - short story by Randall Garrett All the Universe in a Mason Jar - short story by Joe Haldeman Correspondence Course - short story by Raymond F. Jones Sam - short story by Leo P. Kelley The Mississippi Saucer - short story by Frank Belknap Long Posted - short story by Mack Reynolds Speak Up, Melvin! - short story by Carol-Lynn Rössel Waugh [as by C. C. Rössel-Waugh] Exposure - short story by Eric Frank Russell The Gumdrop King - short story by Will Stanton Saucer of Loneliness - short story by Theodore Sturgeon (variant of A Saucer of Loneliness) Fear Is a Business - short story by Theodore Sturgeon The Painter - short story by Thomas Burnett Swann The Deadly Ones - short story by F. L. Wallace The Junk Man Cometh - novelette by Robin Scott Wilson Flying Pan - short story by Robert F. Young
Out of this world
Although this anthology features some of the most popular names in futuristic and paranormal romance, it reads more like a catalogue than a cohesive book. Robb's "Interlude in Death," featuring Lieutenant Eve Dallas, kicks off the collection and is the strongest of the four entries. The story's suspense is as well drawn as the romance, and readers won't have to be familiar with Robb's In Death series (Betrayal in Death, etc.) to enjoy this futuristic thriller. Hamilton's "Magic Like Heat Across My Skin" finds Vampire Hunter Anita Blake in an S/M club with her two lovers, a Master Vampire and a werewolf king. As one might imagine of such a setting, the sensuality is dark and intense, but this will be no surprise to fans of Hamilton's Vampire Hunter novels (Obsidian Butterfly, etc.). "Kinsman," Krinard's (Touch of the Wolf) tale of two telepaths who try to prevent an interspecies war, falls victim to its own exposition and draws to a conclusion that is steamy but familiar. Shayne's "Immortality" features Puabi, a Dark Witch of Sumer who is reincarnated to right an ancient wrong. Each of the works in this anthology is solid and should please current fans, but as a whole, the stories are only loosely connected and would have benefited from a stronger theme to tie them together.