ABOUT THE AUTHORS
James Blish (1921–1975) may be best known for his Star Trek novel adaptations, but his enduring reputation in sf rests on his classic Cities in Flight series, comprising four novels: They Shall Have Stars, A Life for the Stars, Earthman, Come Home, and The Triumph of Time (also published as A Clash of Cymbals), in which the invention of the “spindizzy” and anti-gravity/faster-than-light drive/force field leads to whole cities leaving the Earth and wandering the stars. Another series of note is his “pantropy” series, which has humans colonizing the stars by being genetically altered to survive in vastly different conditions rather than living in domes or terraforming the colony worlds. (“Surface Tension,” included in this anthology, is part of that series.) A third series, less orthodoxly linked, is his “After Such Knowledge” series, comprising his Hugo-winning novel, A Case of Conscience, a historical novel, Dr. Mirabilis, based on the life of Roger Bacon, and the novel Black Easter and its sequel, The Day After Judgment, which share a theme, but are set in very different time periods and different universes. His novel, A Case of Conscience, was a continuation of a novella with the same title, which itself won a Retro-Hugo in 2001. Writing critical reviews of sf stories under the pseudonym “William Atheling, Jr.,” he became known as one of the field’s premiere critics. He was a noted authority on the works of James Branch Cabell, Ezra Pound, and James Joyce. He was the Guest of Honor at the 1960 World Science Fiction Convention and was one of the field’s true polymaths.
Fredric Brown (1906–1972) was a legend in the fields of science fiction and mystery, filling the pages of sf and mystery pulps in the 1940s with sharp, witty stories, and winning an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for his first mystery novel, The Fabulous Clipjoint. More mystery novels followed, soon joined by such memorable sf novels as Martians Go Home (much later made into a pretty good, but not as good, movie), The Lights in the Sky are Stars, (which foresaw that when spaceflight arrived, it would be a government project, and short-sighted politicians would try to stop it, claiming it was a waste of money, years before anyone had heard of Senator Proxmire), and the nearly indescribable What Mad Universe. And anyone in need of a good horror novel should check out The Mind Thing. Brown was also known for writing short-short stories, taking only three to four pages to set up an intriguing situation, then hitting the reader with a completely unexpected ending, and “Fish Story,” included in this anthology, is a sterling example of that fictional form, and of Brown’s virtuosity. Renowned sf editor H.L. Gold once described Brown’s short-shorts as “short and sharp—like a hypodermic.” Nailed it, Mr. Gold.
James L. Cambias writes science fiction and designs games. His latest novel, The Scarab Mission, was published in 2023 by Baen Books. Originally from New Orleans, he was educated at the University of Chicago and lives in western Massachusetts. His first novel, A Darkling Sea, was published in 2014, followed by Corsair in 2015. Baen Books released his third novel, Arkad’s World, in 2019; followed by a fantasy, The Initiate; and The Godel Operation, which introduced readers to the “Billion Worlds” universe. His stories have appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Shimmer, Nature, and several original anthologies. As a game designer, Mr. Cambias has written for Steve Jackson Games, Hero Games, and other roleplaying publishers, and he cofounded Zygote Games. Since 2015, he has been a member of the XPrize Foundation’s Science Fiction Advisory Board. Check out his blog at www.jamescambias.com.
Sir Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) was known as one of the “Big Three” writers of science fiction, along with Robert A. Heinlein and Isaac Asimov, and became a household name after the release in 1968 of 2001: A Space Odyssey, coscripted by Clarke and director Stanley Kubrick, but he had been known to sf fans for two decades previously during which his numerous stories and novels received praise even from mundane critics, one of whom compared him to the young H. G. Wells. After the Hugo Award was inaugurated, his short story, “The Star,” won one of the earliest, for year’s best short story, and that was followed by many more awards. His novels are more numerous than I have space to list, though I’ll cite three of my favorites: The City and the Stars, Childhood’s End, and Earthlight. When not roaming throughout the galaxy in his stories, Clarke also wrote down-to-Earth hard science stories, and his short story, “The Deep Range,” included in these pages, is an example both of that and his fascination with the sea and what lies beneath its surface. He was an enthusiastic scuba diver, and put his personal experience into a realistic picture of an undersea future. In addition to “The Deep Range” (which he later expanded into a novel with the same title), he further got his literary feet wet in such short stories as “Big Game Hunt,” “The Man Who Ploughed the Sea,” “The Shining Ones” (included in my Baen anthology, The Baen Big Book of Monsters), as well as such novels as Dolphin Island, The Ghost of the Grand Banks and, moving the focus to an inhabited ocean on an alien planet, The Songs of Distant Earth. I also recommend his nonfiction book, The Coast of Coral, and will close by firmly stating that rumors that Sir Arthur wore special shoes to hide his webbed feet are wholly untrue.
Henry Kuttner (1914–1958) and Catherine L. Moore (1911–1987) each attracted attention with a striking first story, Kuttner with a powerful horror story, “The Graveyard Rats,” and Moore with “Shambleau,” in which a space-roving vagabond encounters the psychic vampire of the title. That story also introduced Northwest Smith, a quick man with a ray blaster, who was usually on the wrong side of the law, whom many readers suspect may be the model for the better-known Han Solo, but only George Lucas knows for sure. Both stories appeared in Weird Tales, the leading publication in the thirties of fantasy and horror stories. Moore wrote other stories of Northwest Smith, and also wrote a second series starring Jirel of Joiry, one of the earliest sword-and-sorcery heroines. Kuttner wrote a fan letter to Moore, under the impression that she was a man, and one thing led to another until in 1940 they married, and began collaborating on a string of stories, often under various pseudonyms, most frequently as Lewis Padgett and Lawrence O’Donnell, under which name the novella Clash by Night was published in Astounding Science-Fiction. It was followed later by a novel, Fury, set on the same watery Venus, though many years later, so not quite a sequel. The couple were extremely prolific in the sf magazines of the 1940s, then began writing mystery novels in the next decade, mysteries being a better paying field. Then in 1958, Henry Kuttner suffered a fatal heart attack. Catherine Moore continued to write for a few years, mostly doing scripts for TV Westerns, then retired from writing in 1963. Some have lately speculated that Moore was the real star of the collaboration, but L. Sprague de Camp and Ray Bradbury have told of visiting the Kuttners and watching as one of the couple worked at the typewriter, then would take a break, while the other would take over, skimming what had been written, then rattling the keys. Later the Kuttners had difficulty remembering who had written which part. Their collaboration was a magical meeting of minds, which is why I’ve done one biographical sketch for the two of them, rather than separate bios.
Fritz Leiber (1910–1992) seemed inclined to follow his parents’ footsteps into theatre and drama as a youth, but published his first short stories in 1934 and 1935 and continued to write for most of the rest of his life. After seeing early success with his short stories, he contacted, and was encouraged, by H.P. Lovecraft, a year before Lovecraft’s death. The next year he released Two Sought Adventure, the first story concerning the well-known and much beloved swords-and-sorcery duo, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, though Leiber wrote Cthulhu-esque horror during the ’30s and ’40s in addition to his fantasy and science fiction works.
He continued to write and publish during WWII while working as a quality assurance inspector for Douglas Aircraft. After the war, he became associate editor of Science Digest and kept writing, producing what Poul Anderson would later call “a lot of the best science fiction and fantasy in the business.” Leiber published novels, short stories, and collections regularly over the next many decades. The Big Time won the 1958 Hugo for Best Novel, as did The Wanderer in 1964, followed by more Hugos for short stories and novelettes in the 1970s, as well as being named the second Gandalf Grand Master of Fantasy at WorldCon 1975, and he was named a SFWA Grand Master in 1981.
Gray Rinehart writes science fiction and fantasy stories, songs, and . . . other things. He is the only person to have commanded an Air Force satellite tracking station, written speeches for presidential appointees, devised a poetic form, and had music on The Dr. Demento Show. He is currently a contributing editor (the “Slushmaster General”) for Baen Books.
Gray is the author of the lunar colonization novel Walking on the Sea of Clouds (WordFire Press), and his short fiction has appeared in Analog Science Fiction & Fact, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show, and multiple anthologies. As a singer/songwriter, he has three albums of mostly science-fiction-and-fantasy-inspired music. During his unusual USAF career, Gray fought rocket propellant fires, refurbished space launch facilities, “flew” Milstar satellites, drove trucks, encrypted nuclear command and control orders, commanded the largest remote tracking station in the Air Force Satellite Control Network, and did other interesting things. His alter ego is the Gray Man, one of several famed ghosts of South Carolina’s Grand Strand, and his web site is graymanwrites.com.
Mary Rosenblum (1952–2018) wrote both science fiction stories and novels and mystery novels, the latter under her birth name of Mary Freeman. She was also an expert cheesemaker, teaching the art in workshops, and an aviator, earning her airman’s certificate at the age of fifty-seven. Her first novel, The Drylands, won the 1994 Compton Crook Award for best first novel. Her story “Sacrifice” won the 2009 Sidewise Award for best alternate history, short form. Her story “Selkies,” included in these pages, was followed by another story about the aquatic people of the title, “The Mermaid’s Comb.” One might wish that more stories set in that aquatic universe had followed, but tragically, the author died when a single engine plane she was piloting crashed in Washington state. Her other novels are Chimera, The Stone Garden, Water Rights, and Horizons, plus a short story collection, Synthesis & Other Virtual Realities. Her mystery novels, written under the name Mary Freeman, are Devil’s Trumpet, Deadly Nightshade, Bleeding Heart, and Garden View.
Robert Silverberg, prolific author not just of sf, but of authoritative nonfiction books, columnist for Asimov’s SF Magazine, winner of a constellation of awards, and renowned bon vivant surely needs no introduction—but that’s never stopped me before. Born in 1935, Robert Silverberg sold his first sf story, “Gorgon Planet,” before he was out of his teens, to the British magazine Nebula. Two years later, his first sf novel, a juvenile, Revolt on Alpha C followed. Decades later, his total sf titles, according to his semi-official website, stands at 82 sf novels and 457 short stories. (This may be a conservative count.) Early on, he won a Hugo Award for most promising new writer—rarely have the Hugo voters been so perceptive.
Toward the end of the 1960s and continuing into the 1970s, he wrote a string of novels much darker in tone and deeper in characterization than his work of the 1950s, such as the novels Nightwings, Dying Inside, The Book of Skulls, and many other novels. He took occasional sabbaticals from writing to later return with new works, such as the Majipoor series. His most recent novels include The Alien Years, The Longest Way Home, and a new trilogy of Majipoor novels. In addition, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame inducted him in 1999. In 2004, the Science Fiction Writers of America presented him with the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award. For more information see his “quasi-official” website at www.majipoor.com, heroically maintained by Jon Davis (no relation).
Brad R. Torgersen is a multi-award-winning science fiction and fantasy writer whose book A Star-Wheeled Sky won the 2019 Dragon Award for Best Science Fiction Novel at the 33rd annual DragonCon fan convention in Atlanta, Georgia. A prolific short fiction author, Torgersen has published stories in numerous anthologies and magazines, to include several Best of Year editions. Brad is named in Analog magazine’s who’s who of top Analog authors, alongside venerable writers like Larry Niven, Lois McMaster Bujold, Orson Scott Card, and Robert A. Heinlein. Married for over thirty years, Brad is also a United States Army Reserve Chief Warrant Officer—currently on long-term active duty orders, and with multiple deployments to his credit—who currently lives with his wife in the Mountain West. They have two dogs, one cat, and way too much pet hair all over the house.
Jack Vance (1916–2013) was renowned for his exotic science fiction stories, often told in a poetry-tinged voice, which frequently verged on fantasy. His episodic novel, The Dying Earth from the early 1950s, is an early example of this Vancean mode, set in a time when the sun is growing dim, and magical spells and advanced technology exist side by side, often difficult to distinguish from each other. More than a decade later, Vance returned to the dying Earth theme with a series of stories about Cugel the Clever, a rogue whose title is somewhat ironic since his schemes frequently come to naught. These Cugel stories were collected in the book The Eyes of the Overworld. Vance wrote two subsequent novels in the series, Cugel’s Saga and Rhialto the Marvelous. Another Vance work that attracted attention in the 1950s was his novel Big Planet, set on a world much larger than Earth, but with a shortage of the heavier elements, so that the gravity is Earthlike, and the planet is enormous, giving room for many exotic and varied cultures, making a broad canvas on which Vance displays his fertile imagination. In addition to his fantasy-tinged sf, Vance wrote pure fantasy novels, in recognition of which he received the World Fantasy Convention’s Grand Master Award, saluting him for a lifetime of distinguished writing. He also received the Grand Master Award of the Science Fiction Writers of America. Vance also wrote mysteries, often under his full name of John Holbrook Vance, and his first mystery novel, The Man in the Cage, won the Edgar Award of the Mystery Writers of America. He also received three Hugo Awards, for The Dragon Masters, The Last Castle, which also received a Nebula Award, and for his autobiography in the nonfiction category. He ghostwrote three mystery novels for the Ellery Queen franchise. Originally published as by Ellery Queen, they have subsequently been reprinted under Vance’s own name. He was extremely versatile, as shown by his novella, The Gift of Gab, included in this anthology. Published in Astounding Science-Fiction, a magazine known for hard science stories, which often require the logical solution of a problem, Vance’s poetic style is set aside, as the characters must solve a problem before time runs out. I’m not aware of Vance doing any underwater activity, but he co-owned a houseboat with his friends Poul Anderson and Frank Herbert, and at different times owned three sailing sloops, which he piloted until his failing eyesight forced him to become a landlubber. I suspect his experiences on San Francisco’s bay waters give solid veracity to this tale of a watery planet.