Product Description
Dell Laurel Leaf mass paperback, 1st printing Nov. 1974, Dell 440-08603-099, 208 pages. Short stories in that sub-genre of science fiction called alternate history. Includes: Sidewise in Time, by Murray Leinster; Sail On! Sail On!, by Philip José Farmer, Slips Take Over, by Miriam Allen deFord; All the Myriad Ways, by Larry Niven (nominee, 1969 Hugo Award); Living Space, by Isaac Asimov; Translation Error, by Robert Silverberg; Delenda Est, by Poul Anderson. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

alternate history/ what if
excellent stories, incl from asimov and niven.best is by poul anderson... time patrol. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Pleasant stories from long ago
Doctor to the Stars is a collection of three stories by Murray Leinster.The stories are about a medical doctor who travels between planets solving problems.Calhoun, the hero, is smart and able use his knowledge of medicine to figure out what is going on and what needs to be done.The stories written in the 1950s, and so they are a little dated.

In "The Grandfathers' War" Calhoun tries to stop the ultimate parenting problem when the parents have decided they have to go to war with their children, to save their children.With "Med Ship Man" Calhoun is able to salvage a con man's attempt to buy land cheap when the con man almost destroys a colony.Tallien Three is a bit of a horror story where humans seem to be turning into a creature like a zombie.

The stories are pleasant and well told.They move along and are entertaining.They aren't great, but I enjoyed them.If you want to enjoy average good science fiction from the 1950s, then check out "Doctor to the Stars."

I agree with Paul, this book rates three stories

The Virtues of Craftsmanship
Murray Leinster's Med Service stories weren't the first science fiction medical series. (L. Ron Hubbard had preceeded him with the Ol' Doc Methuselah yarns.) Nor were they the best. (James White's Sector General stories were much more imaginative and better written.) But they remain well-crafted stories that give the reader a certain level of satisfaction.


_Doctor to the Stars_ contains three Med Service novelets: "The Grandfather's War" (_Astounding_, 1957), "Med Ship Man" (_Galaxy_, 1963), and "Tallien Three" (_Analog_, 1963 as "The Hate Disease"). I believe that the best Med Service stories are the early, theme-related tales with the fictitious chapter headings. They are a bit more substantial than the later, action-oriented stories that Leinster wrote in the sixties. There is only one of these stories in this crop, "The Grandfather's War," which manages to say quite a bit about the conflict between generations and the insanity of war.


But "Tallien Three" is almost as good as "The Grandfather's War." It successfully uses disease as a metaphor for social insanity. Both stories contain puzzles that are fairly, but not obviously, solved.


The same cannot be said of "Med Ship Man," easily the weakest of all of the Med Service stories. The solution to the story is telegraphed to the reader, and the problem itself is rather dull. I have some sympathy for Leinster's satire of business ethics in the story, but the satire is heavy-handed.


On the balance, this collection is worth reading. Nothing classic-- but good craftsmanship is not to be sneered at.
... Read more

Product Description
This title has fewer than 24 printed text pages. The Leader is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Murray Leinster is in the English language. If you enjoy the works of Murray Leinster then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Land of Romance Without Privacy
Imagine that you are in a science fiction bull session back in the early 1950s. You are sitting by a warm fire in a neighbor's living room, nursing cups of coffee or glasses of coke in your hands. Somebody earnestly raises the question: "What sf writer would have the color, the poetry, the sense of the exotic to do justice to a modern treatment of the Arabian Nights?" Maybe Fritz Leiber or Jack Vance? Yes, they would be serious contenders. Maybe C.L. Moore or Leigh Brackett? (Remember the Northwest Smith and the Eric John Stark stories.) Possibly van Vogt? (After all, he _did_ write _The Book of Ptath_.) Somebody briefly mentions Poul Anderson, Theodore Sturgeon, and Ray Bradbury. Well, _maybe_...

But who would seriously propose Murray Leinster? After all, he is so damned _prosaic_... And yet Leinster _did_ write such a book, while none of these other authors did. The book in question first appeared in _Startling Stories_ in 1952 under the title "Journey to Barkut." It appeared as half of an Ace Double Novel in 1954 under the title _Gateway to Elsewhere_. The flip side of the book was A.E. van Vogt's _The Weapon Shops of Isher_, which was pretty stiff competition. But Leinster's novel was not a contemptible piece of writing.

The book title is certainly a snappier one than the magazine title-- but not a more accurate one. The hero does not enter a fantasy world by crossing through a magic portal or gate or door. Rather, he leaves the city of New York and with the aid of a magic coin _journeys_ until he gradually makes his way to Barkut, an Arabian Nights type of country. There he has assorted adventures, mainly with _djinns_, _djinnis_, and beautiful slave girls. There are romantic interludes, but they are constantly interrupted by the comings and goings of other characters.

It is all reasonably entertaining... but I found myself wishing for some of the things that weren't there. Where were the forty thieves? Where were the rocs? The mechanical flying horses of ebony and ivory? The flying carpets? The magical dancing fish of red and yellow and blue and white? The Old Man of the Sea, legs locked around his victim's neck? The crafty Viziers? The valleys of diamonds? The magic caves filled with treasure? The enchanted pomegranite seeds that can impregnate the wives in a harem? The giant serpents? The leviathans that are mistaken for islands by hapless sailors? Where are all of those things, eh? It is a competently told adventure, but it lacks a certain amount of spectacle and variety. ... Read more

Product Description
A classic adventure from a Sci-Fi Hall-of-Famer. The only connecting links between the galaxy's countless colonized new worlds are the Med ships--lone starships each carrying one man and one beast. Roving the uncharted vastness of deep space, Calhoun and his tormal are one such pair, and at each planetfall, they fight not only plagues and epidemics, but humans bent on death and destruction. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Four Cheers for the Med Service Tales
This is a more compact version of _The Med Service Omnibus_ (1983), which originally contained _The Mutant Weapon_(1959),_S.O.S. From Three Worlds_(1967), and _This World is Taboo_(1961). The third volumn has been omitted from this collection, but any book keeping Murray Leinster's Med Service stories in print should be commended. _The Mutant Weapon_ is an expanded version of the second story in the series, "Med Service"(_Astounding_,1957). _S.O.S. From Three Worlds_ is a collection of three novelets: "Plague on Kryder II" (_Astounding_,1964), "Ribbon in the Sky" (_Astounding_, 1957), and "Quarantine World" (_Astounding_,1966).

All of the stories are workmanlike science fiction adventure tales using a similar plot formula: Doctor Calhoun and his alien sidekick Murgatroyd, stumble onto a planet where there is a conspiracy intended to conceal a plague or epidemic. After several setbacks, Calhoun solves both the medical and social problems. He then moves on. Things return to normal on the problem planet.

In spite of this common formula, there are some differences between the stories. The earlier stories, _The Mutant Weapon_ and "Ribbon in the Sky," are constucted around a theme. The theme is emphasized by chapter quotations from an imaginary author named Fitzgerald (actually Leinster's middle name) on the topic. These two stories have solidity, a moderate amount of weight and complexity.

The theme of _The Mutant Weapon_ doesn't quite mesh with the background of the story. On the one hand, we are told that criminal actions are both rare and unlikely to succeed, because there are too many random factors that interfere with criminal plots. But what is the source of this interference? Not the government, for we are told thatsolar systems are so numerous and far apart that "there could be no galactic government as such"(6), only a few interplanetary services that cannot intervene in planetary affairs without permission from the local government. It seems unlikely that this laissez-faire system will promote a society that is conformist, placid, and noncompetative. In fact, the villains almost succeed in committing planetary genocide. The thesis that criminal actions are a minor ripple in the greater scheme of things is comforting but not convincing.

The theme of "Ribbon in the Sky" dovetails more with the setting. It is that accidents and errors can serve to create and to solve problems. Accidents abound in the story. Calhoun is sent to the wrong planet by mistake. He discovers several xenophobic cities with a pattern of behavior that originated from a chance medical emergency. Chance factors help Calhoun to solve the colonial xenophobia. The story wryly closes with a final accident at Med Service Headquarters.

"Plague on Kryder II" and "Quarantine World" don't have chapter quotations. They are a bit more streamlined and fast paced, but they lack the weight of the other two stories. Interest in these stories comes from a plot twist introduced early in the tales. In the first story, Calhoun's spaceship turns into a murder weapon; and in the second, Calhoun gets sick and must escape to another planet in order to cure himself. "Quarantine World" was, incidently, the last magazine short story that Leinster wrote.

Leinster's Med Service stories don't have the originality of stories like "Sideways in Time," Proxima Centauri," "First Contact," or "Exploration Team." And yet they are representative of Leinster's writing in the same way that the Father Brown stories are representative of G.K. Chesterton. As long as any Murray Leinster stories are reprinted, the Med Service stories will be among them.


... Read more

Product Description
From the introductory: The importance of a matter is almost entirely a matter of your attitude. And whether you call something "a riot" or "a war"...well, there is a difference, but what is it?

Nobody ever saw the message-torp. It wasn't to be expected. It came in on a course that extended backward to somewhere near the Rift--there there used to be Huks--and for a very, very long way it had traveled as only message-torps do travel. It hopped half a light-year in overdrive, and came back to normality long enough for its photocells to inspect the star-filled universe all about. Then it hopped another half light-year, and so on. For a long, long time it traveled in this jerky fashion.

Product Description
This title has fewer than 24 printed text pages. Scrimshaw is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Murray Leinster is in the English language. If you enjoy the works of Murray Leinster then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. ... Read more

Product Description
This title has fewer than 24 printed text pages. The Ambulance Made Two Trips is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Murray Leinster is in the English language. If you enjoy the works of Murray Leinster then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Something Funny Going On Here
Eric Flint of Baen Books was bound and determined to bring Murray Leinster's prophetic 1946 story "A Logic Named Joe" back into print, and this collection was how he did it."A Logic Named Joe" became the title story of a collection of some of Leinster's best humorous science fiction.As other reviewers have noted, the title story has gained a great deal of notoriety now that the internet revolution it predicted has come to pass.The story itself concerns a happily married computer technician who struggles to avoid a predatory ex-girlfriend.

1935's "The Fourth-Dimensional Demonstrator" finds a happy-go-lucky young man with a money-hungry fiancee and a tobacco-eating pet kangaroo dealing with a time-transporter-cum-duplicating-machine he has inherited from his late mad-scientist uncle.If Lucille Ball had had George Lucas' special-effects budget, every episode of _The Lucy Show_ would have been like this story.

1953's "Dear Charles" is a time-travel story that takes the Grandfather Paradox and turns it on its head.Imagine Heinlein's "All You Zombies" written in the style of "And He Built a Crooked House".

If John Campbell's fantasy magazine _Unknown_ had survived the World War II paper shortage, the 1952 novel _Gateway to Elsewhere_ would have appeared there.It bears an uncanny resemblance to de Camp and Pratt's Harold Shea stories in both tone and subject matter.

1959's _The Pirates of Zan_ and 1964's _The Duplicators_ are both set in Leinster's all-purpose interstellar civilization, in which his Colonial Survey and Med stories are also set.Both novels deal with clever young men who find themselves stuck on primitive planets in need of some quick and dirty social engineering._The Pirates of Zan_ has a definite space opera feel to it, while _The Duplicators_ is more of a planetary romance.

Six tales, all of them witty, and all of them excellent.Go ahead and order this book.

Pirates and Logics and Kangaroos
I should state at the outset that I am an unabashed Murray Leinster fan, so I am likely to look with a measure of approval on _any_ venture intended to keep his stories and novels in print. _A Logic Named Joe_ (2004) is an omnibus consisting of three short stories and three novels. The short stories are: "The Fourth-Dimensional Demonstrator" (_Astounding_, 1935), "A Logic Named Joe" (_Astounding_, 1946), and "Dear Charles" (_Fantastic_, 1953). The novels are: _Gateway to Elsewhere_ (originally "Journey to Barkut," _Startling_, 1952), _The Pirates of Zan_ (originally "The Pirates of Ersatz," _Astounding_, 1959), and _The Duplicators_ (originally "Lord of the Uffts," _Worlds of Tomorrow_, 1964).

Let us take the novels first. Why should you want to read them? To be sure, none of them are classics. But they are all... well, _fun_. _Gateway to Elsewhere_ is the story of the consciencious young man who learns to live a little and who travels from the world of Baghdad-on-the-Hudson to the Baghdad of the Arabian Nights. _The Pirates of Zan_ is a delightful reworking of a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta into a space opera format, and is easily the best of the three. _The Duplicators_ is a gentle spoof of communist pigs and southern aristocrats. It raises some problems about the economic and social effects of matter duplication that are not really solved by the end of the novel. But then, I'm not sure that they could be solved.

The short stories, like the novels, all have a light touch. "Dear Charles" is a slight but clever account of the distant ancestor who snakes the girl of his not-too-bright descendant. The other two stories are much more substantial. "The Fourth-Dimensional Demonstrator" is a marvelous piece of slapstick comedy involving time travel, matter duplication, and demented kangaroos. And "A Logic Named Joe" is a computer story written before computers were known-- before the word "computer" was even a part of our language. Read it and see how well Leinster managed to predict this technology-- and the problems that it would bring.

This is a wonderful book for hammock reading or for a lazy day or for a time when you want a good excuse to laugh. And it is a reminder of what the Dean of Science Fiction could do when he was working with all cylinders going.

Excellent
I recommend this book highly for those new to SIFI books. The sroties are witty and fresh. They often reminded me of other books but they are newer and no doubt were influenced by this one. This is a really terrific book.

Predicts the Internet in 1946!
This collection of short stories represents a sampling of short fiction that still stands up today.I am very glad that the publisher; Baen Books has the rights to publish some of these older works.There is a lot of good material out there only it's never recognized or buried never to be seen again. We can thank Jim Baen for having the vision of a good science fiction publisher.I can sum up this collection by saying it's very thought provoking and should be read by science fiction readers who like intriguing work. ... Read more

Product Description
STARTLING STORIES, the classic pulp magazine, returns from Wild Cat Books with their latest issue for your enjoyment and entertainment! Edited and Designed by Graphic Artist William Carney, his issue features: Classic Pulp Sci-Fi reprints by Murray Leinster, Otis Adelbert Kline, and H. Beam Piper... A Tribute to Edd Cartier featuring lots of his SF illustrations from the pulp magazines... A Comprehensive History of the original "Startling Stories" pulp mag, which is lavishly illustrated... Plus new stories by Award-winning Author K.G. McAbee... Chris Carney... Barry Reese... Robert Morganbesser... plus a brand-new 8 page "Saucy Blaine" comic story by Ron Wilber! This is an AWESOME issue, and all true SF fans should grab a copy immediately! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Another solid issue
In the interests of being completely above board, let me point out that one of my short pieces of fiction ("Restoration") is included in this issue. My review is aimed a the rest of the issue's contents, which I had nothing to do with. This issue continues the new mag's mix of classic reprints with new stories and you get a real variety this time around, with some space opera, outright horror and more. My favorite part of the two issues in the current incarnation are actually the desert island reviews at the back of the book -- this time around, the reviews are centered around dvd collections with pulp connections and they're a blast to read. I also really liked the art gallery this time around (and the one last time was awesome, as well). The new Startling Stories is a great reminder of the pulp mags' golden age.

SCI-FI PULP FICTION AT ITS FNEST
Being the publisher of this book, I must say that the Editor, William Carney has done a great job in reviving this old pulp SF magazine... This is an AWESOME issue that contains both Classic Sci-Fi (Murray Leinster, H. Beam Piper, & Otis Adelbert Kline), as well as new material by some VERY talented writers & artists! WCB's new revival of STARTLING STORIES is well worth seeking out, and each issue gets better and better. I especially enjoyed the Tribute to artist Edd Cartier (The Shadow) with all those great images from his other works... and the History of the original "Startling Stories" by editor William Carney is worth the price of admission on its own! Toss in new stories by Barry Reese, K.G. McAbee and Robert Morganbesser, and you've got one great publication! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED...!!!! ... Read more

Product Description
This Halcyon Classics ebook collection contains three full-length novels and three additional short stories by acclaimed science fiction/mystery writer Murray Leinster (William Fitzgerald Jenkins).Leinster was a mainstay of the pulp magazines of the 1920s and 1930s, and following World War II he broadened his audience by writing for Radio, Television, and Hollywood.Among his accomplishments, Leinster is credited with popularizing the notion of parallel universes and the internet.Includes an active table of contents for easy navigation.

Novels:

The Fifth-Dimension Tube
Long Ago, Far Away
Murder Madness (mystery)

Short Stories:

A Matter of Importance
Attention St. Patrick
Evidence
... Read more

Product Description
Space Tug is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Murray Leinster is in the English language. If you enjoy the works of Murray Leinster then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Very Good Space Adventure!
"Space Tug" is a very good space adventure.Joe Kenmore is assigned to the new "Space Tug" that will be a help in construction on the space station. Well, adventure happens.Someone starts 'shooting' at the space station.After that is sort of solved, an expedition to Earth's moon is started on its way to the moon.Then ...Well, read it yourself.Written for juveniles, this story holds up for adults, too.

I really enjoyed reading this book, back in the 1960s.It, still, has not been out dated.Very good Science fiction. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Old Science Fiction is best
Not only are the stories interesting, but they're a slice of past attitudes.I must admit that I haven't read this book in so long, the only story I remember is the one where the characters are surprised that when they got back to Earth, everyone they knew was long dead.I guess the relativity of time was a new idea in the 30s.I do remember that these stories are a charming combination of naivete and incredible insights.It's always a surprise to me when the characters in a story light up in a spaceship, smart women are presented as anomolies, and all alien planets have breathable air.But then, an old Science Fiction story will accurately predict a future technology and how it will change society.I heartily recommend these stories.I recommend all old Science Fiction, especially the ones where their future is now our past (1984, 2001).Did what they predicted come true?Why not?

List of Stories and Authors
OUT AROUND RIGEL by Robert H. Wilson
THE FIFTH-DIMENSION CATAPULT by Murray Leinster
INTO THE METEORITE ORBIT by Frank K. Kelly
THE BATTERY OF HATE by John W. Campbell
THE WALL; and THE OTHER by Howard W. Graham, Ph.D.
THE LOST LANGUAGE by David H. Keller, M.D.
THE LAST MEN by Frank Belknap Long, Jr.
THE MAD MOON by Stanley G. Weinbaum
DAVEY JONES' AMBASSADOR by Raymond Z. Gallum
ALAS, ALL THINKING by Harry Bates
THE TIME DECELERATOR by A Macfadyen, Jr.
THE COUNCIL OF DRONES by W.K. Sonnemann
SEEKER OF TOMORROW by Eric Frank Russell and Leslie T. Johnson
HYPERPILOSITY; and THE MERMAN by L. Sprague de Camp
PITHECANTHROPUS REJECTUS by Manly W. Wellman
THE DAY IS DONE by Lester del Rey

Not Really a Labor of Love
During the early 1970s, there was a resurgence of interest in science fiction of the 1920s and the 1930s. There was Isaac Asimov's wonderful anthology-autobiography, _Before the Golden Age_ (1973), Jaques Sadoul's _Les Meilliers Recits de Astounding Stories_ (1972), Jack Williamson's _The Early Williamson_ (1975), and _The Best of Stanley Weinbaum_ (1974). Damon Knight's _Science Fiction of the 30s_ (1975) was also part of this revival. I don't wish that the book had never been published, but it's a bit of a dissapointment when compared with other works in this movement.

Part of the problem lies within Knight himself. He is an editor of taste and discrimination, but (unlike Sam Moskowitz or Isaac Asimov) he doesn't really have a fondness for the writing of the time. He believes-- quite rightly-- that most of it was pretty dreadful stuff. But an editor of an anthology of this sort, it seems to me, must have a certain affection for the bad.

The anthology includes three historical surveys covering three slices of time ("The Begining," "The Middle," and "The End"); but he does not give a detailed introduction, and there are no introductions to individual stories. Five of the authors represented in this collection are virtual unknowns: Robert H. Wilson, Frank K. Kelly, Howard W. Graham, A. Macfadyen, and W.K. Sonnemann. Who were they? What stories did they write? For what magazines? This information is not given. (Though I was able to find some of it elsewhere.) And many young whippersnappers with their tentacles still green might like to know something about more famous authors like David H. Keller, Raymond Z. Gallun, and Stanley Weinbaum.

Five of the eighteen stories come from the early days of John Campbell's
_Astounding_ and are really crude anticipations of the Golden Age of the 40s. The other thirteen stories are more representative of the 30s, and they contain five passable pieces: Murray Leinster's "The Fifth-Dimensional Catapult," John Campbell's "The Battery of Hate," Stanley Weinbaum's "The Mad Moon," Raymond Z. Gallun's "Davey Jones' Ambassador," and Harry Bates' "Alas, All Thinking". The remaining eight stories are all pretty dreadful. To be sure, one must expect a certain percentage of clunkers in an anthology covering this period. But were there no pieces available by Jack Williamson, Nelson S. Bond, Edmond Hamilton, or even Stanton Coblentz? William Grey Beyer, now unknown, wrote a charming space opera in the 30s called "Let 'em Eat Space" that has (to my Knowledge) only been reprinted in magazines. And L. Taylor Hanson wrote a good novelette, "The Prince of Liars," that has been anthologized only once. Surely Knight could have found a better selection of stories than this. ... Read more

Product Description

Three Complete Classics by Hugo Award Winning Author. In book one, Research scientist Joseph Burke and his secretary Sandy Lund discover their love for each other and plan to marry, when strange signal from an unknown asteroid puts their passion on hold. The alien message screams of doom for Earth. But what doom? When the two lovers join a courageous crew of humans using a scientific breakthrough to reach the asteroid, what they find upsets their world even more than the screaming messages! In book two, TV producer Jed Cochrane sets out to cover the discovery of a faster-than-light drive, then faster than you could say "Einstein," Jed finds himself trapped inside a spacecraft with his kooky secretary and a reluctant psychiatrist, being hurled far beyond the confines of the Solar System. In book three, Joe Kenmore has a simple sounding assignment: Deliver supplies and atomic weapons to the new U.S. space station, then help prepare for the first practical moon base. But physics and enemy agents place seemingly impossible obstacles in his way! Murray Leinster is the winner of both the Hugo Award and the Retro-Hugo Award. He was one of the most distinguished writers associated with John W. Campbell's Astounding Science Fiction and the golden age of the sf pulps.