Product Description
Includes: The Legion of Space; The Cometeers; One Against the Legion and Nowhere Near. ... Read more

Product Description
First Paperback, Contains the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning The Ultimate Earth

When a giant meteor crashes into the earth and destroys all life, the small group of human survivors manage to leave the barren planet and establish a new home on the moon. From Tycho Base, men and woman are able to observe the devastated planet and wait for a time when return will become possible.

Generations pass. Cloned children have had children of their own, andtheir eyes are raised toward the giant planet in the sky which long ago was the cradle of humanity. Finally, after millennia of waiting, the descendants of the original refugees travel back to a planet they've never known, to try and rebuild a civilization of which they've never been a part.

The fate of the earth lies in the success of their return, but after so much time, the question is not whether they can rebuild an old destroyed home, but whether they can learn to inhabit an alien new world--Earth.
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Customer Reviews (20)

Kind of silly
While not utterly terrible, TE is a definate disappointment. The concept starts out as pretty cool but very quickly becomes borderline silly. The author struggles (unsucessefully) to find a meaningful story and the characters are flat and kind of juvenile (admittedly, they are young adults, but still...). One has to suspend a great deal of disbelief to stomach this book.

I've never read Jack Williamson before and it is very unlikely that I ever will again.

Not recommended.

A great idea gone so wrong
What a waste of time this was. The start is good, but around page 80 I realized it was going nowhere. It's basically a bunch of unrelated random short stories; you could read the first chapter and the last one or jump from one to another without much trouble. Williamson tries to tell a story of cosmic proportions but fails mainly due to a group of very stupid and shallow characters.

I've read some people's thoughts about this novel and believe me, this is NOT hard science fiction. Is just mediocre science fiction. The idea is good if not original, but the result is so, so bad.

And Pepe's spanish (that is, Williamson's spanish) is not only ridiculous but insulting.

Do not waste your time or your money in this. I'm sure Williamson has a lot of other, GOOD novels from where to choose.

Wildly extreme sc-fi, and quite a bit of fun.
When Jack Williamson wrote TERRAFORMING EARTH, he was NINETY-THREE years old, and in his SEVENTY-THIRD year as a published author.(He was born in 1908, published his first story in 1928, and wrote this in 2001.)

Take that, Norm McLean!

I think that's pretty amazing, especially since this book, for all its flaws, really is original.An asteroid wipes out almost all life on earth, but human clones and robots live on on a base on the moon.Their goal is tomonitor the earth, and restore life to it as soon as possible.Thousands of years pass, then millions, whole ice ages; the master computer and its robots brings the clones back to life, educates them about the earth, its past, and their mission; the clones attempt to restore life, die, and get cloned again millions or however many years later.

The story's idea is terrific, and the first fourth of the book is absolutely great--but it does get redundant, and most times Williamson takes the story into places much less cool than the possibilities suggest.For instance, he brings aliens into the picture, which is just totally unnecessary and doesn't do much for the story.(The aliens arrive in a giant spaceship many miles across, just like in his book THE COMETEERS, and they lead to all sorts of New-Agey imagery of flying golden fruit-women and that sort of thing.)It often does seem a lot like A CANTICLE FOR LIEBOWITZ, with its accounts of civilization passing over thousands of years, and it just seems that it could have been a lot cooler, could have done more justice to its premise.

Still, I enjoyed it, and I appreciate that it really does try to do something different.Plus, I love stories that deal with deep time, that show the process of time passing and evolution, even if, like this one, they don't follow the story all the way to a more natural conclusion, and even if they don't turn our to be all that they could have been.

(I do have to say though, that in my research into works of science fiction set partially in New Mexico, this is one of the most enjoyable books I've come across.The earth's sole survivors take off from a base in the White Sands area.)

Unbalanced
The first problem with this work is it never really lives up to the title.There is no hard science behind the Earth's future evolution as chronicled here.The characters cloned on the moon charged to repopulate and re-form the Earth's ecology do by happenstance- or perhaps a complete lack of care on the part of the author's.They all just bend with the wind, their actions never directly affecting change.They are simply observers- which also could be the fault of Williamson's choice to use the first person narrative for the book, told by the clones' official biographer and journalist.

I kept reading just to see what the next generations of clones would encounter, and was somewhat disappointed with each section.All of the chapters are almost separate short stories, with the original short, which this work builds upon (which I have not previously read) somewhat sticking out like a sore thumb.

Williamson also shows signs of not quite maturing beyond his 50s sci-fi novels, with winged creatures and mind-controlling parasites populating a few of the chapters.Sorry Jack, but contemporary readers need more than a chronicle with such a heady topic.

Nothing new in Terraforming Earth and kind of a Canticle for Liebowitz clone
After my failed attempt to read Williamson's previous effort, *The Black Sun*, I decided I needed to read the only other book of his I own but hadn't yet read to see if it was as bad. I can report that it is not. But, for all the promise of the story idea, it is flat and a little unimaginative.

A store of all life on Earth is placed on the Moon in case of catastrophe. The catastrophe eventually arrives in the form of a massive asteroid strike that wipes out life on Earth. A new set of caretaker clones are created on the Moon and the terraforming of Earth begins to build it back to a life-supporting planet. Through generations of these clones over millions of years, the effort the help guide evolution anew through such technology of "Life Bombs" slowly brings earth back to a thriving ecosystem under the watchful eyes of the clones.

Sounds potentially great doesn't it? Except, instead of taking this opportunity to evolve life in an entirely new direction, and exploring where this could go, *Terraforming Earth* is more of a history is doomed to repeat itself motif that is just plain stale in the end - right down to whites subjugating Blacks to slavery. What *A Canticle for Liebowitz* did so brilliantly within the context of its story, this book does so flatly and predictably.

*Terraforming Earth* is lightly entertaining, but fully lacking in what it could have been.

>>>>>>><<<<<<<

A Guide to my Book Rating System:

1 star = The wood pulp would have been better utilized as toilet paper.
2 stars = Don't bother, clean your bathroom instead.
3 stars = Wasn't a waste of time, but it was time wasted.
4 stars = Good book, but not life altering.
5 stars = This book changed my world in at least some small way. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Super Reader
A secret struggle is happening between a government agency, and a small band of mutants led by a rogue geneticist. Sound familiar? Well, it should, except this story is from 1951.

A young man is being recruited by both sides, and has to choose.

The hunter side tells him "They're somewhat tougher and quicker and stronger than we are, and apparently immune to most diseases... High intelligece,...A average I.Q. probably twice ours...But the gift that makes them so dangerous, and so difficult to trap, is ESP."

Dane ends up joining the mutant side, and working with the scientist that inspired his own studies, who is hiding under an alias in New Guinea.

Now, the really interesting thing is is organisation is called Cadmus, and their manager is Vic Van Doon.

A confrontation between forces is inevitable, but it does give both leaders a chance to talk, to see if they can reach a compromise and co-operation situation.

There are two other stories in this book, much shorter, with themes that are similar. ... Read more

Product Description
This second volume continues the publishing program to collect the stories of Science Fiction Grand Master Jack Williamson.

Drawn from such classic pulp magazines as Astounding Stories, Wonder Stories, and Amazing Stories, this volume features ten tales, four never published in book form, including novel-length adventure, The Stone from the Green Star.Also included are Williamson's letters and contest entries to the editors of the SF magainzes of the early 30's.

The book is smythe-sewn, bound in full cloth, and printed on acid-neutral paper, with full-color endpapers reproducing the original pulp magazine cover art.

With a foreword by noted writer Harlan Ellison, Wolves of Darkness imparts the sense of wonder from the early years of American Science Fiction and continues the documentation of Williamson's unparalleled career. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great tales from the Golden Age of pulps!
Jack Williamson has the skill to capture one's interest right from the first sentence of a story and hold it, drawing one in to read on and discover the mystery and wonder that follow.He has a very visual style and in the title story Wolves of Darkness he provides a scientific explanation for lycanthropy instead of the usual supernatural rationale.He also describes a process that sounds very similar to the way that micro-processors are made today!And this was in 1932, some 20 years before even the transistor was developed, let alone micro-chips!When this story was written even the vacuum tube was still a rather new thing.

Williamson writes in the pulp fiction style of the day, which is somewhat repetitive and tiresome at times, but since the going rate for a pulp magazine story back then was a half cent a word or less, it's understandable why an author would "flesh out" a tale as much as possible!Even so, these stories still hold up well.

This is a handsome volume, well-made, with colorful reproductions on the endpapers of the covers of the old pulp magazines in which the stories originally appeared. This book is a must-have for all Jack Williamson fans and all science-fiction/horror fans in general!

Wolves among us and other great tales!
This is a handsome book, well-made, with colorful reproductions on the endpapers of the covers of the old pulp magazines in which the stories originally appeared.Some of these grand old pulps can still be found on auction sites and in second-hand book stores, and they're worth collecting, not only for the stories but also for the wonderful illustrations.The quality of this book and the early Jack Williamson tales make this volume worth its rather high price.

I wanted particularly to read the short novelette Wolves of Darkness, because I'd heard it was the precursor werewolf tale to his later classic Darker Than You Think, and I was not disappointed!Williamson has the skill to capture one's interest right from the first sentence of a story and hold it, drawing one in to read on and discover the mystery and wonder that follow.This book is a must-have for all Jack Williamson fans and all science-fiction/horror fans in general! ... Read more

Product Description
Who is the Child of Night? Thats what small-town reporter Will Barbee must find out although the danger is killing his friends, one by one. Despite the warnings of a murdered professors widow and the seductive charms of the mysterious April Bell. And when he does discover the identity of The Child of Night, Will Barbee will wish hed never been born. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

Good, albeit flawed, novel...
The book, The Mammoth Book of Wolf Men, led me to this novel.There just aren't that many great werewolf novels out there (as the introduction attests) and this is one of the better examples.It is a good book, but I don't know if I would really describe it as a "werewolf novel."It is certainly a variation on the theme.People do turn into wolves in this story, but they turn into any animal they choose.Also, it is not so much a transformation as simply choosing an animal avatar that becomes real while the "actual" person sleeps.It is more a book about witchcraft with a pseudo-scientific explanation.

I did have a few problems with the text.The writing feels a bit dated.You just know that the "good guys" are going to do the wrong thing at every turn because the plot calls for it.Mainly though - it has a weak protagonist.Will Barbee doesn't seem to have any will of his own and is simply the pawn in other people's schemes.

A Brilliant Horror Novel From A Sci-Fi Grand Master
Jack Williamson's "Darker Than You Think" is a one-shot horror-novel excursion for this science fiction Grand Master, but has nonetheless been described as not only the author's finest work, but also one of the best treatments of the werewolf in modern literature. It has been chosen for inclusion in David Pringle's overview volume "Modern Fantasy: The Hundred Best Novels" ("a relatively disciplined and thoughtful work," Pringle writes, in comparing it to the author's earlier space operas) as well as in Jones & Newman's "Horror: Another 100 Best Books" ("the most unique and original take written on...lycanthropy," illustrator Randy Broecker tells us). The novel originally appeared in a "short," 48,000-word form in the December 1940 issue of "Unknown" magazine (the fantasy sister of "Astounding Science-Fiction"), and was later expanded by the author for a 1948 book edition. Though dealing with werewolves, the novel presents us with a very different sort of monster than readers of earlier horror tales and viewers of Universal horror pictures were perhaps accustomed to. Williamson's werewolves are actually shape shifters, capable of becoming wolves or any other creature that strikes their fancy. Roaming at night, free of their corporeal bodies and invisible to human eyes, they have existed since the first Ice Age and for thousands of years dominated prehistoric Homo sapiens. Hidden and desperate by the mid-20th century, they await their so-called Black Messiah, the Child of Night, who will lead them to their long-awaited reconquest of man.

But "Darker Than You Think" (a strangely unsatisfying title for me, somehow; "Child of Night" might have been preferable) is mainly the story of Will Barbee, an alcoholic newspaperman living in the fictitious city of Clarendon (somewhere in the southeast U.S., I infer). Barbee meets a ravishing fellow reporter, April Bell, whilst covering a story at the Clarendon airport. Professor Mondrick and his three young colleagues, all old friends of Barbee, have just returned from the Gobi Desert with news of a monumental discovery. But as Mondrick and the others begin to die one by one over the course of the next few days, in exact conformity with some rather bizarre dreams of Barbee's--in which he assumes the forms of a wolf, a saber-toothed tiger and a giant constrictor, alongside April Bell--the befuddled reporter must riddle out what is real and what, if anything, is fantasy. It is not a simple thing for me to write about this novel's story line without giving away any of the book's many surprises, and indeed, perhaps I have already said too much. Suffice it to say that poor Barbee is thrown into an increasingly noirish and nightmare-filled world, and that Williamson keeps the suspense quotient ratcheted very high. Though not a science fiction novel per se, the author does manage to come up with a scientific explanation for the shape shifters' powers that invokes such disparate subjects as the Rhine experiments at Duke University and Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. Williamson's background history of "Homo lycanthropus" is equally fascinating, incorporating ancient mythology, 15th century mass murderer Gilles de Rais and even Joan of Arc. As compared to Williamson's sci-fi output of the '30s, "Darker Than You Think" is certainly more elegantly written, and the author shows a much greater control over his descriptions and dialogue. The novel gets increasingly, uh, hairy as it progresses, with each chapter revealing some stunning surprise or shocking plot development. It is an extremely accomplished melding of fantasy, horror, sci-fi and pulp noir, and really almost a perfect novel. (The author does make a few flubs in the book, such as when he has a hungover Barbee thinking of the rum he had consumed the night before, when in actuality he had been drinking rum daiquiris TWO nights before.) I cannot say for certain whether or not this is Williamson's finest novel (I have only read a half dozen or so from this author's huge ouevre, which spans almost an 80-year period!), but it sure is a mighty gripping read that will undoubtedly appeal to any fan of those four genres just mentioned. The werewolves on display here make Lawrence Talbot seem like a weenie, and that's surely no easy task! More than highly recommended!

Super Reader
A reporter named Barbee uncovers a murder, and a plot that goes deeper and deeper after meeting a bewitching woman named April.

He soon discovers that the pair of them are shapeshifters, with the ability to alter probability by the use of floating mental webs. These sorts of people are a result of speciation in the icy mountain region of the Gobi.

Eventually, they ruled the globe, until man domesticated the dog as an ally and knew enough to know that silver disrupts these mental webs. They are the source for most of the legends about monsters, gods and supernatural beings like werewolves and vampires.

Now, there are no full bloods left, and hundreds of recessive genes must express themselves to get
such a being. He will be known as the Child of Night.

A group of his friends know about this, which is why they removed him from their presence, but they are dying, one by one.

Powerful Story - Weak Hero
I've developed a love-hate relationship with this classic tale of shapeshifting and witchcraft.

I loved Williamson's descriptive prose and found his ability to set up a mood truly brilliant. The concept of what the lycanthropes really are is extremely innovative and, as one reviewer mentioned, has been the basis for countless stories that came after. Williamson spins a fascinating story that interweaves the supernatural with science and does a compelling job considering when the book was written.

Unfortunately, the weakest part of the book is the hero. No seriously...he's a wimp. William Barbee is the most sad-sack, ineffectual character I've ever come across in Sci-Fi/Fantasy literature. He's perpetually petrified by his surroundings, pushed around by his companions and never EVER has the sense to ask the right questions. Granted, he's supposed to be somewhat of a loser. But Williamson drives the point home so hard, it's hard to root for him. Even towards the end, as Barbee plunges his way towards the Big Reveal and experiences some revalations of his own, he's still annoying.

It's like watching a great movie with a really bad leading man. If you can get past that, you'll enjoy this book.

News from the dark
A not-so-successful journalist meets a dazzlingly fasvcinating young colleague at the airport: a scientific anthropological exoedition returns with a disquieting breaktrough about ancient human history. "Disquieting" would prove quite an euphemism, as events unfolds and the horrible truth becomes clear. Owing somethingto the Lovecraftians "The Outsider" and "The shadow over Innsmouth", this novel has a quite modern approach to horror, albeit having being written in 1948. Very interesting! ... Read more

Product Description
On the far planet Wing IV, a brilliant scientist creates the humanoids--sleek black androids programmed to serve humanity.

But are they perfect servants--or perfect masters?

Slowly the humanoids spread throughout the galaxy, threatening to stifle all human endeavor. Only a hidden group of rebels can stem the humanoid tide...if it's not already too late.

Fist published in Astounding Science Fiction during the magazine's heyday, The Humanoids--sceince fiction grand master Jack Williamson's finest novel--has endured for fifty years as a classic on the theme of natural versus artificial life.

Also included in this edition is the prelude novelette, "With Folded Hands," which was chosen for the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

A Winning Sequel To A Classic Sci-Fi Story
The late 1940s was a period of remarkable creativity for future sci-fi Grand Master Jack Williamson. July '47 saw the release of his much-acclaimed short story "With Folded Hands" in the pages of "Astounding Science-Fiction," followed by the tale's two-part serialized sequel, "And Searching Mind," in that influential magazine's March and April 1948 issues. "Darker Than You Think," Williamson's great sci-fi/fantasy/horror hybrid, was released later in 1948, and 1949 saw the publication of "And Searching Mind" in hardcover form, and retitled "The Humanoids." "With Folded Hands" had been a perfect(ly downbeat) short story that introduced us to the Humanoids, sleek black robots invented by a technician named Sledge on planet Wing IV. The robots' built-in Prime Directive (hmmm...why does that phrase seem so familiar?) is "To Serve and Obey, And Guard Men From Harm." Unfortunately, this leaves mankind with very little to do, as the mechanicals prevent humans from participating in anything that might be potentially dangerous; in other words, just about everything! Sledge's efforts to wipe out the master brain on Wing IV that is controlling the billions of self-replicating mechanicals are, sadly, fruitless, which sets us up for the action in "The Humanoids."


Flash forward 90 years. (Actually, this novel takes place a good 6,000 years from our present day, the reader infers.) On an unnamed planet, a physicist named Forester, head of a secret government project that is constructing a prototype "rhodomagnetic" bomb, comes to realize that the newly arrived Humanoids on his world are a bane, not a boon, to mankind. This realization is strengthened when the robots give his wife the brain-wiping drug known as euphoride to keep her happy, and when his beloved pet project is dismantled by the Humanoids as being too dangerous for men to engage in. Forester joins a band of "paraphysical" misfits--gifted with the powers of clairvoyance, telekinesis, telepathy and teleportation--to fight the Humanoids and alter their Prime Directive by going to the distant world of Wing IV itself. Readers expecting a traditional humans vs. ray-zapping evil robots story (such as Williamson's 1939 novel "After World's End") may be surprised to learn that this engrossing tale is anything but. The robots here are not at all presented as evil; if anything, they are guilty of killing mankind's spirit with too much kindness, and their benevolence is ultimately a mixed blessing at best. In the book's ambivalently downbeat ending, a case is made for the Humanoids' positive aspects (by Sledge himself, here, for some reason, renamed Warren Mansfield) that is almost a convincing one. Depending on the reader's outlook, I suppose a society in which the individual is free to do nothing but laze, paint, think and play (no sports, though; too dangerous, say the Humanoids!) could be regarded as a paradise or a hell. "The Humanoids," besides offering those convincing (?) sociological arguments, also gives us some impressive pseudoscience to explain the very nature of reality, extrasensory abilities and the binding forces that hold nature together. "Rhodomagnetism" is a made-up word that Williamson uses often to describe a source of energy based on a different triad of elements than electromagnetism, and before things are done, Forester comes up with a group of equations involving "platinomagnetism" that allows its possessor to gain various "paramechanical" abilities. This use of arcane scientific equations to cause changes in the power of the mind was very reminiscent, for this reader, of Henry Kuttner's classic short novel from 1946, "The Fairy Chessmen"; as in that earlier tale, "The Humanoids" grows increasingly "way out" as it progresses. It is a finely written, suspenseful, action-packed yarn that is at the same time chock-full of interesting scientific speculations. It has been called Williamson's "greatest science fiction novel," and while I cannot claim to have read more than 1/10 of the author's nearly 80-year output (!), the greatness of the novel is hard to deny. I would never dream of revealing whether or not Forester & Co. are successful in their efforts against the Humanoids, but can report that the author did come out with a very belated sequel, "The Humanoid Touch," in 1980. Say no more, right?

Great Sci Fi
I was surprised this book does not have more reviews and a large entry on Wikipedia. The Humanoids deserves a wider audience, it compares favorably to 1984 and Brave New World and is entertaining and suspenseful to boot. It is truly great science fiction. It is depressing though, perhaps that accounts for its lack of popularity. The book is an important commentary on the nature of Freedom. Moreover, those who blieve in God but wonder why (s)he is not more overtly benevolent, would do well to read this book.

mixed praise for an important work.
This book is composed of two stories.The first, called Folded Hands is nothing short of brilliant.Jack Williamson created a rather bizarre, almost tongue and cheek idea, that works well in this quick blast that had me laughing and feeling chilled all at the same time.Williamson didn't take himself too seriously but the short story had some terrific ideas.Unfortunately I cannot say the same for the novella.The second story, for me anyway, felt weighed down by far too much dramatic dialog and unrelenting techno babble that dragged the story down.The Humanoids idea -- that mankind must be protected from itself ,can't help but sound a bit silly in execution and in the second story, Williamson goes for the straight dramatic and it feels awkward.Granted there are some brilliant ideas but they don't play out because the author is too busy trying to explain this bizarre science that can defeat the humanoids.That in itself sounds like a parady but he plays it straight! When Asimov wrote robot stories he understood when not to take himself too seriously.On top of that, I found it a bit hard not to feel sorry for the Humanoids.They really are passionate and just completely naive about what they are doing and its consequences.I wish logic instead of mass destruction would have been formulated to deal with the issue.Oh well.

Dark, hopeless, depressing but wonderful
Jack Williamson was one of the guiding lights of science fiction during the "golden age".His writing is always excellent.That said, this has to be one of his greatest achievements ever.It's dark, hopeless and tragic, but still filled with the possible triumph of the human spirit.The main story, "With Folded Hands", though, is one of the most touching pieces of writing I've ever read.Please, I beg of you, read this book.It is one of the greats.

Two Classics
This book contains two classic SF works.The first is the novelette titled 'With Folded Hands...' published first in 1947 in 'Astounding Science Fiction'.The second story is the novel "The Humanoids", which was also published originally in 'Astounding Science Fiction' in 1948 (March - May) under the title '...And Searching Mind'.The two stories share the same nemesis, which are the robots known as The Humanoids.

The Humanoids' purpose is "To Serve and Obey, And Guard Men from Harm", which is really just a rewording of the first two laws of robotics that Asimov and Campbell create for Asimov's robot stories that first started to appear in 1940.However, this does not make these stories redundant, as Williamson's Humanoids take their purpose to the extreme, and go so far as to prevent men from doing anything that could potentially cause harm, which includes such activities as driving, or even reading in some cases.

In 'With Folded Hands...,' the hero is Mr. Underhill, who opposes the humanoids at first because they threaten his livelihood (he is an android salesman), but later because he can see the effect they have on people's lives.He works with the creator of the Humanoids, Mr. Sledge, who is desperately trying to put an end to his creation.

In 'The Humanoids,' the hero is Dr. Clay Forester, who is made aware of the Humanoid menace by a group of humans with various special abilities such as teleportation, clairvoyance, telekinesis, and telepathy.They refer to these types of abilities as "psychophysics".As the story proceeds, the reader becomes less and less sure who is right and who is wrong in the conflict.The Humanoids, though still a presence, are not the main foe for Dr. Forester.Instead he focuses on Frank Ironsmith, a former colleague who is helping the Humanoids, involved with Forester's wife Ruth,and is given much more freedom than other humans by the Humanoids. Although the Humanoids use some horrible methods of forcing people to be happy (e.g. drugs, surgery), they are not nearly as controlling as they were in `With Folded Hands....'One oddity between the two stories is that Williamson introduces a different creator of the Humanoids, whose name is Warren Mansfield.

These two stories are definitely worth reading for anyone interested in Science Fiction.`The Humanoids' rated 27th in 1952 for science fiction books, and tied for 18th in 1956 on the Astounding/Analog All-Time Polls.`With Folded Hands...' tied for 32nd in 1999 on the Locus All-Time Poll of novelettes.
... Read more

Product Description
The fifth volume of a project to collect, in order of original publication, the short fiction of Science Fiction Grand Master Jack Williamson. Volume Five includes twelve stories from 1938 to 1940, and a foreword by author and popular culture expert Frank M. Robinson. Included are two true rarities: two stories that originally appeared under the pen-name Nils O. Sonderlund.These stories, originally appearing in MARVEL TALES, were considered "too sexy" to appear under Williamson's own name!An appendix reprints rare commentaries on this volume's contents as they originally appeared in the pulp magazines . The author provides an afterword commenting on the genesis of these stories, and reflecting on the economic and cultural mood of the nation during the early years of American Science Fiction.Contents include:"The Chivaree" (from the Portales Daily News)"The Dead Spot" (from Marvel Science Stories)"Nonstop to Mars" (from Argosy Weekly)"The Crucible of Power" (from Astounding Stories)"After World’s End" (from Marvel Science Stories)"Passage to Saturn" (from Thrilling Wonder Stories)"The Fortress of Utopia" (from Startling Stories)"Star Bright" (from Argosy Weekly)"As in the Beginning" (from Future Fiction)"Hindsight" (from Astounding Stories)"Mistress of Machine-Age Madness" (from Marvel Tales)As with the previous volumes in THE COLLECTED STORIES OF JACK WILLIAMSON, THE CRUCIBLE OF POWER is a smythe-sewn 6" x 9" hardcover bound in a custom-dyed cloth, and typeset in a format designed in honor of the Fantasy Press editions of Williamson's first books from the 1940s & 50s. Full-color endpapers reproduce the pulp magazine cover art for each story's first appearance. ... Read more

Product Description
Grand Master Jack Williamson passed away last year at the age of 98, but the ambitious program to collect his short fiction continues. Of the 10 tales in this collection (three of which are full-length novels!) over half have never been reprinted before. Featured is the first book appearance of the original novella-length version of "Darker Than You Think," and the magazine texts of "The Reign of Wizardry," and "Gateway to Paradise." Williamson's afterword has his recollections on the genesis of these tales and the pre-World War II science fiction field. Like previous volumes in this series, the full-color endpapers reproduce the original magazine covers (with artwork by pulp masters including Belarski, Cartier, Rogers and Scott) of the stories herein, and the binding is designed to match the 1940s editions of Williamson's works published by Fantasy Press. Several volumes in this series are already out of print, so make sure to reserve your copy to avoid disappointment. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Classic sf stories to enjoy!
Another hefty compendium of classic science fiction and fantasy stories, by a writer whose whole lifespan has been dedicated to write and promote this form of literature. In addition to this, the stories are still fun after all these years! I definitely recommend this whole series to anyone
who likes to have a NICE LONG READ!

The Gold Age of pulp magazines
Jack Williamson was one of the enduringly popular luminaries from the Gold Age of pulp magazines. While he wrote stories across a spectrum of genre subjects, he is best known for his creative imagination in spinning out science fiction and fantasy yarns. Haffner Press is collecting his works in an impressive hardcover series. The newest addition is "Gateway To Paradise" is a compilation of ten stories he wrote from 1940 to 1941 and includes the original texts of 'The Reign of Wizardry" and the 40,000 word version of 'Darker Than You Think'. This volume also features a 'Foreword' by Frederick Pohl and continues with the Jack William stories 'The Sun Maker'; 'The Crystal of Death'; 'The Girl in the Bottle'; 'Racketeers in the Sky'; Ashes of Iron; 'The Star of Dreams', 'The Iron God', and concludes with an 'Afterword' by Jack Williamson himself. Of special note are full color reproductions of the pulp magazine covers for those issues of "Unknown", "Thrilling "Wonder", "Stardust"; "Super Science"; "Argosy"; "Comet"; "Marvel Stories"; "Startling Stories" in which the original stories debuted as this volume's end paper artwork. An especially nice enhancement is a black-and-white photo of Jack Williamson when he wrote these stories more than 60 years ago, and another color photograph of Jack Williamson in 2006. Commonly acknowledged by fans and writers alike as the "Dean of Science Fiction', he died on November 10, 2006 at the age of ninety-eight -- but his is a literary legacy that will live on for many generations yet to come. "Gateway To Paradise" is an essential addition to personal, academic, and community library Science Fiction & Fantasy collections -- and will stimulate a whole new generation of readers to seek out the previous volumes in this outstanding series to read more of his work, including the bibliographic listing of his writings (including his collaborations with others) provided at the very beginning of this collection. ... Read more

Product Description
The Worlds of Jack Williamson celebrates the 100th birthday of one of the Grand Masters of science fiction. While Jack Williamson passed away in 2006 at the age of 98, his incredible body of work continues to be enjoyed by legions of fans and admirers. Assembled in this centennial tribute are several unpublished stories: The Moon Bird, The Forbidden Window, The Golden Glass, and a film treatment from 1957, The Planets are Calling. Also included are several classics in the Williamson canon such as the original novella-length version of Darker Thank You Think; Minus Sign, an unreprinted seetee story of anti-matter and terraforming; and a tale with the first use of psionics, The Man from Outside. Contemporary stories include The Hole in the World, Afterlife, and The Luck of the Legion, the last Legion of Space adventure. Included are four essays from academics and scholars who have studied Williamson s works, as well as Dr. Williamson s 1957 Master s Thesis, A Study of the Sense of Prophecy in Modern Science Fiction. Fellow Grand Masters of science fiction Frederik Pohl and James Gunn provide introductory remarks on reading, knowing, collaborating with, and admiring Jack Williamson.ContentsAcademic EssaysAlan C. Elms, PhD Darker Than He Thought:The Psychoanalysis of Jack WilliamsonJack Williamson A Study of the Sense ofProphecy in Modern Science Fiction Tricentennial CenturyAlfred D. Stewart, PhD Jack Williamson:The Comedy of Cosmic EvolutionVicky Medley Queens of Space:Women in the work of Jack WilliamsonRichard A. Hauptmann Collecting Jack Williamson:Master of WonderFictionClassic Stories Darker Than You Think (1940) Minus Sign (1942) The Man from Outside (1951)Contemporary Stories The Humanoid Universe (1980) The Hole in the World (1997) Afterlife (2002) The Luck of the Legion (2002)New Unpublished Stories The Moon Bird (1929) The Forbidden Window (19??) The Golden Glass (1939) The Planets are Calling (1957) A Chrismas Carol (2000) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Several unpublished stories, several classics from the man, and several essays on his life's work
Two years ago, one of the greatest writers in science fiction passed away. "The Worlds of Jack Williamson: A Centennial Tribute" celebrates his would be one hundredth birthday by celebrating the ninety eight years of contributions to the genre of Science fiction. Consisting of several unpublished stories, several classics from the man, and several essays on his life's work. With nearly seven hundred pages of science fiction goodness, "The Worlds of Jack Williamson: A Centennial Tribute" is highly recommended to any science fiction fan or for community library literature collections.
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Customer Reviews (2)

A Smashing Sequel
The sequel to "The Legion of Space" (one of the most popular serialized sci-fi novels of the 1930s), "The Cometeers," to author Jack Williamson's credit, is not only a better-written book, but does what all good sequels should: enlarge on the themes of the earlier piece and deepen the characterizations. First appearing in the May-August 1936 issues of "Astounding Stories" magazine (two years after "The Legion of Space" made its first appearance therein, and two years before "Astounding Stories" would morph into the renowned "Astounding Science-Fiction"), "The Cometeers" finally appeared in hardcover book form in 1950. Anyone familiar with the earlier novel (in what was to become a tetralogy of Legion books), which featured space battles, jellyfishlike aliens, nebula storms, assorted alien flora and fauna, and nonstop swashbuckling derring-do, will probably wonder if Williamson was capable of topping it in a sequel. After all, when a novel contains everything but the proverbial galactic kitchen sink, what else is left for the continuation? The answer, as it turns out, is plenty.

In "The Cometeers," we make further association with our old friends from the previous volume, only two decades later on. Jay Kalam, forever cool and resourceful, is now commander of the Legion; Hal Samdu, the redheaded giant, is still basically a rumbling nonentity; and Giles Habibula, the Falstaffian picklock, is still eating, guzzling and lovably complaining. John Star and Aladoree Anthar only make brief appearances in this book, but their son Bob, a recent graduate of the Legion Academy, takes a very central part in the action. The story this time concerns a 12,000,000-mile-long comet that has entered our solar system, behaving like no typical celestial body and pulling asteroids and even whole planets into its center. What is at the heart of this comet, and how our boys manage to fight their way to it, are surprises that this reader would never dream of revealing, but I can say that Williamson throws in some truly remarkable aliens, a very nicely executed fray at the south pole of Neptune, a visit to a very unusual asteroid, and a mind-bending conclusion. The character of Stephen Orco--a genius of unknown origin who was responsible for a psychologically damaging hazing of Bob Star back at the Academy, and who later betrays mankind to aid "the Cometeers"-- is a fascinating one, and the final revelation of his background is one that not many will anticipate. As in the first book, the action is relentless, and most readers will likely feel compelled to ingest the entire novel in a sitting or two (an easy-to-accomplish feat, as the book comes in at a compact 150 pages). The difference here is in the quality of the writing. Though still penned in the best pulp style, "The Cometeers" seems more polished than "The Legion of Space"; deeper and more concise. Despite the fantastical situations and way-out scenario, the action this time seems more plausible, more credible. Our returning characters appear wiser and more thoughtful after the 20-year gap between the incidents of the two books, and Bob Star, with his psychological problems and self-doubts, is a well-drawn and fully realized creation.

As in the first book, however, some problems in the writing DO become evident. Thus, Williamson, who had at this point only been a published author for eight years, is still capable of giving us such an unfortunate sentence as "The white floor was hard white metal," and of making a few goofs in his story. For example, Bob Star, at one point late in the tale, hears the noises of an opening hatch in the Cometeers' ship, and reflects that he had heard these same noises before. In truth, though, he never had; Giles had heard those strange noises, some 60 pages earlier, and had told the tale TO Bob Star. Still, these are minor matters. "The Cometeers" really is a smashing sequel, and one that all fans of Golden Age sci-fi should just love. It will surely make them want to seek out book 3 of the series, "One Against the Legion." Personally, I'm about to start it right now....

An enjoyable sequel
This book is a sequel to the author's book "The Legion of Space," and revisits three of the characters from that novel--The glutton locksmith Giles Habibula, the personality-free (and kind of wasted character of a)giant Hal Samsa, and the decisive and action-oriented leader Jay Kalam--as well as the son of the young John Star from the first book--Bob Star!
BOB STAR!
Bob Star.
The book was written in 1936--a year in America, and in New Mexico (Williamson's home state), very worthy of escapism, what with murder and economic depression and the Dust Bowl.It's very dated, but at least it's dated in a funny way.For instance, they have rockets and have harnessed the power of the sun for insanely fast acceleration (geodynes), yet the rocket captains keep track of the ship's records with fountain pens in ledgerbooks, and they listen to phonographs.
The story tells of a comet twelve-million-miles wide that comes to invade the solar system and use it up for food and fuel, several centuries in the future, and once again the Legion of Space is called to save the day, on orders from the Green Hall (a.k.a. Albuquerque).
It's not as funny as the first book, or as fun, but it's all right.There's a real innocent pleasure to be found in pulp science fiction such as this, and reading it will, at the very least, probably never feel like a chore. ... Read more

Product Description
This Halcyon Classics ebook collection contains five of Jack Williamson's classic science fiction tales: Salvage in Space, The Cosmic Express, The Pygmy Planet, The Lake of Light, and The Meteor Girl.Includes an active table of contents for easy navigation. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume is the result of extensive bibliographic and biographic research, including annotated listings of all of Williamson's fiction and non-fiction, plus secondary words about Williamson, with a forward by Frederik Pohl and an afterword by Jack Williamson. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Legion of Time classic sci-fi
Jack Williamson's Legion of Time, an early fifties classic sci-fi yarn, is still one of the best reads in the genre. Williamson had a knack of involving the reader emotionally in his protagonist's plight, and I still have a deep fondness for this short novel, which I first read when a very young man. The pure affection Williamson had for his characters permeates his story, and it stands the test of time, which is, of course, the theme of the book. The love portions, brief and a bit overwrought, do not detract from the overall pace and development, and, frankly, were just fine when I was younger. You'll enjoy this one if you like the golden era of science fiction, or just if you like a good read.

Two Terrific Novellas From A Future Grand Master
"The Legion of Time" consists of two novellas that Jack Williamson wrote in the late 1930s, neither of which have anything to do with his wholly dissimilar Legion of Space novels of that same period. Both of these novellas are written in the wonderfully pulpy prose that often typified Golden Age sci-fi, and both are as colorful, fast moving and action packed as any fan could want. That elusive "sense of wonder" that authors of the era strove for seemed to come naturally for Williamson, and if the style is a bit crude by today's standards and the descriptions a tad fuzzy at times, the author's hypercreative imagination more than compensates.

The first novella in this volume is "The Legion of Time" itself, which first appeared in the May, June and July 1938 issues of "Astounding Science-Fiction," scant months after John W. Campbell, Jr. began his legendary career there as editor. It is in some respects a mind-blowing story, in which we learn that Earth has two very different possible futures. In one, the Eden-like city state of Jonbar will flourish and mankind will thrive and become winged superbeings; in the other, the city of Gyronchi, ruled by the warrior queen Sorainya and the dark priest Glarath, will enslave mankind with the aid of their hybridized half human/half ant soldiers. These two possible Earth futures are thus in a deadly rivalry for fulfillment; a stalemate situation that Sorainya tips toward Gyronchi's favor by going into the past and making an oh-so-subtle alteration. Meanwhile, on the Earth of the present day, physicist Wil McLan puts together a team of deceased Prussian, English and American soldiers from various wars to man his timeship, the Chronion, and fight for the existence of Jonbar. If this capsule description sounds a bit way out, reader, let me just say that it doesn't even begin to do Williamson's tale justice. Time paradox stories usually give me a mild headache, and boy, is this one a doozy; still, Williamson does his best with his talk of temporal geodesics, nodes, hyperspace time continuums, and "conflicting infinitude of possible worlds" to put the conceit over. As I mentioned up top, the story's pace is relentless and the action virtually nonstop, a particular highlight being a daring nighttime raid on Sorainya's castle and its antmen soldiers within. The novella has many memorable touches, one of my favorites being a variation on a burial at sea; here, one of McLan's deceased soldiers (the story has a VERY high body count!) is pushed off the Chronion into "the shimmering gulf of time." The warrior queen herself makes for a wonderful villainess, one who is as likely to seduce a man as pour molten metal down his throat (another memorable touch, indeed!); she is more than a match for the 13 soldier members of McLan's team. As in the Legion of Space books, nearly insuperable odds are met head on by a team of extremely determined and can-do men. On a side note, "The Legion of Time" was the source of the term "Jonbar hinge," which describes any event that serves as a fork in the road of sorts for future history. All in all, great pulpy fun.

And "After World's End," the second novella in the collection, may be even better. This Williamson tale first appeared in the February 1939 issue of "Marvel Science Stories" and introduces us to Barry Horn, the first man to fly into space. Due to the uranium-salts concoction that Barry had been shot up with to protect him from cosmic radiation (don't ask!), he turns into a Rip van Winkle of the spaceways, and awakes in his orbiting ship 1.2 million years in the future! He learns that the Earth and the rest of the civilized galaxy is now at war with Malgarth, a robot that his remote descendant, Bari Horn, had created. With his robot hordes, Malgarth will exterminate mankind, unless Barry and a small group of renegades can locate the Dondara Stone, which supposedly holds the key to Malgarth's Achilles' heel. As for the novella's title, perhaps I am not spoiling things too much by saying that it refers to mother Earth, which Williamson throws into the sun in his story's first 30 pages, Edmond "the World Wrecker" Hamilton style. Malgarth and his hordes are a far, far cry from the peaceful and well-meaning robots of Williamson's classic short story "With Folded Hands" (1947) and novel "The Humanoids" (1949), and go a good bit too far in carrying out their genocidal schemes. This is a thrilling tale with tremendous action and real suspense, not to mention a wholly original alien character, Setsi the rum-guzzling sandbat; a silicon-based creature that beat "Star Trek"'s Horta to the silicic punch by over 25 years. Similar to Williamson's Legion of Space tales, in which a female guardian always protected mankind's superweapon, AKKA, here, mankind's salvation, the Dondara Stone, is guarded by another youngish woman of great pluck. The author, it must be said, is guilty of a few flubs in this story. October 12, 1938 was not a Sunday, but rather a Wednesday. And a ship traveling at half the speed of light (around 90,000 miles/second) would not be capable of traversing Malgarth's billion-mile-diameter radiation zone (or even half that distance) in a matter of minutes; simple math indicates a figure closer to 1 1/2 to three hours! Still, only the most anal-obsessive whackadoodle (yeah, that's me!) would notice gaffs like this, in the midst of the thrills that Williamson dishes out here. These two tales, taken back to back, demonstrate the great storytelling prowess that future Grand Master Williamson commanded even early in his career, and are both highly recommended for all fans of red-blooded, Golden Age sci-fi.

Vintage Sci-Fi, and worth reading!
Ahh, this is grand Sci-fi from the old swashbuckling days of Sci-fi space opera.Our heroes from the Legion appear yet again to save mankind.My favorite, Giles Habibula (based on Falstaff) appears once again in this time twisting adventure.

Turn off your expectation of hard Sci-fi, and strap on your blaster, fire up the Geodyne engines and we are off! ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (16)

Maybe it's for the juvenile set?
Maybe I'm too old for Williamson's "The Stonehenge Gate."Perhaps it's for juveniles.But, I found the book to be unreadable.Starting with the main characters' response to the initial impetus for the whole book, I startedscratching my head and asking why they were behaving this way.Add onto that the really shallow interpersonal relations between these "close" friends, and the out-of-the-blue events that push the plot along and the word "hackneyed" just springs to mind.If anything, the book reminds me of my old Tom Swift books without the charm.I rate it at a Bad 1 star out of 5.

A Nice Career Capper For A Nonagenarian Sci-Fi Grand Master
What do you plan to do when you're 97 years old? Me? If I'm fortunate enough to attain to that ripe old age, I suppose I will be eating pureed Gerber peaches and watching Emma Peel reruns on my TV set in the nursing home...IF I'm lucky. For sci-fi Grand Master Jack Williamson, the age of 97 meant another novel, his 50th or so, in a writing career that stretched back 77 years (!), to his first published story, "The Metal Man," in 1928. Sadly, the novel in question, 2005's "The Stonehenge Gate," would be the author's last, before his passing in November 2006. Impressively, the novel is as exciting, lucid, readable and awe inspiring as anything in Williamson's tremendous oeuvre. Few authors had as long and productive a career as Jack Williamson, and I suppose it really is true what they say regarding practice, practice, practice....

"The Stonehenge Gate" is narrated by Will Stone, an English professor at Eastern New Mexico University, in Portales (not coincidentally, the school and town where the author taught and lived for many years). Stone and three fellow teachers--Derek Ironcraft, a physicist and astronomer; Lupe Vargas, an archaeologist; and Ram Chenji, a linguistics and African history instructor, from Kenya--discover a mysterious, Stonehenge-like trilithon buried under the sands of the Sahara, and, after walking through the ancient archway, are transported to a series of planets many light-years distant. The four become separated, but ultimately explore a planet devastated by war, an empty world populated only by morphing robots, a frozen planet that was the home of the trilithon builders, and a world comprised of two continents: one inhabited by whites, the other an equatorial jungle land peopled by blacks. It is on this last planet that the bulk of Williamson's novel transpires, as Ram's arrival begins a series of race riots and the onset of a civil rights movement. That all-important "sense of wonder," which was of paramount importance when the author began his writing career before sci-fi's Golden Age, is evident to a great degree here, and the fact that many marvels go unexplained only adds to that sense of cosmic awe. Those readers who have followed Williamson's career over the decades may be a bit taken aback by the author's use of such words as "Internet" and "e-book" in this, his last work; as great an indicator as any of the longevity of the writer's career. Readers who have likewise absorbed other of the author's works may be pleasantly reminded of them as "The Stonehenge Gate" proceeds. The use of native drugs to elicit visions is highly reminiscent of scenes in 1980's "The Humanoid Touch," while the entire notion of excavating in the Sahara to find the remains of alien artifacts will remind many of similar sequences in 1962's "The Trial of Terra." Even Derek Ironcraft's name is reminiscent of a main character (Frank Ironsmith) in the author's most famous novel, 1949's "The Humanoids." But despite this, Williamson's final book is wholly original, and his four main characters are an extremely appealing bunch. Our narrator is especially convincing. Far from an action hero, this 57-year-old keeps telling us how much he wishes that he were back in his quiet library at home in Portales, and the trials that he is forced to undergo have a very credible impact on him.

Anyway, perhaps I am making too big a deal of the author's advanced age here, but honestly, how many people nudging toward the century mark could be expected to create a 316-page novel that is as fresh and fascinating as any sci-fi in the stores today? The novel in question here could most surely have served as Book #1 in a new blockbuster sci-fi series, but sadly, that was not to be. The world surely lost a man of limitless imagination with Jack Williamson's passing. Though his great body of works remains, the man will certainly be missed....

Must have been written for 14 yr old set...
I couldn't put this book down - I threw it down. Sorry, I couldn't finish it. The writing style was amateurish and the characters were as dull as a butter knife. There was absolutely no set up - no tension building - no character development, that is except for Ram who was as annoying as he was fakey. I picked this book up because of the authors association with the sci-fi legend Fredrick Pohl. Too bad this book was so stinky as I will probably avoid this author in the future.

"Try your little mama's magic key!"
If they make a movie out of this it will probably be one of those so-bad-it's-good hits.It is too hard to take this story seriously.I tried, but I lost it at the above quote.I was listening to a book on CD I checked out of the library so imagine Harlan Ellison's voice delivering the line....

The not so intrepid heroes of this story start belly-aching about wanting to go home barely seconds after passing through the mysterious ancient gate.(Think Stargate rip-off.)This would not be so bad except they invested a lot of time and money preparing for the trip.The story is therefore kinda ruined from the get-go.

wild journey
I found myself right there watching every scene unfold, just when you think you're out of a spot something else pops up. This has beena wild journey across the realms of space. ... Read more

Product Description
Chosen to be one of a select crew to go to Mars, Sam Houston Kelligan soon finds himself marooned with a crippled spacecraft, afflicted with an illness, and abandoned by his crewmates. Reprint. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Stranded on Mars
Though not a masterpiece, rather simple, and at times naive, that story entertained me. It's got enough of driven people, betrayals, romances, and action to make it poignant. Who may be more forlorn than stranded people on Mars? Jilted such a long way from Earth, what could you do? Would you survive? What for?

generic characterizations, choppy plot
Initially drawn into the book by it's premise, author and foward by Arthur C. Clarke, I thought Beachhead would take me on a remarkable journey to colonize the planet Mars. The book started well enough, even though I felt that the main characters were generic or stereotypical: a rich boy, perfect women with green eyes and untrustworthy eastern Europeans. Background info for each character is dotted throughout the entire book, even within the last 10%. Strange as it may be, I thought that type of character introduction worked well, however choppy it seemed. Choppy, as well, was the plot. The five months on the Ares spacecraft was summerized in only a small chapter, not exploring difficulties the crew faced in such a closed environment. The plot would jump from a action, skipping detail, and ending straight up at the result. There was no prose behind the between.

Choppy would be an understatement for the final 15% of the book. Details are skipped over as if the the last 15% of the book had been heavily edited out by at least three-quarters. The plot takes huge leapfrogs, which left me 1) scrathing my head in disbelief, 2) groping for the credibility of such a leap and 3) details for how the transition happened.

Regardless of all the above, the story was satisfactory. At times the heart goes out for the settlers through the betrayal, hardships and joys.

Mars...Not-So-Epic
In Jack Williamson's Beachhead, humanity finally plants its first steps on Mars...though not without much strife.Not only is the planet harsh and unyielding, but internal, and often-times petty, conflict among the first crew threaten to tear apart the dream of a stable Martian colony.

Beachhead was published in the early 1990's, at approximately the same time as several other stories written about the Red Planet by other authors.Beachhead does not hold its own when compared to Robinson's Mars Trilogy or even Bova's Mars.There is simply no grand sense of wonder; and little detailed exploration of this new frontier as was present in the similar stories just noted.Though Williamson does introduce at least one new idea.A member of the first crew to arrive at Mars is a complete coward...not something I would have thought to include had I been writing this story.

On the upside, the plot does move along relatively easily...at least once the story gets moving after the first quarter of the book or so.One does end up feeling something for the characters' plight in the latter half of the book and hope that events turn out in their favor.But again, the overall sense of WE ARE HERE is simply missing.

I am normally a big fan of this subgenre...but this book just didn't do it for me.On the whole, Beachhead is only worth picking up if you are a die-hard scifi or Mars exploration (and I use this term loosely) fan.
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Product Description
cclaimed novelist, editor, and critic Eric Miles Williamson, with the publication of his first book of nonfiction, establishes himself as one of the premier critics of his generation. There is no other book that resembles Oakland, Jack London, and Me.

The parallels between the lives of Jack London and Eric Miles Williamson are startling: Both grew up in the same waterfront ghetto of Oakland, California; neither knew who his father was; both had insane mothers; both did menial jobs as youths and young men; both spent time homeless; both made their treks to the Northlands; both became authors; and both cannot reconcile their attitudes toward the poor, what Jack London calls "the people of the abyss."

With this as a premise, Williamson examines not only the life and work of Jack London, but his own life and attitudes toward the poor, toward London, Oakland, culture and literature. A blend of autobiography, criticism, scholarship, and polemic, Oakland, Jack London, and Me is a book written not just for academics and students. Jack London remains one of the best-selling American authors in the world, and Williamson's Oakland, Jack London, and Me is as accessible as any of the works of London, his direct literary forbear and mentor. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A critical view.........
This book of critical essays is a lot better than any of the author's novels.Some of the essays offer genuine insight into literature, while others are a bit long and uninteresting.This is worth a passing look.

Williamson's London
A fine book of essays by a great fiction writer. Williamson shows you his London, and their Oakland. He writes, "And this is why Steinbeck and London are our two greatest writers: they don't write like Harold Brodkey, about some ninny New Yorker who cut his thumb and got sad when his wife didn't sympathize. They don't do the sappy Updike dance of suburban sentimentality. No they write about people at work, together with other people working, alone in the cosmos of their physical and spiritual labors," and if you've ever read any of Williamson's fiction, you'd know he writes for the worker too, which is much more interesting than rich slobs making up problems out of sheer ennui. If the trend were to read about the honest perception of the American working class, Williamson would be at the top of everyones reading list. Instead, he doesn't even make the cut. If you want honesty, and if you don't want to be jerked-off and pampered, read Williamson; he'll deliver it straight. He has a license to write about London that no one else has, and he uses that license to prove London's literary value. Williamson's London, rightfully so, deserves to be in the canon as much as or more than his contemporaries. If you havn't read London, or Williamson's fiction, you will after you read 'Oakland, Jack London, and Me.' 5/1/10 ... Read more