Henry Kuttner

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Truly Like New - Fast Delivery
marshiajames
try something else
Excellent book
The Lazy Mimzy

The Last Mimzy: And Other Stories Originally published as The Best of Henry Kuttner
Henry Kuttner
Manufacturer: Del Rey
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0345497554
Release Date: 2007-02-27

Book Description

THE LAST MIMZY IS THE IDEAL INTRODUCTION TO AN AUTHOR WHO WAS AHEAD OF HIS TIME–AND WHOSE TIME HAS FINALLY COME.

These seventeen classic stories create their own unique galaxy of vain, protective, and murderous robots; devilish angels; and warm and angry aliens. In “Mimsy Were the Borogoves”–the inspiration for New Line Cinema’s major motion picture The Last Mimzy–a boy finds a discarded box containing a treasure trove of curious objects. When he and his sister begin to play with these trinkets–including a crystal cube that magnifies the unimaginable and a strange doll with removable organs that don’t quite correspond to those of the human body–their parents grow concerned. And they should be. For the items are changing the way the children think and perceive the world around them–for better or worse.

Ray Bradbury called Henry Kuttner “a man who shaped science fiction and fantasy in its most important years.” Marion Zimmer Bradley and Roger Zelazny said he was a major inspiration. Kuttner was a writer’s writer whose visionary works anticipated our own computer-controlled, machine-made world. At the time of his death at forty-two in 1958, he had created as many as 170 stories under more than a dozen pseudonyms–sometimes writing entire issues of science fiction magazines–in close collaboration with his wife, C. L. Moore.

This definitive collection will be a revelation to those who wish to discover or rediscover Henry Kuttner, a true master of the universe.

Customer Reviews:

Truly Like New - Fast Delivery.......2007-05-16

Nothing much else to add, but I would shop with them again.

marshiajames.......2007-05-14

Although a childrens movie is loosley based on one story in this book, it is not a childrens book. It is a sci-fi book of short stories that has not been dumbed down and reflects interesting and creative ideas that are well written. I did read "mimzy were the borogoves" to my children, but I am afraid that much of the story was over their heads. It did spark an interesting conversation at the conclusion indicating to me that they did at least pick up the main plot points, but were upset by the conclusion (which I will not spoil here).

try something else.......2007-05-12

i had higher hopes for this collection of short stories after seeing 'the last mimzy'. i was blown away by the movie, and at the time of seeing it, really believed that it was all due to the short story from which it came. but, after reading the short story, i really believe that this is one of the extremely few instances where hollywood took something mediocre and made it great.

there are some ok short stories in this book, but i wasn't the biggest fan. i'd give it about 2.5 stars and reccommend roald dahl's short stories if its short stories your after.

Excellent book.......2007-05-08

Very good book. A little different from your typical short story fantasy collection. Almost done and some of them are very dark but good reads.

The Lazy Mimzy.......2007-05-07

I thought it was going to be the whole book containing the story The Last Mimzy...once I paid for it and recieved it, It was a bunch of different stories condensed...That isnt what I ordered. I gave the book away to a 10year old. What a rip off

Average customer rating:

Mimsy Were the Borogoves
A Forgotten Master
I WANT THIS BOOK
Best Henry Kuttner Collection
Haven't Read It - But Kuttner is GREAT

The best of Henry Kuttner
Henry Kuttner
Manufacturer: N. Doubleday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
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Customer Reviews:

Mimsy Were the Borogoves.......2006-03-24

Woth it for Mimsy alone; however the other stories are a bonus.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wade;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe." Lewis Carroll

"Mimsy Were the Borogoves" is on tape and even on vinyl at one time. It can also be found in some of Henry Kuttner books.

It is a small sci-fi story about a formula that allows you into an alternate universe that everyone used to have access to. The problem with getting there is that it requires a different paradigm and a formula. The paradigm requires a mindset that diapers as we get older and the formula is in front of us if we know where to look. An added plus is that the tape version is read to us enthusiastically by William Shatner.

Playing around with time travel he needed something to put into the cube. He chose some of his old toys. The box never came back. After trying for a second time with no success he gave up and moved on.

A Forgotten Master.......2005-12-31

Henry Kuttner was a master of thoughtful, humorous and bitter scifi. He was so prolific that he used at least 5 pen names, including Lewis Padgett. My all time favorite story is "Mimsy Were The Borogroves". If that story doesn't give you shudders, then you are no longer alive. His stuff was well written, well plotted and wonderfully presented. If you have never read Kuttner, I envy you. Reading him for the first time is an amazing experience. Please get this book, in whatever form you can.

I WANT THIS BOOK.......2005-07-13

It's even on my wishlist. ;) This is a fantastic book. After I read my friend's hardback copy, I made him promise to leave it to me in his will since he wouldn't give it to me. :D "Golden Age" sci-fi at its best, with a little weird fantasy too.

Best Henry Kuttner Collection.......2005-04-22

If you want the best all-around collection of Henry Kuttner short stories, this is the book for you.

This collection includes: "Mimsy Were the Borogroves"; "The Twonky"; "What You Need"; "Two-Handed Engine"; "The Proud Robot"; "The Misguided Halo"; "The Voice of the Lobster"; "Exit the Professor"; "A Gnome There Was"; "The Big Night"; "Nothing but Gingerbread Left"; "The Iron Standard"; "Cold War"; "Or Else"; "Endowment Policy"; "Housing Problem"; and "Absalom."

My favorite story was "What You Need" just because the idea behind it was so clever and, too, because I love the classic Twilight Zone episode that was based on it.

This collection also includes a very good introduction by Ray Bradbury titled "Henry Kuttner: A Neglected Master" written in 1974, which offers insights as to why Kuttner was not lauded critically the way that Orwell, Vonnegut, Heinlein and Wells were. It also says a lot about Bradbury himself, at a time when he was at the height of his powers.

The short stories in this collection first appeared between 1939 and 1955 in magazines like Astounding Science Fiction, Thrilling Wonder Stories, Amazing Stories, Unknown, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and as such, they offer a glimpse of what those magazines were like at that time. It was an era when a writer could actually make a living writing short stories. As such, this book is a pearl of wisdom and history, and it should not be forgotten.

Stacey Cochran

author of The Kiribati Test

Haven't Read It - But Kuttner is GREAT.......2004-10-17

When I read it, I'll be satisfied. Kuttner is one of the best sci fi writers ever. Died too soon in 1958.

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Mountains of Goodness
Really Good
I only wrote 1/3 of this one...

Mountain Magic
David Drake , Eric Flint , Henry Kuttner , and Ryk E. Spoor
Manufacturer: Baen
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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Book Description

The forces of evil, both natural and supernatural, are poised to prey on the folk of the hamlets and hollows: witches, demons, and criminals of more than one century. But first they'll have to overcome some very unusual residents of the hills and valleys. One is David Drake's unforgettable creation, Old Nathan the Wizard. He doesn't claim much for his magical powers, but they're real enough for what they are-and besides, he hasn't forgotten how to use his long flintlock rifle. Enter the gritty, realistic world of Old Nathan, a backwoodsman who talks to animals and says he'll face the Devil himself-and who in the end will have to face the Devil in very fact. A century later, very different interlopers, from criminals to snooping college professors, are poking around the hills, up to no good. But a very unusual family, the Hogbens, are likely to cause more trouble than unwelcome visitors can handle, as Henry Kuttner relates. They're a family of mutants, with very unusual powers, and city folk who cause trouble are likely to suddenly find unbelievable-and unpleasant-things happening to them. But not all of the trouble is caused by humans, as the Slade family find out when Eric Flint and Ryk E. Spoor relate how a Kentucky family finds itself caught in the middle of a struggle between battling groups of the creatures who live deep underground and are the basis from the old legends of gnomes. The Slades have to make sure that the right gnomes win-or an earthquake will wipe out everyone in at least four states. Magic, mutants, and mountain folk add up to an unusual volume, with adventure ranging from the grim and eerie to the wildly comic.

Customer Reviews:

Mountains of Goodness.......2004-10-25

I can't praise this collection enough. You have collected here two classic sets of short stories, by Herny Kuttner and David Drake, and a novelette by Eric Flint and Ryk Spoor that stands with them in terms of quality. All the stories revolve around things that happen "back in the hills where outsiders don't go" and are quite good reading. Kudos to Eric Flint for putting together a most enjoyable collection.

Really Good.......2004-10-18

This book is a compendium of stories by different authors using the same basic area as a setting - the Appalachian Mountains. The first offering, Diamonds are Forever, by Flint and Spoor, I would liken to a good light beer - great taste, less filling. David Drake's Old Nathan short stories are like a dark, heavy lager- a meal in themselves, complex, perhaps not to everyone's taste but uniquely satisfying. Kutner's Hogben stories are good old-fashioned SF - a Michelob, say. All in all, this book has enough differing tastes to satisfy any reader, and more than meets Robert Heinlein's goal of successfully competing for beer money.

I only wrote 1/3 of this one..........2004-08-31

... and I think the other 2/3 are really good company to be in.

The third that I wrote (with Eric Flint) is "Diamonds Are Forever". I wish the blurb didn't spoiler it quite so much -- some of the things in the blurb are supposed to be revelations in the story. Anyway, "Diamonds" was very fun to write and I think anyone who liked my prior book "Digital Knight" will enjoy "Diamonds".

By itself, I'd probably not quite feel comfortable handing "Diamonds" a 5 star rating; it's a good, fun read, but I know I have a long way to go before I'm at the top level.

However, the other two-thirds of "Mountain Magic" are solidly five-star material. David Drake's "Old Nathan" stories may well be the best thing Drake has ever written, complex, somber, quirky, and surprisingly touching in places. The Old Nathan stories were printed before, but were sadly limited in their distribution for various reasons; it's good they're finally getting a new release.

Kuttner's "Hogben" stories have been undeservedly out-of-print for a long time; they are humorously macabre stories of one of the most bizarre families ever invented, by one of the lesser-known great authors of SF.

Get "Mountain Magic"; you won't be disappointed!

Ryk E. Spoor

The Creature from Beyond Infinity (Popular Library 60-2355)

Average customer rating:

AN IMPRESSIVE FIRST NOVEL FROM A SCI-FI GREAT

The Creature from Beyond Infinity (Popular Library 60-2355)
Henry Kuttner
Manufacturer: Popular Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000J0T9EY

Product Description

Cover by Frank Frazetta.

Customer Reviews:

AN IMPRESSIVE FIRST NOVEL FROM A SCI-FI GREAT.......2007-02-10

"The Creature From Beyond Infinity" was the first novel published by Henry Kuttner, an author who was one of the half dozen or so pillars of the Golden Age of Sci-Fi. It first saw the light of day in a 1940 issue of "Startling Stories" magazine under the title "A Million Years to Conquer," and finally in book form in the 1968 Popular Library paperback that I just completed. Although that original title may perhaps be a more accurate descriptor, the pulpier "Creature" title gives a truer feel for what this book is: pulpy as can be! In it, we meet Ardath, the sole survivor when his Kyrian spaceship crash-lands on Earth while our planet is still in the throes of its infancy. Ardath is instructed by his dying captain to repair the ship, put it into orbit around Earth, go into hibernation stasis for several aeons, and await the coming of genius mentalities on the new Earth. Ardath follows his captain's orders, sleeping for ages and awakening every million or so years to see what's cooking down below. Ultimately, he is able to collect four comparative geniuses from various periods of Earth's history, with the intention of creating a eugenically superior strain of man. From the dawn of prehistory he selects Thordred, a Conan-type usurper; Jansaiya, a priestess of Atlantis; Li Yang, a Chinese advisor to a Genghis Khan type; and Scipio, a Carthaginian revolutionary. I've always been a sucker for a story with two ongoing parallel plots, and Kuttner here gives us a doozy. On modern-day Earth (well, the Earth of 1941, anyway), Stephen Court, one of the foremost scientists in the world, fights desperately to counteract the Plague, a scourge from space that turns its victims into radioactive, life-sucking zombies. Naturally, these two plot strands eventually intertwine, and that's when things really start humming, in this exciting and clever little tale. (I do mean little...the whole thing is only 125 pages long, and can easily be read in a sitting or two.) It is hardly a secret that Kuttner and his wife, the great C.L. Moore, collaborated on most of their novels AFTER their marriage in 1940, but since this book dates FROM 1940, I am not certain if the book can be ascribed totally to Kuttner or not. Fun as it is, it certainly does contain some of the errors that a first-time novelist might make; for example, repetitive expressions (such as "grizzled gray hair"), technical errors of wording (such as referring to a structure that looks like the Eiffel Tower as an "obelisk"), historical inaccuracies (mentioning that Moses, Socrates and Confucius came later than the Roman Empire), inconsistencies in plotting (Ardath is able to detect superior intelligences from his orbiting spacecraft and "beam" them aboard, yet later seems to find it necessary to go down in person and haul his candidates aboard physically) and some contrived situations. Still, the book IS as fun as can be, and the majority of readers will most likely be too busy flippin' those pages to notice these minor slips. For an author of 26 years old, especially, the book is most impressive. It is remarkable how much action and incident Kuttner manages to squeeze into this novella, all to guarantee a rousing time. The nature of the menace from outer space is one that no reader should be able to guess, and although much of the science in the book is dated, that elusive "sense of wonder" is often fully achieved. The author even manages to explain to us the origin of those darn Easter Island statues. Nice touch, Henry! In short, "The Creature From Beyond Infinity" is an entertaining read from Mr. Kuttner, but nothing great or classic. Those would come later...

Average customer rating:

Different Atmosphere
pulp master back to life
A good choice for Mythos fans
One of the greatest books i've ever read!
This is an excellent book!

The Book of Iod (Cthulhu Cycle Books)
Henry Kuttner
Manufacturer: Chaosium, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1568820453

Customer Reviews:

Different Atmosphere.......2004-09-06

Reading Henry Kuttner's stories, I was struck that they seem to have a different atrmosphere from the Lovecraftian canon - rather than dank New England graveyards there are dusty Western towns, ancient lands, or interstellar worlds. It was previously noted that some of these stories are more fantasy than horror, but I think that the variety makes THE BOOK OF IOD more readable.

"The Secret of Kralitz" - A family has an evil generational secret. The induction into the secret is horrible, but so is the grounds for induction.

"The Eater of Souls" - Dunsanian fantasy, I believe.

"The Black Kiss" - I felt that this was a new interpretation on the Deep Ones and their transformation.

"The Jest of Droom-Avista" - Another Dunsanian fantasy, dealing with the peril of scientific progress at any cost

"The Spawn of Dagon" - A story of Deep Ones in Atlantis; it seems to be a pastiche combining Robert Howard and Howard Lovecraft.

"Hydra" - A great story about two men who use a drug to see past our dimension into another. Unfortunately, it springs a trap that allows a horror to steal the head and soul of a famous writer and scholar of the occult. Then, the scholar wants amends to be made...

"Bells of Horror" - set in California, "Bells" is about a cursed set of bells discovered in an archaeological dig. They have an effect of madness on living things around them, but the madness really begins when they ring.

pulp master back to life.......2003-04-09

this book contains 3 great stories and a cuple of good ones. some are more fantasy than horror. kuttner can be a little bit obvious, a little bit simplistic, but the suspence, and he knows when to focus - when he should move forward and when he should stop and describe more vividly (his writing style focus concerning timing is excellent), his descriptions are good when they should be, and he knows how to hold our interest and how to avoid being boring.

A good choice for Mythos fans.......2002-02-20

This book contains a number of stories by one of the lesser-known disciples of Lovecraft, one Henry Kuttner. Although the stories are not classics of the genre, showing development in a new direction, they rise above pastiche and provide good reading. Kuttner is certainly able to grab the reader's attention and hold onto it, and tells a good tale while he has it.

"Bells of Horror" is the high point of the volume; it is a fine story set in California, a locale the author clearly enjoys. It is this setting in a number of stories that gives the stories a unique flavor; Kuttner's descriptions create a new millieu for the eldritch horrors that are the center of the Cthulhu Mythos.

It is also "Bells of Horror" that first mentions The Book of Iod, a volume which belongs on the shelf with the usual suspects--De Vermis Mysteriis, Unaussprechlichen Kulten, Cultes des Goules, the Book of Eibon, the Pnakotic Manuscripts, and, of course, (all together now) the horrible Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred.

Kuttner's ability shows itself most in his ability to create a mythology. Instead of a few separate stories, the contents of this anthology fit together in intriguing ways--but they don't fit together seamlessly, just as other myth cycles don't. All in all, this collection is a very worthwhile read.

One of the greatest books i've ever read!.......1999-09-29

I thought this book was excellent! Most books have stories with happy little endings, but never a few unhappy endings. This book provided a mix of both. simply the best book of short stories ive read

This is an excellent book!.......1998-11-18

The stories in this book capture the feel of the old pulp wirting from the 1930s. Even the tales collected here that were written after that period have the same flavor mood of that lost era. For anyone interested in weird/horror fiction this is a superb book. It will, of course, prove of special interest to devotee of the Cthulhu Mythos. The copious notes supplied by Robert Price are themselves worth the price of addmission.

Customer Reviews:

A Superb Collection.......2001-08-01

FOUR SCIENCE FICTION CLASSICS is an exceptional compilation of the absolute best the genre had to offer in the 1940s and 1950s. It is composed of six powerful stories which transcend the decades in which they were written, stirring the heart and mind as powerfully now as when they were first published.

While these stories would shine under any conditions, the narrations of William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy actually serve to further energize the prose. I was especially moved by the performance of William Shatner. Despite having been a fan of Star Trek for decades, I was completely unprepared for the depth and the brilliance of his vocal talents. Shatner's clear insight into the stories and their characters radiates with every word and intonation.

I could not more strongly recommend either an audio book or a science fiction collection.

Interesting combination.......2001-01-11

I only wanted "Mimsy Were the Borogoves" and it did come separate on tape and even on vinyl at one time. It did not hurt to get the rest of the tapes. Foundation: The Psychohistorians is what the Foundation trilogy is all about and the newer foundation books you can read the separate reviews. The Martian Chronicles is ok but I do not want to spend time reviewing this section, as better reviews will be under the book description.

However Mimsy is a different animal. So I will say something about this. It is a small sci-fi story about a formula that allows you into an alternate universe that everyone used to have access to. The problem with getting there is that it requires a different paradigm and a formula. The paradigm requires a mindset that diapers as we get older and the formula is in front of us if we know where to look. An added plus is that it is read to us enthusiastically by William Shatner

The Creature from Beyond Infinity
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The Creature from Beyond Infinity
Henry Kuttner
Manufacturer: Kessinger Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1419158031

Book Description

"You must remain here," Theron stated. "How many of us survived the voyage from Kyria? You must wait, Ardath, even a million years if it is necessary. Our stasis ray kept us in suspended animation while we came across space. Take the ship beyond the atmosphere. Adjust it to a regular orbit, like a second satellite around this world.

Download Description

You must remain here, Theron stated. "How many of us survived the voyage from Kyria? You must wait, Ardath, even a million years if it is necessary. Our stasis ray kept us in suspended animation while we came across space. Take the ship beyond the atmosphere. Adjust it to a regular orbit, like a second satellite around this world.

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The Best of Henry Kuttner
Henry Kuttner; Introduction By Ray Bradbury
Manufacturer: Nelson Doubleday, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000JYZPXY

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A VERY IMAGINATIVE SCI-FI/FANTASY FROM A GREAT WRITING TEAM
the dust of the world's end
Earth's (REAL) Final Conflict!

Earth's Last Citadel
C. L. Moore , and Henry Kuttner
Manufacturer: Ace Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0441181120

Customer Reviews:

A VERY IMAGINATIVE SCI-FI/FANTASY FROM A GREAT WRITING TEAM.......2007-02-16

Catherine Moore and Henry Kuttner, generally acknowledged to be the preeminent husband-and-wife writing team in sci-fi history, initially had their novella "Earth's Last Citadel" released in the pages of "Argosy" magazine in 1943 (indeed, it was the very last piece of science fiction to be serialized in that publication). It was finally published in book form 21 years later. This is a pretty way-out piece of sci-fi/fantasy that reveals its debt to a handful of writers who had been major influences on the pair, particularly the florid early works of Abraham Merritt. In it, four participants in the conflict known as World War II are shanghaied from the beaches of Tunisia and brought billions of years into Earth's future. The quartet includes Alan Drake, a U.S. Army Intelligence officer; Sir Colin Douglas, a Scotch physicist whom Drake had been rescuing; Karen Martin, an adventuress working for the Nazis; and Mike Smith, an Americanized German also working for der Fuhrer. The four are forced to put their differences aside when they reawaken and discover a moribund Earth, populated by giant worms and wailing flying creatures and shrouded in perpetual mists. This early section of the book is very well done indeed; a bravura piece of outre and descriptive writing that really makes the reader feel the desolation of the landscape. Later, our band of confused heroes becomes involved with the jewellike, underground city of Carcasilla, the barbarous Terasi, AND a sentient, alien vortex of energy that is trying to suck the life out of Earth's last survivors. It is in the authors' descriptions of the fantastic, gravity-defying city of Carcasilla that their fondness for the hyperadjectival purple prose of A. Merritt is most noticeable, but nobody tops ol' Abe in this department. There are also tips of the chapeau to the works of H. Rider Haggard, the so-called "Father of the Lost Race Novel," not least of all with the inclusion of a fountain of light energy that bestows virtual immortality; only a very slight variant of Haggard's Fountain of Life in his classic 1887 novel "She." Kuttner's love of the works of H.P. Lovecraft, with whom Kuttner corresponded in the 1930s, is certainly hinted at in his descriptions of the life-draining Alien, a nameless entity so very different from terrestrial life that it might as well have leaped gibbering from the pages of the Cthulhu mythos. "Earth's Last Citadel" is a brief, fast-moving tale, and at 128 pages can easily be consumed in a few sittings. Typical for Kuttner and Moore, it is a perfect blending of their respective talents, and should satisfy most lovers of Golden Age sci-fi and colorful fantasy. As for me, I was a tad dissatisfied with the book's refusal to answer all my questions (such as why and how our heroes and the central Alien got into this mess to begin with!), and with how difficult it is at times to visualize certain aspects of the Carcasillan landscape. (The city's architecture is almost surreal, with its waterfall steps, liquid towers, etc.) Still, forcing a reader to exercise his/her imagination to the full certainly isn't the worst fault a writer can be guilty of! And to be completely honest, "Earth's Last Citadel" had me fairly riveted throughout...

the dust of the world's end.......2006-08-03

This old SF chestnut is from way back in 1943, and deserves to be rediscovered by historically-minded fans of the genre. Golden Age SF tales were often (though not always) stereotypical space operas and high-tech adventures. But occasionally you'll come across an unconventional and head-tipping gem, like this one. C.L. Moore's extra creepy and incredibly inventive works in both SF and horror really demand greater respect from modern fans, and her husband Henry Kuttner was a deservedly respected Golden Age bard himself. This book offers an incredibly creepy and disturbing tale of four WWII spies from both sides, who have somehow been transported billions and billions of years into the future. They arrive at a time when Earth is environmentally devastated and humans are nearly extinct, after an eons-old invasion by aliens who are themselves nearly extinct. In addition to the melancholy state of this really distant future world (way beyond the near-future or sort-of-far-future of most SF), Moore and Kuttner's aliens are inventively evil and horrifically "alien" in every sense of the world. There is also an effective subplot in which the humans from our age try to cope with the fact that their ideological disputes have become meaningless, but they still can't get over their personal animosity. This novel is recommended for fans of literary and speculative SF that rises above trends and stereotypes. It was so far ahead of its time in 1943 that it has become timeless today. [~doomsdayer520~]

Earth's (REAL) Final Conflict!.......2003-08-28

This is classic science-fiction at its best!

An American Intelllgence officer, a Scottish scientist, a renegade American turned NAZI and Karrin, the attractive racially mixed female NAZI agent confront one another, each side adamantly opposing the other when an apparent bolide crashes to earth. The group finds itself drawn toward the unidentified object which opens up and takes them in.

The four slowly come out of stasis and find themselves in what appears to be a vessel which, however, has no obvious machinery or operations console. Managing to open the door, they find themselves in a strange desert world with the oceans flashing by overhead, giant worms and fragile, winged people!

The Carcasilians (the natives to whose city they are led by a high priestess of the Light-Weavers)allow them entrance where they meet and are tricked by Flandy, an ancient human who has harnessed alien technology to give himself demigod-like powers. From Flandy, they learn that the ship from which they had escaped had been the first in a delayed invasion force untold millenia ago (i.e., in the 1940s). Everything in which they believed and for which they had fought was long gone and meaningless!

This relatively short work is astonishingly lively with many unexpected twists - and none more so than the surprising end which combines a strong sense of loss, hope and belief in the human spirit!

This is, undoubtedly, the best classic science-fiction work written and stands out even among such modern works as David Brin's SUNDIVER, Dan Simmons' HYPERION and Timothy Zahn's BLACKCOLLAR.

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