Thirteen stories from 1965,66,69-72. Favorites:
“Repeat Performance” (1977) – Milton Pryngle owns a revival theatre. On Wednesday nights a strange power outage occurs for ten seconds or less. Then he spots minor character actors appearing in the audience. He didn’t see them enter the theatre.
“…And Isles Where Good Men Lie” (1965 novelette) – A satellite is sending a beacon that is drawing infected aliens to land on Earth. It can’t be found. They’re destroyed upon landing. They show up every two hours and may keep arriving for twelve hundred years. Captain John Fortune is called out of retirement to deal with the latest coming landing in Iceland. His marriage is bad and too many chocolate bars have slowed him down. There are questions about his abilities to handle the situation.
“What Time Do You Call This?” (1971) – Abe Short is casing a bank across the street from his cheap apartment. All of a sudden a scientist appears saying he’s from a different time stream. He tells Abe there are only two. Abe knocks him out and steals his time belt. He thinks going into the other time stream will be a perfect getaway after he robs the bank.
“Communication” (1970) – Hank Ripley is an unsuccessful computer salesman the company places in a one room apartment in a small Canadian town. His luck turns when a man from another small town pays sixty thousand dollars cash for a computer. He says he’s doing a study of everyone in his town for sociological reasons. The computer will help him do that without anyone knowing. Hank gets curious and investigates to find out what’s really going on.
“Pilot Plant” (1966 novella) – Garnett is the surviving partner of an aircraft business. One day his car is hit by a plane and he ends up with a plate in his skull. He mumbles the name Xoanon and doesn’t have a clue why. His recovery is helped by dietician Janice Villiers who later becomes his girlfriend despite his argumentative demeanor. He orders a wing that’s been under development for years stopped. Now his real trouble begins.
“Telemart Three” (1970) – The ultimate in home shopping is the telemart three. See a product you want just push the accept button and the item is transmitted instantly to your house. One man is fed up with his wife’s constant purchases.
Worthwhile? I have a copy and I’ve read quite a few of his novels… Most of the novels were very average.
This won’t show up at the top of anyone’s list but if you liked or kind of liked his novels then you’ll enjoy this. Nothing to do a hunt for but if you come across it at a book sale etc. then it’s worth picking up.
I do have a copy on the shelf. It’s whether or not it’s worth picking over everything else in my GIANT to read pile 🙂
I hear you about the giant to read pile. My basement holds over 55-hundred books at last estimate. The majority are SF. Seeing some of your latest finds you have a lot of good stuff to get to before the Shaw collection.