by Brian Kunde
Another highlight from my de Camp collection: Sprague de Camp’s New Anthology (to give it its cover title) or Sprague de Camp’s New Anthology of Science Fiction (according to the title page). Either one of which is an awkward mouthful, and the book deserved better. That said, it sounds rather like another edit-job like all those de Camp fantasy anthologies, doesn’t it? However, like the Holy Roman Empire, which was famously neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire, this book was not an anthology, nor was it edited by de Camp. And while it was new when published, that designation has since been getting less and less true all the time; no one could call it new now, the title notwithstanding.
So what is it? Simply a collection of six rather mid-grade de Camp stories, mostly first published in rather mid-grade SF magazines. Top de Camps got into top mags, so don’t expect huge things from this lot. Nevertheless, British author and editor H. J. Campbell saw fit to bring them together and reissue them in this slim volume, which was then published in London by Panther Books. The collection has never received publication on the U.S. side of the water. “So what?” you might say. “Why should I care about this one, then?” Well, you needn’t, of course.
However …
This book is, on the other hand, a must-have for the de Camp completist, on account of the fact that most of its contents never received book publication elsewhere, and are otherwise available only in the various magazine issues they originally appeared in. Which are pretty old, and, one would think, even less easy to come by than this book. Or not. Darrell Schweitzer wrote in response to an earlier version of this review that “It is not too hard to track down the stories in their original magazine appearances. That may be easier than getting any version of the book.” Still, if you want ‘em in book form, this is where you’ve got to go to get ‘em.
The collection was issued both in hardcover and paperback; my copy’s in the second form. Which is evidently the easier to find. Again, Darrell Schweitzer writes “Even rarer is the hardcover variant.”
The cover blurbs of this book may amuse; did you know de Camp was “the brightest star in American science fiction?” H. J. Campbell evidently thought so. Good thing no one told Asimov, or Bradbury, or Clarke, or Heinlein! We also learn that “Sprague de Camp shows the pertness of Parker, the whimsy of Wodehouse, [and] the warm murmur of human kindness that is O. Henry.” I suspect he appreciated the Wodehouse comparison, at least, since he was a Wodehouse fan. Inside the book, in the introduction the cover quote is taken from, Campbell also likens our author to Lewis Carroll.
A few of-the-era ads fill both inside covers and the back cover; no doubt why all the blurbs are relegated to the front. Otherwise, the text of the collection itself fills all pages but the last one, which provides a list of other Panther Books—mostly Science Fiction and Westerns, with several Foreign Legion and Crime titles, and one Romance. The SF authors represented are S. Fowler Wright (one title), H. K. Bulmer (three), Jon J. Deegan (also three), S. J. Bounds (one), H. J. Campbell (three), Roy Sheldon (two), Bryan Berry (two) and Rolf Garner (two). All but Bulmer and Campbell himself are obscure to me. As for the aforementioned advertisements, if you were ever curious about how folks went about quitting smoking in England in 1953, here’s your chance.
On to the actual content. Not only is this book a must-have for de Camp completists in general, it is also a must-have for completists of de Camp’s Viagens Interplanetarias series, as the first two stories, “Calories” and “The Colorful Character,” are part of that series. Properly, they should have gone into the big Viagens collection, The Continent Makers and Other Tales of the Viagens (also 1953). But they didn’t. This marks their only appearance in book form. And, of course, there are also other stories. These may not represent de Camp at the top of his game, but they’re fun. Here’s the full run-down:
“Introduction.” Editor H. J. Campbell tells us about the author, and compares him to others, and, oh yes, about the book, too.
“Calories” (Ten Story Fantasy, Spring 1951). Titled “Getaway on Krishna” for its magazine appearance, it here gets the author’s preferred title. This story is unique in being the only Viagens tale set on the planet Krishna that takes place outside the Triple Seas region where all the others play out; in Krishna’s Antarctic region, in fact, and the country Dirk Barneveldt pretends to have come from in the novel The Hand of Zei. De Camp would likely never even have written it had he not ghosted explorer Finn Ronne’s memoir Antarctic Conquest not long before. It plainly put our author in the mood to pen an Antarctic adventure of his own. Earthmen, Cuthwin (“Dinky”) Singer and Earl Okagamut are on the lam from a numerous and well-equipped cohort of fanatical soldiers from the Krishnan theocracy of Nichnyamadze. Singer figure’s they’re doomed, as, in contrast to their pursuers, they have only a minimum of equipment and supplies. But Okagamut is confident of their chances, knowing something about Antarctic survival none of the others do…
“The Colorful Character” (Thrilling Wonder Stories, December 1949). A Viagens tale set on Earth, but revolving around Sir Erik Koskelainen, an early visitor to Krishna. Scientist Gregory Lawrence is dismayed to find his colleagues at the Institute of Advanced Study so wowed by the famous interplanetary explorer they are all set to follow him to Krishna’s neighboring planet Ganesha to make a complete biological survey of that world. Only Reginald Schmidt, Lawrence’s own supervisor, remains unconverted. Is the proposal some sort of scam? If so, how does Schmidt know? Together, the two scheme to overturn the interloper’s influence. Plot seeds planted in this story would later blossom in the Krishna novels The Tower of Zanid and The Virgin of Zesh; the antagonist in this story is later behind the kingdom of Balhib’s secret armaments program in the former novel, while a minor player, an unnamed tailed Krishnan present on Earth for scientific study, is almost certainly (to my mind, anyway) the same character as Yuruzh, the latter novel’s hero. Moreover, the Krishnan events alluded to in this story antedate those of all the actual Krishnan tales.
“Juice” (Super Science Stories, May 1940). A very early, story, and very slight one, concerning an electrical anomaly in a lunar research station that turns out to be an alien life form. De Camp has a number of throw-aways like this one early in his career; some others didn’t even make it into reputable SF magazines, but were farmed off to near-fan publications. They’re all adequate stories with decent SFnal gimmicks, but nothing special. Readable but forgettable. Had these represented his typical output, it’s likely none of us would have ever heard of him.
“Proposal” (Startling Stories, November 1952). In his autobiography, de Camp notes that this story was inspired by his schoolteacher wife’s experience with a lecherous supervisor and a boring grade-school play. The proposal in question is by an alien to a human woman, and yes, it’s a proposal of marriage. The aliens, as it happens, are studying human customs… The atmosphere of this one practically screams 1950s—unsurprisingly, since that’s when it was written.
“The Saxon Pretender” (Science Fiction Quarterly, February 1952). Another retitle job; this one first appeared as “Rogue Princess.” Future actor Claude Godwin gets shanghaied to Greenland and dragged into a political struggle there, all on account of a practical joke he played on Crown Princess Karen, heir to the Greenlendish throne. It seems a time-viewer invented there has identified him as the last living descendant of the last Saxon king of England, and thus not just a perfect mate for Karen, but a perfect patsy to unite Greenland with Britain. Both Claude and Karen find this objectionable. Hijinks, adventure and skullduggery ensue.
“The Space Clause” (If Worlds of Science Fiction, September 1952). A more serious tale, involving South American functionary Mateo Aguirre’s effort to get alien contact language inserted into the governing charter for the newly federated nations of Earth, only to be condemned to death for his trouble. Bummer. But the tale does contain some delightful plot twists, including not one but two alien landings, one faked, to demonstrate the need for the clause, and the other, well … read it and find out!
Would I recommend this volume? I would, and not just because most of the content you’re unlikely to see elsewhere. This is lighter, wackier, and dare I say, more frivolous de Camp than tends to inhabit his other collections. In other words, the really fun de Camp, without any such ameliorating features as redeeming social value. Read it because you want to, not because you have to. No apologies, and no regrets!
The book has no dedication. Perhaps neither editor nor author considered it his place. Or maybe there was just no room to squeeze one in.
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(BPK, rev. 12/10/21)
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