Hunt the Space-Witch is the first of three volumes Planet Stories will publish featuring Robert Silverberg’s delightfully pulpy science fiction adventures. If you haven’t read these novellas, you’re missing some great fun. Silverberg churned out reams of SF back in the 1950s and 1960s, but he’s a gifted writer and the quality of these stories is above average. Recommended!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Slaves of the Star Giants
Spawn of the Deadly Sea
The Flame and the Hammer
Valley Beyond Time
Hunt the Space-Witch!
The Silent Invaders
Spacerogue
I’ve had my eye on this one for a while now. Just haven’t pulled the trigger.
HUNT THE SPACE-WITCH is a dandy, Randy! Pull the trigger!
I was a big Silverberg fan in the ’50s when he was starting out, and I read all these tales then, several of them in a digest called SCIENCE FICTION ADVENTURES, a favorite of mine though it didn’t last long. I have copies of all the issues.
I read some of these novellas when they were first published, Bill, but not all of them. I remember THE SILENT INVADERS was half of an old ACE Double.
And there were at least three US magazines called SCIENCE FICTION ADVENTURES, all relatively shortlived…but I think these came from Larry Shaw’s magazine, the companion to INFINITY SF, which inspired a British edition that was a longer-lived companion to NEW WORLDS and SCIENCE FANTASY. (The early US SFA was part of a group edited by Lester Del Rey, then Harry Harrison; the later US SFA was one of the variant titles edited by Sol Cohen…and Harry Harrison!…made up of reprints from FANTASTIC and AMAZING that Cohen wasn’t required to pay again for, so he didn’t.)
Silverberg here wasn’t swinging for the fences the way Leigh Brackett or Poul Anderson or Jack Vance might (for the “real” PLANET STORIES, say), but he was certainly more talented and more reliable than the likes of Stanley Mullen (disgracing some of the same issues of PLANET STORIES).
Some of these seven novellas are relatively obscure, Todd. I’m glad they’re collected in this nice Planet Stories package.
This one is definitely on my list.
Planet Stories volumes are always good values, Scott. You’ll love HUNT THE SPACE-WITCH!
I have this one sitting on the shelf… and the next one, THE PLANET KILLERS is on it’s way. That one has three novelettes: The Planet Killers, The Plot Against Earth, and One of Our Asteroids is Missing.. I gotta get reading!
I have THE PLANET KILLERS on order, too, Rick. I read THE PLOT AGAINST EARTH and ONE OF OUR ASTEROIDS IS MISSING when they were published as halves of ACE Doubles.
It is a sort bliss to live in a world where a book with this title is available. The actual contents will probably in no way match it, but still. I’ll also add that this affair is graced with a cover that charms and pleases.
One’s Friday morning is a bit brighter for it, George.
Yes, Drongo, reading the novellas in HUNT THE SPACE-WITCH took me back to my pre-teen years when I read every science fiction book or magazine I could get my hands on. That Sense of Wonder I had as a 12-year-old still lives within me. We are all fortunate to have a unique publisher like Planet Stories reprinting these wonderful stories. It does make Friday morning brighter!