I’ve enjoyed all of Hank Davis’s anthologies over the years. You can check them out here, here, and here. This anthology focuses on creatures from space starting with John W. Campbell’s classic, “Who Goes There,” which was the basis of the classic movie, The Thing. Lovecraft’s classic “The Colour Out of Space” is here with Fritz Leiber’s brilliant “The Mind Spider.” Some of these stories were new to me. I wasn’t familiar with Chad Oliver’s “The Space Horde,” or Gordon R. Dickson’s “Love Me True,” or Simak’s “Operation Stinky.” There’s a story in Things From Outer Space for just about every SF taste. If you’re in the mood for some “creature-feature” SF stories, Hank Davis delivers again! GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
STORY COPYRIGHTS
DEDICATION & ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
THINGS FOR THE MEMORY Introduction by Hank Davis
WHO GOES THERE? by John W. Campbell, Jr.
ALL ABOUT “THE THING” (A PARODY IN VERSE) by Randall Garrett
THE THINGS by Peter Watts
THE COLOUR OUT OF SPACE by H. P. Lovecraft
AS IT LAYS by David Afsharirad
AMANDA AND THE ALIEN by Robert Silverberg
WE DON’T WANT ANY TROUBLE by James H. Schmitz
AND YOUR LITTLE DOG TOO by Sarah A. Hoyt
RIDING THE WHITE BULL by Caitlin R. Kiernan
THE MONSTER FROM NOWHERE by Nelson Bond
SITTING DUCK by Daniel F. Galouye
THE MIND SPIDER by Fritz Leiber
THE THING FROM—OUTSIDE by George Allen England
THE SPACE HORDE by Chad Oliver
THE LEECH by Robert Sheckley
ROUGH BEAST by Roger Dee
LOVE ME TRUE by Gordon R. Dickson
DEVOLUTION by Edmond Hamilton
OPERATION STINKY by Clifford D. Simak
THE HUNTING GROUND by David Drake
Must admit, have a big chunk of these in other collections, though not the Kiernan, Afsharirad and Hoyt titles – ta!
Sergio, I have many of these stories in other collections, too. But there were enough new and unfamiliar stories to motivate me to buy THINGS FROM OUTER SPACE.
Glad to see Hank Davis is still in action!
Bill, Hank Davis has another SF anthology coming out later this year. The guy is busy!
I agree that Hank Davis has put together some good anthologies. I’ve also read the Campbell and Lovecraft stories (and maybe one or two others), but not most of them so will check it out. I like a good monster from space, ever since watching INVADERS FROM MARS and 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH as a kid.
Jeff, plenty of the stories in THINGS FROM OUTER SPACE will remind you of INVADERS FROM MARS and 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH!
Good set of stories, though like Sergio I’ve read 4/5 of them, so the book would just take shelf space. Nice to see Hank Davis is doing well at Baen, he’s become quite the editor, though Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan are still my favorite SF editors.
Rick, I agree with you on Dozois and Strahan. Great editors! Hank Davis focuses on more retro anthologies.
I can’t imagine buying a book like that when I already own more than half of the content! There’s not enough money- and not enough space in my library … 🙂
Of course those classical stories (at least some of them) are fantastic but I also won’t reread them for the umpteenth time – give me new stories!
Wolf, I read new story anthologies and old story anthologies. Jeff Meyerson inspired me to read a short story every day. I’ve been doing it for decades now!