Remember the Weekly Reader Book Club? Back in the 1960s, our Reading Teacher would hand out a leaflet each month showing what books were available for purchase from the Weekly Reader Book Club. I and my classmates would make choices, bring in a few dollars–the prices per book were less than a dollar each–our Reading Teacher would send in the order, and a week later the books would arrive.
Worlds of Maybe, published by Thomas Nelson in 1970, also had a Weekly Reader Book Club edition (pictured above). Robert Silverberg is one of my favorite Science Fiction writers, but his skills as an editor are under appreciated. Worlds of Maybe is an anthology of seven parallel universe stories.
My favorite story is also the oldest story in Worlds of Maybe: Murray Leinster’s “Sidewise is Time.” Paul Anderson’s “Defend East” is one of his Time Patrol stories where a team finds themselves not only in a different time-line, but also in a parallel universe.
Isaac Asimov’s “Living Space” confronts the issue of who gets to own their own planet. “Sail On! Sail On!” is an early story of Philip Jose Farmer that hints at the disruption he would cause with future stories like his Riverworld series.
It might be difficult to find a copy of Worlds of Maybe, but the quality of the stories would make the effort worth it. GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
9 · Introduction · Robert Silverberg — 9
15 · Sidewise in Time · Murray Leinster · na Astounding Jun 1934 — 15
96 · Sail On! Sail On! · Philip José Farmer · ss Startling Stories Dec 1952 — 96
121 · Slips Take Over · Miriam Allen deFord · ss F&SF Sep 1964 — 121
139 · All the Myriad Ways · Larry Niven · ss Galaxy Oct 1968 — 139
153 · Living Space · Isaac Asimov · ss Science Fiction Stories May 1956 — 152
173 · Translation Error · Robert Silverberg · nv Astounding Mar 1959 — 173
200 · Delenda Est [Manse Everard (Time Patrol)] · Poul Anderson · nv F&SF Dec 1955 — 200
Sounds good. I do appreciate the 90+ year old Silverberg’s editing as well as his writing.
And I definitely remember the Weekly Reader and the excitement when our new books were delivered!
Jeff, sadly The Weekly Reader Book Club and Bookmobiles–key ways to help kids read–are things of the Past. Now it’s all cell phones and iPads.
We did not have the Weekly Reader but we had the T.A.B. Book Club (for older readers) and its parent, the Scholastic Book Club (which purchased Weekly Reader in 2012). I participated for a while, then I discovered the spinner racks at my local drug store.
I picked up a used copy of WORLDS OF MAYBE in the early 1970’s, along with many other of Silverberg’s anthologies, all of which were worthwhile, although as time went on I found that many of the stories were available elsewhere. With the advent of the internet, many of these anthologies became moot. All seven of the great stories in WORLDS OF MAYBE are available on Internet Archive and other locations in their original magazine forms. I don’t think many anthologies today — with the exception of Best of the Year anthologies — use much in the way of reprints.
Jerry, you’re right. Retrospective anthologies are pretty much obsolete given that most stories are available online. Even anthologies of new stories are becoming fewer and fewer.
Good lineup. The Niven story is another favorite. As I recall we had Weekly Reader in 5th and 6th grade, and Teen Age Book Club in 7th and 8th as our monthly book order. In 5th and 6th, we had access to the county bookmobile, an easy walk from the school.
Good lineup. The Niven story is another favorite. As I recall we had Weekly Reader in 5th and 6th grade, and Teen Age Book Club in 7th and 8th as our monthly book order. In 5th and 6th, we had access to the county bookmobile, an easy walk from the school.
Fred, WEEKLY READER, TAB, and bookmobiles certainly had an affect on your reading! I’m convinced the Reading Habit has to be installed at an early age!
Ah, The Weekly Reader! I never heard of the book club, but I had fun writing captions for the pictures or adding arrows through skulls or screws going into the heads of people pictures! There was also a current events paper along the same lines, IIRC!
Bob, your WEEKLY READER experience is different from mine…
Scholastic, by the ’70s, had the Arrow Book Club in place in elementary schools, and the latter-day version of Teen-Age Book Club in higher grades (as well as the first grades’ easy-reader/picture book clubs, had tags which have slipped from my memory. Xerox briefly had a competitive program that leaned heavily on Grosset and Dunlap paperback lines, and perhaps also (and if they didn’t, they should’ve) the Dell Yearling and Laurel Leaf lines, which also managed to get their paperbacks in bulk into classroom libraries in my New England states early grades, at least…other publishers, such as the Harper Trophy line, were clearly imitating the Dell formats. Scholastic, Dell and their imitators certainly flooded the young-readers’ paperback racks in stores and libraries with “digest-sized” paperbacks in the ’70s and proximate decades.
Todd, Scholastic hit the jackpot when they published the HARRY POTTER series!
Yes, but they were rich as hell ,ong before that.
Spel Korrekshun gat at you in this paragraph, particularly:
“My favorite story is also the oldest story in Worlds of Maybe: Murray Leinster’s “Sidewise is Time.” Paul Anderson’s “Defend East” is one of his Time Patrol stories where a team finds themselves not only in a different time-line, but also in a parallel universe.”–where “Sidewise in Time” and Poul Anderson were renamed…
Also, WordPress hates Latin. DEFEND EAST is the Slobbovian translation of “Delenda est”…
Yeah, but WordPress will at least auto-erect your comments.
Todd, once again WORDPRESS is changing my words! Grrrrrrr!
Still seems pretty flaccid to me, Jerry…all sympathies, George…