Friday, May 03, 2013

Forgotten Books: The Startling Worlds of Henry Kuttner -- Henry Kuttner

As Brad Searles reminds us in his brief introduction to this volume, Henry Kuttner was one of the really big names in SF back in the 1940s.  Now, not so much.  One of the publications in which many of his works appeared was Startling Stories, and it's from this pulp that the three "novels" (well, that's what the editor of Startling called them) in this book are drawn.  

The three stores gathered here are "The Portal in the Picture," "The Valley of the Flame," and "The Dark World."  All three were published earlier in single volumes by Ace Books, with the first one being retitled "Beyond Earth's Gate."  It's possible, or even probable, that all three were written in collaboration with Kuttner's wife, C. L. Moore, as so many of the works credited to Kuttner alone were.  All three are full of color and movement and action.  (You can read my review of "The Dark World" here.)  

I like what Brad Searles says in his introduction:  "Reading them today is a marvelous antidote to the verbose trilogies with which we're currently afflicted."  If you have any interest in the Good Old Stuff, reasonably priced copies of this collection are easy to find.

6 comments:

George said...

Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore were terrific writers. Kuttner's early death robbed the world of a great writer.

Jerry House said...

Kuttner was one of my gateway authors to SF.

Bud said...

Amen!

Rick Robinson said...

I read some of his stuff back when, but it's been a loooong time.

Todd Mason said...

Cool. But that was Baird Searles introducing, no? (He and Hank Searles I remember.)

George touches on why his star has dimmed some...he died too damned soon. So he, and Kornbluth, both take on the status of those known to those In the Know. Minor films still happen...THE LAST MIMZY for Kuttner, the uncrediting IDIOCRACY for Kornbluth...

Unknown said...

It was Brad, and I've put his first name in. Somehow forgot to do that the first time around.