Collected Fiction Read online

  VALLEY OF THE FLAME follows up an idea that’s not too new in science-fiction—an intelligent race evolved from a different species. On earth, as far as we know, we’re the dominant species. We’ve never clashed with another dominant. If we should, some odd things might happen.

  Cats and monkeys follow different patterns of logic and motivation. So do ants, of course. For all we know, ants may be the real dominant species here and now, perfectly adjusted to their environment, and not finding it necessary to let “humans” know how the situation stands.

  But the thought-processes of ants might be utterly alien and incomprehensible to our minds. The logic of cats would be less so. Imagine a race of humans evolved from the feline stock—and in conflict with simian-evolved humans. Such a conflict would certainly be a basic one—and the idea seemed to me to be worth a story.

  My sixteen cats helped me write it, and I hope the readers will feel that the cats and 1 have done an acceptable job.

  —Keith Hammond.

  Originally appeared in Startling Stories, March 1946

  Meet the Author

  IT IS our very definite impression that, since he was honorably discharged from the Army early last year, Henry Kuttner has been forging ahead by leaps and bounds—and he already had most of file rest of the stf field lapped a couple of times.

  In THE DARK WORLD, he steps right up into the spot left vacant by the death of the revered A. Merritt. Surely no one else has shown so masterful a grip on this particular sort of high imaginative fantasy. It seems to us that he has at all times a clarity which was occasionally lacking in Merritt’s somewhat surrealistic prose poems.

  Furthermore, so ingenious is Kuttner that he is always able at least to suggest some convincing causation for even the most fantastic of his themes and gadgets. In this respect, he is almost certainly unmatched.

  But those of you who have already read THE DARK WORLD in this issue need no editorial puffs as to its virtues. And those who haven’t will learn for themselves in short order that here is a great fantastic novel. Meanwhile, the author, in jesting spirit, takes time out to explain a little about himself. He is usually clearer when explaining some unearthly happening on a distant planet, but it should give you some idea. Says the author of THE DARK WORLD:

  This is no time to ask me for my biography. The papers say we’ve just hit radar with the Moon—or something like that, anyhow—and I’ve decided to live on a California mountain-top, where I can reach up with a long-handled spoon and dig off valuable mineral deposits from our satellite. I never knew it was so close.

  I’ve decided against having a swimming-pool, though, because I don’t want all the water sucked up out of it by the Moon’s gravitational attraction, and I’ve almost decided against having an atmosphere, for the same reason. I don’t know why people do those things to me.

  All I-ask is to be left alone to write science-fiction when I get ideas that intrigue me. How can I write with the Moon shooting radar at me and I don’t know what-all else happening around Orion? I never look up any more.

  Well, I was born, grew a while, and here I am.

  That looks unsatisfactory, even to me. A biography ought to have more details in it, but the, trouble is, I don’t know what details. Things that interest me don’t always interest other people. I am five feet something—I’m not sure exactly—weigh 135, slender as a reed, and am deeply attached to a small dark moustache named Quentin. Went to school. Worked abortively at various things. Wrote. Had army service. Since then, my ambition is to be as phenomenally lazy as possible.

  Part of the year I live on—or, rather, overlooking—the Hudson River, far enough away from New York to be in the country. As this is written, though, it’s winter, so I’m in California, catching up with my sleep and staying warm at the same time.

  Eels and soft-shell crabs—not to wear around. What else? I hate shoes and neckties. I like my neck, of course, but to eat. C. L. Moore is my favorite author. And I think that’s all—except for the date of my demise, which I don’t know yet. But you can’t have everything, can you?

  —Henry Kuttner

  Originally appeared in Startling Stories, Summer, July 1946

  PS’s Feature Flash

  C.H. Liddell, whose novelet CARRY ME HOME is spotlighted in this issue, is one of our newest and most valued contributors. After reading—and swiftly buying—several of his tales, we got to wondering about the man himself . . . so we asked . . . so he answered. Meet the creator of Red Rohan:

  “You are embarrassing me, you know, by inquiring into my quite ordinary way of life and what makes me tick. However, I will answer your specific questions the best I can, and as to my peculiarities, I can only say that I have had a terrific interest in science and fantasy literature ever since I can remember. Being an only child, I found a lot of time to read—and I read everything I could get my hands on. I remember that once my father gave me a paperback copy of THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, by Jules Verne, to read. My mother, God love her, found that book in my room before I had finished reading it and took it away from me, upbraiding. Dad for letting me read such wild trash. Dad, ever a gentle man, mildly defended Mr. Verne to no avail. I believe this incident instilled in me a deadly curiosity to know more about such marvelous adventures which Dad said were scientific and Mother said were “trash.” I fear the thirst has become an unquenchable flame.

  “I do not have a great deal of time for interests outside of my work, but I consider writing science fiction and fantasy my hobby, avocation—relaxation. I think I first got started doing it because of my impatience with many radio programs which built up suspense and interest in their plays and then fizzled out miserably in the climax. And more recently the television shows have been doing the same thing. Only rarely have I found a fantasy play which builds up to a good climax and then has a decent one. I guess I grumbled too much, for my wife finally got exasperated and told me that if I didn’t like the endings of the plays I listened to, to write some of my own.

  “So I did. And to my unbounded amazement my stories are beginning to sell. I’ve been forbidden by my agent to give him a plug, so all I can say is that I am grateful to the editor and readers of Planet Stories for liking my material, and I’ll try never to let you down.”

  There we have a thumbnail sketch of Charles H. Liddell, industrial research chemist of Kansas City, Missouri—one of the few writers who turns out science-fantasy because he loves it, and not because he has to eat. Still in his thirties, Charles H. Liddell is happily married to a Kansas City girl and commutes five days a week to K.C., Mo., to do laboratory research. On week-ends, when Mrs. Liddell hasn’t other plans, he loses himself in the spinning of such stories as CARRY ME HOME.

  Originally appeared in Planet Stories, November 1950

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  Novels

  The Brass Ring (1946)

  The Day He Died (1947)

  Fury (1950)

  Man Drowning (1952)

  Beyond Earth’s Gates (1954)

  The Murder of Eleanor Pope (1956)

  The Murder of Ann Avery (1956)

  Murder of a Mistress (1957)

  Murder of a Wife (1958)

  Earth’s Last Citadel (1964)

  Valley of the Flame (1964)

  The Dark World (1965)

  The Time Axis (1965)

  The Well of the Worlds (1965)

  The Creature from Beyond Infinity (1968)

  The Mask of Circe (1971)

  Magazine-published Novels

  Avengers of Space, Marvel Science Stories, August 1938

  The Time Trap, Marvel Science Stories, November 1938

  When New York Vanished, Startling Stories, March 1940

  The Seven Sleepers, Thrilling Wonder Stories, May 1940

  A Million Years to Conquer, Startling Stories, November 1940

  Remember Tomorrow, Thrilling Wonder Stories, January 1941

  The Land of Time to Come, Thrilling Wonder Stories, April 1941

&n
bsp; The Infinite Moment, Thrilling Wonder Stories, April 1942

  Secret of the Earth Star, Amazing Stories, August 1942

  Wet Magic, Unknown Worlds, February 1943

  Crypt-City of the Deathless One, Planet Stories, Winter, November 1943

  A God Named Kroo, Thrilling Wonder Stories, Winter, February 1944

  The Black Sun Rises, Super Science Stories, (Canada) June 1944

  Sword of Tomorrow, Thrilling Wonder Stories, Fall, November 1945

  Valley of the Flame, Startling Stories, March 1946

  The Dark World, Startling Stories, Summer 1946

  I Am Eden, Thrilling Wonder Stories, December 1946

  Way of the Gods, Thrilling Wonder Stories, April 1947

  Lands of the Earthquake, Startling Stories, May 1947

  Lord of the Storm, Startling Stories, September 1947

  The Power and the Glory, Thrilling Wonder Stories, December 1947

  The Mask of Circe, Startling Stories, May 1948

  The Time Axis, Startling Stories, January 1949

  The Portal in the Picture, Startling Stories, September 1949

  Earth’s Last Citadel, Fantastic Novels Magazine, July 1950

  We Shall Come Back!, Science Fiction Quarterly, November 1951

  The Well of the Worlds, Startling Stories, March 1952

  Serials

  Earth’s Last Citadel, Argosy, April-July 1943

  The Fairy Chessmen, Astounding, January-February 1946

  Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Astounding, January-February 1947

  Fury, Astounding, May-July 1947

  Anthologies

  Mountain Magic (2004) with Ryk E. Spoor, David Drake and Eric Flint

  The Time Trap/The Lunar Lichen (2013) with Hal Clement

  Thunder in the Dawn/The Uncanny Experiments of Dr. Varsag (2015) with David V. Reed

  Lands of the Earthquake/Under a Dim Blue Sun (2017) with Howie K. Bentley

  Chapbooks

  Chessboard Planet (1956)

  The Far Reality (1963)

  Tomorrow and Tomorrow (1963)

  Waters of Death (1992)

  Reader, I Hate You! (2009)

  Where the World is Quiet (2010)

  The Ego Machine (2010)

  The Secret of Kralitz (2010)

  Man’s Conquest of Space or Upside-Down in Time (2016)

  Lands of the Earthquake (2017)

  As You Were (2018)

  War-Gods of the Void (2018)

  Collections

  A Gnome There Was and Other Tales of Science Fiction and Fantasy (1950)

  Tomorrow and Tomorrow and the Fairy Chessmen (1951)

  Ahead of Time (1953)

  Mutant (1953)

  Line to Tomorrow (1954)

  No Boundaries (1955)

  Bypass to Otherness (1961)

  Return to Otherness (1962)

  The Best of Kuttner 1 (1965)

  The Best of Kuttner 2 (1966)

  The Best of Henry Kuttner (1975)

  Clash by Night and Other Stories (1980)

  Chessboard Planet and Other Stories (1983)

  Elak of Atlantis (1985)

  Prince Raynor (1987)

  Kuttner Times Three (1988)

  Secret of the Earth Star and Others (1991)

  The Book of Iod (1995)

  Two-Handed Engine (2005)

  Thunder Jim Wade: The Complete Series (2008)

  Don’t Look Now and Two Others (2009)

  The Graveyard Rats and Other Stories (2010)

  Detour to Otherness (2010)

  Terror in the House: The Early Kuttner, Volume One (2010)

  Henry Kuttner (2011)

  Thunder in the Void (2011)

  The Hogben Chronicles (2013)

  The Watcher at the Door: The Early Henry Kuttner, Volume Two (2016)

  Omnibii

  Beyond Earth’s Gates/Daybreak—2250 A.D. (1954) with Andre Norton

  The Startling Worlds of Henry Kuttner (1987)

  Fury/Mutant/The Best of Henry Kuttner (2013)

  Poems

  Ballad of the Gods (1936)

  Ballad of the Wolf (1936)

  The Sunken Towers (1936)

  Ragnarok (1937)

  H.P.L. (1937)

  Where He Walked (1988)

  SHORT FICTION BIBLIOGRAPHY

  CHRONOLOGICAL

  1931

  The Monkey Wrench, Jungle Stories, August 1931

  1936

  Ballad of the Gods, Weird Tales, February 1936

  The Graveyard Rats, Weird Tales, March 1936

  Ballad of the Wolf, Weird Tales, June 1936

  Bamboo Death, Thrilling Mystery, June 1936

  The Devil Rides, Thrilling Mystery, September 1936

  The Secret of Kralitz, Weird Tales, October 1936

  Power of the Snake, Thrilling Mystery, November 1936

  Coffins for Six, Thrilling Mystery, December 1936

  It Walks by Night, Weird Tales, December 1936

  Laughter of the Dead, Thrilling Mystery, December 1936

  The Sunken Towers, The Phantagraph, December 1936

  1937

  The Faceless Fiend, Thrilling Mystery, January 1937

  Terror in the House, Thrilling Mystery, January 1937

  The Dweller in the Tomb, Thrilling Mystery, February 1937

  The Eater of Souls, Weird Tales, January 1937

  I, the Vampire, Weird Tales, February 1937

  Nightmare Woman, Thrilling Mystery, March 1937

  We Are the Dead, Weird Tales, April 1937

  The Salem Horror, Weird Tales, May 1937

  Ragnarok, Weird Tales, June 1937

  The Black Kiss, Weird Tales, June 1937

  My Brother, The Ghoul, Thrilling Mystery, June 1937

  I Am the Wolf, Thrilling Mystery, July 1937

  Raider of the Spaceways, Weird Tales, July 1937

  The Jest of Droom-Avista, Weird Tales, August 1937

  Four Frightful Men, Thrilling Mystery, September 1937

  H.P.L., Weird Tales, September 1937

  Terror on the Stage, Thrilling Mystery, September 1937

  When the Earth Lived, Thrilling Wonder Stories, October 1937

  Quest of the Starstone, Weird Tales, November 1937

  The Case of Herbert Thorp, Weird Tales, November 1937

  Lord of the Lions, Thrilling Mystery, November 1937

  The Malignant Peezle, Fantascience Digest, November/December, 1937

  The Bloodless Peril, Thrilling Wonder Stories, December 1937

  1938

  Messer Orsini’s Hands, Spicy Mystery Stories, January 1938

  Invasion from the Fourth Dimension, Thrilling Mystery, January 1938

  World’s End, Weird Tales, February 1938

  The Graveyard Curse, Spicy Mystery Stories, March 1938

  The Shadow on the Screen, Weird Tales, March 1938

  The Unresting Dead, Thrilling Mystery, March 1938

  Hell’s Archangel, Spicy Mystery Stories, April 1938

  Hollywood on the Moon, Thrilling Wonder Stories, April 1938

  My Name Is Death, Spicy Mystery Stories, May 1938

  Thunder in the Dawn (Part One), Weird Tales May 1938

  Thunder in the Dawn (Conclusion), Weird Tales June 1938

  Devil’s Masquerade, Mystery Tales, June 1938

  Spawn of Dagon, Weird Tales, July 1938

  Avengers of Space, Marvel Science Stories, August 1938

  The Dark Heritage, Marvel Science Stories, August 1938

  Dictator of the Americas, Marvel Science Stories, August 1938

  Doom World, Thrilling Wonder Stories, August 1938

  The Disinherited, Astounding Science-Fiction, August 1938

  Beyond the Phoenix, Weird Tales, October 1938

  Master of the Damned, Fantasmagoria, November 1938

  The Time Trap, Marvel Science Stories, November 1938

  Hands Across the Void, Thrilling Wonder Stories, December 1938

  The Star Parade, Thrilling
Wonder Stories, December 1938

  1939

  The Invaders, Strange Stories, February 1939

  The Frog, Strange Stories, February 1939

  The Transgressor, Weird Tales, February 1939

  The Strange Case of Mr. Geech, Fantascience Digest, March/April 1939

  Cursed Be the City, Strange Stories, April 1939

  Bells of Horror, Strange Stories, April 1939

  Beyond Annihilation, Thrilling Wonder Stories, April 1939

  Hydra, Weird Tales, April 1939

  Murder for Fun, Thrilling Mystery, May 1939

  The Watcher at the Door, Weird Tales, May 1939

  Ironing-Board Derby, Popular Sports Magazine, June 1939

  “Telepathy Is News!”, Science Fiction, June 1939

  The Body and the Brain, Strange Stories, June 1939

  The Hunt, Strange Stories, June 1939

  Death Is Where You Find It, Thrilling Mystery, July 1939

  The Curse of the Crocodile, Strange Stories, August 1939

  The Citadel of Darkness, Strange Stories, August 1939

  The Misguided Halo, Unknown, August 1939

  Roman Holiday, Thrilling Wonder Stories, August 1939

  The Devil’s Brood, Thrilling Mystery, September 1939

  The Truth About Goldfish, Futuria Fantasia, Fall 1939

  The Energy Eaters, Thrilling Wonder Stories, October 1939

  Corpse Castle, Thrilling Mystery, November 1939

  Towers of Death, Weird Tales, November 1939

  The Grip of Death, Strange Stories, December 1939

  Suicide Squad, Thrilling Wonder Stories, December 1939

  World’s Pharaoh, Thrilling Wonder Stories, December 1939

  1940

  Death Has Three Sisters, Thrilling Mystery, January 1940

  The Lifestone, Astonishing Stories, February 1940

  When New York Vanished, Startling Stories, March 1940

  Thots on the Worldstate, Future Fantasia, Spring 1940

  All Is Illusion, Unknown, April 1940

  Beauty and the Beast, Thrilling Wonder Stories, April 1940

  Science is Golden, Thrilling Wonder Stories, April 1940

  The Shining Man, Fantastic Adventures, May 1940

  50 Miles Down, Fantastic Adventures, May 1940