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Table of Contents:

• 9 - Introduction (Kingsley Amis: Collected Short Stories) - essay
• 15 - My Enemy's Enemy - (1955) - short story
• 34 - Court of Inquiry - (1956) - short story
• 42 - I Spy Strangers - (1962) - short story
• 86 - Moral Fibre - (1958) - short story
• 107 - All the Blood Within Me - (1962) - short story
• 129 - Dear Illusion - (1972) - short story
• 162 - Something Strange - (1960) - short story
• 180 - The 2003 Claret - (1958) - short story
• 189 - The Friends of Plonk - (1964) - short story
• 199 - Too Much Trouble - (1972) - short story
• 211 - Hemingway in Space - [Authors in Space] - (1960) - short story
• 216 - Who or What Was It? - (1972) - short story
• 226 - The Darkwater Hall Mystery - novelization - non-genre - [Sherlock Holmes] - (1978) - short story
• 244 - The House on the Headland - (1979) - short story
• 258 - To See the Sun - (1980) - short story
• 296 - Mason's Life - (1972) - short story

With Lucky Jim Kingsley Amis established himself as the bad boy of twentieth-century British letters. Later he became famous as another kind of bad boy, an inveterate boozer, a red-faced scourge of political correctness. He was consistent throughout in being a committed enemy of any form of "right thinking," which helped to make him one of the most consistently unconventional and exploratory writers of his day, a master of classical English prose who was unafraid to apply himself to literary genres all too often dismissed as "low." Science fiction, the spy story, the ghost story were all grist for Amis's mill, and nowhere is the experimental spirit in which he worked, his will to test both reality and the reader's imagination, more apparent than in his short stories. These "woodchips from his] workshop"--as he called them--are anything but throwaway work. They are instead the essence of Amis, a brew that is as tonic as it is intoxicating.

A selection of seven short stories set in post WW II England, MY ENEMY'S ENEMY is social satire at its ironic best. Three of these stories, dealing with members of a British Signal Unit at the end of the war, are humorous in their analysis of the moral and social climate of that time. Three of the remaining stories focus on some peculiarities of civilian life, and the last piece constitutes an unusual venture into science fiction.

Table of Contents:

• All the Blood Within Me - short story
• Court of Inquiry - (1956) - short story
• I Spy Strangers - short story
• Moral Fibre - (1958) - short story
• My Enemy's Enemy - (1955) - short story
• Something Strange - (1960) - short story

In this hilarious, inspiring and provocative series of essays, Kingsley Amis introduces every reader to the wonders and value of science fiction writing. From the extraordinary ideas but sexless science of Jules Verne to the power of H. G. Wells's terrifying storytelling; from the brilliance of bad science fiction writing to the potency of their important ideas; from a portrait of the average SF reader to Amis's sad prediction that this genre will never make it in film or television, New Maps of Hell is a warm and witty exploration of a world many readers may be yet to discover.

AMIS'S BRILLIANT AND DEADLY NEW COMEDY, SET IN TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY ENGLAND RULED BY THE RUSSIANS

Looking for kicks, our hero, the dashing young cavalry officer Alexander Petrovsky, moves into an affair with the insatiable, big-breasted wife of the Deputy Director of Security, and on to a dangerous flirtation with counter-revolutionary politics.

In attempting to give England back to the English, he's unwittingly joined a game of Russian hide-and-seek. It's just like Russian roulette, except you play it in the dark and you shoot to kill--other people.

THE ANTI-DEATH LEAGUE

A nymphomaniac Lady of the British aristocracy who runs her home as an Army bordello... a Security Officer who may be a spy himself... a secret military base where scientists are at work on a weapon too terrible ever to be used...

Out of the conflicts and absurdities fo a society fascinated by Mega-Death comes Kingsley Amis' brilliant new novel of espionage, the Anti-Death League--the long-awaited major work by the author of Lucky Jim.

Table of Contents:

• 1 - Editor's Note: About Science Fiction (The Golden Age of Science Fiction) - (1981) - essay by Kingsley Amis
• 6 - Introduction (The Golden Age of Science Fiction) - essay by Kingsley Amis
• 29 - The Quest for Saint Aquin - (1951) - novelette by Anthony Boucher
• 49 - The Xi Effect - (1950) - short story by R. S. Richardson [as by Philip Latham]
• 72 - The Tunnel Under the World - (1955) - novelette by Frederik Pohl
• 106 - Old Hundredth - (1960) - short story by Brian W. Aldiss
• 119 - A Work of Art - (1956) - short story by James Blish
• 137 - Harrison Bergeron - (1961) - short story by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
• 144 - The Voices of Time - (1960) - novelette by J. G. Ballard
• 180 - Specialist - (1953) - short story by Robert Sheckley
• 198 - He Walked Around the Horses - [Paratime Police] - (1948) - novelette by H. Beam Piper
• 222 - The Game of Rat and Dragon - [The Instrumentality of Mankind] - (1955) - short story by Cordwainer Smith
• 239 - The Nine Billion Names of God - (1953) - short story by Arthur C. Clarke
• 247 - The Streets of Ashkelon - (1962) - short story by Harry Harrison
• 264 - The Country of the Kind - (1956) - short story by Damon Knight
• 279 - The Machine That Won the War - [Multivac] - (1961) - short story by Isaac Asimov
• 285 - Student Body - (1953) - novelette by F. L. Wallace [as by Floyd L. Wallace]
• 308 - It's a Good Life - (1953) - short story by Jerome Bixby
• 328 - Sister Planet - (1959) - novella by Poul Anderson

Like all good medieval coaching inns, the Green Man in Fareham, Hertfordshire, boasts a resident, if retired, ghost: Dr Thomas Underhill, a notorious seventeenth-century practitioner of black arts and sexual deviancy, rumoured to have killed his wife. The landlord, Maurice Allington, is the sole witness to the renaissance of the malign Underhill. Led by curiosity and an anxious desire to vindicate his sanity, Allington uncovers the key to Underhill's satanic secrets. And the skeletons in the cupboard of Allington's own domestic affairs are just rattling to get out, too.

The year is 1976 and we are alive in an all-Catholic world. The Reformation never took place because Martin Luther made a deal with Rome and became Pope Martin I. The "alteration" proposed to Hubert Anvil, brilliant 10-year-old boy soprano, is that most feared by all males. Pope John XXIV wishes Hubert to preserve the purity of his voice to glorify the Church on a permanent basis; Hubert wishes to share his talent but he has some disquieting thoughts about Pope John's proposal.

What is the magic of science fiction?

It is a mode in which new and exciting ideas can be dramatized. It is a vehicle that throws the tendencies of our own society into startling relief; a medium in which human beings can be sharply satirized, and also warned of what they may become; a stage as large as space and time on which mankind may be seen acting under the stresses of undreamed-of social, psychological, and physical pressures; above all, a refreshing and necessary outlet for our sense of wonder.

So say novelist Kingsley Amis and poet Robert Conquest, science fiction addicts from boyhood, who triumphantly prove their contention in this dazzling collection of ten brilliant stories by such masters as Frederik Pohl, Robert Sheckley, and Robert Heinlein.

The stories in Spectrum exhibit excellent writing, humor, and satire as well as high adventure, terror, and stunning ingenuity. An illuminating introduction by the editors adds to the pleasure of a wonderfully varied and richly entertaining volume.

Contents:

• Introduction by Kingsley Amis and Robert Conquest
• The Midas Plague by Frederick Pohl
• Limiting Factor by Clifford D. Simak
• The Executioner by Algis Budrys
• Null-P by William Tenn
• The Homing Instinct of Joe Vargo by Stephen Barr
• Special Flight by John Berryman
• Inanimate Objection by H. Chandler Elliot
• Pilgrimage to Earth by Robert Sheckley
• Unhuman Sacrifice by Kathleen MacLean
• By His Bootstraps by Robert Heinlein (as Anson MacDonald)

What is the magic of science fiction?

It is a mode in which new and exciting ideas can be dramatized. It is a vehicle that throws the tendencies of our own society into startling relief; a medium in which human beings can be sharply satirized, and also warned of what they may become; a stage as large as space and time on which mankind may be seen acting under the stresses of undreamed-of social, psychological, and physical pressures; above all, a refreshing and necessary outlet for our sense of wonder.

So say novelist Kingsley Amis and poet Robert Conquest, science fiction addicts from boyhood, who triumphantly prove their contention in this dazzling collection of brilliant stories. The stories in Spectrum exhibit excellent writing, humor, and satire as well as high adventure, terror, and stunning ingenuity. An illuminating introduction by the editors adds to the pleasure of a wonderfully varied and richly entertaining volume.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction by Kingsley Amis and Robert Conquest
• Beyond Bedlam by Wyman Guin
• Bridge by James Blish
• Resurrection by A. E. van Vogt
• Second Variety by Philip K. Dick
• Sense from Thought Divide by Mark Clifton
• The Feeling of Power by Isaac Asimov
• There is a Tide by Brian W. Aldiss
• Vintage Season by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore (as Lawrence O'Donnell)

What is the magic of science fiction?

It is a mode in which new and exciting ideas can be dramatized. It is a vehicle that throws the tendencies of our own society into startling relief; a medium in which human beings can be sharply satirized, and also warned of what they may become; a stage as large as space and time on which mankind may be seen acting under the stresses of undreamed-of social, psychological, and physical pressures; above all, a refreshing and necessary outlet for our sense of wonder.

So say novelist Kingsley Amis and poet Robert Conquest, science fiction addicts from boyhood, who triumphantly prove their contention in this dazzling collection of brilliant stories. The stories in Spectrum exhibit excellent writing, humor, and satire as well as high adventure, terror, and stunning ingenuity. An illuminating introduction by the editors adds to the pleasure of a wonderfully varied and richly entertaining volume.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction by Kingsley Amis and Robert Conquest
• The Voices of Time by J. G. Ballard
• The Sentinel by Arthur C. Clarke
• Dreams are Sacred by Peter Philips
• Killdozer! by Theodore Sturgeon
• Fondly Fahrenheit by Alfred Bester
• Call Me Joe by Poul Anderson
• We Would See a Sign by Mark Rose
• Exploration Team by Murray Leinster

What is the magic of science fiction?

It is a mode in which new and exciting ideas can be dramatized. It is a vehicle that throws the tendencies of our own society into startling relief; a medium in which human beings can be sharply satirized, and also warned of what they may become; a stage as large as space and time on which mankind may be seen acting under the stresses of undreamed-of social, psychological, and physical pressures; above all, a refreshing and necessary outlet for our sense of wonder.

So say novelist Kingsley Amis and poet Robert Conquest, science fiction addicts from boyhood, who triumphantly prove their contention in this dazzling collection of brilliant stories. The stories in Spectrum exhibit excellent writing, humor, and satire as well as high adventure, terror, and stunning ingenuity. An illuminating introduction by the editors adds to the pleasure of a wonderfully varied and richly entertaining volume.

Table of Contents

• Introduction by Kingsley Amis and Robert Conquest
• Unreal Estates (essay) by Brian Aldiss, Kingsley Amis and C. S. Lewis
• The Marching Morons by C. M. Kornbluth
• Gadget vs. Trend by Christopher Anvil
• Such Stuff by Christopher Anvil
• The Sellers of the Dream by John Jakes
• The Large Ant by Howard Fast
• Barrier by Anthony Boucher
• The Great Nebraska Sea by Allan Danzig
• Compassion Circuit by John Wyndham
• A Planet Named Shayol by Cordwainer Smith
• Into the Shop by Ron Goulart
• The Secret Songs by Fritz Leiber
• Stranger Station by Damon Knight
• Hot Planet by Hal Clement
• The Choice by Wayland Hilton-Young

What is the magic of science fiction?

It is a mode in which new and exciting ideas can be dramatized. It is a vehicle that throws the tendencies of our own society into startling relief; a medium in which human beings can be sharply satirized, and also warned of what they may become; a stage as large as space and time on which mankind may be seen acting under the stresses of undreamed-of social, psychological, and physical pressures; above all, a refreshing and necessary outlet for our sense of wonder.

So say novelist Kingsley Amis and poet Robert Conquest, science fiction addicts from boyhood, who triumphantly prove their contention in this dazzling collection of brilliant stories. The stories in Spectrum exhibit excellent writing, humor, and satire as well as high adventure, terror, and stunning ingenuity. An illuminating introduction by the editors adds to the pleasure of a wonderfully varied and richly entertaining volume.

Table of Contents

• Introduction by Kingsley Amis and Robert Conquest
• Student Body by F. L. Wallace
• Big Sword by Pauline Ashwell (as Paul Ash)
• The Far Look by Theodore L. Thomas
• Grandpa by James H. Schmitz
• Commencement Night by Richard Ashby
• Mother of Invention by Tom Godwin
• Crucifixus Etiam by Walter M. Miller Jr.
• Noise Level by Raymond F. Jones

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