Logic Named Joe

A light-hearted collection, containing three stories and three novels, The Pirates of Zan being a Hugo nominated selection. Logic Named Joe : A LOGIC NAMED JOE - Murray Leinster Logic Named Joe : DEAR CHARLES - Murray Leinster Logic Named Joe : GATEWAY TO ELSEWHERE - Murray Leinster Logic Named Joe : THE DUPLICATORS - Murray Leinster Logic Named Joe : THE FOURTH-DIMENSIONAL DEMONSTRATOR - Murray Leinster Logic Named Joe : THE PIRATES OF ZAN - Murray Leinster These machines are after me. 4 out of 5 Got to help me meet her kid, so you can be born. 3.5 out of 5 A short novel of the logical fantasy variety, if you like. A New York bloke finds out about another dimension, thanks to a nifty restaurant. So, off he goes, seeing an angle. On arrival, he finds out that djinn are real, and are powerful shapeshifters. Luckily for his plans, they also have their kryptonite, which he is able to turn to his advantage, thanks to technology more advanced than this Arabian Knightsesque situation he finds himself in. 3.5 out of 5 Managing to get on a ship not overflowing with resources or even good repair, is our hero Link. Forced to set down, they discover a multi-species planet. There are pig-like locals with no hands : "Yah! Yah! Humans! Men, go home! Hide your paws, Humans!" A small group yelled in chorus, "The uffts will rise again! The uffts will rise again!" Yet another party roared, although some of the voices were squeaky, "Down with Households! Down with tyrants! Down with Humans! Up with uffts!" The title bears reference to a technology available here, of making copies via dupliers. The ease of this has led to the decay of the industrial base and knowledge on the planet - and plenty of tension. Lots of people would certainly like this technology in the wider galaxy. If Link can avoid being hung, he will see what he can do about it. 3 out of 5 Kangaroo multiple mishap. 3.5 out of 5 Hoddan, in trouble, has to take on a mundane job. However, that doesn't last long, given the situation. Piratical behaviour also runs in the family. When he discovers a large group of travelling destitute people he realises some organised swashbuckling can actually boost the economy. Along with blades, here you have stun-pistols and spaceships: "Good fight, eh?" bellowed an ancient, long-retired retainer with a wine bottle in his hand. "Good fight!" agreed Thal. "Good plunder, eh?" bellowed the ancient above the heads of younger men. "Like the good old days?" "Better!" boomed Thal. -- There was a singular pause in the clangings and clashings of weapons on the floor. Then one man popped up and hurled a knife. The clang of its fall was a very lonely one. Don Loris fairly howled at him. "Idiot! Think of the Lady Fani!" The Lady Fani suddenly smiled tremulously. "Wonderful!" she said. "They don't dare do anything while you're as close to me as this!" "Do you suppose," asked Hoddan, "I could count on that?" "I'm certain of it!" said

Eric Flint of Baen Books was bound and determined to bring Murray Leinster's prophetic 1946 story "A Logic Named Joe" back into print, and this collection was how he did it. "A Logic Named Joe" became the title story of a collection of some of Leinster's best humorous science fiction. As other reviewers have noted, the title story has gained a great deal of notoriety now that the internet revolution it predicted has come to pass. The story itself concerns a happily married computer technician who struggles to avoid a predatory ex-girlfriend. 1935's "The Fourth-Dimensional Demonstrator" finds a happy-go-lucky young man with a money-hungry fiancee and a tobacco-eating pet kangaroo dealing with a time-transporter-cum-duplicating-machine he has inherited from his late mad-scientist uncle. If Lucille Ball had had George Lucas' special-effects budget, every episode of _The Lucy Show_ would have been like this story. 1953's "Dear Charles" is a time-travel story that takes the Grandfather Paradox and turns it on its head. Imagine Heinlein's "All You Zombies" written in the style of "And He Built a Crooked House". If John Campbell's fantasy magazine _Unknown_ had survived the World War II paper shortage, the 1952 novel _Gateway to Elsewhere_ would have appeared there. It bears an uncanny resemblance to de Camp and Pratt's Harold Shea stories in both tone and subject matter. 1959's _The Pirates of Zan_ and 1964's _The Duplicators_ are both set in Leinster's all-purpose interstellar civilization, in which his Colonial Survey and Med stories are also set. Both novels deal with clever young men who find themselves stuck on primitive planets in need of some quick and dirty social engineering. _The Pirates of Zan_ has a definite space opera feel to it, while _The Duplicators_ is more of a planetary romance. Six tales, all of them witty, and all of them excellent. Go ahead and order this book.

I should state at the outset that I am an unabashed Murray Leinster fan, so I am likely to look with a measure of approval on _any_ venture intended to keep his stories and novels in print. _A Logic Named Joe_ (2004) is an omnibus consisting of three short stories and three novels. The short stories are: "The Fourth-Dimensional Demonstrator" (_Astounding_, 1935), "A Logic Named Joe" (_Astounding_, 1946), and "Dear Charles" (_Fantastic_, 1953). The novels are: _Gateway to Elsewhere_ (originally "Journey to Barkut," _Startling_, 1952), _The Pirates of Zan_ (originally "The Pirates of Ersatz," _Astounding_, 1959), and _The Duplicators_ (originally "Lord of the Uffts," _Worlds of Tomorrow_, 1964). Let us take the novels first. Why should you want to read them? To be sure, none of them are classics. But they are all... well, _fun_. _Gateway to Elsewhere_ is the story of the consciencious young man who learns to live a little and who travels from the world of Baghdad-on-the-Hudson to the Baghdad of the Arabian Nights. _The Pirates of Zan_ is a delightful reworking of a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta into a space opera format, and is easily the best of the three. _The Duplicators_ is a gentle spoof of communist pigs and southern aristocrats. It raises some problems about the economic and social effects of matter duplication that are not really solved by the end of the novel. But then, I'm not sure that they could be solved. The short stories, like the novels, all have a light touch. "Dear Charles" is a slight but clever account of the distant ancestor who snakes the girl of his not-too-bright descendant. The other two stories are much more substantial. "The Fourth-Dimensional Demonstrator" is a marvelous piece of slapstick comedy involving time travel, matter duplication, and demented kangaroos. And "A Logic Named Joe" is a computer story written before computers were known-- before the word "computer" was even a part of our language. Read it and see how well Leinster managed to predict this technology-- and the problems that it would bring. This is a wonderful book for hammock reading or for a lazy day or for a time when you want a good excuse to laugh. And it is a reminder of what the Dean of Science Fiction could do when he was working with all cylinders going.

I recommend this book highly for those new to SIFI books. The sroties are witty and fresh. They often reminded me of other books but they are newer and no doubt were influenced by this one. This is a really terrific book.

This collection of short stories represents a sampling of short fiction that still stands up today. I am very glad that the publisher; Baen Books has the rights to publish some of these older works. There is a lot of good material out there only it's never recognized or buried never to be seen again. We can thank Jim Baen for having the vision of a good science fiction publisher. I can sum up this collection by saying it's very thought provoking and should be read by science fiction readers who like intriguing work.