Major Ingredients

Russel's stories are still a great reading, as I remembered them. Russel was always an easy read. The stories are always optimistic and based on human "can do" attitude. Great reading!

I have never written a review here before this. I am an engineer/cpa; I am not a liberal arts major. I just feel so strongly about this book, and the author, that I have to tell all you potential readers to get this book and "Men, Martians and Machines," also by Russell. Mark Twain said about himself that he wrote for the stomach, not for the head. Russell was one of those rare writers that wrote for the stomach and hit the mark, with class. His short stories and novels are delightful to read - just plain fun. In contradiction to a previous reviewer, I read this book straight through (700 pages), and loved every minute of it. I really feel that Russell is on a plane with Twain, Rex Stout and Tom Clancy. They all wrote(write) books that are just wonderful fun to read. The short story "Dear Devil" (in this book) is one of the sweetest works I have ever read - touching and classically sweet. I usually prefer F-15's and such, but "Dear Devil" is wonderful. This book if full of great tales. Get it, read it, enjoy!

_____________________________________________ This is NESFA's fine selection of Russell's best shorts, all but one from the late 1940's through the 50's. Pretty much all of my Russell favorites are here. You won't want to read them all at once, since Russell has a narrow range -- his favorite theme is smart Earthmen vs. dim aliens, with some variations (eg "Hobbyist", "Dear Devil"). Pure, old-fashioned mind-candy. The one Russell story I'm thoroughly sick of is "Allamagoosa" -- this is the off.dog thing, fun the first time or two but a one-trick pony, and endlessly reprinted. Gah. Ah, that's his second-favorite theme: Bureacracies are Dumb. Paul Di Filippo's nice review is worth a look, over at scifi[dot]com: "A large chunk of SF's heritage is embodied in these charming tales of duplicity and devotion." Happy reading-- Pete Tillman

This is a very good collection of 30 short stories by Eric Frank Russell. First published in 2000, this brought back into print a large number of stories which today's science fiction lovers could not easily find. When combined with "Entities", published in 2001, there is at long last a solid foundation of Russell's works, both novels and shorter pieces, in print again for the first time in a long time. There are too many stories here to cover them all, but the highlights include "Allamagoosa", the first short story ever to win a Hugo, "Dear Devil", "Jay Score", "Study In Still Life", "Top Secret", and many more. Also included are an Introduction by Jack L. Chalker, and an Afterword by "Mike Resnick". Russell's stories focus mainly on ideas, rather than characters, which is something some readers may not like. Chalker and Resnick offer some wonderful insights into his work and why it is that Russell's work has often been overlooked when it comes to awards and recognition. This collection was ranked 6th on the Locus Poll for Collections in 2001.