Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Clash by Night and Other Stories by Henry Kuttner. Henry Kuttner è stato un autore di fantascienza, fantasy e horror statunitense. Per quanto Kuttner non abbia scritto solamente fantascienza, limportanza della sua produzione in quel genere ne fa un esponente di un certo rilievo dellEtà doro della fantascienza. Assieme alla moglie e collega C. L. Moore utilizzò lo pseudonimo collettivo di . Gli è stato riconosciuto il premio postumo Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award 2004. 2. Kuttner e C.L. Moore Kuttner era noto per la sua prosa di qualità letteraria e collaborava con la moglie, C. L. Moore. Sincontrarono perché entrambi facevano parte del "Lovecraft Circle", un gruppo di scrittori e fan che corrispondevano con H. P. Lovecraft. Pubblicarono diverse opere scritte a quattro mani negli anni quaranta e cinquanta, la maggior parte delle quali venne stampata sotto pseudonimo, prevalentemente Lewis Padgett e Lawrence ODonnell. Entrambi ammisero senza grandi problemi che una ragione del loro lavoro in coppia era perché Kuttner era uno scrittore più veloce di Moore. L. Sprague de Camp, che conosceva personalmente Kuttner e Moore, dichiarò che la loro collaborazione era talmente intensa che, una volta ultimato un racconto, era spesso impossibile sia per Kuttner che per Moore ricordare chi aveva scritto quali parti del testo. Secondo de Camp, accadeva assai spesso che uno dei due interrompesse la stesura di un racconto a metà di un paragrafo o addirittura di una frase, lasciando lultima pagina del manoscritto nella macchina da scrivere. Laltro coniuge allora proseguiva la scrittura dal punto in cui era stata interrotta. Si alternavano in questo modo alla scrittura finché il testo non era completo. Da questa collaborazione sono scaturite alcune delle migliori storie brevi della fantascienza: Pile of trouble Locchio, Camouflage Mimetizzazione, When the bough breaks Punto di rottura, Shock e il celebre romanzo breve , uno dei migliori in assoluto del genere. Tra le opere più popolari di Kuttner rientrano anche i racconti di Gallegher, pubblicati sotto lo pseudonimo di Padgett, il cui protagonista inventa soluzioni tecnologiche per i problemi dei suoi clienti tra i quali cè anche un robot egocentrico mentre è completamente ubriaco, per cui è del tutto incapace di ricordare esattamente quale sia la macchina che ha inventato o a cosa serva una volta che gli passa la sbronza. Questi racconti sono stati successivamente raccolti in Robots Have No Tails. Nellintroduzione alla ristampa in economica della raccolta, uscita dopo la morte di Kuttner, Moore dichiarò che tutti i racconti di Gallegher erano stati scritti dal marito, senza un suo intervento. Nel 2007, New Line Cinema ha presentato un film parzialmente ispirato al racconto di Lewis Padgett Eran Birbizzi i Borogovi col titolo Mimzy - Il segreto delluniverso ; per cui la raccolta The Best of Henry Kuttner è stata ripubblicata col titolo The Last Mimzy Stories. 5.2. Opere Romanzi derivati dalla fusione di racconti Mutant the Baldie stories 1953 Robots Have No Tails the Gallegher stories 1952. 5.3. Opere Romanzi Laltra realtà The Far Reality, 1946 Man Drowning 1952 The Portal in the Picture, anche noto come Beyond Earths Gates con C. L. Moore 1946 Lultima cittadella della Terra The Time Axis 1948 Il mondo oscuro The Dark World, 1946 Furia Fury, 1947, pubblicato anche come Destination: Infinity 1956 The Creature from Beyond Infinity 1940 Dr. Cyclops 1940 La scacchiera sterminata The Fairy Chessmen, 1946 La valle della fiamma Valley of the Flame, 1946 The murder of Eleanor Pope 1958 La trappola del tempo The Time Trap, 1938 Il pozzo dei mondi The Well of the Worlds, 1952 Lands of the Earthquake 1947 A Million Years to Conquer 1940. 5.4. Opere Raccolte The Best of Kuttner 1 Two-Handed Engine: The Selected Short Fiction of Henry Kuttner & C.L. Moore Chessboard Planet and Other Stories con C.L. Moore No Boundaries con C.L. Moore Terror in the House: The Early Kuttner, Volume One Bypass to Otherness A Gnome There Was The Book of Iod Line to Tomorrow and Other Stories of Fantasy and Science Fiction con C.L. Moore Detour to Otherness con C.L. Moore The Startling Worlds of Henry Kuttner Clash by Night and Other Stories con C.L. Moore Kuttner Times Three Thunder Jim Wade Return to Otherness The Best of Kuttner 2 The Best of Henry Kuttner Elak of Atlantis Prince Raynor Secret of the Earth Star and Others . 6. Pseudonimi Scott Morgan Keith Hammond Lewis Padgett Hugh Maepenn Robert O. Kenyon Edward J. Bellin James Hall Kelvin Kent Charles Stoddard Will Garth Paul Edmonds Noel Gardner Hudson Hastings Peter Horn C. H. Liddell Woodrow Wilson Smith Lawrence ODonnell. Henry Kuttner. The dinosaurs are long gone on this world, but what if they existed elsewhere? Would they evolve to build modern civilizations? Overrun planets in primordial violence? Come to be worshipped as gods? What if they were to re-evolve in Earth's distant f. The Best of Henry Kuttner. From the renowned, Hugo Award–nominated titan of science fiction comes a collection of his best short stories: “Kuttner is magic” (Joe R. Lansdale, author of Honky Tonk Samurai). In seventeen classic stories, Henry Kuttn. Earth's Last Citadel. Four WWII combatants travel to a distant and dangerous future in this novel by “two of the most revered names from [science fiction’s] Golden Age” (SFReviews.net). During World War II, four bitter enemies are pulled forward a. Man Drowning. A powerful and violent crime fiction novel from an iconic author and “one of the major names in science fiction” (The New York Times). Nick Banning was a man drowning in a land of far-off horizons, a land that had all the vigor suc. Murder of a Mistress. Murder of a Wife. The Murder of Ann Avery. The Murder of Eleanor Pope. [A] pomegranate writer: popping with seeds-full of ideas." -Ray Bradbury A master of genre writing, Hugo-nominee Henry Kuttner grabs readers from page one in his first mystery. Psychoanalyst Dr. Michael Gray lives in San Francisco, where his thriving. Prince Raynor. Swords and Sorcery clash with riveting results in these classic stories! "[A] pomegranate writer: popping with seeds—full of ideas." —Ray Bradbury When Robert E. Howard died in 1936, some of the greatest science-fiction and fantasy writers step. The Time Trap. 1939 Retro-Hugo Awards Best Novella nominee A titan of the genre, Henry Kuttner, weaves a spellbinding tale of a time-traveling archaeologist in one of the most fantastic adventures ever conceived. "[A] pomegranate writer: popping with seeds—full o. Dr. Cyclops. Endowment Policy. Don't Look Now. Call Him Demon. In the 1920s a group of children staying at their grandmother's house realize that one of the uncles who lives there is not a real person, and only arrived there a few weeks before. He is able to exert some kind of mental influence over the adults of. Cursed be the City. By These Presents. Spawn of Dagon. Beauty and the Beast. A Gnome There Was. Baldy. Humpty Dumpty. Beggars in Velvet. The Piper's Son. More than cunning and planning and courage would be necessary to restore my people, the Medicis, to their rightful throne. We would need superb weapons—and special skill to use them in such a glorious cause. Three Blind Mice. Atomic! Dark Dawn. Thunder in the Void. Contents: Raider of the Spaceways (Weird Tales, Jul 37) Avengers of Space (Marvel Science Stories, Aug 38) The Time-Trap (Marvel Science Stories, Nov 38) The Lifestone (Astonishing Stories, Feb 40) Monsters of the Atom (Super-Detective, Apr 41) Red G. The Proud Robot. Gallegher's robot was a beautiful genius… with a talent for trouble. ExcerptThings often happened to Gallegher, who played at science by ear. He was, as he often remarked, a casual genius. Sometimes he'd start with a twist of wire, a few batteries. The Red Gem of Mercury. Sword of Tomorrow. Absalom. Locke was determined that Absalom would follow his rules, Absalom disagreed…ExcerptAt dusk Joel Locke came home from the university where he held the chair of psychonamics. He came quietly into the house, by a side door, and stood listening, a tall. Android. Androids were obviously not human… so they claimedExcerptBradley looked at the Director's head. His stomach tried' to crawl up into his throat. He felt suddenly dizzy. He knew that he was betraying himself, and that would be absolutely fatal.He rea. The Eyes of Thar. She spoke in a tongue dead a thousand years, and she had no memory for the man she faced. Yet he had held her tightly but a few short years before, had sworn eternal vengeance—when she died in his arms from an assassin’s wounds.ExcerptHe had come. What Hath Me? In a hundreds of years the Aesir had slain all who stood against them, could this one human manage to beat them?ExcerptThe thousand tiny eyes raced past him, glittering with alien ecstasy, shining brighter, ever brighter as they fed. He felt the life. Henry Kuttner. Beneath the roiling seas and deadly atmosphere of Venus are the Keeps--fully enclosed cities and within those cities live descendants of the survivors who first harbored atomic energy to propel the spaceships that took them to Venus. In massive super. and Other Stories. Old Masson had a secret … One of Salem’s oldest and most decrepit cemeteries was put in Old Masson’s charge, but he didn’t mind—he was more than sufficiently compensated by the treasures the newly departed wholeheartedly offered him. Unfort. Don't Look Now and Two Others. Included in this volume are three of Henry Kuttner's classic science fiction tales: "Don't Look Now" (originally published in Startling Stories, March, 1948), in which invisible Martians secretly control the Earth . or do they? "Gallegher Plus" (or. Robots Have No Tails. A complete collection of Galloway Gallegher stories from “one of the major names in science fiction” (The New York Times). In this comprehensive collection, Henry Kuttner is back with Galloway Gallegher, his most beloved character . Valley Of The Flame. The Dark World. Henry Kuttner’s Sword and Sorcery classic returns to print at last! World War II veteran Edward Bond’s recuperation from a disastrous fighter plane crash takes a distinct turn for the weird when he encounters a giant wolf, a red witch, and the . The Well Of The Worlds. Clifford Sawyer, investigating ghosts in a mine, finds ancient beings from another world -- and gets swept up in a titanic struggle between for control of a parallel dimension. Henry Kuttner (1915-1958) was known for his literary prose and worked in. Destination Infinity. Far beneath the turbulent seas of Venus lived all that remained of humanity. Earth was gone -- a fast-fading atomic noval in the evening sky. But can Reed's daring plan to colonize the surface of Venus possibly work. Originally published as "Fury. The Time Axis. Called to the end of time by a being known as The Face of Ea, four adventurers face a power that not even the science of that era could meet -- the nekron, negative matter, negative force, ultimate desctruction for everything it touched. Thunder Jim Wade. Available for the first time. the complete saga of Thunder Jim Wade! Written by fantasy legend Henry Kuttner, this collection reprints all five adventures of Thunder Jim Wade from 1941. Long discounted as a Doc Savage clone, THUNDER JIM WADE: THE C. Elak of Atlantis. Explore the origins of Sword & Sorcery with Henry Kuttner's Elak of Atlantis! Published in Weird Tales to satisfy fans of Conan the Barbarian in the wake of Robert E. Howard's death, the four long stories depict a brutal world of flashing swords and. Mimzy and Other Stories. THE LAST MIMZY IS THE IDEAL INTRODUCTION TO AN AUTHOR WHO WAS AHEAD OF HIS TIME -- AND WHOSE TIME HAS FINALLY COME. These seventeen classic stories create their own unique galaxy of vain, protective, and murderous robots; devilish angels; and warm. Clash by Night. In this complex and profoundly imagined novella, exiles from Earth's atomic armageddon have journeyed to Venus. There, under the oceans, they have created competing civilizations called Keeps. Brian Scott, a Free Companion militiaman finds he must ch. The Book of Iod. From one of the grand masters of science-fiction comes a collection inspired by H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. "[A] pomegranate writer: popping with seeds—full of ideas." —Ray Bradbury Hugo-nominee and sci-fi luminary Henry Kuttner was part o. Startling Worlds of Henry Kuttner. Mask of Circe. Ace Books copyright 1948, this book first published in 1971, and this is the 1977 reprint with new cover art by Michael Herring. Mass market paperback. Previously published in Startling Stories May 1948. Probably written in collaboration with his wi. Mutant. The Chronicles of the Baldies The Big Blow-up left huge radioactive sores (the graves of cities) all over the face of the Earth. In time, from some of the women who had been near these shunned areas, the first totally hairless babies began to be b. Cold War. THE HILLS ARE ALIVE--WITH MUTANTS AND MAGIC.! Evil men and evil magic are poised to prey on the people of the hamlets and hollows of Appalachia: witches, demons, and criminals of more than one century. But the mountain folk have defenders, too, as. See You Later. THE HILLS ARE ALIVE--WITH MUTANTS AND MAGIC.! Evil men and evil magic are poised to prey on the people of the hamlets and hollows of Appalachia: witches, demons, and criminals of more than one century. But the mountain folk have defenders, too, as. Pile of Trouble. THE HILLS ARE ALIVE--WITH MUTANTS AND MAGIC.! Evil men and evil magic are poised to prey on the people of the hamlets and hollows of Appalachia: witches, demons, and criminals of more than one century. But the mountain folk have defenders, too, as. Exit the Professor. THE HILLS ARE ALIVE--WITH MUTANTS AND MAGIC.! Evil men and evil magic are poised to prey on the people of the hamlets and hollows of Appalachia: witches, demons, and criminals of more than one century. But the mountain folk have defenders, too, as. The Creature From Beyond Infinity. Henry Kuttner (April 7, 1915-February 4, 1958) was a science fiction author born in Los Angeles, California. As a young man he worked for a literary agency before selling his first story, "The Graveyard Rats," to Weird Tales in 1936. Kuttner was know. The Ego Machine. Nicholas Martin looked up at the robot across the desk."I'm not going to ask what you want," he said, in a low, restrained voice. "I already know. Just go away and tell St. Cyr I approve. Tell him I think it's wonderful, putting a robot in the pictur. The Secret Of Kralitz. I awoke from profound sleep to find two black-swathed forms standing silently beside me, their faces pale blurs in the gloom. As I blinked to clear my sleep-dimmed eyes, one of them beckoned impatiently, and suddenly I realized the purpose of this mi. Where The World Is Quiet. Marion Zimmer Bradley is among many authors who have cited Kuttner as an influence. Her novel The Bloody Sun is dedicated to him.The life of an anthropologist is no doubt filled much of the time with the monotonous routine of carefully assembling pow. The Graveyard Rats. Many of the earliest ghost stories and tales of hauntings, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editio. Henry Kuttner. Henry Kuttner (April 7 1915 - February 4 1958) was a science fiction author born in Los Angeles, California. As a young man he worked for a literary agency before selling his first story, "The Graveyard Rats", to Weird Tales in 1936. Kuttner and Moore. He was known for his literary prose and worked in close collaboration with his wife, C. L. Moore. They met through their association with the Lovecraft Circle, a group of writers and fans who corresponded with H. P. Lovecraft. Their work together spanned the 1940's and 1950's and most of the work was credited to pseudonyms, mainly Lewis Padgett and Laurence O'Donnell. Both freely admitted that one reason they worked so much together was because his page rate was higher than hers. In fact, several people have written or said that she wrote three stories which were published under his name. "Clash by Night" and The Portal in the Picture a.k.a Beyond Earth's Gates have both been alleged to have been written by her, and the article on Moore in the Wikipedia lists The Mask of Circe as by her, when most editions have had his name as the author. The reader should be cautious about accepting these definitively as the referred-to three. Influence. Marion Zimmer Bradley is among many authors who have cited him as an influence. Roger Zelazny has explicitly talked about the influence of The Dark World on his Amber series as is discussed in the article on the subject. There is a problem when you discuss this, however, which is directly related to Kuttner's work with his wife. Their collaboration makes it difficult to identify who was more influential as even their fans are unsure who wrote what influenced them. Later Life. Henry Kuttner spent the middle 50's getting his masters degree before dying of a heart attack in 1958. Clash by Night by Henry Kuttner. Hardcover. Condition: Good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972. Used books may not include companion materials, some shelf wear, may contain highlighting/notes, may not include cdrom or access codes. Customer service is our top priority!. More buying choices from other sellers on AbeBooks. Clash By Night. Kuttner, Henry. Published by Hamlyn, 1980. Used - Softcover Condition: VG - paperback. Condition: VG -. CLASH BY NIGHT. Kuttner, Henry. (Lewis Padgett) & Moore, C.L. Published by HAMLYN., 1980. Used - Softcover Condition: Good. Paperback. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. More buying choices from other sellers on AbeBooks. THE JUNGLE with Clash by Night. Drake, David. (with a story by Henry Kuttner) Published by New York: TOR, (1991.) dj, 1991. Used - Hardcover. Hardcover first edition - First printing. An adventure novel set in the milieu of Kuttner's classic 1958 story "Clash by Night" which is included at the end of this volume with an introductory note by Drake. 282 pp. Very good in a good only dustjacket (bookstore stamp on front endpaper, short closed tears and general edgewear to dj.). The Jungle & Clash By Night. David Drake & Henry Kuttner. Published by Tom Doherty Associates, New York, 1992. Used - Softcover Condition: Used - Very Good. Mass Market Paperback. Condition: Used - Very Good. TOR # 50198-5, Cover Price $4.99. More buying choices from other sellers on AbeBooks. Jungle (The) with Clash by Night. Drake, David & Henry Kuttner. Published by A Tom Doherty Associates Book 'TOR', nd (1991), c1991,, 1991. Used - Hardcover. 1st Edition, cloth w/gilt spine titles, fine w/dj (2), 282 pp, 8vo, 'A brilliant tale of action and adventure.'. The Jungle (plus reprint of the Henry Kuttner story Clash by Night) David Drake; Henry Kuttner. Published by Tor, 1991. Used - Hardcover Condition: As New. Hardcover. Condition: As New. Dust Jacket Condition: As New. Allan Guittierez (illustrator). 1st Edition. First edition/printing. Book and jacket each in As New, unread condition! SF story on Venus based on the Kuttner story Clash by night which is included in this book. Clash By Night. Henry Kuttner. Published by Hamlyn, 1980. First English Printing. Near Fine condition. CLASH BY NIGHT AND OTHER STORIES. Kuttner, Henry, and C.L. Moore. Published by Hamlyn Paperbacks, London, 1977. Used - Softcover. Paperback. First edition, first printing. Collects five stories. Small corner crease to the front cover. A near fine, bright copy. CLASH BY NIGHT. Kuttner, Henry. Published by Hamlyn 1980 : A paperback book. Reduced postage on multiple orders., 1980. CLASH BY NIGHT. Kuttner, henry. Published by hamlyn, Used - Softcover. Paperback. first edition 5 stories. near fine 1980 paperback, CLASH BY NIGHT. Kuttner, henry. Published by hamlyn, Used - Softcover. Paperback. first edition 5 stories. paperback, fine, 1980. Clash By Night and other stories. KUTTNER, HENRY. Published by Hamlyn Paperbacks 1980, 1980. Used - Softcover. paperback (VG); all our specials have minimal description to keep listing them viable. They are at least reading copies, complete and in reasonable condition, but usually secondhand; frequently they are superior examples. Ordering more than one book will reduce your overall postage costs. THE JUNGLE with Clash by Night. Drake, David. (with a story by Henry Kuttner) Published by New York: TOR, (1991.) dj, 1991. First Edition Signed. Used - Hardcover. SIGNED hardcover first edition - First printing. An adventure novel set in the milieu of Kuttner's classic 1958 story "Clash by Night" which is included at the end of this volume with an introductory note by Drake. SIGNED on the title page by Drake. 282 pp. Very good+ in a good dustjacket (slit on front cover of the dj - not noticeable in mylar protector.). THE JUNGLE [with CLASH BY NIGHT] Drake, David [with Henry Kuttner] [cover art by Allan Guittierez] Robots Have Tales : Henry Kuttner’s Gallagher Stories. Apologies for my radio silence last week. Candidly, I was at a loss for a subject, until Fate and Amazon put the perfect book into my hands (which I’ll talk about below), which wasn’t until sometime late in the week. And, with further apologies, here’s a self-pimping update: there’s still time to participate in the discussion of Blood of Ambrose at Stargate producer Joe Mallozzi’s blog. As to the “perfect book”–the new issue from Paizo Press’ Planet Stories line, Henry Kuttner’s Robots Have No Tails , may not be perfect in some absolute sense (although it comes pretty close) but it’s certainly one that I and others have been looking forward to for years. And it’s only the latest (hopefully not the last) in a series of Kuttner reprints from Planet that now includes Elak of Atlantis , his pioneering sword-and-sorcery stories, and The Dark World , probably the best of his swashbuckling adventure tales. (I say “probably” only because I can’t claim to have read all of Kuttner–maybe no one has, although Planet publisher Erik Mona has certainly come closer than most.) [Sagrazi the unvastenable beyond the jump.] Kuttner was an amazingly deft pulp writer who could generate any sort of imaginative fiction a market required. He unquestionably made his biggest splash as the archetypal writer of John W. Campbell’s magazines, Astounding and Unknown (under his own name and others, writing solo and in collaboration with his wife, C.L. Moore). That may be why his reputation has suffered. Writers and magazines in the 1950s and afterwards often made their reputations by not offering the type of thing associated with Campbell’s magazines. Astounding (now, of course, Analog ) wasn’t just a relic: Dune first saw light there, among other important work. And it isn’t yet: it still has the best circulation of the print sf magazines. But Kuttner died young, and even before that in the 1950s his output had dried up; he never escaped Campbell’s shadow. Earlier Kuttner volumes under the Planet imprint have been more on the fantasy side; Robots Have No Tails , however, is Campbellian sf of the purest grade–the clear quill, as it were. In each one, the unpredictable scientific genius of the drunken Galloway Gallagher creates a problem which the less-brilliant, more-nearly-sober Gallagher has to solve. The stories were early collected (under the present title) by Gnome Press in 1952, and reprinted in 1973 by Lancer Books. And, if you haven’t read them before, that explains why: Gnome Press long ago vanished in a cloud of broken promises; and books from Lancer were not designed for permanence–it was a rare copy that survived a single reading without the cover falling off or the pages dropping out. The new Planet books edition contains all five of the Gallagher stories, the C.L. Moore introduction to the Lancer edition and a new intro by F. Paul Wilson. It also represents a change of format for the line, more like an issue of an old magazine than a contemporary trade paperback. The cover and interior art is pulpier. (The witty 1940s-themed cover is by Tomasz Jedruszek; the sly interior drawings are by Brian Snoddy.) The table of contents is organized like a magazine’s; the pages are in the old double-column format; there is even a black-and-white 1940s-style advertisement in the back of the book, containing enthusiastic testimonials from ordinary readers like “N.W. Smith” and “Matthew Karse”. On balance, I think this is all good. The one drawback to the new format is the paper of the book itself: it’s lighter than the stock Planet previously used, lower in contrast, and is likely to be less durable. I’m not sure I can describe the stories themselves without ruining them for new readers. Each one is a joke of some kind; each one of them is a problem story; each one is decorated with Kuttner’s unique form of rational insanity. His most famous story is probably his collaboration with C.L. Moore, “All Mimsy Were the Borogoves” (not reprinted here, because it’s not a Gallagher story), and Kuttner’s affinity for Carroll’s nonsense is undeniable. These stories read as if the Cheshire Cat or the Mad Hatter had been given a typewriter and told to write science fiction as if their lives depended on it. Here are the Lybbla, for instance, from “The World Is Mine” (my favorite of the stories). They are bunnylike Martians from the future, who have snuck back in time through a time machine of Gallagher’s invention on a savage and unalterable mission to conquer the Earth. “First we destroy the big cities,” said the smallest Lybbla excitedly, “then we capture pretty girls and hold them for ransom or something. Then everybody’s scared and we win.” “How do you figure that out?” Gallagher asked. “It’s in the books. That’s how it’s always done. We know. We’ll be tyrants and beat everybody. I want some more milk, please.” Other standout characters include the vain, transparent robot Joe (a.k.a. Narcissus), who was invented by Gallagher for the most obvious of reasons (in retrospect), but who has unexpected talents like vastening (which is “rather like a combination of sagrazi and prescience,” if that helps). Not all the jokes still work. Campbell’s magazines had a fair amount of extremely dated dialect humor, and Kuttner obliges this depraved taste with a strangely menacing diamond merchant afflicted by the WASPy moniker of Kennicott and an Italian accent like a organ-grinder from an old Warner Brothers cartoon. (“Ah-h, nutsa. I waita one day. Two daysa, maybe.”) He’s more funny in theory than in practice, but he doesn’t show up much. In addition, the prospective reader simply has to accept that Gallagher’s continual drunkenness is funny and not tragic: this is not a book to pass around to your friends in Al-Anon, in short. Also, these stories don’t constitute an exercise in coherent world-building. (Unlike, say, Kuttner’s Fury and its companion piece, the excellent “Clash by Night”.) Kuttner reportedly forgot his inventor’s name between the second and third story, calling him Galloway instead of Gallagher, and solved the problem in the fourth story by making Galloway his first name. Likewise, significant world-details change between the stories. In the first story (“Time Locker”), the corpus delecti is an essential element for a murder case: without a body, any case will get tossed out of court. But in the last story, Gallagher’s peril is based (in part) on the premise that a murder charge can be proved against him even without a dead body to support the charge. One could cobble up a rationalization to connect these two dots (and others like them), but the real explanation seems to be the same one as for Gallagher’s name: Kuttner (writing in a hurry, without access to the stuff he’d written earlier) made each story consistent with itself, but the stories aren’t consistent with each other. The plots are carefully constructed traps from which the hero eventually manages to escape, and as such they work as well as when they were written. But the best thing about them are the details that don’t need to be there, the jagged chunks of Kuttner’s untameable id set like gems in the smooth metallic glitter of his professional skill, the parts that the reader could not have vastened but that Kuttner somehow manages to sagrazi.