James Blish Books

Two early collections from Mr. Blish. Each is a first paperback printing, from 1959. THE SEEDLING The galaxy is full of planets, but almost none are suitable for settlement by Earthly humanity. Thus the Seeding Ships which are little more than gigantic biochemical and biophysical laboratories are sent out, with a large supply of human germ plasm. On each world they visit, they leave behind modified human forms, sometimes modified out of all resemblance to the person next to you, to claim the hostile planet in the name of "humanity." GALACTIC CLUSTERNine stories, most of them longer ones, demonstrating Blish-in-the-Fifties. Some great stuff here! I particularly recommend *Beep.* . Tomb Tapper [Astounding, 1956]. King of the Hill [Infinity, 1955]. Common Time [SF Quarterly, August 1953]. A Work of Art [SF Stories, July 1956]. To Pay the Piper [IF, 1956]. Nor Iron Bars [Infinity, 1956-7]. BEEP [Galaxy, 1954]. This Earth of Hours [F&SF, June 1959]

In the year 2794, the greatest civilisation in Earth's history, ravaged by over-population and lack of food, faces almost certain destruction. A handful of men and women struggle desperately to avert the coming holocaust, but they seem doomed to failure. And even if they succeed, Earth will never be the same again . . .

Features 27 stories adapted from Star Trek's landmark first season.

The famous skyline still stood, the skyscrapers still towered—it was New York City—a million miles from earth!In a millennium of anti-death pills and spindizzy fields, earth's cities one by one leave the worn-out planet to find new wealth among unknown stars. . . .

A bored weapons entrepreneur enlists the greatest black magician of all time to perform a magical feat of stupendous proportions, and only one man--a simple Italian monk--feels the imminent danger. But the holy man must stand and watch helplessly as the magician unleashes the most powerful demons of Hell onto an unsuspecting world.

A novel about a practitioner of witchcraft who is asked to use his powers to kill a powerful politician

Contents:· Science Fiction the Hard Way · Robert A. W. Lowndes · in · Citadel of Thought · ss Stirring Science Stories Feb ’41 · The Box · ss Thrilling Wonder Stories Apr ’49 · There Shall Be No Darkness · nv Thrilling Wonder Stories Apr ’50 · Surface Tension [Lavon] · na The Seedling Stars, James Blish, Gnome, 1956; revised from “Sunken Universe”, Super Science Stories May ’42 and “Surface Tension”, Galaxy Aug ’52. · Testament of Andros · nv Future Jan ’53 · Common Time · ss Science Fiction Quarterly Aug ’53 · Beep · nv Galaxy Feb ’54 · A Work of Art [“Art-Work”] · nv Science Fiction Stories Jul ’56 · This Earth of Hours · nv F&SF Jun ’59 · The Oath · nv F&SF Oct ’60 · How Beautiful with Banners · ss Orbit 1, ed. Damon Knight, Berkley Medallion, 1966 · A Style in Treason [expanded from “A Hero’s Life”, Impulse Mar ’66] · nv Galaxy Jun ’70 · Probapossible Prolegomena to Ideareal History · William Atheling, Jr. · aw Foundation May ’78

Ninth in a series of Star Trek: The Original Series episode adaptations. Includes six stories: Return To Tomorrow, The Ultimate Computer, That Which Survives, Obsession, The Return Of The Archons, The Immunity Syndrome.(from the back cover)Explore the outer reaches with the Enterprise and her crew as they exchange bodies with an alien intelligence; engage in deadly war games; pursue a vaporous creature to a desolate planet; and probe a fearsome zone of darkness that threatens to destroy them all.

This story explores a future in which two discoveries - antigravity devices which allow cities to become spaceships, and drugs which let people live for thousands of years - lead to a unique Galactic empire.

Blish created a trilogy, each volume of which dealt with an aspect of the price of knowledge, & gave it the overall name of After Such Knowledge (from a T.S. Eliot quote). The 1st published, A Case of Conscience (winner of the '59 Hugo Award as well as 2004/1953 Retrospective Hugo for Best Novella), showed a Jesuit priest confronted with an intelligent alien species, apparently unfallen, which he eventually concludes must be a Satanic fabrication. The 2nd, Doctor Mirabilis, is a historical novel about the medieval proto-scientist Roger Bacon. The 3rd, actually two short novels, Black Easter & The Day After Judgment, was written using the assumption that the ritual magic for summoning demons as described in grimoires actually worked. In that book, a powerful industrialist & arms merchant arranges to call up demons in the midst of a modern world crisis, resulting in nuclear war & the destruction of civilization. Black Easter is devoted to that element of the plot; The Day After Judgment is devoted to exploring the consequences of the destruction of the world, with an extraordinary ending in both narrative & theological terms.