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A Logic Named Joe |
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edited by Eric Flint & Guy Gordon introduction by Barry Malzberg Baen, New York: 2004 |
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600 pages |
June 2006 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A Logic Named Joe is a wonder-filled omnibus collection of Murray Leinster, not least because it includes The Pirates of Zan, one of my lifelong favorite novels — the perfect space-pirate novel. Altogether there are three novels and three short pieces, first published from 1935 to 1964; one of the novels is fantasy, all the other entries are science fiction:
This is a rather different cross-section of Murray Leinster's work than in other recent big collections of Leinster: First Contacts (from NESFA), or Planets of Adventure (from Baen), or the series collection Med Ship (from Baen). All of these collections are very worth reading, but for an introduction to Leinster, I think I'd advise starting with this book, A Logic Named Joe. Except for The Duplicators which is late-written and rather a filler, the stories herein all are excellent and unusual. Baen does their usual thoughtful service of providing the stories' publishing history, with original magazine dates and alternate titles. Few publishers bother with this, or strive to get it correct. (We leave aside those who falsely trumpet "first time in paperback" and similar mispackaging.) A worthwhile and distinctive assortment: innovative, thoughtful, and funny — often at the same time. I highly recommend it.
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© 2006 Robert Wilfred Franson |
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