Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
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Wow.
I've read a ton of Henry Kuttner's work, and consider him one of the very best authors I've explored extensively since kicking off the Planet Stories project.
But up until tonight, I'd never had a chance to read his very first story, "The Graveyard Rats."
I am still creeped out thinking about it. It's one of the most effective horror short stories I've ever read.
I found it in a beautiful hardcover from Centipede Press called "Two-Handed Engine: The Selected Stories of Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore," which I recently picked up from Half-Price Books. I think there may be a SFBC version available.
If you have this or can get it, I strongly suggest checking it out. It's filled with great stories, but this one in particular is a doozy.
And, if you haven't had a chance yet, please check out the Planet Stories editions of:
Elak of Atlantis
The Dark World
&
Robots Have No Tails
He really is quite good.
Robots Have No Tails blew me away. The stories were fun, each had a clever point to make, and while I can't describe what the components were, I could recognize the skill with which they were written. I was impressed enough that I skipped a whole heap of items on my "to read" pile and followed up with "The Dark World". It made me realize how tired I've been getting of "epics". Definitely not something that was going to change my life, but a perfect example of a rousing good yarn and great way to spend a couple of hours. Kind of like interrupting a long campaign to play a good one-shot.
I have to say, discovering Kuttner thanks to you, makes me much more likely to try some of the other pulp authors I'm not familiar with.
So thanks!
Sure, that one is one of the best every horror stories.
Mr Mona
kuttner truly is a great auther and he can write horror action and funny stuff all at once
i read the salem horror one of kuttners cthulu stories and found it to be very creepy
i read the world is mine in robots have no tales late one night and laughed so hard i woke my dad up
im just not sure what to get next
elak
or the dark world
Mr Mona
kuttner truly is a great auther and he can write horror action and funny stuff all at once
i read the salem horror one of kuttners cthulu stories and found it to be very creepy
i read the world is mine in robots have no tales late one night and laughed so hard i woke my dad up
im just not sure what to get next
elak
or the dark world
Dark World FTW. Elak is cool, with more of a classic feel and probably more historical significance for the genre, but Dark World is my favorite Kuttner book to date.
I agree about the "Graveyard Rats", it's a great story. I also like some of the stories Kuttner did for Weird Tales, as he usually included some very dark humor and genuinely surprising twist endings. Such as one that makes you think that this fine young city couple are going to be eaten by this family of (rather over-the-top) deranged cannibal hillbillies... only to reveal that the hillbillies weren't the killers, the two kids were. "We just wanted to tell you, we always knew you weren't the vampires. How do we know? Because we are."
And there was the classic 'A Gnome There Was'.
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Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
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I'm on vacation this week (so naturally I'm posting to the Paizo boards), and I've had a chance to read a lot of Kuttner while stranded at airports and on planes. So far I've read the following novels and stories, none of which have (to my knowledge) ever been reprinted:
Way of the Gods
The Power and the Glory
Atomic!
A God Named Kroo
The first one reads like Stan Lee must have read it before launching the X-Men (it came out about 20 years earlier). It deals with a team of mutants that includes a guy with wings, a psychic, a cyclops, and a guy who shoots death rays out of his eyes. Hmmmm. (Grade: B+)
The Power and the Glory is the story of a secret world on top of an Alaskan mountain. Lots of great descriptive writing an a tragic ending. Excellent work in the tradition of A. Merritt, but with Kuttner's sense of plotting and underlying wit. (Grade: A-)
Atomic! is a five-chapter novelet that involves a giant mutated lake and mind control. Both Marion Zimmer Bradley and Lin Carter praised the story heavily in the pages of Thrilling Wonder Stories a few months after it came out. It is exceedingly excellent. (Grade: A)
A God Name Kroo is a "funny" Kuttner story, in the vein of the Gallagher stories or the aforementioned Hogben hillbilly mutant family stories. I'm still reading this one, but it's light and amusing so far. It's set in the east during World War 2, and contains some passages that seem awfully dated if not a bit racist by today's standards (remember, even Superman said it was "Ok to slap a Jap!" back then, so perspectives have changed a lot for the better in 65 years). I'm still reading it, but it's basically "American Gods" a few years before Neil Gaiman was even born. As usual, Kuttner is decades ahead of the pack. (Grade: Incomplete, but at least a solid B)
I picked up two more obscure Kuttner stories today in some old paperback anthologies, and will report on them soon!
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The first one reads like Stan Lee must have read it before launching the X-Men (it came out about 20 years earlier). It deals with a team of mutants that includes a guy with wings, a psychic, a cyclops, and a guy who shoots death rays out of his eyes. Hmmmm. (Grade: B+)
I wonder how long it takes for people to wait for their time to rob others that are long gone and dead. I suppose I should say that there is the idea, and then there is the full application of that idea. Whether it was Kuttner or Stan Lee, those iconics will live forever and inspire everyone, that isn't all bad I guess.
Sort of like George Lucas and the lawsuit against him for strip mining the ideas from the Dune series.
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I found it in a beautiful hardcover from Centipede Press called "Two-Handed Engine: The Selected Stories of Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore," which I recently picked up from Half-Price Books. I think there may be a SFBC version available.
I'm going to put this one on my list of potential Christmas presents.
I'm on vacation this week (so naturally I'm posting to the Paizo boards), and I've had a chance to read a lot of Kuttner while stranded at airports and on planes. So far I've read the following novels and stories, none of which have (to my knowledge) ever been reprinted:
Way of the Gods
The Power and the Glory
Atomic!
A God Named Kroo
The proto-X-Men story sounds interesting, he did like that sort of thing a little.
Of those, only read Atomic - which was average.
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Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
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Given he is on vacation, I can assume he went to his hometown where I have seen a bookstore that is more like an archive of everything ever written for science fiction. I could be wrong.
You are correct. There are actually a couple of them.
I am obsessed with used book stores, but most of this Kuttner stuff comes in the form of pulp magazines (my personal collection of which includes about 100 specimens so far). I collect specific authors, with Kuttner being on top of the list right now.
A great many of the Kuttner pulps in my collection were harvested at World Con last year, with a few more at World Fantasy (where I'll be headed again in a couple of weeks).
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Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
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I'm on vacation this week (so naturally I'm posting to the Paizo boards), and I've had a chance to read a lot of Kuttner while stranded at airports and on planes. So far I've read the following novels and stories, none of which have (to my knowledge) ever been reprinted:
Way of the Gods
The Power and the Glory
Atomic!
A God Named KrooThe proto-X-Men story sounds interesting, he did like that sort of thing a little.
Of those, only read Atomic - which was average.
I thought Atmoic was quite better than average. I enjoyed the unreliable narrator aspect of it, and thought it was a fun short story. Certainly not on the level of "The Graveyard Rats," but still good.
I finished A God Named Kroo last night. It's fun, a solid B. I'd rank the stories like this:
The Power and the Glory
Way of the Gods
Atomic
A God Named Kroo
But all four were fun to read.
So far I've only read one Kuttner story I thought was below C level, and it was more of a three-page spurt of doggerel meant to come off like a Lord Dunsany story.
Everything else has ranged from decent to incredible.
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Given he is on vacation, I can assume he went to his hometown where I have seen a bookstore that is more like an archive of everything ever written for science fiction. I could be wrong.You are correct. There are actually a couple of them.
I am obsessed with used book stores, but most of this Kuttner stuff comes in the form of pulp magazines (my personal collection of which includes about 100 specimens so far). I collect specific authors, with Kuttner being on top of the list right now.
A great many of the Kuttner pulps in my collection were harvested at World Con last year, with a few more at World Fantasy (where I'll be headed again in a couple of weeks).
After being there and seeing Uncle Hugos, I realize that 100 pulp magazines in this gendre is insignificant. No, just about nothing. I can see how anyone would be humbled by such vastness. I am still in disbelief that such a thing actually exists. It is always what I thought a city was for, specialty on a grand scale.
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Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
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Actually, Uncle Hugos has pathetically few pulps, perhaps fewer than a dozen or so. Of course, if you count _digest_ magazines, they have hundreds, but those things are like bad pennies. No one likes them, and they seldom have much nostalgic value.
What Uncle Hugos DOES have is vintage paperbacks and hardcovers in the extreme. More than I've ever seen just about anywhere. They have whole stacks of books that go higher than your knees, with a little folded piece of paper on the top that says something like "Robert Silverberg" or "C.J. Cherryh" or what have you.
It's pretty amazing.
But the pulps? I have several different sources for those. :)
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Actually, Uncle Hugos has pathetically few pulps, perhaps fewer than a dozen or so. Of course, if you count _digest_ magazines, they have hundreds, but those things are like bad pennies. No one likes them, and they seldom have much nostalgic value.
Aha! Then I was looking at the bad pennies. And that was a lot of bad pennies!
I thought Atmoic was quite better than average. I enjoyed the unreliable narrator aspect of it, and thought it was a fun short story. Certainly not on the level of "The Graveyard Rats," but still good.Everything else has ranged from decent to incredible.
There's a lot of decent, certainly. Not so much on the incredible though, for Kuttner. The Graveyard Rats approaches that end.
Although I've read a lot more SF stories than you have - and my scale takes them all into account, so we may look at it differently.
SF-N-3.0 Kuttner, Henry and C. L. Moore : Beyond Earth's Gates
SF-N-3.0 Kuttner, Henry and C. L. Moore : Chessboard Planet
SF-S-3.0 Kuttner, Henry and C. L. Moore : The Cure
SF-N-4.0 Kuttner, Henry and C. L. Moore : Destination Infinity - FREE
SF-N-2.5 Kuttner, Henry and C. L. Moore : Earth's Last Citadel
SF-S-3.0 Kuttner, Henry and C. L. Moore : Ex Machina
SF-N-3.0 Kuttner, Henry and C. L. Moore : The Fairy Chessmen
SF-N-3.0 Kuttner, Henry and C. L. Moore : The Far Reality
SF-N-4.0 Kuttner, Henry and C. L. Moore : Fury - FREE
SF-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry and C. L. Moore : Home Is the Hunter - FREE
SF-S-3.0 Kuttner, Henry and C. L. Moore : Home There's No Returning
SF-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry and C. L. Moore : Jesting Pilot
SF-S-4.5 Kuttner, Henry and C. L. Moore : Mimsy Were the Borogoves - FREE
SF-S-3.0 Kuttner, Henry and C. L. Moore : Open Secret
SF-S-3.0 Kuttner, Henry and C. L. Moore : Paradise Street
SF-N-3.0 Kuttner, Henry and C. L. Moore : The Portal In the Picture
SF-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry and C. L. Moore : The Prisoner In the Skull
SF-S-3.0 Kuttner, Henry and C. L. Moore : Project
SF-S-5.0 Kuttner, Henry and C. L. Moore : Quest Of the Starstone
SF-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry and C. L. Moore : Rain Check
SU-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry and C. L. Moore : Rite Of Passage
SF-S-3.0 Kuttner, Henry and C. L. Moore : This Is the House
SF-S-4.0 Kuttner, Henry and C. L. Moore : Vintage Season
SF-S-4.0 Kuttner, Henry and C. L. Moore : We Kill People
SF-S-3.0 Kuttner, Henry and C. L. Moore : Wild Surmise
SH-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry and Robert Bloch : Grab Bag
SF-S-3.0 Kuttner, Henry : 50 Miles Down
SF-S-3.0 Kuttner, Henry : Absalom - FREE
SF-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : Android
SF-S-3.0 Kuttner, Henry : Atomic
SF-S-2.0 Kuttner, Henry : Avengers Of Space
SF-S-3.0 Kuttner, Henry : Baby Face
SF-S-4.0 Kuttner, Henry : Beauty and the Beast
SF-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : Beggars In Velvet - FREE
SF-C-4.0 Kuttner, Henry : The Best Of Henry Kuttner
SF-C-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : The Best Of Kuttner 1
SO-S-3.0 Kuttner, Henry : Beyond the Phoenix
SF-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : The Big Night
SF-S-3.0 Kuttner, Henry : The Bloodless Peril
SU-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : By These Presents
SF-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : Call Him Demon
SF-S-2.0 Kuttner, Henry : Carry Me Home
SF-S-2.5 Kuttner, Henry : Children's Hour
SO-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : The Citadel Of Darkness
SF-C-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : Clash By Night
SF-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : Clash By Night - FREE
SF-S-3.0 Kuttner, Henry : Cold War
SF-R-2.5 Kuttner, Henry : The Creature From Beyond Infinity 1 - FREE
SF-R-2.5 Kuttner, Henry : The Creature From Beyond Infinity 2 - FREE
SF-R-2.5 Kuttner, Henry : The Creature From Beyond Infinity 3 - FREE
SF-R-2.5 Kuttner, Henry : The Creature From Beyond Infinity 4 - FREE
SF-R-2.5 Kuttner, Henry : The Creature From Beyond Infinity 5 - FREE
SF-R-2.5 Kuttner, Henry : The Creature From Beyond Infinity 6 - FREE
SF-R-2.5 Kuttner, Henry : The Creature From Beyond Infinity 7 - FREE
SF-N-2.5 Kuttner, Henry : The Creature From Beyond Infinity - FREE
SF-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : A Cross Of Centuries
SO-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : Cursed Be the City
SF-S-3.0 Kuttner, Henry : Dark Dawn
SO-N-4.0 Kuttner, Henry : The Dark World - FREE
SF-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : The Disinherited
SF-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : Don't Look Now - FREE
SF-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : Dr. Cyclops
SO-S-4.0 Kuttner, Henry : Dragon Moon
SF-S-3.0 Kuttner, Henry : The Ego Machine
SO-C-4.0 Kuttner, Henry : Elak Of Atlantis
SF-S-3.0 Kuttner, Henry : The Elixir Of Invisibility
SF-S-3.0 Kuttner, Henry : Endowment Policy
SF-S-3.0 Kuttner, Henry : Exit the Professor
SF-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : The Eyes Of Thar
SF-S-3.0 Kuttner, Henry : Gallegher Plus
SU-S-3.0 Kuttner, Henry : Ghost
SU-S-4.0 Kuttner, Henry : A Gnome There Was
SH-S-4.5 Kuttner, Henry : The Graveyard Rats
SF-S-3.0 Kuttner, Henry : Happy Ending
SF-S-3.0 Kuttner, Henry : Hercules Muscles In
SU-S-4.0 Kuttner, Henry : Housing Problem
SF-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : Humpty Dumpty - FREE
SH-S-4.0 Kuttner, Henry : I The Vampire
SF-S-3.0 Kuttner, Henry : Improbability
SF-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : The Iron Standard
SF-S-3.0 Kuttner, Henry : Juke-box
SF-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : Later Than You Think
SF-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : Line To Tomorrow - FREE
SF-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : The Lion and the Unicorn - FREE
SF-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : Margin For Error
SF-N-2.5 Kuttner, Henry : A Million Years To Conquer - FREE
SF-S-3.0 Kuttner, Henry : The Misguided Halo
SF-C-4.5 Kuttner, Henry : Mutant - FREE
SF-S-3.0 Kuttner, Henry : Noon
SF-S-3.0 Kuttner, Henry : Nothing But Gingerbread Left
SF-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : Or Else
SF-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : Piggy Bank
SF-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : The Piper's Son - FREE
SF-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : The Power and the Glory
SF-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : Private Eye
SF-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : The Proud Robot
SF-S-3.0 Kuttner, Henry : Reader I Hate You
SF-S-3.0 Kuttner, Henry : Red Gem Of Mercury - FREE
SF-C-2.5 Kuttner, Henry : Return To Otherness
SF-C-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : Robots Have No Tails
SH-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : The Secret Of Kralitz
SF-S-2.5 Kuttner, Henry : See You Later
SH-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : The Shadow On the Screen
SF-S-3.0 Kuttner, Henry : Shock
SF-S-2.5 Kuttner, Henry : The Sky Is Falling
SO-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : The Spawn of Dagon
SF-S-3.0 Kuttner, Henry : Sword Of Tomorrow
SF-S-3.0 Kuttner, Henry : This Is the House
SF-S-4.0 Kuttner, Henry : Three Blind Mice - FREE
SO-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : Thunder In the Dawn
SF-N-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : The Time Axis - FREE
SF-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : Time Enough
SF-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : Time Locker
SF-S-3.0 Kuttner, Henry : The Time Trap
SF-S-4.0 Kuttner, Henry : Two-Handed Engine
SF-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : The Twonky
SF-N-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : Valley Of the Flame - FREE
SF-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : The Voice Of the Lobster
SU-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : We Are the Dead
SF-S-4.0 Kuttner, Henry : We Guard the Black Planet!
SF-N-3.0 Kuttner, Henry : The Well Of the Worlds
SU-S-3.0 Kuttner, Henry : Wet Magic
SF-S-4.0 Kuttner, Henry : What Hath Me?
SF-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : What You Need
SF-S-3.5 Kuttner, Henry : When the Bough Breaks
SF-S-4.0 Kuttner, Henry : The World Is Mine
SF-S-3.0 Kuttner, Henry : World Without Air
SF-S-3.0 Kuttner, Henry : Year Day
Keeping track of whether something is Kuttner or Kuttner/Moore is way beyond me, I pretty much just put down whatever was in the book or website etc. I happened to be reading when I got to it!
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Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
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Hey, Tyson, you should read the story entitled "Home is the Hunter". There's also one called "Camouflage" that's really quite good. Both are in a collection called "Ahead of Time" that includes several of the other stories on your list ("Year Day," "Ghost," etc.) that I didn't think were quite as good.
Everyone loves John Campbell, but a part of me thinks he made science fiction a lot more boring. Some of the "best" Kuttner stories, according to public opinion 25 years ago, aren't nearly as fun as some of his pulpier stuff.
What did you think of The Power and the Glory? I quite enjoyed it.
Also, what do the codes mean on the list of stories you posted?
Hey, Tyson, you should read the story entitled "Home is the Hunter". There's also one called "Camouflage" that's really quite good. Both are in a collection called "Ahead of Time" that includes several of the other stories on your list ("Year Day," "Ghost," etc.) that I didn't think were quite as good.
Everyone loves John Campbell, but a part of me thinks he made science fiction a lot more boring. Some of the "best" Kuttner stories, according to public opinion 25 years ago, aren't nearly as fun as some of his pulpier stuff.
What did you think of The Power and the Glory? I quite enjoyed it.
Also, what do the codes mean on the list of stories you posted?
Home is the Hunter is certainly good.
Thanks for the collection tip, never come across that one.
As for codes, sorry, here :-
NOT FREE SF READER AND FREE SF READER GENRE AND RATING GUIDE
First Position
SH = Scary Horror
SF = Science Fiction
SI = Shootist
SO = Sorcery Fantasy
SU = Supernatural Fantasy
SL = Sleuth
SD = Soldier
SE = Speculative
SP = Sport
SY = Spy
ST = Study
SP = Superhero
SW = Swords
Second Position
N = Novel
C = Collection
A = Anthology
M = Magazine
O = Omnibus
S = Short Story
E = Excerpt
R = Serial
X = Non-Fiction
Third Position
Rating out of 5 stars
End Position
FREE after the work title indicates it was available free online at the time