How to get the 1943 Retro Hugo finalists, Part 1: Intro, Novels and Novellas: nwhyte

nwhyte

How to get the 1943 Retro Hugo finalists, Part 1: Intro, Novels and Novellas

Apr 08, 2018 17:50

The eighteen finalists in the three short fiction categories are:

Best Novella
* “Asylum,” by A.E. van Vogt
* “The Compleat Werewolf,” by Anthony Boucher
* “Hell is Forever,” by Alfred Bester
* “Nerves,” by Lester del Rey
* “The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag,” by Robert A. Heinlein
* “Waldo,” by Robert A. Heinlein
Best Novelette
* “Bridle and Saddle,” by Isaac Asimov
* “Foundation,” by Isaac Asimov
* “Goldfish Bowl,” by Robert A. Heinlein
* “The Star Mouse,” by Fredric Brown
* “There Shall Be Darkness,” by C.L. Moore
* “The Weapon Shop,” by A.E. van Vogt
Best Short Story
* “Etaoin Shrdlu,” by Fredric Brown
* “Mimic,” by Donald A. Wollheim
* “Proof,” by Hal Clement
* “Runaround,” by Isaac Asimov
* “The Sunken Land,” by Fritz Leiber
* “The Twonky,” by C.L. Moore and Henry Kuttner

Information from Carla has supplemented Cat's earlier list of those that are easy to find online. We now have free access to every single one of the short fiction finalist, but I also list below the books in which each finalist has been published, mostly out of print but accessible by the usual means - the Novellas in this post, and Novelettes here and Short Stories here.

NB also that five of the six finalists for Best Novel are available online:
Beyond This Horizon, by Anson MacDonald (Robert A. Heinlein): original Astounding publication, Part One, Part Two.
Darkness and the Light, by Olaf Stapledon, online for free at University of Adelaide.
Donovan's Brain by Curt Siodmak, Available for free on Scribd, if you can bear the annoying interface and if it's available in your country (it isn't in mine)
Second Stage Lensmen, by E. E. “Doc” Smith: original Astounding publication, Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four.
The Uninvited by Dorothy Macardle, Available for free on Scribd, if you can bear the annoying interface.

Going back to the short fiction, eight of the stories can be found in the anthology Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 4 (1942):

It includes “Asylum”, “Nerves”, “Foundation”, “The Star Mouse”, “The Weapon Shop”, “Mimic”, “Proof” and “The Twonky”.

All of these except “The Weapon Shop” can also be found in the much bigger anthology, Isaac Asimov Presents The Golden Years of Science Fiction: 2nd Series:

Similarly the famous Healy/McComas anthology, Adventures in Time and Space, includes five of them:

The stories here are “Asylum”, “Nerves”, “The Star Mouse”, “The Weapon Shop” and “The Twonky”.

The first volume of Isaac Asimov's famous Foundation seies, itself just called Foundation, includes the novelettes "Foundation" (re-titled "The Encyclopedists") and "Bridle and Saddle" (re-titled "The Mayors").

The two Heinlein novellas, “The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag” and “Waldo”, can both be found in The Fantasies of Robert A. Heinlein:

They can also both be found in New Worlds to Conquer, the 34th volume of the Virginia Edition of Heinlein's complete works. The volume itself doesn't seem to be available separately and the entire collection costs $1500. (That's $1800 if you are outside the USA.)

The two Frederic Brown stories are both in The Fredric Brown Megapack: 33 Classic Tales of Science Fiction and Fantasy.

If you had been buying the magazines as they came out in 1942, you would have scored double with:

the February 1942 issue of Unknown Worlds, which included “Etaoin Shrdlu” and “The Sunken Land”;
the March 1942 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, which included “Goldfish Bowl” and “Runaround”;
the May 1942 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, which included “Asylum” and “Foundation”;
the June 1942 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, which included “Bridle and Saddle” and “Proof”; and
the September 1942 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, which included “Nerves” and “The Twonky”.

Otherwise the stories are available as follows:

Novellas

“Asylum,” by A.E. van Vogt