The Other Worlds Explained

The Other Worlds
Author:Phil Stong, ed.
Country:United States
Language:English
Publisher:Wilfred Funk
Release Date:1941
Media Type:Print (Hardback)
Pages:466 pp

The Other Worlds is an anthology of science fiction, fantasy, and horror edited by Phil Stong. It was originally published by Wilfred Funk in 1941, with a lower-price edition following from Garden City Publishing a year later.[1] The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction describes it as "the first important sf Anthology".;[2] it remains in the collection of nearly 200 academic libraries in 2015.[3]

Contents

Notes

"The Comedy of Eras" originally appeared under the Kelvin Kent byline. "The Adaptive Ultimate" originally appeared under the byline "John Jessel". "John Flanders" is a pen name for the author more wifely known by his other pseudonym of Jean Ray.[4]

Reception

Kirkus Reviews described The Other Worlds as "[e]ntertainment from sources usually high-hatted by the literati," and noting that " The best of them are well written, with good plots and ideas; the rest smack of their [pulp] sources."[5] Unknown Worldss pseudonymous reviewer recommended the anthology as "a lot of book for the money", noting that "it contains a number of good, forceful, entertaining stories.[6] A reviewer for Thrilling Wonder Stories praised the book, saying "the average tale in this volume is of a very high order" while noting its editor's aversion to "interplanetary yarns".[7] A reviewer in Future Science Fiction received the anthology quite unfavorably, calling it an "opus malodorous" and complaining that "most of the selections are weird stories of varying mediocrity."[8]

Critic Brian Stableford noted that Stong had compiled "the first anthology of fantastic fiction to feature a significant sample of stories from the sf magazines" and that the editor has "deliberately excluded 'interplanetary fiction' from the showcase and included an editorial railing against the imbecility and intrinsic worthlessness of fiction of that sort."[9]

Notes and References

  1. http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?34899 ISFDB bibliography
  2. http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/stong_phil SF Encyclopedia
  3. https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1188010 WorldCat listing
  4. http://www.philsp.com/homeville/isfac/t207.htm#A3767 Index to Science Fiction Anthologies and Collections
  5. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/phil-ed-stong/the-other-worlds/ Kirkus Reviews, May 1, 1941
  6. "Book Review", Unknown Worlds, February 1942, p.112
  7. "Book Review", Thrilling Wonder Stories, October 1941, p.13
  8. "Futurian Times", Future Science Fiction, December 1941, p.90. The anonymous review was ascribed to Donald A. Wollheim by the Unknown Worlds reviewer.
  9. Brian Stableford, Narrative Strategies in Science Fiction, Wildside Press, 2009, p.20

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