James Nicoll Reviews

Brian W. Aldiss’ 1976 Galactic Empires Volume One and Volume Two delivers what the title promises: two anthologies whose unifying theme is galactic empires.

Almost all of the stories could be considered vintage even by the standards of 1976.

Galactic Empires was well suited for my purposes this week, and not just because the two volumes fit nicely into the unused space in my shoulder bag.

I was working as an Information Assistant in the recent Ontario election. Polling stations often have long quiet times. It’s good to have something to read. However, it should not be so enthralling that one does not notice approaching voters, nor should the cover be so enticing that someone walks off with the book should one leave it unattended on a table. In retrospect, the cover of volume one was more lurid than ideal¹, which meant I had to keep it face down on the table when I was reading².

Modern readers might be surprised at the almost complete lack of women in the two volumes (or they would be, if the books were not long out of print). Older readers, aware of Le Guin’s response to a later Aldiss-helmed anthology, will be less surprised.

I suspect that the two volumes were intended to be read back-to-back, as the two volumes are divided into three sections. The section titled Maturity or Bust is extended across both volumes³.

Each section is further divided into subsections marked with lower case ​“I”s, a stylistic choice that Aldiss might not have made if he’d had to struggle with Word.

VOLUME ONE

Introduction (Galactic Empires Volume One) • (1976) • essay by Brian W. Aldiss

Aldiss outlines his approach to galactic empires. The most important section might be this one:

You can, in other words, take these stories seriously. What you must not do is take them literally. Their authors didn’t. There’s a way of reading everything. 

None of these stories describe a plausible future. That’s not the point.

I remembered Volume Two as the stronger of the two. That’s not quite correct. Both have their weak stories (Foundation, in the absence of other material, Escape to Chaos, not to mention that terrible van Vogt story⁴) but both have works such as ​“Brightness Falls from the Sky” and ​“Final Encounter” that I enjoyed encountering again. It’s just that it happens that the enjoyable stories in Volume Two happened to align with my obsessions slightly more than the ones in volume one, which made them more memorable for me. Anyone who thinks either volume sounds interesting should keep an eye out for both.

Too bad both are long out of print.

SECTION 1: RISE AND SHINE

i

“A Sense of Perspective” • (1976) • essay by Brian W. Aldiss

Like each introductory essay, this entry has brief comments on the stories that follow.

“Been a Long, Long Time” • (1970) • short story by R. A. Lafferty

An attempt to convey how very long a very, very long time is.

“The Possessed” • (1953) • short story by Arthur C. Clarke

Aliens make a tragically flawed choice of terrestrial host.

This turns on the supposed fact that lemmings race into the ocean. This is only true when they are hurled by film hands standing just out of frame.

Aldiss references Olaf Stapledon in his general comments. ​“The Possessed” is one of the more Stapledonian takes.

“Protected Species” • (1951) • short story by H. B. Fyfe

Who built the ruins on an alien world? The ruins’ guardians are happy to explain.

“All the Way Back” • (1952) • short story by Michael Shaara

Humans venture to the stars, to find a destiny waiting that is, if not glorious, at least appropriate.

ii

“Wider Still and Wider…” • (1976) • essay by Brian W. Aldiss

More commentary.

The Star Plunderer • [Technic History] • (1952) • novelette by Poul Anderson

Alien slavers descent on decadent, weak Earth, little suspecting that their actions will provoke the rise of the TERRAN EMPIRE!

The guy does not get the girl. There are enough Anderson Guy Doesn’t Get the Girl stories for an anthology. I wonder why?

Foundation • [Foundation] • (1942) • novelette by Isaac Asimov

Endangered due to the slow collapse of the Empire, the Encyclopedists on distant Terminus discover the true reason that their science colony was founded.

Without the context of the other Foundation stories, this one seems oddly anti-climactic. Yet it seems to have been wildly popular back when.

“We’re Civilized!” • (1953) • short story by Alex Apostolides and Mark Clifton

Evil bastard humans are alarmed and outraged to be treated as they treated others.

Has there been a ​“KILL ALL HUMANS?” anthology? This would be a suitable selection.

SECTION TWO: MATURITY OR BUST

i

“Horses in the Starship Hold” • (1976) • essay by Brian W. Aldiss

More commentary on the stories that follow.

“The Crime and the Glory of Commander Suzdal” • [The Instrumentality of Mankind] • (1964) • short story by Cordwainer Smith

A starfarer commits an unforgivable sin in order to contain the threat posed by a planet of savage, unsavory, womanless men.

To put it very diplomatically, this story has aged poorly.

Smith was a fairly conservative Christian who nevertheless was stylistically ambitious in a way that seems utterly impossible for modern conservative writers.

“The Rebel of Valkyr” • (1950) • novella by Alfred Coppel

Power politics amongst the leaders of the barbarian heirs of a fallen empire.

The old empire built very well, which is why horse-riding barbarians still have functioning starships. In a way, this is not so far from the Morgaine stories: SF that reads like fantasy.

“Brightness Falls from the Air” • (1951) • short story by Margaret St. Clair [as by Idris Seabright]

A kind-hearted human eager to help downtrodden aliens discovers that humans as a whole are cruel, merciless, rat-bastards.

This too would be a fine choice for a KILL ALL HUMANS anthology.

Immigrant • (1954) • novella by Clifford D. Simak

Having won the chance to emigrate to a stupendously advanced alien world, a human ponders why aliens who need nothing humans can offer would allow any humans to immigrate.

ii

The Health Service in the Skies • (1976) • essay by Brian W. Aldiss

More commentary.

Resident Physician • [Sector General] • (1961) • novelette by James White

What led a terribly ill immortal alien to turn on its physician? And can the staff of Sector General solve the mystery, given they’ve never previously encountered this species?

One has to admire how calmly the staff of Sector General take being presented with what amounts to a demigod, especially an angry, apparently homicidal demigod.

One of the principal characters in Sector General stories is psychology section-head Major O’Mara, described thusly:

(O’Mara) was also, on his own admission, the most approachable man in the hospital. O’Mara was fond of saying that he didn’t care who approached him or when, but if they hadn’t a very good reason for pestering him with their silly little problems then they needn’t expect to get away from him again unscathed. 

Has anyone ever proposed a Sector General TV show with Hugh Laurie playing O’Mara?

“Age of Retirement” • (1954) • short story by Hal Lynch

Saving the world is jolly fun… until one grows up.

“Planting Time” • (1975) • short story by Pete Adams and Charles Nightingale

A starfarer stumbles across a potentially profitable and most certainly lascivious previously unknown lifeform.

People in the 1970s were extremely horny. No, even hornier than that. However, many men didn’t especially care for that whole needing to chat up partners first nonsense.

VOLUME TWO

“Introduction (Galactic Empires Volume Two)” • (1976) • essay by Brian W. Aldiss

Aldiss places galactic empires with the SF genre, as a subset of space opera. He muses on the importance of editors, with particular attention to John W. Campbell, Jr.

MATURITY OR BUST (continued)

i

“You Can’t Impose Civilization by Force” • (1976) • essay by Brian W. Aldiss

Commentary on the stories to follow. Yes, because Maturity or Bust is split across two volumes, it had two sections i and two sections ii.

“Escape to Chaos” • (1951) • novella by John D. MacDonald

The careful management of whole universes is imperiled by a single woman field agent!

Reminiscent of Asimov’s End of Eternity, but far less memorable.

“Concealment” • [Mixed Men] • (1943) • short story by A. E. van Vogt

Determined to bring all existence under Earth’s rule, an expeditionary force searches for illicitly independent colonies hidden in the Lesser Magellanic Cloud. The LMC is too large and the colonies too few for a methodical search to be practical. Luckily, the expedition soon captures a prisoner… whose nature they’ve failed to grasp.

This was rather interminable, but not nearly as interminable as Mission to the Stars, the fix-up novel of which ​“Concealment” is a part.

“To Civilize” • (1954) • short story by Algis Budrys

Why, when ordered by the Voroseii to vacate the Voroseii planet, do the federation staff so meekly obey?

This may be the only ​“xenophobia is a necessary step towards becoming a responsible galactic power” story of which I am aware.

Beep • (1954) • novelette by James Blish

How does the Service manage to flawlessly intervene in events? The key lies in a surprising quantity of exposition.

The answer is quite depressing, if you think about it.

ii

The Other End of the Stick • (1976) • essay by Brian W. Aldiss

More commentary on the stories to follow.

“Down the River” • (1950) • short story by Mack Reynolds

Humans are, in order, astonished to discover they are subjects of a galactic empire, offended that they are being traded from one empire to another, and alarmed by revelations concerning their new masters.

This is an example of a ​“how would you feel if what you routinely do to others was done to you?” story. It’s not subtle because readers would miss the point if it were and probably most of them did, anyway.

“The Bounty Hunter” • (1958) • short story by Avram Davidson

A hard-working hunter keeps the local population of pests on a colony world down to a manageable level.

See commentary on previous story.

“Not Yet the End” • (1941) • short story by Fredric Brown

Aliens assessing Earth for conquest make a small but vital error in test subject selection.

DECLINE AND FREE FALL

i

All Things Are Cyclic • (1976) • essay by Brian W. Aldiss

Commentary on the stories that follow.

Tonight the Stars Revolt! • (1952) • novella by Gardner F. Fox

A determined man rebels against the tyrannical federation!

“Final Encounter” • (1964) • short story by Harry Harrison

In the thousand centuries since faster than light drive gave humanity the stars, humans have never encountered intelligent aliens. Now on the far side of the Milky Way, they have. Or so it seems.

Whether or not the odd beings are human or not turns out to be surprisingly easy to determine with a simple DNA test, so the big puzzle about which the story is constructed is easily resolved. What I found fascinating as a kid was how Harrison understood that due to the sheer size of the Milky Way (to quote George R. R. Martin):

There are many ways to move between the stars, and some of them are faster than light and some are not, and all of them are slow. 

ii

“Big Ancestors and Descendants” • (1976) • essay by Brian W. Aldiss

The final commentaries on the final stories.

Lord of a Thousand Suns • (1951) • novelette by Poul Anderson

Humanity’s fate depends on a technological ghost left by a long-dead, all-powerful alien civilization.

Anderson is the author I depend on to grasp space and time’s scales, so it’s odd and distracting that his protagonist seems convinced that dinosaurs walked the Earth only a million years ago.

Big Ancestor • (1954) • novelette by F. L. Wallace

Many worlds have human races, and while some are more highly evolved than others, all are clearly kin. What glorious race planted colonies in the long-forgotten past? The answer is astounding!

Well, technically, the answer is galactic, as this story appeared in Galaxy, not Astounding.

“The Interlopers” • (1954) • short story by Roger Dee

Humans are the least of the galactic races. How can they possibly prove their worth to the semi-divine Tsai?

It turns out to help immeasurably if the story one is in was sold to John W. Campbell, Jr.’s Humans Uber Alles Astounding.

“Epilogue (Galactic Empires Volume Two)” • (1976) • essay by Brian W. Aldiss

An epigraph from Olaf Stapledon.

***

Galactic Empires Volumes One and Two are both out of print.

1: Readers may recall that I selected A Step Farther Out for this purpose in a by-election.

2: Could have been worse! I could have selected Poul Anderson’s Tales of the Flying Mountains.

3: Oddly, the books’ cover texture differs from Volume One to Volume Two. I don’t have the words to describe it, but I can easily tell the two books apart with my eyes closed. However, closing my eyes greatly impacts the reading experience.

4: Yes, yes, ​“van Vogt” means that saying that it is terrible is superfluous.