''Colossus: The Collected Science Fiction of Donald Wandrei'' is a collection of

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

short stories by American writer

Donald Wandrei Donald Albert Wandrei (20 April 1908 – 15 October 1987)Minnesota Death Certificates Index
. ...

. It was released in 1989 by

Fedogan & Bremer Fedogan & Bremer is a weird fiction specialty publishing house founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1985 by Philip Rahman and Dennis Weiler. The name comes from the nicknames of the two founders when they were in college. The first Fedogan and ...

in an edition of 1,000 copies. Many of the stories originally appeared in the magazines '' Weird Tales'', ''

Astounding Stories ''Analog Science Fiction and Fact'' is an American science fiction magazine published under various titles since 1930. Originally titled ''Astounding Stories of Super-Science'', the first issue was dated January 1930, published by William Cl ...

'', ''The Minnesota Quarterly'', ''

Thrilling Wonder Stories ''Wonder Stories'' was an early American science fiction magazine which was published under several titles from 1929 to 1955. It was founded by Hugo Gernsback in 1929 after he had lost control of his first science fiction magazine, ''Amazing Stor ...

'' and ''Leaves''.

1989 edition

* Editors’ Note, by Philip J. Rahman * Introduction, by

Richard L. Tierney Richard Louis Tierney (August 7, 1936 – February 1, 2022) was an American writer, poet and scholar of H. P. Lovecraft, probably best known for his heroic fantasy, including his series co-authored (with David C. Smith) of Red Sonja novels, fe ...

* "The Red Brain" * "The Holiday Act" * "Something from Above" * "Raiders of the Universes" * "A Race Through Time" * "Farewell to Earth" * "Colossus" * "Colossus Eternal" * "The Atom-Smasher" * "The Blinding Shadows" * "Life Current" * "The Whisperers" * "Murray’s Light" * "Earth Minus" * "Finality Unlimited" * "Infinity Zero" * "Black Fog" * "The Crystal Bullet" * "On the Threshold of Eternity" * "A Trip to Infinity" * "Requiem for Mankind" * Selected Bibliography, by D. H. Olson

stories added for the 1999 edition

* "If" * "A Stranger Passes"

Publication history

''Colossus'' was originally announced as a forthcoming publication by Arkham House as early as 1965. However, it remained unpublished into the 1980s. Phil Rahman and Dr. Dennis Weiler approached the Wandrei estate with the hopes of publishing the collection. While no manuscript nor proposed contents could be found, Rahman and Weiler went forward and published a collection using the same title as the unpublished Arkham House collection. It was the first book published by

. In 1999, in honor of their 10th anniversary, Fedogan & Bremer issued a second edition of the book (). The second edition contained an updated introduction, replaced the note by Philip J. Rahman with a newly discovered preface that Wandrei had done for an unpublished collection, and added two stories in place of the bibliography. A gallery of photographs was also added.

"Farewell to Earth"

The editor of ''

'' did not like the ending for the story "Farewell to Earth" that Donald Wandrei had originally written and Wandrei was forced to change it. Fedogan and Bremer published a

chapbook A chapbook is a small publication of up to about 40 pages, sometimes bound with a saddle stitch. In early modern Europe a chapbook was a type of printed street literature. Produced cheaply, chapbooks were commonly small, paper-covered bookle ...

containing the ending of the story as Wandrei originally wrote it. The chapbook also included an introduction by D. H. Olson and was published in an edition of 75 copies. The book was given to those who pre-ordered the 1999 edition of ''Colossus''.

References

Sources