''Universe 4'' is an
anthology of original
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 uni ...
short stories edited by
Terry Carr
Terry Gene Carr (February 19, 1937 – April 7, 1987) was an American science fiction fan, author, editor, and writing instructor.
Background and discovery of fandom
Carr was born in Grants Pass, Oregon. He attended the City College of San ...
, the fourth volume in the seventeen-volume
Universe anthology series. It was first published in hardcover by
Random House
Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...
in March 1974, with a
Science Fiction Book Club
Bookspan LLC is a New York–based online bookseller, founded in 2000.
Bookspan began as a joint endeavor by Bertelsmann and Time Warner. Bertelsmann took over control in 2007, and a year later, sold its interest to Najafi Companies, an Arizo ...
edition following from the same publisher in July of the same year, a paperback edition from
Popular Library
Popular Library was a New York paperback book company established in 1942 by Leo Margulies and Ned Pines, who at the time were major pulp magazine and newspaper publishers. The company's logo of a pine tree was a tribute to Pines, and another ...
in 1975, and a British hardcover edition from
Dennis Dobson
Dennis Dobson (1919 – 1978)Lewis Foreman, Susan Foreman''London: A Musical Gazetteer'' Yale University Press, 2005, p. 327. was a British book publisher who was the eponymous founder of a small but respected company in London.
Background
Set up ...
in 1977.
The book collects eight novelettes and short stories by various science fiction authors.
Contents
* "
Assault on a City" (
Jack Vance
John Holbrook Vance (August 28, 1916 – May 26, 2013) was an American mystery, fantasy, and science fiction writer. Though most of his work has been published under the name Jack Vance, he also wrote several mystery novels under pen names.
...
)
* "
A Sea of Faces
''A Sea of Faces'' is an album by avant-garde jazz saxophonist Archie Shepp recorded in Milan, Italy, on August 4 and 5, 1975, and released on the Italian Black Saint label. It features performances by Shepp with Charles Greenlee, Dave Burrell, ...
" (
Robert Silverberg
Robert Silverberg (born January 15, 1935) is an American author and editor, best known for writing science fiction. He is a multiple winner of both Hugo and Nebula Awards, a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, and a Gr ...
)
* "
And Read the Flesh Between the Lines" (
R. A. Lafferty)
* "
My Sweet Lady Jo" (
Howard Waldrop
Howard Waldrop (born September 15, 1946) is a science fiction author who works primarily in short fiction. He received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2021.
Personal life
Though born in Houston, Mississippi, Waldrop has spent ...
)
* "
Stungun Slim
A stun gun is any weapon that incapacitates its target without killing. Tasers, tranquillizer guns, and mace (spray) are all types of stun guns. Subcategories of stun gun include the electroshock weapon, an incapacitating weapon that momentarily di ...
" (
Ron Goulart
Ronald Joseph Goulart (; January 13, 1933 – January 14, 2022) was an American popular culture historian and mystery, fantasy, and science fiction author.
He published novelizations and other work under various pseudonyms: Kenneth Robeson, Co ...
)
* "
Desert Places
"Desert Places" is a poem by Robert Frost. It was originally written in 1933 and appeared in ''The American Mercury'' in April 1934, before being collected in Frost's 1936 book '' A Further Range''. The book was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1937. ...
" (
Pamela Sargent
Pamela Sargent (born March 20, 1948) is an American feminist, science fiction author, and editor. She has an MA in classical philosophy and has won a Nebula Award.
Sargent wrote a trilogy concerning the terraforming of Venus that is sometim ...
)
* "
If the Stars Are Gods
''If the Stars are Gods'' is a science fiction novel by American writers Gregory Benford and Gordon Eklund, published in 1977. It is an expansion of the Nebula Award-winning short story, first published in '' Universe 4'' (1974).
Plot summary
'' ...
" (
Gordon Eklund
Gordon Eklund (born July 24, 1945 in Seattle, Washington) is an American science fiction author whose works include the "Lord Tedric" series and two of the earliest original novels based on the 1960s '' Star Trek'' TV series. He has written under ...
and
Gregory Benford
Gregory Benford (born January 30, 1941) is an American science fiction author and astrophysicist who is professor emeritus at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine. He is a contributing editor of ''Reas ...
)
* "
When the Vertical World Becomes Horizontal
When may refer to:
* When?, one of the Five Ws, questions used in journalism
* WHEN (AM), an Urban Adult Contemporary radio station in Syracuse, New York
* WHEN-TV, the former call letters of TV station WTVH in Syracuse, New York
Music
* When (b ...
" (
Alexei Panshin)
Awards
The anthology placed first in the 1975
Locus Poll Award for Best Original Anthology.
"Assault on a City" was a finalist for the 1975
Hugo Award for Best Novella
The Hugo Award for Best Novella is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The novella award is available for works of fiction of between ...
and placed fourth in the 1975
Locus Poll Award for Best Novella.
"If the Stars Are Gods" won the 1975
Nebula Award for Best Novelette
The Nebula Award for Best Novelette is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) to a science fiction or fantasy novelette. A work of fiction is defined by the organization as a novelette if it is between 7,50 ...
and placed eighth in the 1975
Locus Poll Award for Best Novelette.
References
{{Reflist
1974 anthologies
Universe (anthology series)
Random House books