A Logic Named Joe
(collection)
by Murray Leinster
  

600 pages

• "A Logic Named Joe"
• "Dear Charles"
• Gateway to Elsewhere  (Journey to Barkut)
• The Duplicators  ("Lord of the Uffts")
• "The Fourth-Dimensional Demonstrator"
• The Pirates of Zan  (The Pirates of Ersatz)
    

This is a rather different cross-section of Murray Leinster's work than in other recent big collections of Leinster: First Contacts (from NESFA), or Planets of Adventure (from Baen), or the series collection Med Ship (from Baen). All of these collections are very worth reading, but for an introduction to Leinster, I think I'd advise starting with this book, A Logic Named Joe. Except for The Duplicators which is late-written and rather a filler, the stories herein all are excellent and unusual.
  

Baen does their usual thoughtful service of providing the stories' publishing history, with original magazine dates and alternate titles. Few publishers bother with this, or strive to get it correct. (We leave aside those who falsely trumpet "first time in paperback" and similar mispackaging.)

A worthwhile and distinctive assortment: innovative, thoughtful, and funny — often at the same time. I highly recommend it.

© 2006 Robert Wilfred Franson