A Gun for Dinosaur and Other Imaginative Tales
first edition of A Gun for Dinosaur and Other Imaginative Tales | |
Author | L. Sprague de Camp |
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Cover artist | Gilda Kuhlman |
Language | English |
Genre | Science fiction short stories |
Publisher | Doubleday |
Publication date | 1963 |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | Print (hardback) |
Pages | 359 pp |
A Gun for Dinosaur and Other Imaginative Tales is a short story collection by American science fiction and fantasy author L. Sprague de Camp, first published in hardback by Doubleday in 1963, and in paperback by Curtis Books in 1969. The first British edition was issued by Remploy in 1974.[1][2] It has also been translated into German.[1]
Contents
- "A Gun for Dinosaur"
- "Aristotle and the Gun"
- "The Guided Man"
- "Internal Combustion"
- "Cornzan the Mighty"
- "Throwback"
- "Judgment Day"
- "Gratitude"
- "A Thing of Custom"
- "The Egg"
- "Let's Have Fun"
- "Impractical Joke"
- "In-Group"
- "New Arcadia"
Reception
Kirkus Reviews called the collection "a generous collection" by "[a]n established entertainer" with "a variety, inventivity and humor which gives this a definite superiority in the genre.[3]
P. Schuyler Miller felt it "must represent just about the last grain spirits to be distilled from the de Campian mash" with "[m]most of the ... stories ... also distinctly late-model de Camp, commenting on the current scene--and especially the suburban, or more properly exurban scene--by projecting it into the future, where its 'things of custom' appear in all their incongruity. As the plot grows simpler and simpler, the settings and commentary carry more and more of the load, in the manner of an off-Broadway play. And there will be those who say the author has written himself into most of his rather put-upon heroes-in-spite-of-themselves." Miller singles out the title story as "one of the classic time-travel stories," and "Aristotle and the Gun" as "even better," but deems "Internal Combustion" "[o]ne of the best stories in the lot--because it is so unlike the rest."[4]
S. E. Cotts calls the book "a well-deserved tribute to one of science fiction's steadiest and most well-rounded contributors," and the title story "one of my favorites," noting that "[i]ts subject, about a safari into the past, has been successfully tackled by other writers, but this version has solid merit."[5]
Avram Davidson found the collection "a great disappointment," saying he could no longer enjoy de Camp's shorter work because the author "[t]ime after time ... gets hold of a great idea--and throws it away in playing for laughs of the feeblest conceivable sort." He deems "Judgment Day" the "sole exception ... it is so authentic-sounding that one could scream."[6]
Notes
- ^ a b Laughlin, Charlotte; Daniel J. H. Levack (1983). De Camp: An L. Sprague de Camp Bibliography. San Francisco: Underwood/Miller. p. 62.
- ^ A Gun for Dinosaur and Other Imaginative Tales title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- ^ Kirkus Reviews, 1963
- ^ Miller, P. Schuyler. "The Reference Library" in Analog Science Fact - Science Fiction, v. 71, no. 5, July 1962, p. 87.
- ^ Cotts, S. E. "The Spectroscope" in Amazing Stories, v. 37, no. 9, September 1963, p. 125.
- ^ Davidson, Avram. "Books" in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, v. 25, no. 4, October 1963, pp.20-21
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Interplanetarias
Krishna |
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Kukulkan |
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Other |
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- "The Roaring Trumpet" (1940)
- "The Mathematics of Magic" (1940)
- The Castle of Iron (1941/50)
- The Wall of Serpents (1953)
- The Green Magician (1954)
- Sir Harold and the Gnome King (1990)
- Sir Harold of Zodanga (1995)
- The Tritonian Ring (1951)
- "The Eye of Tandyla" (1951)
- "The Owl and the Ape" (1951)
- "The Hungry Hercynian" (1953)
- "The Stronger Spell" (1953)
- "Ka the Appalling" (1958)
- "The Rug and the Bull" (1974)
- "The Stone of the Witch Queen" (1977)
- The Goblin Tower (1968)
- The Clocks of Iraz (1971)
- "The Emperor's Fan" (1973)
- The Fallible Fiend (1973)
- The Unbeheaded King (1983)
- The Honorable Barbarian (1989)
- The Incorporated Knight (1987)
- The Pixilated Peeress (1991)
speculative
fiction
Novels |
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Short stories |
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- The Dragon of the Ishtar Gate (1961)
- The Arrows of Hercules (1965)
- An Elephant for Aristotle (1958)
- The Bronze God of Rhodes (1960)
- The Golden Wind (1969)
- The Wolf Leader (1950)
- Swords and Sorcery (1963)
- The Spell of Seven (1965)
- Conan the Warrior (1967)
- The Fantastic Swordsmen (1967)
- Conan the Conqueror (1967)
- Warlocks and Warriors (1970)
- 3000 Years of Fantasy and Science Fiction (1972)
- Tales Beyond Time (1973)
Science and history |
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Lit crit and biography |
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- The Conan Swordbook (1969)
- The Conan Grimoire (1972)
- To Quebec and the Stars (1976)
- The Blade of Conan (1979)
- The Spell of Conan (1980)
- Demons and Dinosaurs (1970)
- Heroes and Hobgoblins (1981)
- Phantoms and Fancies (1972)
- The Continent Makers and Other Tales of the Viagens (1953)
- The Virgin of Zesh & The Tower of Zanid (1983)
- The Incomplete Enchanter (1941)
- Wall of Serpents (1960)
- The Compleat Enchanter (1975)
- The Complete Compleat Enchanter (1989)
- The Enchanter Reborn (1992)
- The Exotic Enchanter (1995)
- The Mathematics of Magic (2007)
- The Tritonian Ring and Other Pusadian Tales (1953)
- The Reluctant King (1985)
- Conan (1967)
- The Conan Chronicles (1989)
- The Conan Chronicles 2 (1990)
- Conan of Aquilonia (1977)
- Conan of Cimmeria (1969)
- Conan the Adventurer (1966)
- Conan the Avenger (1968)
- Conan the Freebooter (1968)
- Conan the Swordsman (1978)
- Conan the Usurper (1967)
- Conan the Wanderer (1968)
- Sagas of Conan (2004)
- Tales of Conan (1955)
- The Treasure of Tranicos (1980)
- Aristotle and the Gun (2002)
- The Best of L. Sprague de Camp (1978)
- Divide and Rule (1948)
- Footprints on Sand (1981)
- A Gun for Dinosaur (1963)
- The Purple Pterodactyls (1980)
- The Reluctant Shaman (1970)
- Rivers of Time (1993)
- Scribblings (1972)
- Sprague de Camp's New Anthology (1953)
- Tales from Gavagan's Bar (1953/78)
- The Undesired Princess (1951)
- The Virgin & the Wheels (1976)
- The Wheels of If (1948)
- Years in the Making (2005)
- GURPS Planet Krishna (1997)
- The Enchanter Completed (2005)