In a previous post, I mentioned that Foster's third collection,
The Metrognome, was okay but not great and had surprisingly little SF in it. I still figured I'd fill in the gaps, though, and I finished his first collection,
With Friends Like These... (1977), almost two weeks ago and can happily say that this was a bit better and also much more science fictional. There were a couple of fantasies and an alternate history tale which didn't do much for me, personally, and a horror tale which Foster apparently wrote to Derleth as a sort of Lovecraftian letter and which Derleth published. I've read very little Lovecraft (still going to fix that Any Day Now) but it seemed pretty nifty.
The other eight stories were SF of one sort or another and I especially liked the title story,
"With Friends Like These...," which was one of Campbell's last purchases - as Foster describes it, a homage to Eric Frank Russell-style "humans
uber alles" stories and, for what it is, it's pretty neat. I also liked
"A Miracle of Small Fishes" and
"He" which is kind of funny as one deals with a lot of small fish and the other deals with one really really big fish. Also, both have a lot of local color (Mexico and American Samoa, respectively). The first is about an old dying fisherman continuing his old ways despite the modern, controlled, mass-fishing methods rendering his efforts futile. His granddaughter talks to some folks, including a preacher, about it, and starts praying for him to have one last catch. And heaven helps those who know people and have leverage and so on. Foster claims to have written the other before
Jaws, despite the story coming out after the movie and way after the book (he also has a less effective story that seems very much inspired by Ellison's "On the Scenic Route") and his story is about a much more impressive creature, being about an example of
Carcharodon megalodon being discovered in the (then) present day. It's a heck of a story, either way. Perhaps my favorite was
"Ye Who Would Sing," which was about classical music, singing trees with special needs, and some criminals who learn what they need to know and some who don't.
A while before that, I also read the second and third (disregarding
Bloodhype) Pip & Flinx books:
Orphan Star and
End of the Matter (both 1977). I really enjoyed
The Tar-Aiym Krang, not so much as a "Pip & Flinx" book but just as a book. But it did give me the impression Flinx was Destined for Great Things and, while the second and third were enjoyable enough, they don't really accomplish a whole lot and, on the one hand, don't exactly provide a stopping point like a true trilogy might but, on the other, don't really compel me to read further, either. (The fourth one written is also a prequel, which is a turnoff.) Has anyone read any later volumes and can they inspire me (in a non-spoilery way) to read further? Is there a good stopping place or do they just kind of go on for fourteen volumes and counting? I just suspect I'm unlikely to ever really be satisfied by reading onward, don't want to read that many, and doubt I'll find a better stopping place after now and before then. But, again,
The Tar-Aiym Krang is really good and I'm glad I read it, at least. And the other two aren't bad and provide a kind of stopping place.
