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Book Details

Five-Odd

78.6% complete
Copyright © 1964 by Pyramid Publications
1964
Collected Stories; Science Fiction
Unknown
Never (or unknown...)
See 6
Introduction
The Dead Past
Something Strange
Unit
Gone Fishing
Big Ancestor
Has a genre Has comments Has an extract In my library 
25066
No series
No dedication.
Arnold Potterley, PhD. was a Professor of Ancient History.
May contain spoilers
But each of them knew that, as a member of the most numerous race in the Milky way, no longer feared for their mysterious qualities - despised instead - wherever they went, there would never be any gifts for them - for any man.
Comments may contain spoilers
British Title: Possible Tomorrows

Kingsley Amis, "Something Strange."  From My Enemy's Enemy, © 1962, by Kingsley Amis. Reprinted by permission of Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.  From Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July 1961.

Isaac Asimov, "The Dead Past."  Copyright 1956 by Street and Smith Publications, Inc.  Reprinted by permission of the author from Astounding Science Fiction, April 1956

J. T. McIntosh, "Unit."  Copyright 1957 by Nova Publications, Ltd.  Reprinted by permission of the author and Lurton Blassingame from New Worlds, February 1957.

James H. Schmitz, "Gone Fishing."  Copyright © 1961 by Condé Nast Publications, Inc.  Reprinted by permission of Scott Meredith Literary Agency from Analog Science Fact - Science Fiction, May 1961.

F. L. Wallace, "Big Ancestor."  Copyright 1954 by Galaxy Publishing Corporation.  Reprinted by permission of Harry Altshuler from Galaxy Magazine, November 1954.
Extract (may contain spoilers)
SOMETHING HAPPENED EVERY DAY.  IT MIGHT HAPPEN during the morning, while the two men were taking their readings and observations and the two women busy with the domestic routine: the big faces had come during the morning.  Or, as with the little faces and the coloured fires, the strange thing would happen in the afternoon, in the roiddire of Bruno's maintenance programme and Clovis's transmission to Base, Lia's rounds of the garden and Myri's work on her story.  The evening was often undisturbed, the night less often.

They all understood that ordinary temporal expressions had no meaning for people confined indefinitely, as they were to a motionless steel sphere hanging in a region of space so empty that the light of the nearest star took some hundreds of years to reach them.  The Standing Orders devised by Base, however, recommended that they adopt a twenty-four-hour unit of time, as was the rule on the Earth they had not seen for many months.  The arrangement suited them well: their work, recreation and rest seemed to fall naturally into the periods provided.  It was only the prospect of year after year of the same routine, stretching further into the future than they could see, that was a source of strain.

Bruno commented on this to Clovis after a morning spent repairing a fault in the spectrum analyser they used for investigating and classifying the nearer stars.  They were sitting at the main observation port in the lounge, drinking the midday cocktail and waiting for the women to join them.

"I'd say we stood up to it extremely well," Clovis said in answer to Bruno.  "Perhaps too well."

Bruno hunched his fat figure upright.  "How do you mean?"

"We may be hindering our chances of being relieved."

"Base has never said a word about our relief."

"Exactly.  With half a million stations to staff, it'll be a long time before they get round to one like this, where everything runs smoothly.  You and I are a perfect team, and you have Lia and I have Myri, and they're all right together - no real conflict at all.  Hence no reason for a relief."

Myri had heard all this as she laid the table in the alcove.  She wondered how Clovis could not know that Bruno wanted to have her instead of Lia, or perhaps as well as Lia.  If Clovis did know, and was teasing Bruno, then that would be a silly thing to do, because Bruno was not a pleasant man.  With his thick neck and pale fat face he would no be pleasant to be had by, either, quite unlike Clovis, who was no taller but whose straight, hard body and soft skin were always pleasant.  He could not think as well as Bruno, but on the other hand many of the things Bruno thought were not pleasant.  She poured herself a drink and went over to them.

Bruno had said something about its being a pity they could not fake their personnel report by inventing a few quarrels, and Clovis had immediately agreed that that was impossible.  She kissed him and sat down at his side.  "What do you think about the idea of being relieved?" he asked her.

"I never think about it."

 

Added: 27-Jan-2026
Last Updated: 27-Jan-2026

Publications

 01-Jun-1971
Pyramid Books
Mass Market Paperback
In my libraryOrder from amazon.com
Date Issued:
Cir 01-Jun-1971
Format:
Mass Market Paperback
Cover Price:
$0.75
Pages*:
188
Catalog ID:
T2450
Internal ID:
74116
Publisher:
ISBN:
Unknown
Printing:
2
Country:
United States
Language:
English
Credits:
Ron Walotsky  - Cover Artist
ENCOUNTER
THE BIZARRE PERILS
OF TIME FUTURE

Five-Odd... a winning combination of leading fantasticists presents a dazzling flight into the future... five superb short novels probe the terrifying possibilities that await man in strange worlds and other eons... five masters chart a nightmare voyage in the unknown regions of space...
Cover:
Notes and Comments:
First printing, April 1964
Second printing, June 1971
Second printing assumed
Image File - No image
01-Jun-1971
Pyramid Books
Mass Market Paperback

Related

*
  • I try to maintain page numbers for audiobooks even though obviously there aren't any. I do this to keep track of pages read and I try to use the Kindle version page numbers for this.
  • Synopses marked with an asterisk (*) were generated by an AI. There aren't a lot since this is an iffy way to do it - AI seems to make stuff up.
  • When specific publication dates are unknown (ie prefixed with a "Cir"), I try to get the publication date that is closest to the specific printing that I can.
  • When listing chapters, I only list chapters relevant to the story. I will usually leave off Author Notes, Indices, Acknowledgements, etc unless they are relevant to the story or the book is non-fiction.
  • Page numbers on this site are for the end of the main story. I normally do not include appendices, extra material, and other miscellaneous stuff at the end of the book in the page count.






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