The Reign of the Robots: The Collected Edmond Hamilton, Volume Four Hardcover – December 30, 2013

About a decade ago, there was a movie about wine called "Sideways", in which at one point an oenophile gave an impassioned speech about how you could taste the sunshine of a particular year, the hands of the workers, etc, all these things that go into making a particular vintage. At the time, I thought that all that was largely a bunch of rot. However, I concede there may be something in it, as in reading Reign of the Robots, I was taken back to 1932.This volume (4 of an indefinite number) shows Hamilton with about 5 years of writing for pay under his belt, and contains both his old hyperbolic space opera and a few quieter, more introspective pieces. Its mostly sci-fi, but there is a genuine weird tale, and a little vampire story. Best of all, its enjoyable reading from start to finish.The full TOC:"The Man Who Saw the Future" (Amazing Stories, Oct ’30) "The Mind-Master" (Weird Tales, Oct ’30) "The Horror City" (Weird Tales, Feb/Mar ’31) "The Man Who Evolved" (Wonder Stories, Apr ’31) "Monsters of Mars" (Astounding Stories, Apr ’31 "Ten Million Years Ahead" (Weird Tales, Apr/May ’31) "The Earth-Owners" (Weird Tales, Aug ’31) "The Sargasso of Space" (Astounding Stories, Sep ’31) "The Shot From Saturn" (Weird Tales, Oct ’31) "Creatures of the Comet" (Weird Tales, Dec ’31) "The Reign of the Robots" (Wonder Stories, Dec ’31) "Dead Legs" (Strange Tales of Mystery and Terror, Jan ’32) "A Conquest of Two Worlds" (Wonder Stories, Feb ’32) "The Earth-Brain" (Weird Tales, Apr ’32) "The Terror Planet" (Weird Tales, May ’32) "Space-Rocket Murders" (Amazing Stories, Oct ’32) "Vampire Village" (Weird Tales, Nov '32) "The Man Who Conquered Age" (Weird Tales Dec ’32)Reading the stories now, they are a little dated, but in a good way. Remember what I said about 1932? Well, you really feel the passion that science fiction was uplifting, part of human progress. Pretty much every hero is a scientist (and, for that matter, so are a lot of villians - but they are "mad scientists", so its OK). There are attempts to put genuine science into the fiction, and also to show what might be possible (alas, it turns out its largely not). Adding to this is the collection of letters to the editor of the various magazines Hamilton was published in: its like a really slow moving internet forum, only far more literate and with fewer smileys and links to cat pictures. Mort Weisinger, Forry Ackerman, Lin Carter: all these names appear here putting a point of view. Its great stuff, even with the odd glacial speed flame war or two.This is not a cheap book. But it is a pretty damn good one.

Hamilton wrote so many great stories and these are a sampling of his great work. Science Fiction from the golden age. Pulp fiction of the finest quality. Haffner Press publishes books of the highest quality too for the most distinguished collector ! A book to savor forever!

If you are fan of old classic science fiction you'll love this. It's Edmond Hamilton aka the Universe Destroyer and the best Superman writer of the 1960s!

A gorgeous, enormous volume of classic early space opera stories by one of the creators of the genre. If you have any interest in the roots of science fiction, this is for you!