Menace of the Monster, edited by Mike Ashley

This anthology, subtitled Classic Tales of Creatures from Beyond, is one of the British Library's Science Fiction Classics series of reprints, sent to me for review. As with others in this series, it begins with a substantial introduction by Mike Ashley, who also provides a short intro to each of the stories.

The editor traces the origins of monster stories to The Epic of Gilgamesh, dating from around 4,000 years ago, which includes the monster Humbaba. Greek legends are full of terrible, frightening monsters such as the Minotaur, such tales being given credence by the discovery of fossils of dinosaurs and other huge extinct animals. Much later, SF enthusiastically featured monsters, mostly from other worlds (and I might add, at the less intellectual end of the publishing market, mysteriously attracted to scantily-clad human females). This anthology concentrates on monster stories from the "classic period, the 1890s to the mid-1960s", with the 22-page introduction providing the usual comprehensive and worthwhile survey of the field.

The War of the Worlds, by H. G. Wells. Those hideously alien monsters from Mars are too well known to need any introduction, but this particular version of the story is of interest in that it is only 14 pages long, written (by Wells himself, in 1919) to provide a "compact summary" of the story, apparently to accompany illustrations by the Dutch artist Johan Briedé. Unfortunately the illustrations are not included in this publication, so all we get is a colourless precis; a graphic novel without the graphics.

The Cloud-men, by Owen Oliver. The author (real name Joshua Albert Flynn, 1863-1933) was a senior civil servant in the War Office who wrote many short stories, mostly SF, from 1898 onwards. This 1911 example, set in an alternative 1915, is very strange. It begins with some offical government notices laying down draconian punishments for (among other things) distributing false news (we could do with that today…). It included the results of a recent census of the UK population, totalling 120,000 people (the actual number at that time was around 40 million). The main part of the story explains how this disaster occurred as recounted by a couple of eye-witnesses. The monsters were "Cloud-Men" who could vary their size and density from being huge creatures as diffuse as clouds, to being much smaller beings as dense as people; their touch was usually fatal. A particularly imaginative approach to monsters.

The Dragon of St Paul's, by Reginald Bacchus & C. Ranger Gull (1873-1945 and 1875-1923 respectively; Gull was also published as Guy Thorne). A more conventional story from a pair of journalists who collaborated on various strange tales. This one features a dragon found in an Arctic block of ice which was thawed out and escaped to terrorise London. The plot seems very familiar, but given that this story was published in 1899 it might well have been the first to include such elements.

De Profundis, by Coutts Brisbane (real name Robert Coutts Armour, 1874-1945). An entirely different form of monster terrorises the Earth in this bleak and horrific 1914 story from a prolific writer of SFF, which demonstrates that numbers can be more important than size and strength.

Dagon, by H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937). The author is of course very well known as a specialist in horror stories – particularly the Cthulhu Mythos – and this one emerged in 1919. It takes the form of a farewell note from a sailor who has witnessed a horrific event at sea and is now being hunted by a hideous monster.

In Amundsen's Tent, by John Martin Leahy (1886-1967). A curious but apparently influential tale first published in 1928. It is set against the background of the race to be the first to reach the South Pole (actually achieved by Roald Amundsen in December 1911).   A later visitor finds a tent which contains the severed head of an explorer, together with a written account of the events which evidently led to his death. The account involved the discovery by the explorers of a tent close to the Pole, which contained something so hideous that the witnesses could not describe it. They fired at it with a rifle but it came in pursuit… Again, strong horror elements in this tale.

King Kong, by Draycott Dell & Edgar Wallace. An oddity, this one, as the story started off as an idea for a film by director Merian C Cooper in around 1930. Edgar Wallace, a famous author of popular thrillers, was recruited to work on the script which was duly delivered in 1932, just before Wallace's death. Other writers then became involved before the film's release, and a novel based on it also appeared, Wallace still being credited for publicity reasons. The short story in this anthology was written by Dell, the editor of a British boys' magazine, and was published in 1933. The tragic story of the giant ape is too well-known to require repeating here; this story is a straightforward version.

The Monster from Nowhere, by Nelson S. Bond (1908-2006). The author produced a large quantity of SFF stories, often amusing, but with some darker tales such as this one, which emerged in 1939. The narrator is a journalist who is contacted by an explorer who had disappeared two years before on an expedition to Peru. Now the explorer wants advice about what to do with something he has brought back. This takes the form of a black mass of constantly and rapidly changing size and shape, whose nature he is unable to determine. I will say no more about this interesting story, except that I was evidently mistaken when I commented in my review of Flatland by Edwin A Abbott (on this blog eight years ago): "It is difficult to describe or draw parallels with this book, since as far as I'm aware it is unique."

Discord in Scarlet, by A. E. van Vogt (1912-2000). Van Vogt needs no introduction here (reviews of several of his works are listed in my blog index) so there are plenty of tales to choose from. This one was first published in 1939 and eventually, in modified form, became part of the 1950 fix-up novel The Voyage of the Space Beagle. It concerns an alien stranded in space, who takes an opportunity to board a passing human spaceship. Typical of this author, the viewpoint lies with the alien monster for part of the story, not just the frightened humans, which adds another dimension to the tale.

Monster, by John Christopher (real name Samuel Youd, 1922-2012). I remember this author from several decades ago, principally for writing The Death of Grass, a 1956 catastrophe novel (the title tells me all I want to know…). This 1950 tale is one of his many short stories and, like the van Vogt story above, features the aliens' viewpoint as well as the humans'. An intelligent acquatic race is facing extinction due to attrition by predators but is aware of the existence of a land-living race, so one enterprising soul is fitted with a pressure suit and sent to ask for help. Unfortunately, there are problems…. Interesting in that the conclusion ties events into our modern world.

Resident Physician, by James White (1928-1999). This author is best-known for his long-running series featuring the Sector Twelve General Hospital, located in space and equipped to deal with all alien races. This is one of those stories from 1961, concerning a patient who is certainly a monster, but (as it turns out) not a hostile one. I have to say that I found the basic premise – of skilled medical staff trained to deal with all races – unconvincing, in view of my experience of the profession. The tendency is for surgeons to specialise in some particular type of medical problem (e.g. ankle injuries) so that they become very skilled and experienced in dealing with that, and that's just with one race – ours.  However, it's a fun story!

Personal Monster, by Idris Seabright (real name Margaret St. Clair, 1911-1995). This author wrote many SFF stories, notable for their sophistication and the high quality of the writing. This one was published in 1955 but seems much more modern than that, simply presenting events as they affect a young girl and leaving the reader to work out what is really going on (in fact, the clues are not enough to be able to infer the whole story, just the flavour of it). The girl has found an ugly monster in a pit in the garden, but seems to have some connection with it. There is also something odd about the couple who have adopted her…

Alien Invasion, by Marcia Kamien (born 1933). In this 1954 tale, a scientist finds herself mysteriously pregnant with a child which is part-monster. She discovers that her pregnancy was the result of an experiment by an alien race trapped on a doomed planet. The story is atmospheric but takes too cavalier an attitude with some basic (and well-known even then) astronomical facts.

The Witness, by Eric Frank Russell (1905-1978). One of my favourite authors of my youth, Russell wrote fast-paced SF thrillers, often well-laced with humour. This 1951 story entirely concerns the trial of an alien who had arrived on Earth, for the crime of potentially presenting a threat to humanity. The arguments of the opposing lawyers are covered in detail, and the prosecution were clearly gaining the advantage until some additional facts became available. This actually has that rare thing in classic SF, a genuinely moving ending.

This collection is a very diverse one, ranging from straightforward alien invasion tales through examples of the horror sub-genre and finishing with some sophisticated and thought-provoking stories. One omission which rather surprised me was Godzilla – surely the best-known monster along with King Kong. This first appeared in Japanese comics in 1954 so should arguably qualify, but I suppose it has always appeared in mainly visual formats (films or comics) with some text versions coming somewhat later.