The Forever Machine
by Mark Clifton
from Carroll & Graf Publishers
Star Bright & Other Science Fiction Classics
by MARK CLIFTON
from PageTurner
HUGO WINNER'S ONLY COLLECTION IN PRINT! "An Impressive Innovator, One of the 12 Most Influential Writers of SF!" Barry Maltzberg. Mark Clifton won the Hugo Award for his novel They'd Rather Be Right. But most readers and critics consider his short stories by far his best work. Find out for yourself in this first volume of The Complete Short Fiction of Mark Clifton. Included in this volume are his classic of a young girl with superpowers, "Star Bright," his early feminist work, "A Woman's Place," two classics from the pages of Analog, "Clerical Error" and "Solution Delayed," the bitingly wicked, "The Kenzie Report," and other dazzling SF stories.
"AN IMPRESSIVE INNOVATOR, ONE OF THE 12 MOST INFLUENTIAL WRITERS OF SF." That's how sf award-winner Barry Maltzberg describes Mark Clifton, who won the Hugo Award for his novel They'd Rather Be Right. But most readers and critics consider Clifton's short stories by far his best work. Find out for yourself in this first volume of The Complete Short Fiction of Mark Clifton. Included in this volume are his classic of a young girl with superpowers, "Star Bright," his early feminist work, "A Woman's Place," two classics from the pages of Analog, "Clerical Error" and "Solution Delayed," the bitingly wicked, "The Kenzie Report," and other dazzling SF stories.
They'd Rather Be Right (Starblaze Editions)
Universe Science Fiction, September 1953 (Volume 1, No. 2)
by William T. Powers
from Bell Publications, Inc.
TABLE OF CONTENTS: ~ ~~ ~ NOVELETTES: The Calibrated People [W. T. Powers]; Election Campaign [William Campbell Gault]; Up the Mountain or Down [Sylvia Jacobs]; SHORT STORIES: Janushek [Roger Flint Young]; Breaking of Jerry McCloud [Gordon R. Dickson]; Reward For Valor [Mark Clifton]
Sense from Thought Divide
by MARK CLIFTON
from Evergreen Review, Inc.
from the introductory:
What is a "phony"? Someone who believes he can do X, when he can't, however sincerely he believes it? Or someone who can do X, believes he can't, and believes he is pretending he can?
***
"Remembrance and reflection, how allied;
What thin partitions sense from thought divide."
--Pope
***
When I opened the door to my secretary's office, I could see her looking up from her desk at the Swami's face with an expression of fascinated skepticism. The Swami's back was toward me, and on it hung flowing folds of a black cloak. His turban was white, except where it had rubbed against the back of his neck.
"A tall, dark, and handsome man will soon come into your life," he was intoning in that sepulchral voice men habitually use in their dealings with the absolute.
Sara's green eyes focused beyond him, on me, and began to twinkle.
"And there he is right now," she commented dryly. "Mr. Kennedy, Personnel Director for Computer Research."
The Swami whirled around, his heavy robe following the movement in a practiced swirl. His liquid black eyes looked me over shrewdly, and he bowed toward me as he vaguely touched his chest, lips and forehead. I expected him to murmur, "Effendi," or "Bwana Sahib," or something, but he must have felt silence was more impressive.
I acknowledged his greeting by pulling down one corner of my mouth. Then I looked at his companion.
The young lieutenant was standing very straight, very stiff, and a flush of pink was starting up from his collar and spreading around his clenched jaws to leave a semicircle of white in front of his red ears.
"Who are you?" I asked the lieutenant.
"Lieutenant Murphy," he answered shortly, and managed to open his teeth a bare quarter of an inch for the words to come out. "Pentagon!" His light gray eyes pierced me to see if I were impressed.
I wasn't.
"Division of Materiel and Supply," he continued in staccato, as if he were imitating a machine gun.
I waited. It was obvious he wasn't through yet. He hesitated, and I could see his Adam's apple travel up above the knot of his tie and back down again as he swallowed. The pink flush deepened suddenly into brilliant red and spread all over his face.
"Poltergeist Section," he said defiantly.
"What?" The exclamation was out before I could catch it.
He tried to glare at me, but his eyes were pleading instead.
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