![]() ![]() The story itself follows raw initiate Eric the Only as he's transformed by his experiences into a resourceful leader and, although actually published in 1968, it had a pleasantly nostalgic 1950s-or-so feel to it. The set-up is this: after an invasion from space by gigantic aliens (called 'Monsters' throughout) what's left of humanity has been reduced to living in a maze of burrows and tunnels - scuttling to and fro behind the wainscotting so to speak - and risking their lives on expeditions out into Monster territory to steal food from the invaders' gigantic larders. Having completely missed the huge clue in its title, some distance in I was still thinking, 'Well, I like the oddness of this, but it doesn't seem to be going anywhere much' and it looked to be heading for a disappointing two stars. I'm sitting here feeling I've almost (not quite, but very nearly) failed some sort of intelligence test with this book. In 1999, he was honored as Author Emeritus by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America at their annual Nebula Awards Banquet. From 1966, he was a Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature at The Pennsylvania State University, where he taught, among other things, a popular course on science fiction. His stories and articles were widely anthologized, a number of them in best-of-the-year collections. Tenn is best-known as a satirist, and by works such as "On Venus Have We Got a Rabbi" and "Of Men and Monsters." Stories like 'Down Among the Dead Men', 'The Liberation of Earth', and 'The Custodian' quickly established him as a fine, funny, and thoughtful satirist. His first story, 'Alexander the Bait' was published in Astounding Science Fiction in 1946. He began writing in 1945 and wrote academic articles, essays, two novels, and more than 60 short stories. After serving in the United States Army as a combat engineer in Europe, he held a job as a technical editor with an Air Force radar and radio laboratory and was employed by Bell Labs. ![]() He was born in London on May 9, 1920, and emigrated to the United States with his parents before his second birthday. ![]() William Tenn is the pseudonym of Philip Klass. ![]()
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