Product Description: This book contains four of A. Bertram Chandlers stories. INTO THE ALTERNATE UNIVERSE 1964, CONTRABAND FROM OTHERSPACE 1967, THE RIM GODS 1968 AND THE COMMODORE AT SEA 1971.
Different... but entertaining. These stories, while describing adventures that occurred later in John Grime's spaceman career, were actually written rather early in the series of 20 or so books that A. Bertram Chandler produced during the 60's, 70's, and early 80's.
The Rim Runner tales are a bit more far-fetched than most of the Grimes adventures; however, I still find them entertaining.
Here are brief reviews of each of the 4 stories from this SFBC anthology:
** Into the Alternate Universe (1964) - The bounds between our universe and alternative universes is somewhat tenuous out on the rim, and Grimes ends up supporting "A Wild Ghost Chase". A little bit too far-fetched for my taste, but still somewhat entertaining.
*** Contraband from Otherspace (1966) - A strange space vehicle from a parallel universe, that closely resembles vehicles from our universe, suddenly appears from nowhere. Grimes and his new wife are sent to get to the bottom of the mystery. Enjoyable. Written during the same era that the original Star Trek series was running on TV, this story uses theories that are somewhat similar to the Star Trek episode MIRROR, MIRROR.
*** The Rim Gods (1968) - This is actually a collection of four short stories (short stories are what A. Betram Chandler does best). The 1st is about a starship composed of a group of bible-thumpers looking for the new Sinai, but finding something a little different on Kingsolving's Planet, where the fabric of the Universe within our Galaxy, is at its thinnest.. The 2nd is the most believable (and best) adventure in the whole book - and involves some odd space and sea navigation. The 3rd, while a fairly believable and interesting sea-life alien based mystery, has some backwards technology (comm techs still using Morse Code in far future, when computers and technologies like PSK-31 have already outmoded Morse Code). The 4th story is an intergalactic fairy tale.
*** The Commodore at Sea (1969/1970/1971) - Another collection of short stories. The first, THE HALL OF FAME, has Grimes going back to Kingsolving's Planet, and popping into another Universe made up of a lot of other famous fictional characters, and on his way back, meeting A. Bertram Chandler himself. The 2nd and 3rd stories, THE SISTER SHIPS and THE MAN WHO SAILED THE SKY, are decent stories but are basically sea-based tales which have little "alien worldliness" about them. The last story, THE RUB, has Grimes going to Kingsolving's Planet again, and he ends up living one of his ongoing dreams, wherein he stayed in the Survey Service.
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