Black Gate Kuttner Contest: And the Winners Are…

Black Gate Kuttner Contest: And the Winners Are…

kuttnerBlack Gate magazine is very pleased to announce the winners of our Kuttner Contest:

Pawel Martin
Alexander G. Tozzi
G. W. Thomas

All three winners receive a copy of Terror in the House: The Early Kuttner, Volume One, compliments of publisher Haffner Press. Terror in the House is 712 pages in hardcover, and is edited by Stephen Haffner and illustrated by Harry V. Parkhurst. Congratulations to the winners!

To enter the contest required a one-sentence review of your favorite Henry Kuttner short story. Winners were chosen at random from all eligible entries.

The wide range of entries gave us a fine appreciation for just how well Henry Kuttner is still remembered over 50 years after his death, and these concise reviews of readers’ favorite Kuttner tales should help those less familiar with him understand the enduring quality of his fiction. Some of the best entires we received are collected below.

Keith West tells us of a Kuttner story published in John Campbell’s Astounding magazine in 1946, written (as with much of his fiction) with his wife  C. L. Moore:

My favorite Kuttner story is “We Kill People,” in which a near-future detective is hired to investigate a company that guarantees to be able to kill any desired victim in an untraceable manner.

Pawel Martin sent us a description of  the story “The World Is Mine” (1943):

A masterpiece of SF humor that guarantees hilarity by bringing together lovable rabbity aliens from the future whose murderous intentions are thwarted by their poor understanding of earthly culture, and readers’ favorite alcoholic/amnesiac inventor Gallegher.

Dan Ross and Justin Steele both list “Bells of Horror” (1939) as their favorite Kuttner story. Justin tells us:

When one wonders what makes “Bells of Horror” such an excellent short story, one needs simply to listen to AC/DC. Hells Bells, man, Hells Bells.

kuttner-lobsterAnd Dan writes, with impressive succinctness:

The “Bells of Horror,” ringing madness and bringing darkness in the Golden state.

Haffner Press grand Poopah Stephen Haffner sent this brief note:

“While it’s not my favorite Henry Kuttner story, I want to put it in writing that “The Devil Rides” is exactly the type of tale your mother warned you about… seriously… this is one messed-up story!”

Alvaro Zinos-Amaro sent this entry:

My favorite Kuttner story might be “Home is the Hunter” for the first-person depiction of Honest Roger Bellamy and his ultimate “Triumph” over the Hunter society — too, a story that begins with “There’s nobody I can talk to except myself” is hard to resist.

Alexander G. Tozzi sent this review of “The Voice of the Lobster,” from Thrilling Wonder Stories (1950):

“It’s a calamity of cosmic proportions when interstellar flim-flam man MacDuff boards The Sutter, bringing with him his coquettish assistant Ao, and a scheme to make a lobster happy enough to raise havoc!”

Finally, we received this fine endorsement of Terror in the House: The Early Kuttner, Volume One, from Greg Lincoln:

I’m sorry to say I’m currently unfamiliar with his stories but with Matheson introducing it I have to look into it.

Indeed. Just one of the many fine reasons to check out this excellent book. You can find more about Terror in the House at Haffner Press.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x