Compared with the works of the founders of modern sf, H.G. Wells and Jules Verne, those of the 1930's, contrary to the overblown title, often seem insufferably crude; even the better craftsmen of the era were prone to excessive verbiage, prose that was more puce than purple, cartoon characters and antics, and rickety or nonexistent plots--all of which are on ample display here. Sf, however, is primarily a literature of ideas--so, readers may observe herein the fascinating, sometimes traumatic birth of ideas that became classic, and, with various modifications, persisted into the present. Thus, H.P. Lovecraft describes some mind-swapping horrors from the distant past. Editor/writer Horace L. Gold (Galaxy) posits the dilemma of a man whose brain is transplanted into a dog's body. A woman is revived from the dead in Cornell Woolrich's melodrama. Editor/writer John W. Campbell (Astounding) discovers some aliens frozen in the ice of Antarctica. Another editor/writer, Harry Bates (Amazing), speculates on far-future humans so intellectualized that they have devolved into idiots. Murray Leinster invents the notion of travelling into probability-worlds. Eric Frank Russell and Leslie T. Johnson time-travel into the gar future. L. Sprague de Camp, in the best story here, defeats some alien conquerors by knocking off their thinking-caps. Stanley G. Weinbaum's immortal female conqueror harasses the distant future. And Jack Williamson's sinister nasties invade Earth from another dimension. Ideas sound familiar? They should. Worth a try for nostalgia buffs and students of the field.
