The Other Worlds


The Other Worlds is an anthology of science fiction, fantasy, and horror edited by Phil Stong. It was originally published by Wilfred Funk in 1941, with a lower-price edition following from Garden City Publishing a year later. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction describes it as "the first important sf Anthology".; it remains in the collection of nearly 200 academic libraries in 2015.

Contents

Reception

Kirkus Reviews described The Other Worlds as "ntertainment from sources usually high-hatted by the literati," and noting that " The best of them are well written, with good plots and ideas; the rest smack of their sources." Unknown Worlds's pseudonymous reviewer recommended the anthology as "a lot of book for the money", noting that "it contains a number of good, forceful, entertaining stories. A reviewer for Thrilling Wonder Stories praised the book, saying "the average tale in this volume is of a very high order" while noting its editor's aversion to "interplanetary yarns". A reviewer in Future Science Fiction received the anthology quite unfavorably, calling it an "opus malodorous" and complaining that "most of the selections are weird stories of varying mediocrity."
Critic Brian Stableford noted that Stong had compiled "the first anthology of fantastic fiction to feature a significant sample of stories from the sf magazines" and that the editor has "deliberately excluded 'interplanetary fiction' from the showcase and included an editorial railing against the imbecility and intrinsic worthlessness of fiction of that sort."