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Collected Fiction
Kris Neville
(custom book cover)
Jerry eBooks
Title Page
About Kris Neville
“Introducing the Author”
Bibliography
Short Fiction Bibliography: chronological
Short Fiction Bibliography: alphabetical
Fiction Series
1949
THE HAND FROM THE STARS
COLD WAR
1950
EVERY WORK INTO JUDGMENT
SATELITE SECRET
IF THIS BE UTOPIA . . .
DUMB SUPPER
FORBIDDEN FRUIT
ONE LEG IS ENOUGH
THE FIRST
WIND IN HER HAIR
TAKE TWO QUIGGIES
1951
FRANCHISE
CASTING OFFICE
SEEDS OF FUTURITY
HUNT THE HUNTER
OLD MAN HENDERSON
YES AND NO
HOLD BACK TOMORROW
BETTYANN
1952
SPECIAL DELIVERY
FRESH AIR FRIEND
THE OPAL NECKLACE
UNDERGROUND MOVEMENT
THE TOY
1953
THE MAN WITH THE FINE MIND
EARTH ALERT!
AS HOLY AND ENCHANTED
BIG TALK
MISSION
SHE KNEW SHE WAS COMING
IT PAYS TO ADVERTISE
MARGINAL ERROR
GRATITUDE GUARANTEED
DUST THOU ART . . .
WORSHIP NIGHT
1954
PERIL OF THE STARMEN
GOING HOME
OVERTURE
1957
MORAL EQUIVALENT
IN THE BEGINNING
1961
CLOSING TIME
1962
POWER IN THE BLOOD
THE WINNING OF THE MOON
TOO MANY EGGS
GENERAL MAX SHORTER
1963
VOYAGE TO FAR N’JURD
NEW APPLES IN THE GARDEN
1964
SHAMAR’S WAR
THE OUTCASTS
1966
THE PRICE OF SIMERYL
1967
BALLENGER’S PEOPLE
FROM THE GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
THE FOREST OF ZIL
THE NIGHT OF THE NICKEL BEER
1968
THYRE PLANET
1970
THE REALITY MACHINE
1971
DOMINANT SPECIES
1972
PATER FAMILIAS
MEDICAL PRACTICES AMONG THE IMMORTALS
1974
SAM AND THE LIVE AND THE NOT-ALIVE THINGS
SURVIVAL PROBLEMS
THE MAN WHO READ EQUATIONS
1976
MILK INTO BRANDY
KRIS OTTMAN NEVILLE was born on May 9, 1925 in Carthage, Missouri who wrote mostly science fiction. He primarily worked for many years as a technical writer specializing in plastics technology, and through his connection with the Epoxylite Corporation co-authored several texts on epoxy resins.
Neville’s first science fiction work was published in 1949. His most famous work, the novella Bettyann, is considered a classic of science fiction.
Well known science fiction writer and critic, Barry N. Malzberg, wrote the following biographical note about Kris Neville in his introduction to Neville’s story “Ballenger’s People” in the 1979 Doubleday collection Neglected Visions:
Kris Neville could have been among the ten most honored science fiction writers of his generation; instead, he virtually abandoned the field after conquering it early on and made himself the leading lay authority in the world on epoxy resins, collaborating on a series of specialized texts that have become the basic works in their field. I can hardly blame him for this decision, and it was in any case carefully thought out. Neville, who sold his first story in 1949 and another fifteen by 1952, concluded early on that the perimeters of the field in the 1950s were simply too close to contain the kind of work he would have to do if he wanted to grow as a writer, and accordingly he quit. A scattering of stories has appeared over the last quarter of a century, and a couple of novels, but except for one abortive attempt to write full-time in the mid-1960s (the field simply could not absorb the kind of work he was doing), Neville has been in a state of diminished production for a long time. Nowadays a short-short story shows up once a year or so in a magazine or original anthology; sometimes written in collaboration with his second wife, Lil, and always so astonishingly above the run of material surrounding it as to constitute an embarrassment to the other writers. Neville, whom I do not claim to know well at all but with whom I did correspond prolifically some years ago, may be among the most intelligent of science fiction writers (only A.J. Budrys seems to have his eclecticism and his breadth) and strikes me as among the few contented people I have ever known . . . Neville has done some extraordinary political satire—The Price of Simeryl, published way back in 1966, is an early, savage anti-Vietnam piece—and in work like New Apples in the Garden manifests an extraordinary range of subject and character.
Kris Neville’s comparative silence for two decades before his death, a silence obscured by the book publication of old material—most of it revamped, like The Mutants, Special Delivery and Peril of the Starmen—was to be regretted, for his intelligence was acute and his artistic control over his material was always evident. He was one of the potentially major writers of Genre SF who never came to speak in his full voice.
Kris Neville died on December 23, 1980, in Los Angeles, California.
Introducing the AUTHOR
«
Kris Neville
«
I was born in Carthage, Missouri. I’m rather proud of the town. If you stand in the cupola of the courthouse you stand on the highest point in Jasper County, and I’ve heard it said you can see three states from there. The biggest battle in the Civil War before Bull Run was fought in the vicinity, and in 1865 so thoroughly had the war decimated the citizens nothing moved in the streets but an occasional deer.
I was born in 1925. By that time civilization had pushed the deer back into the upstate forests. A few years later—t his is one of my first memories—the city built a swimming pool in Central Park. I went over to watch the construction, and one of the workmen gave me two lumps of the concrete. One was black and one was red. I remember being very excited about the gift. Not everyone, I realized, had samples of the Carthage swimming pool for his very own . . .
When I was six or so I went with my father to Center Creek to catch a few soft-shelled crawfish for bass bait. We arrived around midnight and ignited the carbide light. In hot pursuit of soft-shells we innocently trespassed upon private property within fifteen minutes. And shortly we spotted a tall, thin female hurrying through the darkness toward us. She wore a breeze whipped white nightgown and carried an old fashion lantern. When she drew close enough, she asked politely, “Have you gentlemen lost something in my brook?”
It’s really surprising how writing this down serves to remind me of numerous things I haven’t thought about for some time. I remember the day I got in a fight with a boy named John; I was eight or nine years old. I remember telling my father I’d taken up smoking; I was a sophomore in high school. And I remember talking Charlie into waiving his ten day grace period so he could go into the army the same time I did.
And more recently, after I got out of the a
rmy and was living in Pasadena, I recall drinking beer at Sharkey’s with Gus and Nieson and Lou and Dale and O.K. Smith and God knows how many other science fiction fans while meetings were in progress at the LASFS.
And after that, I remember playing hours of bridge in the student lounge of Joplin Junior College; being sea sick on my first trip to Hawaii with the Merchant Marine; drinking coffee at the UCLA cafeteria with Herb and Glen in preference to attending my American Lit course . . .
And I remember selling my first story. Super Science bought it. I was, as you can imagine, quite elated. Until the next day, when I got back an English examination upon which the professor had noted, “You write like an illiterate.” None the less, having sold a story, I kept telling myself in a wee small voice, “Well, Neville, you’re a writer. You sold a story.” . . .
I can’t say—after looking back over my disconnected assortment of memories—why I decided to try to write. Perfectly normal people have come from the Same environment I did. But I am sure why, after deciding to write, I write science fiction. I’ve been reading it for the last twelve years!
—Kris Neville
Originally appeared in Imagination, January 1952
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Novels
The Unearth People (1964)
The Mutants (1966)
Invaders on the Moon (1970)
Bettyann (1970)
Run, the Spearmaker (unpublished) with Lin Neville
Magazine-published Novels
Special Delivery, Imagination, January 1952
Earth Alert!, Imagination, February 1953
Peril of the Starmen, Imagination, January 1954
Anthologies
The Flame of Iridar/Peril of the Starmen (1967) with Lin Carter
Special Delivery/Star Gladiator (1967) with Dave Van Arnam
Special Delivery/No Time for Toffee (2011) with Charles F. Myers
The Virgin of Valkarion/Earth Alert (2016) with Poul Anderson
Chapbooks
General Max Shorter (2007)
New Apples in the Garden (2009)
Earth Alert! (2010)
She Knew He Was Coming (2010)
Shamar’s War (2016)
Fresh Air Fiend (2016)
Voyage to Far N’jurd (2016)
Hunt the Hunter (2016)
Moral Equivalent (2016)
Collections
Mission: Manstop (1971)
The Science Fiction of Kris Neville (1984)
Earth Alert!: And Other Science Fiction Tales (2010)
The 33rd Golden Age of Science Fiction Megapack (2016)
Omnibus
Peril of the Starmen/The Strange Invasion (2011) with Murray Leinster
SHORT FICTION BIBLIOGRAPHY
CHRONOLOGICAL
1949
The Hand from the Stars, Super Science Stories, July 1949
Cold War, Astounding Science Fiction, October 1949
1950
Every Work Into Judgment, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Winter/Spring, January 1950
Satellite Secret, Amazing Stories, April 1950
If This Be Utopia . . ., Amazing Stories, May 1950
Dumb Supper, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Summer, July 1950
Forbidden Fruit, Out of This World Adventures, July 1950
One Leg Is Enough, Amazing Stories, July 1950
The First, Super Science Stories, September 1950
Wind in Her Hair, Imagination, October 1950
Take Two Quiggies, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, December 1950
1951
Franchise, Astounding Science Fiction, February 1951
Casting Office, Astounding Science Fiction, March 1951
Seeds of Futurity, Ten Story Fantasy, Spring 1951
Hunt the Hunter, Galaxy Science Fiction, June 1951
Old Man Henderson, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, June 1951
Yes and No, Marvel Science Fiction, August 1951
Hold Back Tomorrow, Imagination, September 1951
Bettyann, New Tales of Space and Time, November 1951
1952
Special Delivery, Imagination, January 1952
Fresh Air Fiend, Galaxy Science Fiction, February 1952
The Opal Necklace, Fantastic, Summer, June 1952
Underground Movement, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, June 1952
The Last Wobbly, Fantastic Worlds, Fall-Winter 1952
The Toy, Imagination, December 1952
1953
The Man with the Fine Mind, Fantastic, January/February, January 1953
Earth Alert!, Imagination, February 1953
As Holy and Enchanted, Avon Science Fiction and Fantasy Reader, April 1953
Big Talk, Manhunt, April 1953
Mission, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1953
She Knew He Was Coming, If, May 1953
It Pays to Advertise, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, June 1953
Marginal Error, Thrilling Wonder Stories, June 1953
Gratitude Guaranteed, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, August 1953
Dust Thou Art . . ., Future Science Fiction, September 1953
Worship Night, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November 1953
1954
Peril of the Starmen, Imagination, January 1954
Going Home, Spaceway, February 1954
Overture, 9 Tales of Space and Time, May 1954
1955
Experimental Station, Science Fiction Adventures in Mutation, 1955
1957
Moral Equivalent, Galaxy Science Fiction, January 1957
In the Beginning, Nebula Science Fiction #24, September 1957
1961
Closing Time, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July 1961
1962
Power in the Blood, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, June 1962
The Winning of the Moon, If, September 1962
Too Many Eggs, If, November 1962
General Max Shorter, Galaxy Science Fiction, December 1962
1963
Voyage to Far N’Jurd, Galaxy Science Fiction, April 1963
New Apples in the Garden, Analog Science Fact -> Science Fiction, July 1963
1964
Shamar’s War, Galaxy Science Fiction, February 1964
The Outcasts, Riverside Quarterly, November 1964
1966
The Price of Simeryl, Analog Science Fiction -> Science Fact, December 1966
1967
Ballenger’s People, Galaxy Science Fiction, April 1967
From the Government Printing Office, Dangerous Visions, October 1967
The Forest of Zil, Amazing Stories, December 1967
The Night of the Nickel Beer, Escapade, December 1967
1968
Jeweled City, Riverside Quarterly, August 1968
Thyre Planet, Galaxy Science Fiction, October 1968
1970
Pacem Est, Infinity One, January 1970
The Reality Machine, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, December 1970
1971
Dominant Species, Orbit 9, October 1971
Mission: Manstop, Mission: Manstop, October 1971
Experimental Station, Mission: Manstop, October 1971
1972
Pater Familias, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, March 1972
Medical Practices Among the Immortals, Galaxy Science Fiction, September/October, September 1972
1973
Human Error, Eternity SF #2, 1973
Bettyann’s Children, Demon Kind, March 1973
The Quality of the Product, Saving Worlds, July 1973
1974
Sam and the Live & the Not-Alive Things, Perry Rhodan #47: Shadow of the Mutant Master, June 1974
Survival Problems, Universe 5, October 1974
The Man Who Read Equations, The Magazine of
Fantasy and Science Fiction, December 1974
1976
Arleen, Perry Rhodan 95: The Plasma Monster, May 1976
Milk into Brandy, Amazing Stories, June 1976
1981
Another Creator, Fantasy Book, October 1981
1983
The Bull Fights, Fantasy Book, August 1983
1984
Object D’Art, Fantasy Book, June 1984
SHORT FICTION BIBLIOGRAPHY
ALPHABETICAL
A
Another Creator, Fantasy Book, October 1981
Arleen, Perry Rhodan 95: The Plasma Monster, May 1976
As Holy and Enchanted, Avon Science Fiction and Fantasy Reader, April 1953
B
Ballenger’s People, Galaxy Science Fiction, April 1967
Bettyann, New Tales of Space and Time, November 1951
Bettyann’s Children, Demon Kind, March 1973
Big Talk, Manhunt, April 1953
The Bull Fights, Fantasy Book, August 1983
C
Casting Office, Astounding Science Fiction, March 1951
Closing Time, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July 1961
Cold War, Astounding Science Fiction, October 1949
D
Dominant Species, Orbit 9, October 1971
Dumb Supper, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Summer, July 1950
Dust Thou Art . . ., Future Science Fiction, September 1953
E
Earth Alert!, Imagination, February 1953
Every Work Into Judgment, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Winter/Spring, January 1950
Experimental Station, Mission: Manstop, October 1971
Experimental Station, Science Fiction Adventures in Mutation, 1955
F
The First, Super Science Stories, September 1950
Forbidden Fruit, Out of This World Adventures, July 1950
The Forest of Zil, Amazing Stories, December 1967
Franchise, Astounding Science Fiction, February 1951
Fresh Air Fiend, Galaxy Science Fiction, February 1952
From the Government Printing Office, Dangerous Visions, October 1967
G
General Max Shorter, Galaxy Science Fiction, December 1962
Going Home, Spaceway, February 1954
Gratitude Guaranteed, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, August 1953
H
The Hand from the Stars, Super Science Stories, July 1949