The Williamson Effect
Table of Contents

David Brin, "Introduction: A World in Love with Change"

Brin presents an appreciative overview of Williamson's writing career.

Frederik Pohl, "The Mayor of Mare Tranq"

An alternate history of Williamson's life in which Williamson pursues a military career instead of writing science fiction and ends up on Apollo 11.

Paul Dellinger, "Before the Legion"

A story of Williamson's famous rogue, Giles Habibula, and his adventures in a casino on Venus before he joined the Legion of Space.

Poul Anderson, "Inside Passage"

After a friend's murder, Roberto Bulosan, a University of California physics professor, follows suspected werewolves by cruise ship and plane to Alaska.

Ben Bova, "Risk Assessment"

Delia Shockley promised her dying father that she would complete his starship and be the first to fly to Alpha Centauri. She's a member of the Lunar Council, but another member, Martin Flagg, opposes the flight because using that much power from the lunar sources might endanger the rest of the population. The third council member, the computer Alpha One, must decide whether to allow the flight.

Scott E. Green, "Williamson's World"

A short poem about Williamson's work.

Pati Nagle, "Emancipation"

On a space colony, maintenance has evolved into religious ritual. Not understanding, the ruling council decides to modify the schedule, eliminating night, and placing both the physical and social systems in peril.

John Brunner, "Thinkertoy"

Paul Walker's wife died in a car accident while he was driving, and he's left with their two children. The children are emotionally scarred in disturbing ways, but they seem to improve when he buys them a robot...

Fred Saberhagen, "The Bad Machines"

Saberhagen's Berserkers are still at war with humans. But Williamson's humanoids show up as protectors, altering the balance as they present a new and opposite danger.

Jeff Bredenberg, "The Human Ingredient"

In this humorous story, Diderot uses a terrorist act to escape a humanoid ship and lands on a planet protected from the humanoids by a rhodomagnetic shield, only to become an indentured servant. And then his master rents his services to provide the secret ingredient in a confectionist's dessert.

Jane Lindskold, "Child of the Night"

Pat's father has been arrested, and she and her mother have been taken to the Glennhaven mental hospital -- a hospital operated by her father's enemies.

David Weber, "A Certain Talent"

A mysterious woman, Ethyra Coran, hires Giles Habibula to steal a famous gem. But it's secretly a test of Habibula's skills.

Connie Willis, "Nonstop to Portales"

Carter Stewart arrives in Portales a day early for a job interview. He finds the waiting frustrating and boring -- even the locals can't suggest anything of interest to see. Then, by chance, he ends up joining a bus tour to the ranch of a writer he's never heard of -- Jack Williamson.

Andre Norton, "No Folded Hands"

Native Americans use traditional magic to defend against the benevolent mechanized alien invaders they call the ants.

Mike Resnick, "Darker Than You Wrote"

Resnick's answer to Williamson's classic novel, suggesting that while everything Williamson wrote was true, the novel in its entirety was a lie.

Scott E. Green, "Near Portales...Freedom Shouts"

Another short poem about Williamson and his work.

John J. Miller, "Worlds That Never Were: The Last Adventure of the Legion of Time"

Dennis Lanning is living happily with his lover Lethonee in Jonbar. But his world is upset when another Dennis Lanning comes to his apartment, telling him he must reassemble the Legion of Time and close off this timeline or Jonbar will suffer a fate as bad as the one they rescued it from. Meanwhile, one of the members is the prime suspect in a murder.

ack to Off the shelf.