The Best of A.E. van Vogt, Volume 2 – 1979 (May, 1974) [Peter Elson]

Continuing from the post about Volume I of The Best Of A.E. Van Vogt in Sphere Books’ The Best Of… science fiction series of the mid-1970s, here’s Volume II with six van Vogt stories spanning the late 1940s through the early 1970s.

Cover artist Peter Elson continued with the theme he established in Volume I: A massive spacecraft occupies the center of the painting. This time, its headed towards an asteroid modified for human (or robot?!) habitation – notice those antennae sticking out of it? – occupying the center of the image. The spaceship, viewed from the rear and with its four engines glowing, gives the impressions of force and power as it moves away from the viewer. A glow emanating from the center of the image, obscured by the asteroid, fills the center of the scene.

Is this an expedition to a newly formed star system?

The front cover…

…and simple back cover…

The stories in the anthology…

Contents

(This volume ISBN 0 7221 8727 0)

(First published in Great Britain by Sphere Books Ltd as part of a single volume, 1974; 0-7221-8774-2 (978-0-7221-8774-6))

“Dear Pen Pal”, The Arkham Sampler, Winter, 1949

“The Green Forest”, Astounding Science Fiction, June, 1949

“War of Nerves”, Other Worlds Science Stories, May, 1950

“The Expendables”, If, September, 1963

“Silkies in Space”, If, May, 1966

“The Proxy Intelligence”, 1968, published in The Proxy Intelligence and Other Mind Benders, 1971

Bibliography – The Science Fiction Books of A.E. van Vogt

This image appears at Isaac’s catalog entry for The Best of A.E. van Vogt: Volume 1…

This version of the entirety of the original image, which reveals its subtleties far better than a halftone print, can be viewed at Peter Elson’s gallery, where the original size is given as 378 x 544mm.