Crossroads of Destiny and Others by H. Beam Piper, Science Fiction, Adventure (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781603129329)

Blurbs for books. Days are we write so many of them we could just . . . well. But it's clear we aren't the only ones who feel this way.

H. Beam Piper sold "Crossroads of Destiny" to Fantastic Universe Science Fiction, which published it in their July 1959 issue. "No wonder he'd been so interested in the talk of whether our people accepted these theories!" they said of the story. We aren't at all certain what they meant by that, but you'll probably have a clue.

The blurb for "Hunter Patrol" (Amazing Stories, May 1959 -- a collaboration with John J. McGuire) is equally oblique: "Readers who remember the Hon. Stephen Silk, diplomat extraordinary, in Lone Star Planet (FU, March 1957), later published as A Planet for Texans (Ace Books), will find the present story a challenging departure -- this possibility that the history we know may not be absolute. . . ."

On the other hand, when "Dearest" appeared in Weird Tales, in March, 1951, the folks at that magazine blurbed it, "Many men have dreamed of world peace, but none have been able to achieve it. If one man did have that power, could mankind afford to pay the price?" An interesting thought, we say. And it seems to us that they had a lot more to say about the story than the SF mags did (above).

On the other other hand (it makes us feel like such Moties to say that), when True: The Man's Magazine, published "Rebel Raider" in December 1950 they said, "Jeb Stuart left John Singleton Mosby behind Northern lines 'to look after loyal Confederate people.' But before the war was over, Mosby did a lot more than that. . . ." (We think they actually read the piece before they published it, by golly!)

And on the last hand of all, there's no evidence that anybody at the house that published The Science-Fictional Sherlock Holmes, (1960 -- another collaboration with John J. McGuire) even read "The Return" -- they didn't say a word about it! Harrumph.