Galactic Effectuator is a 1980 science fiction/mystery anthology by American writer Jack Vance, containing the novella The Dogtown Tourist Agency and the novelette "Freitzke's Turn". Both stories are about an intergalactic sleuth, Miro Hetzel, who uses his wits to pursue challenging cases.
The sleuth Miro Hetzel, who calls himself a "galactic effectuator", resolves two mysteries in this combined short novel and short story. In The Dogtown Tourist Agency, he investigates a plan to deliver weapons to the fairly primitive "Gomaz" race on a distant planet called Maz. The story starts with Hetzel tracking a playboy, and then moves onto him taking a case for Palladian Micronics, a robot firm. Hetzel meets with Palladian's CEO, who cannot understand how a competitor is selling a similar robot at a much cheaper price. While the CEO does not know how the competitor is beating his price, the clues point to the primitive planet of Maz. To find the answer to the mystery, Hetzel must penetrate deeper into the primitive zones of the planet, where encounters with the aggressive Gomaz race add to his peril.
In the short story Freitzke's Turn, Hetzel takes on a case for Conwit Clent, who has had his testicles stolen by a rogue doctor. To track down the doctor, Hetzel has to go to his old university, where he studied as a young man. There he encounters a former rival, the brilliant Faurence Dacre, who may be the key to resolving the mystery.
Kirkus Reviews generally praises the "...pleasures of the Vance intelligence and the Vance prose style", but calls this volume a "...trifle exiguous", as "...there is a lot that might profitably have been left in here in the way of plot", as "...neither mystery is worth the elegance expended on it". [1] In all the review states that the volume has "[m]uch charm, little body." [1]
Speculiction calls Galactic Effectuator "...just average Vance", that, while "[g]enerally comparable to the simplicity of his earlier short fiction", but "[l]acking the sparkling dialogue of the Cugel works or Araminta Station". [2] Speculiction's review of The Dogtown Tourist Agency states that the "...climax of the story shows an imaginative twinkle lacking in much of the author's earlier short fiction, but not quite up to par with his more polished efforts." Speculiction calls "Frietzke's Turn" "...[n]ot up to the same quality as The Dogtown Tourist Agency", and says that perhaps the short story was "...a loose sketch of what would become The Book of Dreams seven years later." [2]
John Holbrook Vance was an American mystery, fantasy, and science fiction writer. Though most of his work has been published under the name Jack Vance, he also wrote several mystery novels under pen names, including Ellery Queen.
The Galactic Empire series is a science fiction sequence of three of Isaac Asimov's earliest novels, and extended by one short story. They are connected by their early place in his published works and chronological placement within his overarching Foundation universe, set around the rise of Asimov's Galactic Empire, between the Robot and Foundation series to which they were linked in Asimov's later novels.
Nemesis is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov. One of his later science fiction novels, it was published in 1989, three years before his death. This novel is connected to Asimov's other works by several ideas from earlier and later novels, including non-human intelligence, sentient astronomical bodies ("Hallucination"), and rotor engines.
The Stars, Like Dust is a 1951 science fiction mystery book by American writer Isaac Asimov.
The Galactic Empire is an interstellar empire featured in Isaac Asimov's Robot, Galactic Empire, and Foundation series. The Empire is spread across the Milky Way galaxy and consists of almost 25 million planets settled exclusively by humans. For over 12 millennia the seat of imperial authority was located on the ecumenopolis of Trantor, whose population exceeded 40 billion, until it was sacked in the year 12,328. The official symbol of the empire is the Spaceship-and-Sun. Cleon II was the last Emperor to hold significant authority. The fall of the empire, modelled on the fall of the Roman Empire, is the subject of many of Asimov's novels.
Bill, the Galactic Hero is a satirical science fiction novel by American writer Harry Harrison, first published in 1965. A novella length version appeared in the magazine Galaxy Science Fiction in 1964 under the name "The Starsloggers".
Titus Crow is the main character in the eponymous series of horror fiction books by Brian Lumley. The books are based on H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos.
Jonathan Strahan is an editor and publisher of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. His family moved to Perth, Western Australia in 1968, and he graduated from the University of Western Australia with a Bachelor of Arts in 1986.
"Death Sentence" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the November 1943 issue of Astounding Science Fiction and reprinted in the 1972 collection The Early Asimov.
Be An Interplanetary Spy is a series of twelve interactive children's science fiction books designed by Byron Preiss Visual Publications and first published by Bantam Books from 1983 to 1985.
Maske: Thaery is a science fiction novel by American writer Jack Vance, set in his Gaean Reach universe, which was first published in hardcover by Putnam, in 1976. It is about a young man's planet-hopping pursuit of the arrogant nobleman who almost killed him.
The Foundation universe is the future history of humanity's colonization of the galaxy, spanning nearly 25,000 years, created through the gradual fusion of the Robot, Galactic Empire, and Foundation book series written by American author Isaac Asimov.
Galactic Derelict is a science fiction novel by American writer Andre Norton, the second in her Time Traders series. It was first published in 1959, and as of 2012, had been reprinted in eight editions. It is part of Norton's Forerunner universe.
Star Rangers, also known as The Last Planet, is a science fiction novel by the American author Andre Norton. The novel was published on August 20, 1953, by Harcourt, Brace & Company. This is one of Norton's Central Control books, which lay out the history of a galactic empire through events suggested by Norton's understanding of Terran history.
This is a complete list of works by American science fiction and fantasy author Jack Vance.
Nebula Awards 32 is an anthology of science fiction short works edited by Jack Dann. It was first published in hardcover and trade paperback by Harcourt Brace in April 1998.
"The Impossible Planet" is a science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in the October 1953 issue of Imagination. It has been reprinted over 30 times, including Brian Aldiss's 1974 Space Odysseys anthology. It was also published in Dutch, French, German and Italian translations. The writer originally submitted it to the Scott Meredith Literary Agency on February 11, 1953, with the title "Legend."
Aunty Lee's Delights: A Singaporean Mystery is the first detective fiction novel in the Aunty Lee Series by Ovidia Yu. It was published in September 2013 by William Morrow and Company.
Emergency Skin is a science fiction novelette written by N. K. Jemisin. The story was first published by Amazon Original Stories as part of the Forward short fiction collection in September 2019. The story was well received, and it was awarded a Hugo Award, an Audie Award, and an Ignyte Award in 2020.