The best of E. E. Doc Smith

the long version

The Best of E.E. "Doc" Smith (1975) is a collection of eight short selections from The Master, assembled roughly ten years after his death. They span a period from 1928 to 1964, most all of his writing career. Smith did not publish a lot of short fiction, so this may be considered a fairly representative volume. The stories are: "To the Far Reaches of Space" (*Amazing*, 1928), "Robot Nemesis" (*Thrilling Wonder Stories*, 1939), "Pirates of Space" (*Amazing*, 1934), "The Vortex Blaster" (*Comet*, 1941), "Tedric" (*Other Worlds*, 1953), "Lord Tedric" (*Universe*, 1954), "Subspace Survivors" (*Astounding*, 1960), and "The Imperial Stars" (*If*, 1964). Two of the stories are excerpts from novels. "To the Far Reaches of Space" is an excerpt from *The Skylark of Space*, and "Pirates of Space" is an excerpt from *Triplanetary*. "The Vortex Blaster" and "Subspace Survivors" are not excerpts, but they provided the basis for two novels. Of the six "non-excerpt" stories, "The Vortex Blaster" has been the most oft-reprinted, with "Robot Nemesis" a distant second.