Masters of Science Fiction
by Howard Waldrop· 2026
The shining realms of science fiction and fantasy can boast of few other writers with as unique a voice and vision and set of themes as Howard Waldrop. This collection presents the range of the man’s achievements, starting with one of his earliest tales — “Lunchbox,” wherein humanity’s first Mars probe meets an unexpected challenge — and passing through many stories written at the height of his powers, such as “The King of Where-I-Go,” which follows the time-tangled, heart-broken alternate lives of an unforgettable brother-and-sister team.
Noted for the quirkiness of his conceptions, the intricate depths of his researches and his assured and compelling voice — which varied from utterly cosmopolitan to that of a Southern Comfort-cured bard — Waldrop produced, over a career of nearly sixty years, such tales as “Der Untergang des Abendlandesmenschen” (a conflation of Nazis and Nosferatu); “Mary Margaret Road-Grader” (a post-collapse drama of big-hearted men and women and their big machines); “Ike at the Mike” (a jet-propelled alternate history involving Elvis Presley, Dwight Eisenhower, and a cast of hundreds); and “The Ugly Chickens” (a man’s obsessive search for an extinct beast that might yet live).
Waldrop’s stories were filled with verbal pyrotechnics and gonzo brainstorms, but he also plumbed emotional depths. “You Could Go Home Again,” his account of the early modernist writer Thomas Wolfe (Wolfe is granted years of life beyond our historical record), captures Wolfe’s trademark deep melancholy and nostalgia. Likewise, “Flatfeet!” takes the famously one-note and two-dimensional Keystone Kops and invests them with the joys and fears and passions of fully rounded humans. And “Do Ya, Do Ya, Wanna Dance?” vividly deploys all the trauma of a twentieth high school reunion in a way instantly recognizable, before tipping over into the outrageously fantastic. Similar effects are found in “Flying Saucer Rock & Roll.”
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The shining realms of science fiction and fantasy can boast of few other writers with as unique a voice and vision and set of themes as Howard Waldrop. This collection presents the range of the man’s achievements, starting with one of his earliest tales — “Lunchbox,” wherein humanity’s first Mars probe meets an unexpected challenge — and passing through many stories written at the height of his powers, such as “The King of Where-I-Go,” which follows the time-tangled, heart-broken alternate lives of an unforgettable brother-and-sister team. Noted for the quirkiness of his conceptions, the intricate depths of his researches and his assured and compelling voice — which varied from utterly cosmopolitan to that of a Southern Comfort-cured bard — Waldrop produced, over a career of nearly sixty years, such tales as “Der Untergang des Abendlandesmenschen” (a conflation of Nazis and Nosferatu); “Mary Margaret Road-Grader” (a post-collapse drama of big-hearted men and women and their big machines); “Ike at the Mike” (a jet-propelled alternate history involving Elvis Presley, Dwight Eisenhower, and a cast of hundreds); and “The Ugly Chickens” (a man’s obsessive search for an extinct beast that might yet live). Waldrop’s stories were filled with verbal pyrotechnics and gonzo brainstorms, but he also plumbed emotional depths. “You Could Go Home Again,” his account of the early modernist writer Thomas Wolfe (Wolfe is granted years of life beyond our historical record), captures Wolfe’s trademark deep melancholy and nostalgia. Likewise, “Flatfeet!” takes the famously one-note and two-dimensional Keystone Kops and invests them with the joys and fears and passions of fully rounded humans. And “Do Ya, Do Ya, Wanna Dance?” vividly deploys all the trauma of a twentieth high school reunion in a way instantly recognizable, before tipping over into the outrageously fantastic. Similar effects are found in “Flying Saucer Rock & Roll.”