By HOWARD GOLDSMITH (Xerox Education Publications; 1977)
A short single author anthology, written by somebody named Howard Goldsmith, that appears to have been aimed at children. I say “appears to have” because, although the stories are all written in a paint-by-numbers kid book manner and nearly all of them feature child protagonists, there’s no concrete indication of any such orientation in the packaging, with a back cover that’s entirely blank and a very perfunctory copyright page (who knew the Xerox Corporation published books?).
The five stories contained here all debuted in anthologies edited by the late Roger Elwood, the most prolific science fiction anthologist of the sixties and seventies (and indeed ever). Given that Elwood’s primary stipulations for accepting submissions were that they be well typed and put down in legible prose, the fact that he selected these stories for publication doesn’t constitute much of a recommendation.
Story number one is “The Spider Ring,” a pretty standard run-though of the eternally popular be-careful-what-you-wish-for theme (a la “The Monkey’s Paw”). It involves a golden ring that can grant any wish, but must be returned to its rightful owner, whose life the protagonist saves, after a month’s time. This one concludes with a seriously lame twist.
Next is “The Voices of El Dorado,” in which a kid hears disembodied voices in an echoing canyon (spoiler alert: they belong to ghosts). The title story is about a possessed tree, which as we know from THE GUARDIAN (1990) is not a promising base for a horror story; this painfully obvious and uninspiring tale shows why that is.
“The Plastic Horror” has a promising conception concerning a young woman who wakes up one morning to find that she’s turned to plastic—as has everyone around her. A skilled writer could have done wonders with this story, but as rendered by Mr. Goldsmith there’s not much to it.
The final tale is “The Bend of Time,” in which a boy living in a future era travels to an uninhabited Earth. There he meets a robotic boy who heralds the birth of a new civilization. Once again: the story has promise but the execution is lacking. It may have been good enough for Roger Elwood, but I think the rest of us are justified in wanting bit more.