The Best of John Wyndham

Sphere Books

Industry	Publishing
Headquarters	United Kingdom
Products	Books, paperbacks

The Best of John Wyndham is a paperback anthology comprising twelve science fiction works—six short stories and six novelettes—by John Wyndham, issued posthumously by Sphere Books in 1973. In 1975, Michael Joseph Limited published a hardcover version under the title The Man from Beyond and Other Stories. The 1977 paperback release by Sphere was divided into two separate volumes, each containing a comprehensive bibliography and an introductory essay by Leslie Flood.

Contents

• The Best of John Wyndham 1932-1949 ()
  • "The Lost Machine" (1932), novelette
  • "The Man from Beyond" (1934), novelette, alternative version of "The Man from Earth"
  • "The Perfect Creature" (1937), novelette
  • "The Trojan Beam" (1939), novelette
  • "Vengeance by Proxy" (1940), credited to John Beynon
  • "Adaptation" (1949)
• The Best of John Wyndham 1951-1960 ()
  • "Pawley's Peepholes" (1951)
  • "The Red Stuff" (1951), novelette
  • "And the Walls Came Tumbling Down" (1951)
  • "Dumb Martian" (1952), novelette
  • "Close Behind Him" (1953)
  • "The Emptiness of Space" (1960), alternate version of "The Asteroids, 2194"

Plots

• "The Lost Machine" portrays the journey of an artificial intelligence navigating early 20th-century Earth, connected to Wyndham’s 1936 novel Planet Plane.
• In "The Man From Beyond," a human protagonist persuades Venusian inhabitants to avoid engagement with neighboring space civilizations.
• Known also as "Una," "The Perfect Creature" follows a scientist’s unsuccessful endeavor to create the ultimate life form.
• "The Trojan Beam" centers on a British secret agent using advanced technology to mediate escalating tensions between China and Japan.
• Updating the vampire legend to contemporary Eastern Europe, "Vengeance by Proxy" reflects the narrative style reminiscent of Bram Stoker.
• Adaptation dramatizes the imperative of evolutionary change through the story of a father searching for his missing daughter.
• "Pawley's Peepholes" depicts time travelers from the future whose casual observations disrupt small-town dynamics.
• The novelette "The Red Stuff" describes a rapidly growing entity consuming a meteorite, spaceship, and lunar base.
• Featuring a silicone-based life form encountering hostility on Earth, "And the Walls Came Tumbling Down" explores themes of alien existence.
• "Dumb Martian" narrates the isolation-induced descent into madness of a human man living with his Martian 'wife' in space.
• A horror story, "Close Behind Him," tells of a burglar tormented by the ghost of a murder victim.
• Set in New Caledonia in 2194, "The Emptiness of Space" follows an astronaut struggling with psychological challenges caused by extended space travel.