Amis and the polymath Robert Conquest published five Spectrum sci fi anthologies from 1961. This, self-evidently, is the second, published in 1962, contain eight stories from the period 1946-58. Those anthologised are mainly American because in that period sci fi was mainly American. Only Brian Aldiss is British and I find him very difficult to get on with. James Blish, it should be pointed out, did not move to the UK until 1964 and his story here, 'Bridge', dates from 1952.
The longest story here is Wyman Guin's 'Beyond Bedlam' (1951). I enjoyed it - it is clever and well-sustained twist on schitzophrenia. Other, shorter stories, such as Asimov's 'The Feeling of Power' and Mark Clifton's 'Sense from Thought Divide' seemed to me pedestrian and unambitious. 'Resurrection' (A E van Vogt) and 'Vintage Season' (Henry Kuttner) were more substansial and more satisfying. Best of all was Philip K Dick's 'Second Variety' from 1953, very early in his career and twenty years before he underwent his psychic revelation. It has the clever twist of the better short stories whilst developing empathetic characters and an Armageddon-like warscape that, at the time of reading it, was only too relevant for me.
Blish's 'Bridge', I should point out, is typical Blish, a deconstructed metaphor. When I was a lad and Blish was still amongsr us, I read his Doctor Mirabilis. That's a book I really should read again.
