Book excerpt: Stanley G. Weinbaum is a figure who looms large in the history of SF: years before John W. Campbell began editing "Astounding," he was writing stories that had much the same appeal. He came, in a real sense, out of nowhere -- not literally, but close to it. Most of the folks writing SF in the first years of the genre were folks who'd write "any" sort of "pulp" fiction for the pulps: westerns today, confessions tomorrow, mysteries on Thursdays, and oh, yes, scientificition on weekends. Weinbaum started out trying to be a writer of that stripe -- he managed to publish a women's serial called "The Lady Dances" through the King-Features newspaper syndicate in 1933, as "Marge Stanley." A serial that's never been reprinted, much to universal regret). But when the weekend came and he tried his hand at SF, something special happened. The book you hold in your hands is a bit of that specialness. It includes half a dozen of Weinbaum's scientifictional stories -- "A Martian Odyssey" (of course!), "Valley of Dreams," "The Worlds of If," "The Ideal," "The Point of View," and "Pygmalion's Spectacles." Enjoy!