From the desk
Unpublished stories
A novel, eight complete short stories, and five unfinished manuscripts — the work that never reached the pulps, kept by the estate and presented here as Tanner left it.
Complete manuscripts
The Bright Tomorrow
An unpublished 1932 novelette from the same year as Tumithak — a vision of the day after catastrophe.
39 min readThe Cradle of Zeus
Tanner’s unpublished novel. On the yacht Lady Mira in the Bay of Messara, Barney Gaunt’s story opens under a Cretan moon — and the old gods are not done with the island.
285 min readJotunheim
A 1936 unpublished tale named for the land of the giants: mythic north, pulp voltage.
29 min readThe Robe of Caesar
An unpublished 1937 story of imperial cloth, and the power that still clings to it.
18 min readThe Minions of Huanapur
A longer unpublished adventure from 1937 — distant courts, and the servants who keep them running.
56 min readThe Micronauts
Unpublished 1938 science fiction: a voyage scaled the wrong way, into a world that does not know it is being visited.
53 min readToo Many Crooks
A 1943 unpublished crime-tinged piece — when the job is crowded, nobody gets out clean.
48 min readNeath Other Stars
Tanner’s longest unpublished novelette: a far-sky voyage written in the last year of the war.
149 min readSpace Bunyan
An unpublished 1949 tall-tale: Paul Bunyan scaled up to the void, axe and all.
27 min readUnfinished
Fragments and abandoned drafts, included as they survive.
The Man Who Captured Shadows
An unfinished manuscript. A man who can take hold of what should have no handle.
24 min readThis Rebellious Flesh
An unfinished manuscript. The body has opinions the mind did not vote on.
37 min readTomorrow’s Locksmiths
Unfinished. The people who will open the next age — and the locks they have not yet cut.
61 min readThe Pioneer
A short, unfinished fragment of a frontier that is not on any map.
10 min readThe Schoenberg Chalice
Unfinished, circa 1947. Geoffrey Caldwell’s doctors call it a simple schizophrenia. The chalice suggests otherwise.
5 min read