Today, I am recommending four essential works by Nelson S. Bond, the pulp-era storyteller and SFWA Author Emeritus whose wit and warmth lit up the Golden Age. The Remarkable Exploits of Lancelot Biggs, Spaceman (1950): A collection of comic tales about a gangly, unlikely space-freighter officer whose screwball science gets his ship out of every jam.  Breezy, inventive fun that proves Golden Age SF could be genuinely funny. The Priestess Who Rebelled (1939): In a ruined future ruled by women, young Meg undertakes a sacred pilgrimage to the fabled Place of the Gods, where she discovers a startling truth about humanity’s past.  A memorable post-apocalyptic tale with an unforgettable heroine and a clever reversal of gender roles. Exiles of Time (1949): A mysterious bloodstone amulet transports archaeologist Lance Vidor from an ancient Arabian tomb to the lost continent of My, where he joins others summoned across the centuries to save Earth from a catastrophic comet.  Norse myth retold as pulp adventure, like Ragnarok on a countdown clock. No Time Like the Future (1954): Bond’s most science-fictional collection, gathering his sharpest short work, including Conqueror’s Isle and The Cunning of the Beast.  A showcase of his gift for the twist ending, from sly comedy to genuinely unsettling. Check out the quoted thread for the recommended works of Theodore Sturgeon, Alfred Bester, Bob Shaw, Clifford D. Simak, Algis Budrys, A.E. van Vogt, C.L. Moore, Cordwainer Smith, C.M. Kornbluth, D.G. Compton, Thomas M. Disch, Alice Bradley Sheldon (James Tiptree, Jr.), John Brunner, Judith Merril, Hal Clement, James Blish, Jack Williamson, Katherine MacLean, Fred Saberhagen, Jack Vance, Leigh Brackett, Edgar Pangborn, R.A. Lafferty, William Tenn, Kate Wilhelm, Avram Davidson, James H. Schmitz, Eric Frank Russell, Brian W. Aldiss, Carol Emshwiller, Wilson Tucker, Chad Oliver, Zenna Henderson, Pauline Ashwell, Frederik Pohl, Henry Kuttner, Barrington J. Bayley, James P. Hogan, C.J. Cherryh, Margaret St. Clair, Keith Laumer, Charles L. Harness, Howard Waldrop, Rosel George Brown, Gordon R. Dickson, Robert Sheckley, Fredric Brown, Kit Reed, Joanna Russ, H. Beam Piper, Daniel F. Galouye, Sydney J. Van Scyoc, Tom Godwin, Andre Norton, Harry Harrison, Vonda McIntyre, John Christopher, John Wyndham, Michael Bishop, Doris Piserchia, Bob Buckley, George Alec Effinger, Olaf Stapledon, John Varley, Miriam Allen deFord, Raymond F. Jones, Suzette Haden Elgin, Richard Cowper, Bruce Sterling, Josephine Saxton, Mack Reynolds, Phyllis Gotlieb, E.E. “Doc” Smith, Sterling E. Lanier, L. Sprague de Camp, Fritz Leiber, George Turner, Octavia E. Butler, Philip José Farmer, Somtow Sucharitkul, Charles Sheffield, Sonya Dorman, Clark Ashton Smith, Norman Spinrad, Naomi Mitchison, Suzy Mckee Charnas, Barry N. Malzberg, Paul Preuss, Lloyd Biggle Jr., George S. Schuyler, Damon Knight, Nancy Kress, E.C. Tubb, John Sladek, Joan D. Vinge, Ward Moore, Marta Randall, Robert L. Forward, Ian Watson, Brian Stableford, Keith Roberts, David R. Bunch, Michael G. Coney, Frank M. Robinson, Christopher Priest, Vernor Vinge, Lee Hoffman, Wilmar H. Shiras, Lucius Shepard, David I. Masson, Mildred Clingerman, Leigh Kennedy, Ernest Hogan, Jack Womack, Kenneth Bulmer, Mark Clifton, Kage Baker, Murray Leinster, Evelyn E. Smith, Kris Neville, Edmond Hamilton, James White, Wyman Guin, Emil Petaja, John Boyd, Christopher Anvil, Alan E. Nourse, T.J. Bass, Colin Kapp, Edmund Cooper, Rog Phillips, Mark S. Geston, James E. Gunn, Walter Tevis, Maureen F. McHugh, John Crowley, George O. Smith, Cherry Wilder, F.L. Wallace, G.C. Edmondson, Stanley G. Weinbaum, Pamela Sargent, Robert F. Young, Fred Hoyle, Eleanor Arnason,  Bertram A. Chandler, Charles Eric Maine, Tanith Lee, Kathleen Ann Goonan, J.T. McIntosh, Philip Wylie, Tom Purdom, Richard McKenna, and Donald Wandrei.