Ward Moore’s innovative stories changed science fiction forever, placing less emphasis on technological prognostication and more emphasis, for the first time, on literary value, soft science, and satire. These two savage and unromantic tales were so controversial that they could not have been published even just a few years earlier.
Available Format(s): Trade Paperback (sold out), Limited Hardcover (sold out)
“Lot” and “Lot’s Daughter” were written during Moore’s heyday, following the publication of Bring the Jubilee. These are savage, unromantic tales that could not have been published even a few years earlier than they appeared, before new magazines like Anthony Boucher’s The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction or H. L. Gold’s Galaxy Science Fiction revolutionized science fiction in the early 1950s, placing less emphasis on technological prognostication and more emphasis, for the first time, on literary value, soft science, humor, and satire. These stories helped pave the way for generations of science-fiction authors to follow.
“Ward Moore (1903–1978) was never as big as Leiber or Sturgeon, nor nearly as prolific. This should have earmarked him for complete oblivion. Yet a tiny California press and a huge New York publisher have both found work to reissue. Quality occasionally triumphs. Lot and Lot’s Daughter is a 72-page booklet nicely done in a $10 paperback by Tachyon. ‘Lot,’ first published in 1953…[had a] brutal enough twist for 1953, but the sequel, published the following year, seems shockingly ahead of its time.”
—Washington Post Book World
“Ward Moore was an underrated SF writer of immense subtlety. You owe it to yourself to sample his work, and now publisher Jacob Weisman has made it easy for you. Lot & Lot’s Daughter reprints two of Moore’s most famous stories in a handsome edition with a new intro by Michael Swanwick. These two stories form part of the foundation for post-apocalyptic works as diverse as recent William Barton, Terry Bisson, and John Barnes and remain a model of elegance.”
—Asimov’s Science Fiction
“‘Lot’ and ‘Lot’s Daughter’ depict nuclear holocaust not simply as a worldwide catastrophe but, perhaps even more terrifyingly, as the unleashing of our own inner demons.”
—SFRA Review
“Although he contributed only infrequently to the field, each of [Ward Moore’s] books became something of a classic…. [He] also wrote two of the most notable stories describing nuclear holocaust and its consequences, ‘Lot’ (1953) and ‘Lot’s Daughter’ (1954), featuring a great motorized exodus from a doomed Los Angeles, seen through biblical parallelism as the city of Sodom.”
—The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
Ward Moore is the author of five novels, including the classic time-travel novel, Bring the Jubilee, a primary influence on Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle.
Lot and Lot’s Daughter
Ward Moore
Ward Moore’s innovative stories changed science fiction forever, placing less emphasis on technological prognostication and more emphasis, for the first time, on literary value, soft science, and satire. These two savage and unromantic tales were so controversial that they could not have been published even just a few years earlier.
Lot and Lot’s Daughter
by Ward Moore
ISBN: 0964832011
Published: 1996
Available Format(s): Trade Paperback (sold out), Limited Hardcover (sold out)
“Lot” and “Lot’s Daughter” were written during Moore’s heyday, following the publication of Bring the Jubilee. These are savage, unromantic tales that could not have been published even a few years earlier than they appeared, before new magazines like Anthony Boucher’s The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction or H. L. Gold’s Galaxy Science Fiction revolutionized science fiction in the early 1950s, placing less emphasis on technological prognostication and more emphasis, for the first time, on literary value, soft science, humor, and satire. These stories helped pave the way for generations of science-fiction authors to follow.
“Ward Moore (1903–1978) was never as big as Leiber or Sturgeon, nor nearly as prolific. This should have earmarked him for complete oblivion. Yet a tiny California press and a huge New York publisher have both found work to reissue. Quality occasionally triumphs. Lot and Lot’s Daughter is a 72-page booklet nicely done in a $10 paperback by Tachyon. ‘Lot,’ first published in 1953…[had a] brutal enough twist for 1953, but the sequel, published the following year, seems shockingly ahead of its time.”
—Washington Post Book World
“Ward Moore was an underrated SF writer of immense subtlety. You owe it to yourself to sample his work, and now publisher Jacob Weisman has made it easy for you. Lot & Lot’s Daughter reprints two of Moore’s most famous stories in a handsome edition with a new intro by Michael Swanwick. These two stories form part of the foundation for post-apocalyptic works as diverse as recent William Barton, Terry Bisson, and John Barnes and remain a model of elegance.”
—Asimov’s Science Fiction
“‘Lot’ and ‘Lot’s Daughter’ depict nuclear holocaust not simply as a worldwide catastrophe but, perhaps even more terrifyingly, as the unleashing of our own inner demons.”
—SFRA Review
“Although he contributed only infrequently to the field, each of [Ward Moore’s] books became something of a classic…. [He] also wrote two of the most notable stories describing nuclear holocaust and its consequences, ‘Lot’ (1953) and ‘Lot’s Daughter’ (1954), featuring a great motorized exodus from a doomed Los Angeles, seen through biblical parallelism as the city of Sodom.”
—The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
Ward Moore is the author of five novels, including the classic time-travel novel, Bring the Jubilee, a primary influence on Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle.
Visit the Ward Moore website.