Randall Garrett (December 16, 1927 - December 31, 1987) was an American science fiction and fantasy author. He was a prolific contributor to Astounding and other science fiction magazines of the 1950s and 1960s. He instructed Robert Silverberg in the techniques of selling large quantities of action-adventure science fiction, and collaborated with him on two novels about Earth bringing civilization to an alien planet.
Garrett is best known for the Lord Darcy books, the novel Too Many Magicians and two short story collections, set in an alternate world where a joint Anglo-French empire still led by a Plantagenet dynasty has survived into the twentieth century and where magic works and has been scientifically codified. The Darcy books are rich in jokes, puns, and references (particularly to works of detective and spy fiction: Lord Darcy is himself partially modelled on Sherlock Holmes), elements that often appear in the shorter works about the detective. Michael Kurland wrote two additional Lord Darcy novels.
Garrett wrote under a variety of pseudonyms including: David Gordon, John Gordon, Darrel T. Langart (an anagram of his name), Alexander Blade, Richard Greer, Ivar Jorgensen, Clyde Mitchell, Leonard G. Spencer, S. M. Tenneshaw, Gerald Vance. He was also a founding member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, as "Randall of Hightower" (a pun on "garret"). The short novel Brain Twister, written by Garrett in conjunction with author Laurence Janifer (using the joint pseudonym Mark Phillips) was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1960.
An inveterate punster (defining a pun as "the odor given off by a decaying mind"), he was a favorite guest at science fiction conventions and friend to many fans, especially in Southern California.
Garrett suffered an attack of encephalitis in the summer of 1979 and was not able to write after that; he spent the last years of his life in a coma.
In 1999, Randall Garrett won the Sidewise Award for Alternate History Special Achievement Award for the Lord Darcy series.
He was also ordained in the Old Catholic Church.
Glen Cook's private detective character Garrett P.I. is named in honor of Garrett.
Garrett's beard as depicted in a widely published photograph [1] closely resembles that of USSR scientist and developer of the first Soviet atomic program Igor Kurchatov. In Anything You Can Do (1962), the Nipe's ship crash-lands in Siberia, which also reminiscent of the Tunguska event. Thus in turn, an influence from the famous sci-fi Russian author Alexander Kazantsev might have been present in a young Garrett.
Murder and Magic (1979, collection of 1964—1973 stories)
Too Many Magicians (1966, magazine serialization 1966)
Lord Darcy Investigates (1981, collection of 1974—1979 stories)
Lord Darcy (1983) (this omnibus contains the contents of the three books above; 2002 edition adds 2 uncollected stories, with minor editing to remove repetitions of the backstory)
with Robert Silverberg, as Robert Randall
The Shrouded Planet (1957)
The Dawning Light (1959)
with Laurence M. Janifer, as Mark Phillips
Brain Twister (1962) [2]
The Impossibles (1963) [3]
Supermind (1963) [4]
The Gandalara Cycle with Vicki Ann Heydron
The Steel of Raithskar (1981)
The Glass of Dyskornis (1982)
The Bronze of Eddarta (1983)
The Well of Darkness (1983)
The Search for Ka (1984)
Return to Eddarta (1984)
The Gandalara Cycle I (omnibus; contains The Steel of Raithskar, The Glass of Dyskornis, The Bronze of Eddarta.) (1986)
The Gandalara Cycle II (omnibus; contains The Well of Darkness, The Search for Ka, Return to Eddarta.) (1986)
The River Wall (1986)
Novels
Pagan Passions (1959) (with Laurence Janifer as "Larry M. Harris")[5]
Unwise Child (1962) [6]
Anything You Can Do (1963) (as Darrel T. Langart) [7]
Collections
Takeoff! (1980), composed of tongue-in-cheek imitations of a number of other authors and universes, such as E.E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman series and Reginald Bretnor's Ferdinand Feghoot (who is "Benedict Breadfruit" in Garrett's treatment).
The Best of Randall Garrett (1982) (edited by Robert Silverberg)
Takeoff Too! (1987)
A Little intelligence (2009; with Robert Silverberg, a collection of their early science-fctional mystery stories)
Notable short fiction
"Probability Zero" (1944) first published science fiction story.
"The Best Policy" (1957), in which a smart Earthling manages to convince a reconnaissance group of hostile aliens who abduct him that the earthlings are far more advanced and superior race, and instead of a hostile takeover, they send humble ambassadors. The catch is the aliens have a perfect truth detector and the hero has to phrase every line carefully so that while being literally honest he can pull off such a huge lie.
"Despoilers of the Golden Empire" (1958) [8], in which he spun a pulp yarn of space flight, swordplay, and derring-do, only to reveal it to be a deception, an account of the conquest of Peru by Francisco Pizarro with careful misdirection in the text.
A Stretch of the Imagination 1973 (a Lord Darcy story)
All the King's Horses with Robert Silverberg as Robert Randall 1958
Anything You Can Do as Darrel T.Langart 1963 ( Novel)
Brain Twister 1962 expansion of That Sweet Little Old Lady 1959 with Laurence M. Janifer as Mark Phillips ( Short Version) ( Novel)
False Prophet with Robert Silverberg as Robert Randall
Lord Darcy 1983 (Lord Darcy omnibus)
Lord Darcy Investigates 1981 (a Lord Darcy collection)
Murder and Magic 1979 (a Lord Darcy collection)
Pagan Passions with Larry M. Harris 1959 [9]
Return to Eddarta with Vicki Ann Heydron 1985
Supermind 1963 previously published as Occasion for Disaster 1960 with Laurence M. Janifer as Mark Phillips ( Occasion for Disaster 1960) ( Supermind 1963)
Takeoff! 1980
Takeoff Too 1987
The Absence of Heat 1944
The Best of Randall Garrett with Robert Silverberg 1982
The Bronze of Eddarta with Vicki Ann Heydron 1983
The Chosen People with Robert Silverberg as Robert Randall 1956
The Dawning Light with Robert Silverberg as Robert Randall 1959
The Eyes Have It 1964 (a Lord Darcy story) [10]
The Glass of Dyskornis with Vicki Ann Heydron 1982
The Impossibles 1963 previously published as Out Like a Light 1960 with Laurence M. Janifer as Mark Phillips ( Out Like a Light 1960) ( The Impossibles 1963)
The Ipswich Phial 1976 (a Lord Darcy story)
The Muddle of the Woad 1965 (a Lord Darcy story)
The Napoli Express 1979 (a Lord Darcy story)
The Promised Land with Robert Silverberg as Robert Randall
The River Wall with Vicki Ann Heydron 1986
The Search for Ka with Vicki Ann Heydron 1984
The Shrouded Planet with Robert Silverberg as Robert Randall 1957
The Sixteen Keys 1976 (a Lord Darcy story)
The Spell of War 1978
The Steel of Raithskar with Vicki Ann Heydron 1981
The Well of Darkness with Vicki Ann Heydron 1983
Too Many Magicians 1967 (a Lord Darcy novel)
Unwise Child also published as Starship Death 1962 [11]
