Another Kind is the first collection of short stories by science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 writer Chad Oliver

Chad Oliver

Symmes Chadwick Oliver was an American science fiction and Western writer and chair of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin...

. It was issued in hardcover

Hardcover

A hardcover, hardback or hardbound is a book bound with rigid protective covers...

 and paperback

Paperback

Paperback, softback or softcover describe and refer to a book by the nature of its binding. The covers of such books are usually made of paper or paperboard, and are usually held together with glue rather than stitches or staples...

 by Ballantine Books

Ballantine Books

Ballantine Books is a major book publisher located in the United States, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. It was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann AG in 1998 and remains part of that company today. Ballantine's logo is a...

 in 1955 and a German translation was issued in 1965.

Contents

• "The Mother of Necessity", (original)
• "Rite of Passage", (Astounding 1954)
• "Scientific Method", (Science-Fiction Plus
  Science-Fiction Plus
  Science-Fiction Plus was a science fiction magazine published from Philadelphia by Gernsback Publications, Inc. in 1952-53...
  
  1953)
• "Night", (If
  If (magazine)
  If was an American science fiction magazine launched in March 1952 by Quinn Publications, owned by James L. Quinn. Quinn hired Paul W. Fairman to be the first editor, but early circulation figures were disappointing, and Quinn fired Fairman after only three issues. Quinn then took over the...
  
   1955)
• "Transformer", (F&SF 1954)
• "Artifact", (F&SF 1955)
• "A Star Above It", (original)

"Scientific Method" was originally published as "Hands Across Space".

Reception

New York Times reviewer Villiers Gerson faulted Olivers's "uniformly quiet, underwritten style," declaring the "cumulative effect" of the stories was "emotional monotony; too cerebral for more than mild entertainment, they are clever fugues written in a minor key." The Hartford Courant

The Hartford Courant

The Hartford Courant is the largest daily newspaper in the U.S. state of Connecticut, and is a morning newspaper for most of the state north of New Haven and east of Waterbury...

's George W. Earley praised Oliver's "excellent stories", saying he "has created some compellingly believable alien and earthly civilizations".