Cloak of Aesir is a collection of 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...

 stories by author John W. Campbell, Jr.. It was published in 1952

1952 in literature

The year 1952, in literature involved some significant events and new literary publications.-Events:*J. L. Carr takes over as headmaster of Highfields Primary School, Kettering, which will eventually furnish the subject matter for his novel, The Harpole Report.*November 25 - Agatha Christie's play...

 by Shasta Publishers

Shasta Publishers

Shasta Publishers was a science fiction and fantasy small press specialty publishing house founded in 1947 by Erle Melvin Korshak, T. E. Dikty, and Mark Reinsberg, who were all science fiction fans from the Chicago area...

 in an edition of 5,000 copies. The stories originally appeared in the magazine Astounding under Campbell's pseudonym Don A. Stuart.

Contents

• Introduction
• "Forgetfulness"
• "The Escape"
• "The Machine"
• "The Invaders"
• "Rebellion"
• "Out of Night"
• "Cloak of Aesir"

Five of the seven stories were later included in the 1976 collection The Best of John W. Campbell (Ballantine/Del Rey).

Reception

Writing in The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

, J. Francis McComas

J. Francis McComas

Jesse Francis McComas was an American science fiction editor. McComas wrote several stories on his own in the 1950s using both his own name and the pseudonym Webb Marlowe....

 "warmly recommended" Cloak of Aesir, noting that "none of these stories follows its chosen path to an expected destination." Groff Conklin

Groff Conklin

Edward Groff Conklin was a leading science fiction anthologist. He edited 40 anthologies of science fiction, one of mystery stories , wrote books on home improvement and was a freelance writer on scientific subjects as well as a published poet...

 characterized the collection as "somewhat overwritten, but still well done." Boucher

Anthony Boucher

Anthony Boucher was an American science fiction editor and author of mystery novels and short stories. He was particularly influential as an editor. Between 1942 and 1947 he acted as reviewer of mostly mystery fiction for the San Francisco Chronicle...

 and McComas

J. Francis McComas

Jesse Francis McComas was an American science fiction editor. McComas wrote several stories on his own in the 1950s using both his own name and the pseudonym Webb Marlowe....

, however, praised Cloak for the stories' "amazing modernity of concept and extrapolation [and their] rarely achieved combination of original thinking and high adventure.". P. Schuyler Miller

P. Schuyler Miller

Peter Schuyler Miller was an American science fiction writer and critic.-Life:Miller was raised in New York's Mohawk Valley, which led to a life-long interest in the Iroquois Indians. He pursued this as an amateur archaeologist and a member of the New York State Archaeological Association.He...

praised the collection as "all top-notch idea-stories . . . laying the foundations of the more adult stuff we know today."