The Wizards of Odd is an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 compilation book of humorous short stories

Short Stories

Short Stories may refer to:*A plural for Short story*Short Stories , an American pulp magazine published from 1890-1959*Short Stories, a 1954 collection by O. E...

 by many great writers in the science-fiction/fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

 genre

Genre

Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...

. The stories were compiled by Peter Haining

Peter Haining

Peter Alexander Haining was a British journalist, author and anthologist who lived and worked in Suffolk...

. The book is separated into three sections: Wizards and Wotsits: Stories of Cosmic Absurdity, Swords and Sorcery: Tales of Heroic Fanticy, and Astronauts and Aliens: Space Opera Yarns.

Wizards and Wotsits

• "Theatre of Cruelty
  Theatre of Cruelty (Discworld)
  Theatre of Cruelty is a short Discworld story by Terry Pratchett written in 1993. The name derives from a concept of Antonin Artaud , in which it has been known for cast members to be injured or mutilated for the sake of being genuine.It was originally written for W. H...
  
  " by Terry Pratchett
  Terry Pratchett
  Sir Terence David John "Terry" Pratchett, OBE is an English novelist, known for his frequently comical work in the fantasy genre. He is best known for his popular and long-running Discworld series of comic fantasy novels...
  
  
• "How Nuth Would Have Practised his Art Upon the Gnoles" by Lord Dunsany
• "Hell Hath No Fury" by John Collier
  John Collier (writer)
  John Henry Noyes Collier was a British-born author and screenplay writer best known for his short stories, many of which appeared in The New Yorker from the 1930s to the 1950s. They were collected in a 1951 volume, Fancies and Goodnights, which won the International Fantasy Award and remains in...
  
  
• "The Twonky" by Henry Kuttner
  Henry Kuttner
  Henry Kuttner was an American author of science fiction, fantasy and horror.-Early life:Henry Kuttner was born in Los Angeles, California in 1915...
  
  
• "A Great Deal of Power" by Eric Frank Russell
  Eric Frank Russell
  Eric Frank Russell was a British author best known for his science fiction novels and short stories. Much of his work was first published in the United States, in John W. Campbell's Astounding Science Fiction and other pulp magazines. Russell also wrote horror fiction for Weird Tales, and...
  
  
• "Doodad" by Ray Bradbury
  Ray Bradbury
  Ray Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...
  
  
• "Not By Its Cover" by Philip K. Dick
  Philip K. Dick
  Philip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered...
  
  
• "The Rule of Names
  The Rule of Names
  "The Rule of Names" is a short story by Ursula K. Le Guin, first published in the April 1964 issue of Fantastic, and reprinted in collections such as The Wind's Twelve Quarters. This story and "The Word of Unbinding" convey Le Guin's initial concepts for the Earthsea realm, most importantly its...
  
  " by Ursula K. Le Guin
  Ursula K. Le Guin
  Ursula Kroeber Le Guin is an American author. She has written novels, poetry, children's books, essays, and short stories, notably in fantasy and science fiction...
  
  

Swords and Sorcery

• "Mythical Beast" by Stephen R. Donaldson
  Stephen R. Donaldson
  Stephen Reeder Donaldson is an American fantasy, science fiction and mystery novelist, most famous for his Thomas Covenant series...
  
  
• "The Adventure of the Snowing Globe" by F. Anstey
• "Affairs in Poictesme" by James Branch Cabell
  James Branch Cabell
  James Branch Cabell, ; April 14, 1879 – May 5, 1958) was an American author of fantasy fiction and belles lettres. Cabell was well regarded by his contemporaries, including H. L. Mencken and Sinclair Lewis. His works were considered escapist and fit well in the culture of the 1920s, when his...
  
  
• "The Ring of Hans Carvel" by Fredric Brown
  Fredric Brown
  Fredric Brown was an American science fiction and mystery writer. He was born in Cincinnati.He had two sons: James Ross Brown and Linn Lewis Brown ....
  
  
• "The Brat" by Fritz Leiber
  Fritz Leiber
  Fritz Reuter Leiber, Jr. was an American writer of fantasy, horror and science fiction. He was also a poet, actor in theatre and films, playwright, expert chess player and a champion fencer. Possibly his greatest chess accomplishment was winning clear first in the 1958 Santa Monica Open.. With...
  
  
• "A Good Knight's Work" by Robert Bloch
  Robert Bloch
  Robert Albert Bloch was a prolific American writer, primarily of crime, horror and science fiction. He is best known as the writer of Psycho, the basis for the film of the same name by Alfred Hitchcock...
  
  
• "Poor Little Warrior" by Brian W. Aldiss
• "The Odd Odd Bird" by Avram Davidson
  Avram Davidson
  Avram Davidson was an American writer of fantasy fiction, science fiction, and crime fiction, as well as the author of many stories that do not fit into a genre niche...
  
  

Astronauts and Aliens

• "Young Zaphod Plays it Safe
  Young Zaphod Plays it Safe
  "Young Zaphod Plays It Safe" is a short story by Douglas Adams set in his The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy universe. It is included with several collections but has never been released as a standalone work. It first appeared in The Utterly Utterly Merry Comic Relief Christmas Book which...
  
  " by Douglas Adams
  Douglas Adams
  Douglas Noel Adams was an English writer and dramatist. He is best known as the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which started life in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a "trilogy" of five books that sold over 15 million copies in his lifetime, a television...
  
  
• "The Wild Asses of the Devil" by H. G. Wells
  H. G. Wells
  Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
  
  
• "Ministering Angels" by C. S. Lewis
  C. S. Lewis
  Clive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...
  
  
• "The Gnurrs Come from Voodvork Out" by Reginald Bretnor
  Reginald Bretnor
  Reginald Bretnor was a science fiction author who flourished between the 1950s and 1980s. Most of his fiction was in short story form, and usually featured a whimsical story line or ironic plot twist...
  
  
• "Captain Wyxtpthll's Flying Saucer" by Arthur C. Clarke
  Arthur C. Clarke
  Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, famous for his short stories and novels, among them 2001: A Space Odyssey, and as a host and commentator in the British television series Mysterious World. For many years, Robert A. Heinlein,...
  
  
• "Playboy and the Slime God" by Isaac Asimov
  Isaac Asimov
  Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...
  
  
• "There's a Wolf in my Time Machine" by Larry Niven
  Larry Niven
  Laurence van Cott Niven / ˈlæri ˈnɪvən/ is an American science fiction author. His best-known work is Ringworld , which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards. His work is primarily hard science fiction, using big science concepts and theoretical physics...
  
  
• "2BR02B" by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.