Still More Great Science Fiction Short Stories from 1945

As I approach the end of my reading of The Great SF Stories 7 (1945), here are three more stories, two of which I've already discussed written by the same authors.  Murray Leinster, who also wrote First Contact, has his second (of three) entries in this anthology with Into Thy Hands.  It, to me, is an unsatisfactory account of how a very religiously dogmatic fifteenth-century people handle the concept of advanced extraterrestrial life and its advanced technology.  Of course, as predictable as it could be, they are close minded and call everything the works of the devil!  Ho-hum, once I saw the pattern developing here the story became pointless...it was a chore to read it through...but I did.  The next story, Giant Killer by A. Bertram Chandler, is more of a novella than a short story and relates the violent struggle for power of a very brutal society of "people" living in a very enclosed environment and how their leader finally comes to terms with their ultimate enemies, the "giants", who live out in the great open area.  In the introductory comments, co-editor Martin H. Greenberg refers to Giant Killer as an example of a "closed universe" story.  Ultimately, that "universe" is revealed, as well as the true nature of the protagonists.  Thumbs up from me, although it is a little long (but from no fault of the author).  The final tale is by Henry Kuttner and is titled What You Need.  If you're a fan of the old Twilight Zone television series, this title may ring a bell: this is actually the story that episode is based on...although the characters and plot are a bit different.  The same theme is present in both versions, though: a strange man has the knack for looking into the future and determining different people's needs for upcoming situations.  What he gives (on Twilight Zone) or sells (this short story) is often puzzling, like an egg or a pair of shears.  By the way, elsewhere in this anthology is Kuttner's story Camouflage and his collaboration with his wife Catherine L. Moore titled The Piper's Son (written under the pseudonym Lewis Padgett).

I have just two more stories to go before I finish 1945 and start on another year of great science fiction short stories...