I finished reading this one (see last week for the first part) a few days ago.
The Fantastic Universe Omnibus edited by Hans Stefan Santesson, Prentice-Hall 1960 hardcover, science-fantasy short story anthology, 19 stories, 270 pages, introduction by Lester del Rey
“A Way of Life” (1956) by Robert Bloch
“In Lonely Lands” (1959) by Harlan Ellison
“Fall of Knight” (1958) by A. Bertram Chandler
“Sit by the Fire” (1958) by Sasha Miller [as by Myrle Benedict]
“A Thing of Custom” (1957) by L. Sprague de Camp
“Exile from Space” (1956) by Judith Merril
“Mex” (1957) by Laurence M. Janifer [as by Larry M. Harris]
“The Amazing Mrs. Mimms” (1958) by David C. Knight
“My Father, the Cat” (1957) by Henry Slesar
“Title Fight” (1956) by William Campbell Gault
“The Golden Pyramid” (1956) by Sam Moskowitz
“The Robot Who Wanted to Know” (1958) by Harry Harrison [as by Felix Boyd]
“Road to Nightfall” (1958) by Robert Silverberg
“The Velvet Glove” (1956) by Harry Harrison
“The Day Will Come… (1956) by Hans Stefan Santesson [as by Vithaldas H. O’Quinn]
As are all anthologies, this is a mixed bag, and there are a lot of stories involving robots, which I didn’t expect, having never seen an issue of the digest. Overall, I enjoyed most of the stories though I disliked or skipped three of them, but that’s not a bad average. An interesting anthology of it’s time.
As an addition, I found out about this anthology through the Black Gate blog, in particular this article: The Art of Things To Come Part II in which it was featured. Things to Come was the pamphlet sent by the Science Fiction Book Club to members every other month showing upcoming club selections. Here’s the page for this one:
The Fantastic Universe Omnibus, featured in the
September-October 1960 issue of Things to Come. Art by Virgil Finlay
Tip the Wink 
Nice collection.
It is. Sometimes these old anthologies surprise me.
I recognize more authors in this post. “My Father, the Cat” sounds interesting… was it any good?
Kind of fun, but the ending a bit obvious.
A lot of authors that I’ve read in this one, though I can’t say offhand if I’ve read all the specific stories, other than the Silverberg.
I read another 70 stories in April, bringing the year’s total to well past 300 read and over 20 collections finished. C. J. Box, Antonya Nelson (2 books) and Michael Chabon were the authors. So far this year, most of my short story reading has been straight fiction rather than mysteries. It helps balance things out with the mystery novels.
Your short story reading is legendary, and you’re a quick reader. Do you ever go back and reread any anthologies or collections?
Occasionally, yes. If I read a collection where I have read some of the stories before (or an anthology), I will usually reread it along with the rest of the book. Of course, sometimes I don’t remember the details! For instance, in that C.J. Box collection, I had read two of the stories previously – one I remembered clearly (with a great title like “Pronghorns of the Third Reich” how could I not remember it?) and the other I had no memory of (“The End of Jim and Ezra”).
I had read just one – that I remember – of the ones in this, but I just was reading an Alliingham collection and reread several, enjoying them a second time.
I ordered THE FANTASTIC UNIVERSE OMNIBUS right after your first post about it. I just arrived and I can’t wait to read it!
I hope you enjoy it, George.
“A Way of Life” by Bloch might be my fondest memory in the book. I’m glad Santesson didn’t choose the Bradbury story FU ran, one of RB’s most irritating, “Time in Thy Flight”…
Though I recall liking the “Tenn” story as well.
“A Way of Life” is so full of fannish stuff, naturally, that it’s fun for the name-dropping as well as the concept. I liked “Amazing Mrs. Mimms” too, just because it was fun.
It was interesting to see that bulletin for the SF Book Club. It brought back a lot of memories. I saved those bulletins at the time, but over the years — over 50 years ago — they seem to have disappeared. I wonder how many people collect them now?
Some do, obviously, though I never did or even thought of it. That series of articles in Black Gate has been good.