Astounding:  John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction
Alec Nevala-Lee
hardcover $28.99
ebook $15.99

This one seems to be getting some buzz, although I have to admit I hadn’t heard of it until I saw it in B&N.  This review is probably more appropriate for Futures Past and Present, but I’m posting it here because this is the main blog and gets more traffic.

I’ve always been interested in the Golden Age of Science Fiction, as Campbell’s first decade as editor of Astounding has often been called.  Not because I remember those years.  I’m not that old ya disrespectful young punks; now get off my lawn. I did grow up reading many of the authors from that period in paperback reprints.  So when I saw a history of that time period, I grabbed it.

The book isn’t  so much a biography, although each chapter contains sections that are biographical for all four men named in the subtitle.  With the exception of Campbell, there are other books that focus on just them.  In many ways, it’s a biography of Astounding/Analog through the years that Campbell edited it.  Naturally Campbell and his biggest writers would figure into such a biography.

I was familiar with a good deal of the information included in this book, although much of it was more detailed that what I had seen before.  For example, I’d heard the legend that after publishing “Deadline” by Cleve Cartmill, Campbell was visited by the FBI.  They were concerned about security leaks in the Manhattan Project.  The story got too many details right, and Campbell had to show them that anyone could have reached the conclusions Cartmill did from what was commonly known at the time.  The reality was much more complicated and much more interesting.

Of course the book spends a great deal of time on Hubbard and Dianetics, Campbell’s role in the development of Dianetics, and the evolution of Scientology.  There was a lot here I didn’t know.  Hubbard was an evil man.  I knew that already, but the author gave specific examples that I’d not heard before.

I didn’t learn a whole lot that was new about Asimov or Heinlein.

I also knew that Campbell had fallen deeper into quackery and crackpot science as he grew older, but I hadn’t been aware of how much he had.  Nevala-Lee paints a picture of a man who is slowly losing touch with the field and the world around him.  Yet in the end, I found his portrayal of Campbell in his final years to have an aura of sympathy and even pity.  Maybe it was just me, but I didn’t get that vibe in the descriptions of the final years of the other three authors, especially Hubbard.

Nevala-Lee has researched his topic well.  The footnotes take up about 100 pages.  I particularly liked how the chapter titles were often plays on the titles of famous stories or the features in Astounding/Analog.  There’s much to learn here about all four men as well as a number of other writers who crossed paths with these men.

Campbell bashing has become something of a fad in certain circles.  While I agree with some of what his detractors say, I don’t think he was the villain he’s made out to be.  Campbell did a lot of good.  He developed new writers, writers who went on to develop some of the classics of the field.  And I’m not talking just about Hubbard, Heinlein, and Asimov.  Williamson, Kuttner, Garrett, and Piper all benefited from his input, among others.  Many of their best known works from that time period were based on ideas Campbell provided or suggested.  I do think he stayed in his position as editor for far too long.

If you have any interest in the early history of the science fiction and fantasy fields (Unknown is addressed in the book), you owe it to yourself to get a copy of Astounding.