Category Archives: Astounding Science Fiction

Retro Hugos: “No Woman Born” by C. L. Moore

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This is the second to last Retro Hugo post on the novelette category and the last of the stories.  I’ll do a summary post on the novelettes before moving on to the short stories.

“No Woman Born” was first published in the December 1944 issue of Astounding. It is the story of a dancer and singer named Deidre who has been badly burned  in a fire. The story opens a year later, when everyone thinks she is dead.

Only she isn’t dead. Her brain has been transplanted in a robot body by a man named Maltzer. Her press agent, Harris, is the only other person in on it. Her new body is human in shape, but instead of having joints, her limbs are flexible metal rings. This allows her to move in a much more sinuous way than she could before the fire. Entirely new dance forms are possible with her new body. She can also modulate her voice so that it sounds exactly the way it did, husky and distinct. Continue reading →

Retro Hugos: “The Big and the Little”

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“The Big and the Little” was originally published in the August 1944 issue of Astounding. This is a Foundation story. It was published before “The Wedge” (10/44) but was placed after it when the stories were collected in book form.

There is a bit more substance to this story than there is to “The Wedge”, which I’ll review when I get to the short story nominees. A trader who was born on Smyrno (rather than Terminus, the location of the Foundation) is given the task of investigating the disappearance of ships in the Republic of Korell.

Spoilers Ahead Continue reading →

Campbell and Wilhelm

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Today I want to look at two writers who did much to advance the field of science fiction. John W. Campbell, Jr. (1910-1971) is best remembered as an editor, but before he became an editor, he was first a writer.  Kate Wilhelm was one of the strongest female voices in science fiction. Her work should not be forgotten. Continue reading →

Retro Hugos: “When the Bow Breaks” by Lewis Padgett

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Anyone who hangs out around here for any length of time and doesn’t know that Lewis Padgett is one the the pen names used by Henry Kuttner and his wife C. L. Moore clearly hasn’t been paying attention.  Written under the Lewis Padgett by-line, “When the Bough Breaks” was first published in the November 1944 issue of Astounding.

The spring before I started high school, my parents gave permission for me to join the Science Fiction Book Club. So I had a source of hardcover science fiction and fantasy to read that summer.  This was in the days before science fiction was regularly published in hardcover. Most books were mass market paperbacks.

At the time, the SFBC offered a number of titles from Ballantine’s Best of series. This was a way I could discover new writers, and I took full advantage of it.  I mean, if these writers weren’t good, why was there a volume entitled The Best of followed by their names? I was making money mowing lawns, so I had the funds to afford to buy some books. I was already familiar with the series because I had found The Best of Jack Williamson at a flea market about eighteen months earlier, and I bought every one the SFBC offered at the time.  (For some reason, they never offered The Best of C. L. Moore while I was a member, although they had published such a volume a year or three earlier.) Continue reading →

Retro Hugos: “City” by Clifford D. Simak

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Published in the May 1944 issue of Astounding, “City” launched the series that was later collected in book form under that title.  Although I read it last year in The Ghost of a Model T, I reread it for this series.

The story takes place in what would have been considered the relatively near future, although it would certainly be considered our past. It’s set in 1990.

Cities have mostly been abandoned, with the bulk of the population moving out to country estates. Most neighborhoods have been abandoned, with only a few holdouts of the originals residents remaining. Farming is all done by hydroponics now. So the farmers have moved into the abandoned houses. They live a subsistence life by hunting, small gardening, and scavenging. Continue reading →

Retro Hugos: “Far Centaurus” by A. E. van Vogt

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A. E. van Vogt (1912-2000) was born on this date, April 26.  He was one of the most prolific and popular science fiction writers of the 1940s.  In addition to a sizeable body of shorter works, he wrote the popular novels The Voyage of the Space Beagle, Slan, and The Weapons Shops of Isher.  These were either serialized in Astounding or put together from individual stories.

Just as a side note, I haven’t given up on the Retro Hugo posts.  The semester is about over, and I I’ve been swamped.  I’ve also been reading Foundation. The two Asimov stories on the Retro Hugo ballot are the last two sections of the book.  I decided to read the whole thing (something I was thinking about doing anyway) to give them some context.

I was going to look at all the novelettes before moving on to the short stories, but van Vogt doesn’t have an entry in that category.

“Far Centaurus” is one of van Vogt’s most reprinted stories. If I’ve counted correctly, I’ve got copies of it in about ten different publications.  I first read it in middle school, and the last two paragraphs have stuck with me all these years.  Continue reading →

Retro Hugos” “Arena” by Fredric Brown

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Of all the stories on the Retro Hugo ballot, “Arena”  by Fredric Brown is probably the most familiar to readers, for no reason other than it was adapted as an episode of the original Star Trek series.  (They changed the ending.)  Published in the June 1944 issue of Astounding, the story is currently available in The Fredric Brown Megapack. The price as of this writing is 99 cents.  Plus tax, of course.

The plot is pretty straight forward. Mankind has begun to spread out into the galaxy.  Before too long, it encounters another sentient species. At first, the Outsiders commit a few raids. No one survives, so the appearance of the Outsiders is a mystery.

The two species seem fairly evenly matched. The Outsiders’s ships are a little faster and more maneuverable. The humans are slightly better armed. A showdown is inevitable, and mankind builds a fleet in preparation. At last the day comes. Continue reading →

Retro Hugos: “The Children’s Hour” by Lawrence O’Donnell (Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore)

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OK, I’m gonna do it.  With the exception of some of the novels, I’ll be looking at the nominees for the 1945 Retro Hugos, which are awarded for stories published in 1944.  I’m going to start with the novelettes.  I read “The Children’s Hour” earlier this week as a possibility Henry Kuttner birthday post before the Retro Hugo shortlist was announced.  Might as well tackle it while it’s fresh on my mind.

“The Children’s Hour” was originally published in the March 1944 issue of Astounding.  (I’m going to get a lot of mileage out of these posts since many of them will double as Astounding 90th Anniversary posts.)

Before we go any further, I want to address something, and that’s where to find these stories so you can read them.  As a general rule, I don’t do review posts of things that aren’t readily available, although I do make exceptions to that rule from time to time.  For the Hugos, the voting members of Worldcon get copies of the short fiction to read, and the last time I had a membership, that was true for the Retro Hugos as well.

I don’t have a copy of this year’s Retro nominees that was provided to the Wolrdcon membership. The one  year I was a voting member, pretty much everything from the year under question was provided so members could read the stories and nominate for t he short list.  If anyone wants to send me a copy, I won’t snitch.  Promise.

The only short fiction I don’t have a copy of is “Intruders From the Stars” by Ross Rocklynne, and I was able to order a reprint of that one.  I have no illusions that everyone who takes the time to read these posts will have access to all of the stories.  The only reason I have copies of some of them is because I bought several complete runs of pulps on CD last year for myself for Father’s Day.

“The Children’s Hour” is one of the tales that will be hard to come by.  According to the ISFDB, it has only been reprinted in English four times:  twice in 1959, once in 1983, and once in 2010.If you want to read my review, it will be below the “Continue Reading ” link.  I will try to avoid as many spoilers as possible in all of these reviews. Continue reading →

Astounding Lives

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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. Continue reading →

C. L. Moore Channels Brackett and Howard

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“There Shall Be Darkness”
Miracle in Three Dimensions
Isle Press
Trade Paper, $16.95
Original publication, Astounding, February 1942

I meant to have this review posted a few days ago, but Real Life got in the way. (I am legally prohibited from discussing the situation; its a personnel matter.) I just finished reading the story a little while ago.

It’s definitely a blend of Brackett setting and Howardian themes. James Douglas, AKA Jamie, is the commander of the Earth forces on the planet Venus. There’s some indication this may taken place in the future of the Northwest Smith series. In the first scene, Jamie comes in and asks for segir whiskey, the preferred drink of Northwest Smith. If it is the same future, it’s much later along the timeline.

You can’t blame him for wanting a drink. He’s in a bad situation. He’s just received his orders to evacuate Venus. The Empire of Earth is falling. Barbarians, the less developed races in the solar system in this instance, have conquered Mars and are in the process of invading Earth. There are overtones of ancient Rome in this setup. Jamie’s Venusian lover, Quanna, begs him to take her to Earth. He refuses, so she takes matters into her own hands.

Jamie is dealing with an outlaw chieftain, Vastari, who is the only person who can unite the squabbling Venusian tribes into a single unit. Vastari sees himself as a freedom fighter, a soldier struggling to throw off the yoke of tyranny. He’s also Quanna’s brother. Jamie thinks she’s a loyal lover. Vastari thinks she’s a loyal spy. Quanna is only loyal to herself. Continue reading →