Author Archives: Keith West

Asimov Centennial: “I’m in Marsport Without Hilda”

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I said at the first of the year that I was going to post about different Asimov stories. The semester has gotten off to a hectic start, and I’m a little behind on things.

I’ve had a copy of Nine Tomorrows sitting on my shelf for years but have never gotten around to reading it, although I’ve read some of the stories it contains when I read some other anthologies. As best I can recall, this was one of the first science fiction paperbacks I saw when I started reading science fiction way back in late elementary school. For reasons I no longer recall, it wasn’t one of the first I bought, but that Richard Powers cover left an indelible impression on my mind.

The story I decided to read was “I’m in Marsport Without Hilda”. I’ve always liked the title. It gave me an impression of a spaceman alone on an alien world pining for his lover.

Turns out that impression was only part right. [Spoilers below the fold.] Continue reading →

Katherine MacLean and “The Trouble with You Earth People”

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Today, January 22, is the birthday of Katheirne MacLean (1925-2019). She was most active during the 1950s, although she continued to publish occasionally up through the late 1990s.

What’s that, you say? You didn’t know women wrote science fiction back in those days? I thought I’d dealt with that myth already.

I’ve not read much of her work, just a few stories in anthologies,mostly in high school or undergrad. She specialized in anthropological science fiction. Let’s look at one of her stories. Continue reading →

Algis Budrys Isn’t Bothering Gus

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“Nobody Bothers Gus”
First published in Astounding, November 1955 as by Paul Janvier

Algis Budrys was born on this date, January 9, in 1931. He passed away in 2008.

Budrys was was a prolific short story writer in the 1950’s, with many of his stories appearing in Astounding.  So this post is doing double duty as a birthday post and an Astounding/Analog 90th anniversary post. Continue reading →

Astounding/Analog 90th Anniversary: F. Orlin Tremaine

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Editor F. Orlin Tremaine was born on this date, January 7, 1899. He passed away at the age of 57 in 1956.  Tremaine worked at the Clayton pulp company, although he had no editorial duties with Astounding.  He left to pursue other publishing ventures which didn’t pan out and returned to Clayton in 1932. When Clayton went belly-up, Street and Smith bought the company. It was this time Tremaine was editing responsibilities for Astounding along with other titles. Tremaine edited Astounding from 1932 until late 1937, at which time he hired John W. Campbell, Jr to edit the magazine. Tremaine was promoted to Editorial Director.

Among the authors Tremaine published were H. P. Lovecraft (At the Mountains of Madness and The Shadow Out of Time), L. Sprague de Camp, Raymond Z. Gallun, Jack Williamson, Murray Leinster, and Eric Frank Russell. Oh, and some guy named Campbell.

Eric Frank Russell’s “Hobbyist”

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This is another post that’s going to do double duty as a birthday post and an Astounding anniversary post.  It’s also going to be out of order in respect to the ToC.

Eric Frank Russell was born on this date, January 6, in 1905. He passed away in 1978. Russell was British, and although he was well-known in the US during his lifetime, he has sadly slipped into obscurity these days.  None of his short fiction is in print in electronic format in the US.  Only the NESFA collection Major Ingredients is in print.  His novels are doing a little better, with several being available in print and electronic formats. Continue reading →

“Nightfall” and Isaac Asimov’s Centennial

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Today, January 2, marks the centennial of the birth of Isaac Asimov (1920-1992). I’m going to try to read/reread some of his major works this year. I read a lot of Asimov in middle school and high school, but I not much after I got my undergraduate degree.

Like him or hate him, there is no denying that Isaac Asimov was one of the most influential science fiction authors of the 20th Century.

I also am reading through The Astounding Science Fiction Anthology right now.   (See this post.) In addition to this being a birthday post, it will also be Part 2 of that read-through. Continue reading →

Seeing Things in 2020 Vision

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2020 Vision
Jerry Pournelle, ed.

This anthology was first published in 1974. That’s the original cover over there on the right. I found a copy of the 1980 edition (the cover isn’t nearly as good) at the Friends of the Library sale last month and thought it would be fun to see what science fiction writers in the 1970s thought this next year would be like.  In some ways, they missed the boat by a mile. In others, they almost nailed it.

The 1980 edition has a few additional editorial comments by Pournelle, but otherwise the two different editions are the same. Continue reading →

The Astounding Science Fiction Anthology, Part 1

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So, as part of Astounding/Analog’s 90th anniversary, I’m going to be reading through The Astounding Science Fiction Anthology over the few months.  I’ll read one or two stories, and post on them here, mostly in order.

Edited by John W. Campbell, Jr., the anthology was first published in 1952 by Simon and Schuster.  For more on the backstory behind the anthology, see this excellent post at Black Gate.  The stories are presented in the book roughly in the order of publication, beginning with Heilein’s “Blowups Happen” from 1940 and ending with “Protected Species” by H. B. Fyfe, which was published in 1951. The complete table of contents is listed in the picture below. Click to enlarge. Continue reading →

Astounding/Analog at 90

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Next year will mark the 90th anniversary of Astounding Science Fiction, known these days as Analog.  To mark the occasion, editor Trevor Quachri will be reprinting one story from each decade, starting with the 1940s and going through the 1990s.  Anything later than the nineties, Quachri says, is too recent. More time will be needed to determine what the true classics will be.  All right, I can go along with that, no problem.

There will also be no stories reprinted from the 1930s. The reasoning here is that the identity hadn’t really formed yet.  That sounds a lot like John Campbell hadn’t yet put his imprint on the magazine.  Considering Quachri was in full support of changing the name of the Campbell Award earlier this year, I find this an interesting position to take.  It’s his magazine, and he’s the editor, so I’m not going to make an issue of it. There are some writers from the Clayton days in the 30s who went on to have successful careers after Street & Smith took over the magazine, such as Clifford D. Simak, Jack Williamson, Edmond Hamilton, and Campbell himself. Continue reading →

Alfred Bester on Time Travel

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Alfred Bester

Alfred Bester was born on this date, December 18, 1913. He passed away in 1987.  He’s best remembered for the novels The Stars My Destination and The Demolished Man.  He started out writing short fiction and for comics, and along with his novels  his short fiction is some of the most innovative the field has seen.  See my review of “Fondly Fahrenheit” for an example.

Today I want to look at “The Men who Murdered Mohammed“, a time travel tale that has had a lasting impact on the field.  Told with wit and cheek, it’s the story of a brilliant scientist who comes home to discover his wife in the arms of another man. He wants revenge, so what does he do? Tell his secretary Maria to take a letter? No. Confront them then and there? No.  He builds a time machine and goes back to kill her grandfather before he married and had children. Continue reading →