Tag Archives: Analog

Keith Laumer Sends a Message

There are some writers who are superstars and whose names and works live long after they have entered the long night. There are others who do consistently good work, have their cadres of fans, and are forgotten within a few years or decades of their passing.

Keith Laumer

One such author was Keith Laumer (1925-1993), who was born on this day, June 9. Laumer died nearly three decades ago. In the early 2000’s Baen published a number of omnibuses of his work. Since then, he’s fallen into neglect.

Laumer is best remembered for his tales of the diplomat Retief or perhaps the Bolo series of intelligent tanks. But he wrote a number of other things, all of them enjoyable. He could do action and adventure, space opera, and time travel. He knew how to tell an entertaining story, and he could hide a moral lesson in it without detracting from the entertainment or beating you over the head with his message. Continue reading

Astounding/Analog at 90

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

The Best Monster Story I’ve Read in Quite a While

AFFMAY2014COVER“Cryptids”
Alec Nevala-Lee
Analog Science Fiction
May 2014

I wrote earlier that I want to try to read more short fiction  and more science fiction this year. I thank God for ereader apps on phones. I’ve been doing a lot of reading of short fiction on my phone, and this story is one I read today while waiting on various things (pick up wife from physical therapy, pick up son from school, etc.)

I’ve only read a couple of the stories in the current issue of Analog, but “Cryptids” is one of the most enjoyable stories I’ve read in the magazine in a while.  I like a good monster story, especially when there a rigorous scientific rationale behind it. Continue reading