Tag Archives: Pre-Campbell Science Fiction Challenge

Remembering Murray Leinster

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Will F. Jenkins, better known by his pseudonym Murray Leintster, was born this day (June 16) in 1896.  He passed away on June 8, 1975, just eight days short of his 79th birthday.

Leinster wrote for a variety of pulp magazines, but his greatest output was in the field of science fiction, beginning with “Atmosphere” in Argosy in 1918.  While he wrote novels, his best work was at shorter lengths.  Some of these stories include “Sidewise in Time”, “First Contact”, “A Logic Named Joe”, and “Exploration Team”.  These stories have become classics in the field, and “Exploration Team” won one of the first Hugo Awards.

I’ve always enjoyed Leinster’s work. As with any prolific author, not all the stories are of equal quality, but when Leinster was good, he was very good.

Later in the summer, when things settle down, i.e., when the second summer session starts and I’m teaching, one of the things I want to do is restart the Pre-Campbell Science Fiction Challenge.  Leinster will be one of the authors I’ll be reading.

Pre-Campbell SF Challenge: “The Man Who Evolved” by Edmond Hamilton

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“The Man Who Evolved”
The Edmond Hamilton Megapack
Wildside Press
ebook $0.55

I haven’t forgotten about this challenge.  I just haven’t had a chance to sit down and write this post.  Work has gotten hairy, so my blogging and general writing has slowed down.

I don’t recall if I first read “The Man Who Evolved” in Isaac Asimov’s anthology Before the Golden Age or in the Ballantine Del Rey collection The Best of Edmond Hamilton.  Not that it really matters.  Both books are worth reading.  I happened to reread it this time in Before the Golden Age.  Fortunately for anyone wanting to read it, it’s available in The Edmond Hamilton Megapack for just fifty-five cents, plus tax.

Mild spoilers to follow.  You have been warned. Continue reading →

The Pre-Campbell Science Fiction Challenge

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John W. Campbell, Jr.

It  has been said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. With that in mind, I’m going to steal borrow an idea from Alexandru Constantin over at the Barbarian Book Club.  His challenge was to read three fantasy short stories published before The Lord of the Rings changed the landscape of fantasy.

I’m going to apply that idea to science fiction.

There can be little argument that when John W. Campbell, Jr. became editor of Astounding Stories (which later became Astounding Science Fiction) in 1938, he changed the field of science fiction forever.  Whether this was a good thing or a bad thing is certainly open to interpretation.  The accepted narrative for years has been that this was a completely good thing.  Campbell introduced scientific rigor and raised the literary standards by jettisoning many of the pulp tropes of mad scientists (usually with beautiful daughters for the hero to win) and scantily clad women being abducted by bug-eyed monsters.

Lately that narrative has been challenged.  Some writers have claimed that this wasn’t a good thing at all.  I’m not going to try to name them because I will invariably leave someone out and this isn’t intended to be a personal attack on anyone.  A few have even gone so far as to say Campbell ruined science fiction.

I’m not prepared to go that far.  I happen to like Campbellian science fiction, just as I like Tolkienesque fantasy.  I also happen to like science fiction from before Campbell, just as I like fantasy that predates Tolkien.  Much of the science fiction from the previous century hasn’t aged well, but that can be said of any genre.

But I do think these folks have a point.  Science fiction wasn’t the same after Campbell, and we lost some of  the energy and thrill that went with it.  Even Isaac Asimov, a Campbellian writer if there ever was one, admitted as much in his introduction to Before the Golden Age, his autobiographical anthology of pre-Campbellian science fiction.

With a tip of my space helmet to Alexandru Constantin, here’s what I’m proposing.

  • Read three short stories that are clearly science fiction.  The stories should be from before 1938, when Campbell took the reigns of Astounding.
  • Post a review on your blog, telling us why these stories should still be read.  Or not, as the case may be.  And post a link here in the comments so we can find your review.
  • You also need to tell us where you read them so anyone interested can track them down.

As I mentioned in my post at Adventures Fantastic last night, we’ve been told that the older stuff is racist, sexist, etc.  The pronouncement has also been made the science fiction has always been progressive.  I suggested a Schrodinger’s Cat explanation for how it can be both.  Here’s a chance to see what early science fiction was really like.

So that’s your assignment, class.  Get to it.