Tag Archives: Ross Rocklynne

Retro Hugos: “Invaders From the Stars” by Ross Rocklynne

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Ross Rocklynne was a fairly prolific author during the late 1930 and 1940s. These days he’s pretty much forgotten. So I was a little surprised to see “Invaders From the Stars” on the Retro Hugo ballot. After I read it, I further puzzled.

“Invaders From the Stars” was published in the January 1944 issue of Amazing Stories. Amazing has a reputation from this period of being a second tier pulp, with lots of purple prose and inferior writing.

“Invaders From the Stars” doesn’t help change that, although it’s not that bad. I just don’t think it’s nearly was well-written as any of the other stories on the Retro Hugo ballot. Given that the three remaining novellas are by Brackett, Kuttner, and Van Vogt, I don’t think that’s going to change.

The story isn’t bad, and the prose isn’t that purple. But this isn’t Rocklynne at his best. Here’s the setup. Continue reading →

Thoughts on the Retro Hugos and a Question

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The nominees for the Retro Hugos were announced yesterday.  If you aren’t familiar with them, they are given for the best science fiction or fantasy for the previous year, only for a year 75 years prior. In this case, it’s the 1945 Retro Hugos for the works from 1944.  Here are the fiction nominees.  I’m not going to worry about editors, artists, fanzines, or any of the other categories.  I’ll have a few things to say below the list, as well as a question for you. Continue reading →

Meditations on the Vagaries of Time

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One of the things I try to do on a daily basis is check the Internet Speculative Fiction Data Base to see what birthdays are today.  Most of the names I don’t recognize, and many of the ones I do elicit a “Why the heck are they listed here?” response.  I mean, Toni Morrison?  C’mon, gimme a break.

Eric Frank Russell with Bea Mahaffey

But I also see a lot of names I recognize that most people probably wouldn’t.  I grew reading a lot of the older stuff from the 30s and 40s.  Reprint anthologies were abundant.  DAW’s Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF series was being published in those days, Those, the Del Rey Best of series, and the Robert Silverberg edited anthologies in the school library were where I first became aware of a number of writers such as Ross Rocklynne, Margaret St. Clair, Chan Davis, Harry Bates, Charles L. Harness, Cleve Cartmill, Rog Phillips, Judith Merrill, Malcolm Jameson, Tom Godwin, Miriam Allen de Ford, Eric Frank Russell, and others. Continue reading →