Tag Archives: Astounding Science Fiction

Cleve Cartmill

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June 21 is the birthday of Cleve Cartmill (1908-1964). Cartmill wrote science fiction in the nineteen forties. He cointinued to write into the middle fifties, although his output slowed significantly.

Robert Heinlein hosted an informal group of writers at his house in California in the early forties before the war. Cartmill attended. Heinlein introduced Cartmill to John Campbell, and most of Cartmill’s work appeared in with Astounding or Unknown.

Cartmill is best remembered today for the story “Deadline”. One could argue that he is only remembered today because of that story. Continue reading →

Tom Godwin

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Forgot to hit Publish last night.

June 6 is the birthday of Tome Godwin (1915-1980). He published approximately two dozen short stories and three novels, most of them in the nineteeen fifties. If it weren’t for one particular story, he woudl probably be totally forgotten today.

But that one story was a doozy. It created controversy when it was published in the August 1954 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. It’s still controversial today.

Seventy years later.

That’s an impactful story.

The story I’m talking about is, of course, “The Coldl Equations”.

If you haven’t read it but think you might (and you should; it holds up well), then you need to be aware that pretty much the rest of this post is going to be one giant spoiler.

You’ve been warned. Continue reading →

Lester Del Rey

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Lester Del Rey at Minicon 8 (1974)

Lester Del Rey (1915-1993) was born today, June 2.

Most people today would think of Del Rey books if they recognized the name Del Rey at all.

But Lester Del Rey did more than have his name as an imprint of Ballantine Books. One must ask the question why he would be selected to have his name on a imprint in the first place.

In reality, it wasn’t jsut Lester who founded the imprint. He shared that honor with his wife Judy-Lynn Del Rey.

I don’t remember when I first became aware of him as a writer. I do recall the first book of his I read. It was the science fiction book club edition of The Early Del Rey. This was a single volume. In mass market paperbacks, it was published in two volumes.

Much of what I’m going to write will be based on that. Continue reading →

Jack Williamson

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Jack Williamson (1908-2006) was born on April 29, which would be etoday as I’m writing this. I wasn’t able to go to the Williamson Lectureship in Portales this year. Instead of living two hours away, it’s more like five. Plus, I didn’t have the cash or the time off from work.

Maybe next year.

But that doesn’t mean I can’t indulge in reading some Williamson and singing his praises (figuratively, not literally, nobody wants to hear that) here on the blog. Aplogies if I’ve said some of this before in previous posts.

Jack Williamson was born in Bisbee in Arizona Territory. Yes, kiddies, before Arizona was a state. He came to New Mexico, if I recall correctly, in a covered wagon. He sold his first story, “The Metal Man”, to Amazing Stories in 1928. He was still writing into the 2000s. I don’t know if he was workiing on anything at the time of his death. Stephen Haffner, if you read this and know the answer to that question, please let us know in the comments. Thanks. Continue reading →

Kuttner

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Henry Kuttner (1915-1958) was born today, May 5. He’s been my favorite science fcition and fantasy writer ever since I read “Mimsy were the Borogoves” in The Best of Henry Kuttner the summer before I started high high school.

I was going to read and review Lands of the Earthquake (thanks for sending me a copy, Deuce), but I’ve been on the road with one of the dayjobs most of the past week. It took me all week to read “The Brood of Bubastis” for the Robert Bloch post, and I was falling asleep over the keyboard as I wrote it. So, obviously, I didn’t get to it. I’ll try to read it and post something in the next few months. Continue reading →

Kuttner’s “Line to Tomorrow”

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One of the things Henry Kuttner excelled at was the dark, sardonic twist at the end of many of his stories. Another thing he excelled at was time travel stories. Often in the same story. We’ll look at one of these today that he wrote in collaboration with his wife C. L. Moore that was published under their pen name Lewis Padgett.

Speaking of today, it’s Kuttner’s birthday, April 7, as this post goes live. I wasn’t able to read something for the birthday of Kuttner’s friend Robert Bloch. I wasn’t going to make that mistake for Kuttner.

“Line to Tomorrow” begins with Jerry Fletcher answering the phone way too early in the morning. He can only hear one voice. It seems to be a call between two people, but much of what they’re talking about doesn’t make sense. Continue reading →

Reflections on the Retro Hugos

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Leigh Brackett

I’ve decided I’m not going to do a post on Henry Kuttner’s “A God Named Kroo” for the Retro Hugos.  I reviewed it a few years ago here. I’ve got too much Real Life stuff going on, and the winners were announced yesterday. At least I saw a notice last night after posting about Brackett’s “The Jewel of Bas“.  That was the one I was hoping would win.  Brackett did win in the novel category (which I might review because Brackett) and Best Related Work.

I hadn’t paid much attention to the other categories. I’m not a member of Worldcon and am not likely to be anytime in the foreseeable future. So it was entertaining to see the reactions on Twitter today.

Seems the wrong people won some of the awards. Continue reading →

Retro Hugos: “The Changeling” by A. E. Van Vogt

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“The Changeling” was published in the April 1944 issue of Astounding. The ISFDB says it’s the third in a series of four stories the ISFDB calls Pendrake. I’ve not read any of the other stories, and this was my first time to read this one.

I’m not really sure where to start. There were some twists that might have been more expected if I had read the two stories preceding “The Changeling”. But maybe not. It has the feel of a self-contained episode in a larger story arc where the background is important but the characters seem to have been introduced in this episode. I’m not sure. there are remarks toward the end that could be background information or references to previous stories.

Let’s start with the background, because I’m a little surprised this story is on the final ballot. It isn’t exactly woke in some of the attitudes the characters have. Continue reading →

Retro Hugos: “Desertion” by Clifford D. Simak

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This is the last post for the short story nominees on this year’s Retro Hugo ballot. “Desertion” was first published in the November 1944 issue of Astounding. It was later incorporated into City.  It is currently available in that book (in a slightly revised form) and in Earth for Inspiration in its original form.

“Desertion” is the fourth story in the City series.  I’ve looked at the first and second as they are both on the final ballot for the Retro Hugos. The third, “Census”, isn’t on the ballot, but I’ll talk about it when I review City later in the year.

“Desertion” is a brief story that packs a punch. Just so you know, there will be spoilers. Continue reading →

Retro Hugos: “Huddling Place” by Clifford D. Simak

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I honestly haven’t been ignoring these Retro Hugo posts.  I’ve just been swamped. Trying to coordinate labs for four different courses plus teach a lecture, all in online format, is a bit time consuming. I’ve been making videos of myself lecturing to empty rooms or collecting data for labs and posting the videos to YouTube. (No, I won’t provide links.) I read this story over a week ago. I’ve just been too brain dead to get it written. Since Worldcon is in two weeks, I doubt I’ll get all of the nominees read. But I’m going to give it the ol’ college try.

“Huddling Place” is the second story that made up the mosaic novel City. It was first published in the July 1944 issue of Astounding. It is currently available in City or No Life of Their Own.

The tale concerns Jerome A. Webster, now the patriarch of the Webster family following the death of his father. There’s not much of a family left. Just he and his son. A once proud and successful line is dying, with only their faithful robot servants to remember their achievements within a few more years.

Jerome has noticed something. Agoraphobia or something very much like it is starting to spread among mankind. It seems to hit people around middle age, a desire to stay home and not venture out. Continue reading →