#frederikpohl — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #frederikpohl, aggregated by home.social.
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I am starting reading this; Star Science Fiction Stories No.4 is the fourth book in the anthology series Star Science Fiction Stories, edited by Frederik Pohl. #frederikpohl #sciencefiction #star #anthology
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I am starting reading this; Star Science Fiction Stories No.4 is the fourth book in the anthology series Star Science Fiction Stories, edited by Frederik Pohl. #frederikpohl #sciencefiction #star #anthology
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I am starting reading this; Star Science Fiction Stories No.4 is the fourth book in the anthology series Star Science Fiction Stories, edited by Frederik Pohl. #frederikpohl #sciencefiction #star #anthology
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I am starting reading this; Star Science Fiction Stories No.4 is the fourth book in the anthology series Star Science Fiction Stories, edited by Frederik Pohl. #frederikpohl #sciencefiction #star #anthology
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BLACK STAR RISING (1984)
Acrylic on Watercolor Board - 30" x 22"My first cover for Frederik Pohl came with this satirical, post-apocalyptic space opera. 1/3
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BLACK STAR RISING (1984)
Acrylic on Watercolor Board - 30" x 22"My first cover for Frederik Pohl came with this satirical, post-apocalyptic space opera. 1/3
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BLACK STAR RISING (1984)
Acrylic on Watercolor Board - 30" x 22"My first cover for Frederik Pohl came with this satirical, post-apocalyptic space opera. 1/3
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BLACK STAR RISING (1984)
Acrylic on Watercolor Board - 30" x 22"My first cover for Frederik Pohl came with this satirical, post-apocalyptic space opera. 1/3
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Digesting Food Studies—Episode 114: Flexitarianism
https://rss.com/podcasts/digesting-food-studies/2469363/Are you a carnivore? A vegan? A frugivore? Or do you fall in between categories of eater, identifying more as a flexitarian? As we learn from this episode’s guest author, Kelsey Speakman, flexitarianism is a complex space of food making, ethical and multispecies relationships, and marketing rhetoric.
Kelsey’s article on the subject, “Beef, Beans, or Byproducts? Following Flexitarianism’s Finances,” comes from Vol. 11, No. 4 of Canadian Food Studies (https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v11i1.638). And sandwiching this meat-alternatives theme are Alexia Moyer on a powerful kitchen implement, and Milka Milicevic on the power of true alternatives in eating.
#DigestingFoodStudies
#FoodPodcast
#Flexitarianism
#FoodAlternatives
#Eating
#Supermarkets
#KitchenMallet
#Meat
#Vegetarianism
#GeorgeBrownPolytechnic
#GBPolytech
#GBCollege
#HonoursBachelorOfFoodStudies
#TheSpaceMerchants
#FrederikPohl
#CyrilKornbluth
#FoodStudies
#Academiaphotos: Alexia Moyer
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Digesting Food Studies—Episode 114: Flexitarianism
https://rss.com/podcasts/digesting-food-studies/2469363/Are you a carnivore? A vegan? A frugivore? Or do you fall in between categories of eater, identifying more as a flexitarian? As we learn from this episode’s guest author, Kelsey Speakman, flexitarianism is a complex space of food making, ethical and multispecies relationships, and marketing rhetoric.
Kelsey’s article on the subject, “Beef, Beans, or Byproducts? Following Flexitarianism’s Finances,” comes from Vol. 11, No. 4 of Canadian Food Studies (https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v11i1.638). And sandwiching this meat-alternatives theme are Alexia Moyer on a powerful kitchen implement, and Milka Milicevic on the power of true alternatives in eating.
#DigestingFoodStudies
#FoodPodcast
#Flexitarianism
#FoodAlternatives
#Eating
#Supermarkets
#KitchenMallet
#Meat
#Vegetarianism
#GeorgeBrownPolytechnic
#GBPolytech
#GBCollege
#HonoursBachelorOfFoodStudies
#TheSpaceMerchants
#FrederikPohl
#CyrilKornbluth
#FoodStudies
#Academiaphotos: Alexia Moyer
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Digesting Food Studies—Episode 114: Flexitarianism
https://rss.com/podcasts/digesting-food-studies/2469363/Are you a carnivore? A vegan? A frugivore? Or do you fall in between categories of eater, identifying more as a flexitarian? As we learn from this episode’s guest author, Kelsey Speakman, flexitarianism is a complex space of food making, ethical and multispecies relationships, and marketing rhetoric.
Kelsey’s article on the subject, “Beef, Beans, or Byproducts? Following Flexitarianism’s Finances,” comes from Vol. 11, No. 4 of Canadian Food Studies (https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v11i1.638). And sandwiching this meat-alternatives theme are Alexia Moyer on a powerful kitchen implement, and Milka Milicevic on the power of true alternatives in eating.
#DigestingFoodStudies
#FoodPodcast
#Flexitarianism
#FoodAlternatives
#Eating
#Supermarkets
#KitchenMallet
#Meat
#Vegetarianism
#GeorgeBrownPolytechnic
#GBPolytech
#GBCollege
#HonoursBachelorOfFoodStudies
#TheSpaceMerchants
#FrederikPohl
#CyrilKornbluth
#FoodStudies
#Academiaphotos: Alexia Moyer
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Digesting Food Studies—Episode 114: Flexitarianism
https://rss.com/podcasts/digesting-food-studies/2469363/Are you a carnivore? A vegan? A frugivore? Or do you fall in between categories of eater, identifying more as a flexitarian? As we learn from this episode’s guest author, Kelsey Speakman, flexitarianism is a complex space of food making, ethical and multispecies relationships, and marketing rhetoric.
Kelsey’s article on the subject, “Beef, Beans, or Byproducts? Following Flexitarianism’s Finances,” comes from Vol. 11, No. 4 of Canadian Food Studies (https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v11i1.638). And sandwiching this meat-alternatives theme are Alexia Moyer on a powerful kitchen implement, and Milka Milicevic on the power of true alternatives in eating.
#DigestingFoodStudies
#FoodPodcast
#Flexitarianism
#FoodAlternatives
#Eating
#Supermarkets
#KitchenMallet
#Meat
#Vegetarianism
#GeorgeBrownPolytechnic
#GBPolytech
#GBCollege
#HonoursBachelorOfFoodStudies
#TheSpaceMerchants
#FrederikPohl
#CyrilKornbluth
#FoodStudies
#Academiaphotos: Alexia Moyer
-
Digesting Food Studies—Episode 114: Flexitarianism
https://rss.com/podcasts/digesting-food-studies/2469363/Are you a carnivore? A vegan? A frugivore? Or do you fall in between categories of eater, identifying more as a flexitarian? As we learn from this episode’s guest author, Kelsey Speakman, flexitarianism is a complex space of food making, ethical and multispecies relationships, and marketing rhetoric.
Kelsey’s article on the subject, “Beef, Beans, or Byproducts? Following Flexitarianism’s Finances,” comes from Vol. 11, No. 4 of Canadian Food Studies (https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v11i1.638). And sandwiching this meat-alternatives theme are Alexia Moyer on a powerful kitchen implement, and Milka Milicevic on the power of true alternatives in eating.
#DigestingFoodStudies
#FoodPodcast
#Flexitarianism
#FoodAlternatives
#Eating
#Supermarkets
#KitchenMallet
#Meat
#Vegetarianism
#GeorgeBrownPolytechnic
#GBPolytech
#GBCollege
#HonoursBachelorOfFoodStudies
#TheSpaceMerchants
#FrederikPohl
#CyrilKornbluth
#FoodStudies
#Academiaphotos: Alexia Moyer
-
Digesting Food Studies—Episode 114: Flexitarianism
https://rss.com/podcasts/digesting-food-studies/2469363/Are you a carnivore? A vegan? A frugivore? Or do you fall in between categories of eater, identifying more as a flexitarian? As we learn from this episode’s guest author, Kelsey Speakman, flexitarianism is a complex space of food making, ethical and multispecies relationships, and marketing rhetoric.
Kelsey’s article on the subject, “Beef, Beans, or Byproducts? Following Flexitarianism’s Finances,” comes from Vol. 11, No. 4 of Canadian Food Studies (https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v11i1.638). And sandwiching this meat-alternatives theme are Alexia Moyer on a powerful kitchen implement, and Milka Milicevic on the power of true alternatives in eating.
#DigestingFoodStudies
#FoodPodcast
#Flexitarianism
#FoodAlternatives
#Eating
#Supermarkets
#KitchenMallet
#Meat
#Vegetarianism
#GeorgeBrownPolytechnic
#GBPolytech
#GBCollege
#HonoursBachelorOfFoodStudies
#TheSpaceMerchants
#FrederikPohl
#CyrilKornbluth
#FoodStudies
#Academiaphotos: Alexia Moyer
-
Digesting Food Studies—Episode 114: Flexitarianism
https://rss.com/podcasts/digesting-food-studies/2469363/Are you a carnivore? A vegan? A frugivore? Or do you fall in between categories of eater, identifying more as a flexitarian? As we learn from this episode’s guest author, Kelsey Speakman, flexitarianism is a complex space of food making, ethical and multispecies relationships, and marketing rhetoric.
Kelsey’s article on the subject, “Beef, Beans, or Byproducts? Following Flexitarianism’s Finances,” comes from Vol. 11, No. 4 of Canadian Food Studies (https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v11i1.638). And sandwiching this meat-alternatives theme are Alexia Moyer on a powerful kitchen implement, and Milka Milicevic on the power of true alternatives in eating.
#DigestingFoodStudies
#FoodPodcast
#Flexitarianism
#FoodAlternatives
#Eating
#Supermarkets
#KitchenMallet
#Meat
#Vegetarianism
#GeorgeBrownPolytechnic
#GBPolytech
#GBCollege
#HonoursBachelorOfFoodStudies
#TheSpaceMerchants
#FrederikPohl
#CyrilKornbluth
#FoodStudies
#Academiaphotos: Alexia Moyer
-
Digesting Food Studies—Episode 114: Flexitarianism
https://rss.com/podcasts/digesting-food-studies/2469363/Are you a carnivore? A vegan? A frugivore? Or do you fall in between categories of eater, identifying more as a flexitarian? As we learn from this episode’s guest author, Kelsey Speakman, flexitarianism is a complex space of food making, ethical and multispecies relationships, and marketing rhetoric.
Kelsey’s article on the subject, “Beef, Beans, or Byproducts? Following Flexitarianism’s Finances,” comes from Vol. 11, No. 4 of Canadian Food Studies (https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v11i1.638). And sandwiching this meat-alternatives theme are Alexia Moyer on a powerful kitchen implement, and Milka Milicevic on the power of true alternatives in eating.
#DigestingFoodStudies
#FoodPodcast
#Flexitarianism
#FoodAlternatives
#Eating
#Supermarkets
#KitchenMallet
#Meat
#Vegetarianism
#GeorgeBrownPolytechnic
#GBPolytech
#GBCollege
#HonoursBachelorOfFoodStudies
#TheSpaceMerchants
#FrederikPohl
#CyrilKornbluth
#FoodStudies
#Academiaphotos: Alexia Moyer
-
Digesting Food Studies—Episode 114: Flexitarianism
https://rss.com/podcasts/digesting-food-studies/2469363/Are you a carnivore? A vegan? A frugivore? Or do you fall in between categories of eater, identifying more as a flexitarian? As we learn from this episode’s guest author, Kelsey Speakman, flexitarianism is a complex space of food making, ethical and multispecies relationships, and marketing rhetoric.
Kelsey’s article on the subject, “Beef, Beans, or Byproducts? Following Flexitarianism’s Finances,” comes from Vol. 11, No. 4 of Canadian Food Studies (https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v11i1.638). And sandwiching this meat-alternatives theme are Alexia Moyer on a powerful kitchen implement, and Milka Milicevic on the power of true alternatives in eating.
#DigestingFoodStudies
#FoodPodcast
#Flexitarianism
#FoodAlternatives
#Eating
#Supermarkets
#KitchenMallet
#Meat
#Vegetarianism
#GeorgeBrownPolytechnic
#GBPolytech
#GBCollege
#HonoursBachelorOfFoodStudies
#TheSpaceMerchants
#FrederikPohl
#CyrilKornbluth
#FoodStudies
#Academiaphotos: Alexia Moyer
-
Digesting Food Studies—Episode 114: Flexitarianism
https://rss.com/podcasts/digesting-food-studies/2469363/Are you a carnivore? A vegan? A frugivore? Or do you fall in between categories of eater, identifying more as a flexitarian? As we learn from this episode’s guest author, Kelsey Speakman, flexitarianism is a complex space of food making, ethical and multispecies relationships, and marketing rhetoric.
Kelsey’s article on the subject, “Beef, Beans, or Byproducts? Following Flexitarianism’s Finances,” comes from Vol. 11, No. 4 of Canadian Food Studies (https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v11i1.638). And sandwiching this meat-alternatives theme are Alexia Moyer on a powerful kitchen implement, and Milka Milicevic on the power of true alternatives in eating.
#DigestingFoodStudies
#FoodPodcast
#Flexitarianism
#FoodAlternatives
#Eating
#Supermarkets
#KitchenMallet
#Meat
#Vegetarianism
#GeorgeBrownPolytechnic
#GBPolytech
#GBCollege
#HonoursBachelorOfFoodStudies
#TheSpaceMerchants
#FrederikPohl
#CyrilKornbluth
#FoodStudies
#Academiaphotos: Alexia Moyer
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Born this Day:
Frederik George Pohl Jr. (November 26, 1919 – September 2, 2013) was an American science-fiction writer. Author of
Gateway (1977)—winner of the Campbell Memorial, Hugo, Locus SF, and Nebula Awards as the year's Best Novel, and Jem (1979) winner of the National Book Award.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederik_Pohl
#Literature
#SciFi
#Horror
#ScienceFiction
#books
#bookstodon
#coverart
#FrederikPohl -
Titelbild von Karl Stephan für
"Geheimkommando Madagaskar" von Frederik Pohl (Slave Ship)
Übersetzt von Walter Ernsting
Utopia Kleinband 258, Pabel Verlag Dezember 1960
(AmeS) -
Titelbild von Karl Stephan für
"Geheimkommando Madagaskar" von Frederik Pohl (Slave Ship)
Übersetzt von Walter Ernsting
Utopia Kleinband 258, Pabel Verlag Dezember 1960
(AmeS) -
Posthuman lancia "M-Rivista del Mistero presenta 'Dimensioni ignote'", su Amazon da #arditaedizioni in carta e digitale, a cura di #andreacarlocappi illustrata da #robertaguardascione con testi di #malcolmjameson #frederikpohl, #AlfredoCastelli & #luigicozzi #mariogazzola, #claudiaperfetti... https://www.posthuman.it/libri/dimensioni-ignote-esce-il-numero-2-di-m-rivista-del-mistero-presenta #mrivistadelmistero #fantascienza #fantasy
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On my latest “Looking Back on Genre History” segment on the #StarShipSofa #podcast (Episode 756), I discuss two pioneering #dystopian novels -- published 50 years apart! -- that have a great deal to say to each other and to us in 2025: #TheSpaceMerchants by #FrederikPohl and #CMKornbluth and #Feed by #MTAnderson.
#Dystopia #Resist #SFF #Books #Bookstodon #ScienceFiction
Here is the link!
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/dir-u89eb-25675237 -
On my latest “Looking Back on Genre History” segment on the #StarShipSofa #podcast (Episode 756), I discuss two pioneering #dystopian novels -- published 50 years apart! -- that have a great deal to say to each other and to us in 2025: #TheSpaceMerchants by #FrederikPohl and #CMKornbluth and #Feed by #MTAnderson.
#Dystopia #Resist #SFF #Books #Bookstodon #ScienceFiction
Here is the link!
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/dir-u89eb-25675237 -
On my latest “Looking Back on Genre History” segment on the #StarShipSofa #podcast (Episode 756), I discuss two pioneering #dystopian novels -- published 50 years apart! -- that have a great deal to say to each other and to us in 2025: #TheSpaceMerchants by #FrederikPohl and #CMKornbluth and #Feed by #MTAnderson.
#Dystopia #Resist #SFF #Books #Bookstodon #ScienceFiction
Here is the link!
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/dir-u89eb-25675237 -
On my latest “Looking Back on Genre History” segment on the #StarShipSofa #podcast (Episode 756), I discuss two pioneering #dystopian novels -- published 50 years apart! -- that have a great deal to say to each other and to us in 2025: #TheSpaceMerchants by #FrederikPohl and #CMKornbluth and #Feed by #MTAnderson.
#Dystopia #Resist #SFF #Books #Bookstodon #ScienceFiction
Here is the link!
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/dir-u89eb-25675237 -
On my latest “Looking Back on Genre History” segment on the #StarShipSofa #podcast (Episode 756), I discuss two pioneering #dystopian novels -- published 50 years apart! -- that have a great deal to say to each other and to us in 2025: #TheSpaceMerchants by #FrederikPohl and #CMKornbluth and #Feed by #MTAnderson.
#Dystopia #Resist #SFF #Books #Bookstodon #ScienceFiction
Here is the link!
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/dir-u89eb-25675237 -
[libro] Il marziano in soffitta
Autore: Frederik Pohl
Titolo: Il marziano in soffitta
Editore: Urani – Mondadori
Altro: Collana Urania 804 del 07/10/9170 di Carlo Fruttero e Franco Lucentini; genere: antologia di fantascienza; titolo originale: The Best of Frederik Pohl; traduzione di Delio Zinoni e Bianca Russo; Curatela di Lester Del Rey; p. 182Voto: 7/10
Secondo volume dell’antologia di Del Rey con i migliori racconti di F. Pohl. Anche questo finito a casa mia grazie a uno scambio culturale con un’amica appassionata di fantascienza. E anche questo titolo è tratto dal primo racconto.
In questo secondo volume la qualità mi è sembrata minore, forse perché i racconti sono invecchiati male o perché mi sono piaciuti di meno. Uno, in particolare, non ho capito se fosse un racconto o una lezione di matematica: Come contare sulle dita, ovvero come usare il sistema binario per contare fino a 1023 con 10 dita e altre amenità sul calcolo binario. La scusa, ovviamente, era introdurre le meravigliose possibilità di un calcolatore elettronico, ma ne viene fuori un corso iper semplificato di matematica binaria.
I due racconti che mi sono piaciuti di più sono Perché corriamo tanto, una satira venata di horror sul correre sempre alla milanese imbruttito, e Altamyin, inc., una anticipazione di realtà manipolata con la tecnologia per conquistare il potere a scapito dei più deboli.
Rinnovo il consiglio del primo volume: se trovate su qualche bancarella questa mini antologia, vale i pochi euro che dovrete sborsare per averla.
Buona lettura!
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I’m rereading the 1952 #ScienceFiction classic #TheSpaceMerchants by #FrederikPohl and #CMKornbluth before teaching it again this summer. It’s always been compelling, but wow, it hits different in 2025.
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I’m rereading the 1952 #ScienceFiction classic #TheSpaceMerchants by #FrederikPohl and #CMKornbluth before teaching it again this summer. It’s always been compelling, but wow, it hits different in 2025.
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I’m rereading the 1952 #ScienceFiction classic #TheSpaceMerchants by #FrederikPohl and #CMKornbluth before teaching it again this summer. It’s always been compelling, but wow, it hits different in 2025.
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I’m rereading the 1952 #ScienceFiction classic #TheSpaceMerchants by #FrederikPohl and #CMKornbluth before teaching it again this summer. It’s always been compelling, but wow, it hits different in 2025.
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I’m rereading the 1952 #ScienceFiction classic #TheSpaceMerchants by #FrederikPohl and #CMKornbluth before teaching it again this summer. It’s always been compelling, but wow, it hits different in 2025.
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[libro] Il tunnel sotto il mondo
Autore: Frederik Pohl
Titolo: Il tunnel sotto il mondo
Editore: Urania – Mondadori
Altro: Urania 802 del 23/09/1979 di Carlo Fruttero e Franco Lucentini; genere: antologia di fantascienza; traduzioni di Delio Zinoni e Antonangelo Pinna; Curatela di Lester Del Rey; p. 200Voto: 8/20
Nel 1979 Del Rey fece un’antolgoia con i migliori racconti di Pohl e Urania li pubblicò in due fascicoli. Questo è il primo, finito in casa mia grazie a uno scambio culturale di fantascienza. Il titolo è tratto dal primo racconto. Nonostante i termini (gli omosessuali sono deviati, per esempio) e alcuni temi siano decisamente tipici degli anni ’50 e ’60 (l’energia atomica), lo spirito che anima questi racconti è più che mai moderno, anticonvenzionale e molto critico nei confronti della società occidentale di allora, che purtroppo, su alcune cose, è cambiata ben poco ed è la stessa di oggi.
Mi concedo solo un piccolo spoiler: nell’ultimo racconto, Il morso di Mida, i poveri sono costretti a non lavorare, a consumare forsennatamente e vivono in ville che noi classificheremmo come lussuose. I ricchi invece non hanno obbligo di consumo e vivono in case che noi definiremmo normali. Si lotta per diventare ricchi e non essere più obbligati a consumare. Il finale vi lascerà un po’ stupiti e con la voglia di fare un comizio, cosa che vi risparmio.
Insomma, se lo trovate su qualche bancarella questa mini antologia vale i pochi euro che dovrete sborsare per averla.
Buona lettura!
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Book Review: Star Science Fiction Stories No. 3, ed. Frederik Pohl (1955)
- Richard Powers’ cover for the 1955 edition
3.5/5 (collated rating: Good)
Ballantine Books’ illustrious science fictional program started with a bang–Star Science Fiction Stories. According to Mike Ashley’s Transformations: The Story of Science-Fiction Magazines from 1950 to 1970 Frederik Pohl’s anthology series of original (mostly) stories was “intended as both a showcase of Ballantine’s authors and a lure to new writers.” Paying better rates than magazines, the Star series foreshadowed the explosion of original anthologies that would provide a sustained challenge to the eminence held in the 50s by the magazine.
I’ve selected the third volume of the six-volume series.1 It contains an illustrative cross-section of 50s science fiction. Philip K. Dick’s “Foster, You’re Dead” (1955), Richard Matheson’s “Dance of the Dead” (1955), and Jack Williamson’s “Guinevere for Everybody” (1955) are not to be missed.
Recommended.
Brief Plot Summaries/Analysis
“It’s Such a Beautiful Day” (1955), Isaac Asimov, 3.5/5 (Good): The anthology starts off with an effective Isaac Asimov satire of the suburban experience. The creation of suburbia in the 1950s (and subsequent mass white flight) generated increased commutes between home and urban work. The home became a bunker to protect the American family from any threat (fallout shelters, a community away from diversity and interaction with “the other,” etc.).2
Asimov speculates that new, almost instantaneous, transportation portals will isolate the family completely from the external world. A minor glitch in the transportation system instills a change in the young Richard Hanshaw, Jr. He isn’t as willing to trust the portal — and decides to trek to school by foot. His teacher calls mother in shock and suggests psychological treatment. An intriguing, and gentle, satire on American conceptions of normalcy, the new-fangled post-War emergence of psychology as a therapeutic practice, and the suburban experience.3
“The Strawberry Window” (1955), Ray Bradbury, 3/5 (Average): The story follows a family on Mars. The father, Will, spends his day constructing the settlement town. He’s possessed by the dream of Mars and humanity’s conquest of the stars: “It’s not just us come to Mars, it’s the race, the whole darn human race, depending on how we make out in our lifetime. This thing is so big I want to laugh, I’m so scared stiff of it” (31). His long-suffering wife Carrie yearns for the small sounds and big memories that anchor her to Earth. And so Will comes up with a compromise, an expensive compromise.
Ultimately, this is beautiful polish to a banal, almost jingoistic, defense of humanity’s supposed destiny to expand and conquer: “There’s nothing better than Man with a capital M in my book” (32). I am far more interested in the more subversive and quietly critical moments of Bradbury’s other Mars stories. This one is simplistic propaganda of conquest. Despite the enjoyable thematic core (the effects of leaving Earth) and polished telling, I’d classify “The Strawberry Window” amongst his most disappointing and forced. For superior Bradbury that I’ve covered, check out “The Highway” (1950) and “The Pedestrian” (1951).
“The Deep Range” (1955), Arthur C. Clarke, 3/5 (Average): One of the reasons I feel a special attraction to 50s SF is its interest in the working-class experience of the future. Of course, for the reader of the present futuristic trappings suggest a certain glorification of what would be a new form of the mundane daily grind. The heroic blue-collar stories in James Gunn’s fix-up Station in Space (1958) come to mind. In Clarke’s “The Deep Range” humanity farms the seas. Instead of terrestrial herds of sheep or cows, shepherds in submersibles with dolphin assistants protect herds of meat-yielding whales from predatory sharks.
An effective slice-of-working class experience set in an evocative locale. It’s an immersive little story that draws on Clarke’s own interest in scuba diving and underwater adventure. Regardless, I remain uninterested in returning to Clarke’s work in anything more than an anthologized tale here and there.
“Alien” (1955), Lester del Rey, 3/5 (Average): Due to an comically improbable collision at sea, Larry Cross and his alcoholic crewmate Al Simmonds find themselves stranded on an island with an alien which “could swim out of a sunken ship at the bottom of the sea” (51). Al Simmonds is injured and Cross must keep the man alive and figure out the alien’s intentions. A classic SF problem story in which man must figure out a modus operandi in a bizarre new scenario. It’s polished. It’s solid. It’s predictable.
“Foster, You’re Dead” (1955), Philip K. Dick, 5/5 (Masterpiece): Mike Foster spends his school days practicing survival skills–digging, making knives, weaving baskets–in case of a nuclear attack. The kids snicker at him as he walks past. They don’t own a fallout shelter at home. His father refuses to pay into the NATS (National Security fund). If a bomb hit, Mike wouldn’t even be granted access to the school shelter. He’s possessed by a deep, perpetual, encompassing trauma.4 His walk home is nightmarish. Mechanical newspaper machines shout excitedly about “war, death, amazing new weapons” (67). The public shelter beckons with its neon lights but he has no money in his pocket for entry. And the store with the new shelter model mocks with its advertisements: “a powered heating and refrigeration system” and “self-servicing air-purification network” with “three decontamination stages for food and water” (68). Reluctant to yet again confront his father about their lack of shelter, he gazes at the new model and talks to the salesmen. He imagines that every evening he’d sleep in its encapsulating embrace, womb-like.
One of the absolute best fallout shelter themed SF stories I’ve ever read. It’s a fascinating collision of crisp prose, commentary on the arms race, and an evisceration of the complicity of commercialism in Cold War terror. Joins William Tenn’s “Generation of Noah” (1951), Daniel Galouye’s Dark Universe (1961), Modecai Roshwald’s Level 7 (1959), and Fritz Leiber’s “The Moon Is Green” (1952) amongst the best on the theme.
“Whatever Happened to Corporal Cuckoo?” (1953), Gerald Kersh, 3.5/5 (Good): In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries surgical diagrams called “Wound Men” crop up in medical miscellanies in Europe. These illustrations–the human form hacked, slashed, smashed, cut, pierced, bloated–served as an annotated table of contents to guide the reader through various injuries and diseases. Kersh imagines a literary version of himself returning to New York City from WWII interacting with a fantastical manifestation of a Wound Man on board the Cunard White Star liner Queen Mary. Corporal Cuckoo, the “Wound Man” in question, regals the narrator (Kersh) with the history of his scarred and mutilated form that mysteriously heals from every injury.
The reader becomes immersed in a historical military narrative that begins in the early 16th century. There’s a bizarre sense of horror and fantastical displacement. Like some crushed and deformed specimen, Cuckoo becomes an encyclopedic, and culminative, glimpse of humanity’s relentless obsession with death and violence.
Interesting and memorable. I’ll keep on the lookout for more of Kersh’s SFF.
“Dance of the Dead” (1955), Richard Matheson, 4/5 (Good): My third favorite story in the anthology transplants the standard narrative of a young adult straying from the path set out by parents and small town community onto a break-neck road trip in a drug and alcohol drenched near-future. Len, Bud, Barbara, and Peggy race their car towards St. Louis. Bud tries to get Barb to take snuggle–“act of promiscuous love-play; usage evolved during W.W. III” (114)–and take drugs: “Have a jab, Bab” (115). In the kaleidoscope of the new and relentless peer pressure the lessons her mother taught her slowly erode. All her inhibitions come crashing down when the quartet see the transcendent nightmare that is the titular dance of the dead.
Manifesting the SPEED of the car, Matheson’s prose resonates with pulse and hum, snippets of song and signage, slang and youthful lust: “At a hundred miles an hour let me DREAM my DREAMS!” (115). It’s frantic. It’s zappy. It’s vibrant. Recommended for fans of the more linguistically experimental (and bleak) of 50s visions.
“Any More at Home Like You?” (1955), Chad Oliver, 2.75/5 (Below Average): Dangerously close to joke story territory (what I classify stories that rely on a silly last page twist designed to generate a chuckle), Oliver re-imagines the classic flying saucer story. A young “man” named Keith crashes his advanced spacecraft in the swanky Bel-Air neighborhood of LA. He seems friendly. Friendly residents take him in. He meets with politicians. He gives a canned speech at the UN. But what’s the secret behind his sudden appearance? Does he really represent a massive Galactic Civilization as he claims? When the pieces all fit together, there’s a gentle sense to it all mixed in with a little, rather silly, “snip” at humanity’s claims to galactic centrality.
If you’re new to Oliver, I recommend tracking downs his two generation ship short stories–“Stardust” (1952) and “The Wind Blows Free” (1957). This one was not for me.
“The Devil on Salvation Bluff” (1955), Jack Vance, 3.25/5 (Above Average): As my last Vance review came in 2021–The Languages of Pao (1958), I looked forward to this anthology as a way to return to his fiction. “The Devil on Salvation Bluff” imagines a religious colony (everyone calls each other “Brother” or “Sister”) on a planet named Glory without clear scientific or societal patterns. If anything, disorder, irregularity, and chaos is the pattern. Regardless, the community attempts to impose an almost monastic order on their lives. The colonists brings with them a massive clock, build communities in precise patterns, and carve up the landscape with linear canals and irrigation.
In classic missionary fashion, the colonists attempt to impose their religion and regularity on the humanoid inhabitants of Glory, nicknamed Flits, that spend their days indulging in their passions, seemingly random rituals, and goat herding. Using salt as a bribe, they momentarily convince the Flits to settle in a new village created by the colonists. After Brother Raymond and Sister Mary kidnap the chief of the Flits to identify the psychosis they think might underline their impulsive, random, and occasionally destructive actions, the true psychological truth of the planet emerges. Vance suggests that dogmatic religion must shift and change to adapt to the moment.
Fits in with an intriguing cluster of often brilliant 50s stories exploring the clash of Earth religion and the SFnal new–Ray Bradbury’s “The Man” (1949), Arthur C. Clarke’s “The Star” (1955), James Blish’s A Case of Conscience (novella 1953, novelized 1958), Walter M. Miller, Jr.’s A Canticle for Leibowitz (stories 1955-1957, novelized 1959), etc.
Somewhat recommended.
“Guinevere for Everybody” (1955), Jack Williamson, 4.5/5 (Very Good): An artificially created Guinevere stands “chained” in a “vending machine” tempting sleepy passengers in an airport with her plaintive calls (169). “You like me, huh?” she asks strangers as they pass (170). “Won’t you by me?” she cajoles (170). The implication is clear. The reason for her sudden appearance in train stations, and others of her model, far less so. Chimberley represents General Cybernetics, a company building “managerial computers” to replace human workers (171). Chimberley attempts the origins of “THE VITAL APPLIANCE!” with her all too human sex appeal, and disturbing tendency to spout advertisements for other products (170). He, little more than a cypher manifesting the displacement of the mechanical age, feels drawn to her as “his best friends were digital computers” (171). He discerns that she is a recent product created, produced, and distributed by one of these vast managerial computers. Giddy with excitement he sees her as “something human management would never have had the brains or the vision to accomplish” (172). He purchases her from the vending machine and sets off to find the producing facility. But a line has been crossed, and another.
This story bothered me (in a good way) far more than it should. Williamson integrates little comments about how the mechanical (think AI unleashed on the US government) ignores the human experience. And how Chimberley, alone, adrift, insular, feels fulfilled by a programmed device that is but a fragment of a capitalistic assault on the consumer. This disturbed satirical gem took me by surprise. I will be on the lookout for more 50s Williamson short stories.
Notes
- Eight if we count the one-volume Star Science Fiction Magazine (1958) and Star Short Novels (1954). ↩︎
- There is a ton of scholarship on both of these ideas that I have referenced in various reviews in the past. Here is a short list! Elaine Tyler May’s Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era (1988, rev. 2017); Thomas Bishop’s Every Home a Fortress: Cold War Fatherhood and the Family Fallout Shelter (2020); Laura McEnaney’s Civil Defense Begins at Home: Militarization Meets Everyday Life in the Fifties (2000); and Robert A. Beauregard’s When America Became Suburban (2006). ↩︎
- For “normalcy” see Anna G. Creadick’s Perfectly Average: The Pursuit of Normality in Postwar America (2010); For the growth of psychology as medical practice in the post-War moment see Ellen Herman’s The Romance of American Psychology: Political Culture in the Age of Experts (1995). ↩︎
- I am reminded of studies of childhood trauma conducted on the students of Abo Elementary, New Mexico, a school built underground as a fallout shelter. ↩︎
For cover art posts consult the INDEX
For book reviews consult the INDEX
For TV and film reviews consult the INDEX
#1950s #arthurCClarke #avantGarde #bookReview #bookReviews2 #books #chadOliver #fiction #frederikPohl #geraldKesh #isaacAsimov #jackVance #jackWilliamson #lesterDelRey #philipKDick #rayBradbury #richardMatheson #sciFi #scienceFiction #writing
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Book Review: Star Science Fiction Stories No. 3, ed. Frederik Pohl (1955)
- Richard Powers’ cover for the 1955 edition
3.5/5 (collated rating: Good)
Ballantine Books’ illustrious science fictional program started with a bang–Star Science Fiction Stories. According to Mike Ashley’s Transformations: The Story of Science-Fiction Magazines from 1950 to 1970 Frederik Pohl’s anthology series of original (mostly) stories was “intended as both a showcase of Ballantine’s authors and a lure to new writers.” Paying better rates than magazines, the Star series foreshadowed the explosion of original anthologies that would provide a sustained challenge to the eminence held in the 50s by the magazine.
I’ve selected the third volume of the six-volume series.1 It contains an illustrative cross-section of 50s science fiction. Philip K. Dick’s “Foster, You’re Dead” (1955), Richard Matheson’s “Dance of the Dead” (1955), and Jack Williamson’s “Guinevere for Everybody” (1955) are not to be missed.
Recommended.
Brief Plot Summaries/Analysis
“It’s Such a Beautiful Day” (1955), Isaac Asimov, 3.5/5 (Good): The anthology starts off with an effective Isaac Asimov satire of the suburban experience. The creation of suburbia in the 1950s (and subsequent mass white flight) generated increased commutes between home and urban work. The home became a bunker to protect the American family from any threat (fallout shelters, a community away from diversity and interaction with “the other,” etc.).2
Asimov speculates that new, almost instantaneous, transportation portals will isolate the family completely from the external world. A minor glitch in the transportation system instills a change in the young Richard Hanshaw, Jr. He isn’t as willing to trust the portal — and decides to trek to school by foot. His teacher calls mother in shock and suggests psychological treatment. An intriguing, and gentle, satire on American conceptions of normalcy, the new-fangled post-War emergence of psychology as a therapeutic practice, and the suburban experience.3
“The Strawberry Window” (1955), Ray Bradbury, 3/5 (Average): The story follows a family on Mars. The father, Will, spends his day constructing the settlement town. He’s possessed by the dream of Mars and humanity’s conquest of the stars: “It’s not just us come to Mars, it’s the race, the whole darn human race, depending on how we make out in our lifetime. This thing is so big I want to laugh, I’m so scared stiff of it” (31). His long-suffering wife Carrie yearns for the small sounds and big memories that anchor her to Earth. And so Will comes up with a compromise, an expensive compromise.
Ultimately, this is beautiful polish to a banal, almost jingoistic, defense of humanity’s supposed destiny to expand and conquer: “There’s nothing better than Man with a capital M in my book” (32). I am far more interested in the more subversive and quietly critical moments of Bradbury’s other Mars stories. This one is simplistic propaganda of conquest. Despite the enjoyable thematic core (the effects of leaving Earth) and polished telling, I’d classify “The Strawberry Window” amongst his most disappointing and forced. For superior Bradbury that I’ve covered, check out “The Highway” (1950) and “The Pedestrian” (1951).
“The Deep Range” (1955), Arthur C. Clarke, 3/5 (Average): One of the reasons I feel a special attraction to 50s SF is its interest in the working-class experience of the future. Of course, for the reader of the present futuristic trappings suggest a certain glorification of what would be a new form of the mundane daily grind. The heroic blue-collar stories in James Gunn’s fix-up Station in Space (1958) come to mind. In Clarke’s “The Deep Range” humanity farms the seas. Instead of terrestrial herds of sheep or cows, shepherds in submersibles with dolphin assistants protect herds of meat-yielding whales from predatory sharks.
An effective slice-of-working class experience set in an evocative locale. It’s an immersive little story that draws on Clarke’s own interest in scuba diving and underwater adventure. Regardless, I remain uninterested in returning to Clarke’s work in anything more than an anthologized tale here and there.
“Alien” (1955), Lester del Rey, 3/5 (Average): Due to an comically improbable collision at sea, Larry Cross and his alcoholic crewmate Al Simmonds find themselves stranded on an island with an alien which “could swim out of a sunken ship at the bottom of the sea” (51). Al Simmonds is injured and Cross must keep the man alive and figure out the alien’s intentions. A classic SF problem story in which man must figure out a modus operandi in a bizarre new scenario. It’s polished. It’s solid. It’s predictable.
“Foster, You’re Dead” (1955), Philip K. Dick, 5/5 (Masterpiece): Mike Foster spends his school days practicing survival skills–digging, making knives, weaving baskets–in case of a nuclear attack. The kids snicker at him as he walks past. They don’t own a fallout shelter at home. His father refuses to pay into the NATS (National Security fund). If a bomb hit, Mike wouldn’t even be granted access to the school shelter. He’s possessed by a deep, perpetual, encompassing trauma.4 His walk home is nightmarish. Mechanical newspaper machines shout excitedly about “war, death, amazing new weapons” (67). The public shelter beckons with its neon lights but he has no money in his pocket for entry. And the store with the new shelter model mocks with its advertisements: “a powered heating and refrigeration system” and “self-servicing air-purification network” with “three decontamination stages for food and water” (68). Reluctant to yet again confront his father about their lack of shelter, he gazes at the new model and talks to the salesmen. He imagines that every evening he’d sleep in its encapsulating embrace, womb-like.
One of the absolute best fallout shelter themed SF stories I’ve ever read. It’s a fascinating collision of crisp prose, commentary on the arms race, and an evisceration of the complicity of commercialism in Cold War terror. Joins William Tenn’s “Generation of Noah” (1951), Daniel Galouye’s Dark Universe (1961), Modecai Roshwald’s Level 7 (1959), and Fritz Leiber’s “The Moon Is Green” (1952) amongst the best on the theme.
“Whatever Happened to Corporal Cuckoo?” (1953), Gerald Kersh, 3.5/5 (Good): In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries surgical diagrams called “Wound Men” crop up in medical miscellanies in Europe. These illustrations–the human form hacked, slashed, smashed, cut, pierced, bloated–served as an annotated table of contents to guide the reader through various injuries and diseases. Kersh imagines a literary version of himself returning to New York City from WWII interacting with a fantastical manifestation of a Wound Man on board the Cunard White Star liner Queen Mary. Corporal Cuckoo, the “Wound Man” in question, regals the narrator (Kersh) with the history of his scarred and mutilated form that mysteriously heals from every injury.
The reader becomes immersed in a historical military narrative that begins in the early 16th century. There’s a bizarre sense of horror and fantastical displacement. Like some crushed and deformed specimen, Cuckoo becomes an encyclopedic, and culminative, glimpse of humanity’s relentless obsession with death and violence.
Interesting and memorable. I’ll keep on the lookout for more of Kersh’s SFF.
“Dance of the Dead” (1955), Richard Matheson, 4/5 (Good): My third favorite story in the anthology transplants the standard narrative of a young adult straying from the path set out by parents and small town community onto a break-neck road trip in a drug and alcohol drenched near-future. Len, Bud, Barbara, and Peggy race their car towards St. Louis. Bud tries to get Barb to take snuggle–“act of promiscuous love-play; usage evolved during W.W. III” (114)–and take drugs: “Have a jab, Bab” (115). In the kaleidoscope of the new and relentless peer pressure the lessons her mother taught her slowly erode. All her inhibitions come crashing down when the quartet see the transcendent nightmare that is the titular dance of the dead.
Manifesting the SPEED of the car, Matheson’s prose resonates with pulse and hum, snippets of song and signage, slang and youthful lust: “At a hundred miles an hour let me DREAM my DREAMS!” (115). It’s frantic. It’s zappy. It’s vibrant. Recommended for fans of the more linguistically experimental (and bleak) of 50s visions.
“Any More at Home Like You?” (1955), Chad Oliver, 2.75/5 (Below Average): Dangerously close to joke story territory (what I classify stories that rely on a silly last page twist designed to generate a chuckle), Oliver re-imagines the classic flying saucer story. A young “man” named Keith crashes his advanced spacecraft in the swanky Bel-Air neighborhood of LA. He seems friendly. Friendly residents take him in. He meets with politicians. He gives a canned speech at the UN. But what’s the secret behind his sudden appearance? Does he really represent a massive Galactic Civilization as he claims? When the pieces all fit together, there’s a gentle sense to it all mixed in with a little, rather silly, “snip” at humanity’s claims to galactic centrality.
If you’re new to Oliver, I recommend tracking downs his two generation ship short stories–“Stardust” (1952) and “The Wind Blows Free” (1957). This one was not for me.
“The Devil on Salvation Bluff” (1955), Jack Vance, 3.25/5 (Above Average): As my last Vance review came in 2021–The Languages of Pao (1958), I looked forward to this anthology as a way to return to his fiction. “The Devil on Salvation Bluff” imagines a religious colony (everyone calls each other “Brother” or “Sister”) on a planet named Glory without clear scientific or societal patterns. If anything, disorder, irregularity, and chaos is the pattern. Regardless, the community attempts to impose an almost monastic order on their lives. The colonists brings with them a massive clock, build communities in precise patterns, and carve up the landscape with linear canals and irrigation.
In classic missionary fashion, the colonists attempt to impose their religion and regularity on the humanoid inhabitants of Glory, nicknamed Flits, that spend their days indulging in their passions, seemingly random rituals, and goat herding. Using salt as a bribe, they momentarily convince the Flits to settle in a new village created by the colonists. After Brother Raymond and Sister Mary kidnap the chief of the Flits to identify the psychosis they think might underline their impulsive, random, and occasionally destructive actions, the true psychological truth of the planet emerges. Vance suggests that dogmatic religion must shift and change to adapt to the moment.
Fits in with an intriguing cluster of often brilliant 50s stories exploring the clash of Earth religion and the SFnal new–Ray Bradbury’s “The Man” (1949), Arthur C. Clarke’s “The Star” (1955), James Blish’s A Case of Conscience (novella 1953, novelized 1958), Walter M. Miller, Jr.’s A Canticle for Leibowitz (stories 1955-1957, novelized 1959), etc.
Somewhat recommended.
“Guinevere for Everybody” (1955), Jack Williamson, 4.5/5 (Very Good): An artificially created Guinevere stands “chained” in a “vending machine” tempting sleepy passengers in an airport with her plaintive calls (169). “You like me, huh?” she asks strangers as they pass (170). “Won’t you by me?” she cajoles (170). The implication is clear. The reason for her sudden appearance in train stations, and others of her model, far less so. Chimberley represents General Cybernetics, a company building “managerial computers” to replace human workers (171). Chimberley attempts the origins of “THE VITAL APPLIANCE!” with her all too human sex appeal, and disturbing tendency to spout advertisements for other products (170). He, little more than a cypher manifesting the displacement of the mechanical age, feels drawn to her as “his best friends were digital computers” (171). He discerns that she is a recent product created, produced, and distributed by one of these vast managerial computers. Giddy with excitement he sees her as “something human management would never have had the brains or the vision to accomplish” (172). He purchases her from the vending machine and sets off to find the producing facility. But a line has been crossed, and another.
This story bothered me (in a good way) far more than it should. Williamson integrates little comments about how the mechanical (think AI unleashed on the US government) ignores the human experience. And how Chimberley, alone, adrift, insular, feels fulfilled by a programmed device that is but a fragment of a capitalistic assault on the consumer. This disturbed satirical gem took me by surprise. I will be on the lookout for more 50s Williamson short stories.
Notes
- Eight if we count the one-volume Star Science Fiction Magazine (1958) and Star Short Novels (1954). ↩︎
- There is a ton of scholarship on both of these ideas that I have referenced in various reviews in the past. Here is a short list! Elaine Tyler May’s Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era (1988, rev. 2017); Thomas Bishop’s Every Home a Fortress: Cold War Fatherhood and the Family Fallout Shelter (2020); Laura McEnaney’s Civil Defense Begins at Home: Militarization Meets Everyday Life in the Fifties (2000); and Robert A. Beauregard’s When America Became Suburban (2006). ↩︎
- For “normalcy” see Anna G. Creadick’s Perfectly Average: The Pursuit of Normality in Postwar America (2010); For the growth of psychology as medical practice in the post-War moment see Ellen Herman’s The Romance of American Psychology: Political Culture in the Age of Experts (1995). ↩︎
- I am reminded of studies of childhood trauma conducted on the students of Abo Elementary, New Mexico, a school built underground as a fallout shelter. ↩︎
For cover art posts consult the INDEX
For book reviews consult the INDEX
For TV and film reviews consult the INDEX
#1950s #arthurCClarke #avantGarde #bookReview #bookReviews2 #books #chadOliver #fiction #frederikPohl #geraldKesh #isaacAsimov #jackVance #jackWilliamson #lesterDelRey #philipKDick #rayBradbury #richardMatheson #sciFi #scienceFiction #writing
-
Book Review: Star Science Fiction Stories No. 3, ed. Frederik Pohl (1955)
- Richard Powers’ cover for the 1955 edition
3.5/5 (collated rating: Good)
Ballantine Books’ illustrious science fictional program started with a bang–Star Science Fiction Stories. According to Mike Ashley’s Transformations: The Story of Science-Fiction Magazines from 1950 to 1970 Frederik Pohl’s anthology series of original (mostly) stories was “intended as both a showcase of Ballantine’s authors and a lure to new writers.” Paying better rates than magazines, the Star series foreshadowed the explosion of original anthologies that would provide a sustained challenge to the eminence held in the 50s by the magazine.
I’ve selected the third volume of the six-volume series.1 It contains an illustrative cross-section of 50s science fiction. Philip K. Dick’s “Foster, You’re Dead” (1955), Richard Matheson’s “Dance of the Dead” (1955), and Jack Williamson’s “Guinevere for Everybody” (1955) are not to be missed.
Recommended.
Brief Plot Summaries/Analysis
“It’s Such a Beautiful Day” (1955), Isaac Asimov, 3.5/5 (Good): The anthology starts off with an effective Isaac Asimov satire of the suburban experience. The creation of suburbia in the 1950s (and subsequent mass white flight) generated increased commutes between home and urban work. The home became a bunker to protect the American family from any threat (fallout shelters, a community away from diversity and interaction with “the other,” etc.).2
Asimov speculates that new, almost instantaneous, transportation portals will isolate the family completely from the external world. A minor glitch in the transportation system instills a change in the young Richard Hanshaw, Jr. He isn’t as willing to trust the portal — and decides to trek to school by foot. His teacher calls mother in shock and suggests psychological treatment. An intriguing, and gentle, satire on American conceptions of normalcy, the new-fangled post-War emergence of psychology as a therapeutic practice, and the suburban experience.3
“The Strawberry Window” (1955), Ray Bradbury, 3/5 (Average): The story follows a family on Mars. The father, Will, spends his day constructing the settlement town. He’s possessed by the dream of Mars and humanity’s conquest of the stars: “It’s not just us come to Mars, it’s the race, the whole darn human race, depending on how we make out in our lifetime. This thing is so big I want to laugh, I’m so scared stiff of it” (31). His long-suffering wife Carrie yearns for the small sounds and big memories that anchor her to Earth. And so Will comes up with a compromise, an expensive compromise.
Ultimately, this is beautiful polish to a banal, almost jingoistic, defense of humanity’s supposed destiny to expand and conquer: “There’s nothing better than Man with a capital M in my book” (32). I am far more interested in the more subversive and quietly critical moments of Bradbury’s other Mars stories. This one is simplistic propaganda of conquest. Despite the enjoyable thematic core (the effects of leaving Earth) and polished telling, I’d classify “The Strawberry Window” amongst his most disappointing and forced. For superior Bradbury that I’ve covered, check out “The Highway” (1950) and “The Pedestrian” (1951).
“The Deep Range” (1955), Arthur C. Clarke, 3/5 (Average): One of the reasons I feel a special attraction to 50s SF is its interest in the working-class experience of the future. Of course, for the reader of the present futuristic trappings suggest a certain glorification of what would be a new form of the mundane daily grind. The heroic blue-collar stories in James Gunn’s fix-up Station in Space (1958) come to mind. In Clarke’s “The Deep Range” humanity farms the seas. Instead of terrestrial herds of sheep or cows, shepherds in submersibles with dolphin assistants protect herds of meat-yielding whales from predatory sharks.
An effective slice-of-working class experience set in an evocative locale. It’s an immersive little story that draws on Clarke’s own interest in scuba diving and underwater adventure. Regardless, I remain uninterested in returning to Clarke’s work in anything more than an anthologized tale here and there.
“Alien” (1955), Lester del Rey, 3/5 (Average): Due to an comically improbable collision at sea, Larry Cross and his alcoholic crewmate Al Simmonds find themselves stranded on an island with an alien which “could swim out of a sunken ship at the bottom of the sea” (51). Al Simmonds is injured and Cross must keep the man alive and figure out the alien’s intentions. A classic SF problem story in which man must figure out a modus operandi in a bizarre new scenario. It’s polished. It’s solid. It’s predictable.
“Foster, You’re Dead” (1955), Philip K. Dick, 5/5 (Masterpiece): Mike Foster spends his school days practicing survival skills–digging, making knives, weaving baskets–in case of a nuclear attack. The kids snicker at him as he walks past. They don’t own a fallout shelter at home. His father refuses to pay into the NATS (National Security fund). If a bomb hit, Mike wouldn’t even be granted access to the school shelter. He’s possessed by a deep, perpetual, encompassing trauma.4 His walk home is nightmarish. Mechanical newspaper machines shout excitedly about “war, death, amazing new weapons” (67). The public shelter beckons with its neon lights but he has no money in his pocket for entry. And the store with the new shelter model mocks with its advertisements: “a powered heating and refrigeration system” and “self-servicing air-purification network” with “three decontamination stages for food and water” (68). Reluctant to yet again confront his father about their lack of shelter, he gazes at the new model and talks to the salesmen. He imagines that every evening he’d sleep in its encapsulating embrace, womb-like.
One of the absolute best fallout shelter themed SF stories I’ve ever read. It’s a fascinating collision of crisp prose, commentary on the arms race, and an evisceration of the complicity of commercialism in Cold War terror. Joins William Tenn’s “Generation of Noah” (1951), Daniel Galouye’s Dark Universe (1961), Modecai Roshwald’s Level 7 (1959), and Fritz Leiber’s “The Moon Is Green” (1952) amongst the best on the theme.
“Whatever Happened to Corporal Cuckoo?” (1953), Gerald Kersh, 3.5/5 (Good): In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries surgical diagrams called “Wound Men” crop up in medical miscellanies in Europe. These illustrations–the human form hacked, slashed, smashed, cut, pierced, bloated–served as an annotated table of contents to guide the reader through various injuries and diseases. Kersh imagines a literary version of himself returning to New York City from WWII interacting with a fantastical manifestation of a Wound Man on board the Cunard White Star liner Queen Mary. Corporal Cuckoo, the “Wound Man” in question, regals the narrator (Kersh) with the history of his scarred and mutilated form that mysteriously heals from every injury.
The reader becomes immersed in a historical military narrative that begins in the early 16th century. There’s a bizarre sense of horror and fantastical displacement. Like some crushed and deformed specimen, Cuckoo becomes an encyclopedic, and culminative, glimpse of humanity’s relentless obsession with death and violence.
Interesting and memorable. I’ll keep on the lookout for more of Kersh’s SFF.
“Dance of the Dead” (1955), Richard Matheson, 4/5 (Good): My third favorite story in the anthology transplants the standard narrative of a young adult straying from the path set out by parents and small town community onto a break-neck road trip in a drug and alcohol drenched near-future. Len, Bud, Barbara, and Peggy race their car towards St. Louis. Bud tries to get Barb to take snuggle–“act of promiscuous love-play; usage evolved during W.W. III” (114)–and take drugs: “Have a jab, Bab” (115). In the kaleidoscope of the new and relentless peer pressure the lessons her mother taught her slowly erode. All her inhibitions come crashing down when the quartet see the transcendent nightmare that is the titular dance of the dead.
Manifesting the SPEED of the car, Matheson’s prose resonates with pulse and hum, snippets of song and signage, slang and youthful lust: “At a hundred miles an hour let me DREAM my DREAMS!” (115). It’s frantic. It’s zappy. It’s vibrant. Recommended for fans of the more linguistically experimental (and bleak) of 50s visions.
“Any More at Home Like You?” (1955), Chad Oliver, 2.75/5 (Below Average): Dangerously close to joke story territory (what I classify stories that rely on a silly last page twist designed to generate a chuckle), Oliver re-imagines the classic flying saucer story. A young “man” named Keith crashes his advanced spacecraft in the swanky Bel-Air neighborhood of LA. He seems friendly. Friendly residents take him in. He meets with politicians. He gives a canned speech at the UN. But what’s the secret behind his sudden appearance? Does he really represent a massive Galactic Civilization as he claims? When the pieces all fit together, there’s a gentle sense to it all mixed in with a little, rather silly, “snip” at humanity’s claims to galactic centrality.
If you’re new to Oliver, I recommend tracking downs his two generation ship short stories–“Stardust” (1952) and “The Wind Blows Free” (1957). This one was not for me.
“The Devil on Salvation Bluff” (1955), Jack Vance, 3.25/5 (Above Average): As my last Vance review came in 2021–The Languages of Pao (1958), I looked forward to this anthology as a way to return to his fiction. “The Devil on Salvation Bluff” imagines a religious colony (everyone calls each other “Brother” or “Sister”) on a planet named Glory without clear scientific or societal patterns. If anything, disorder, irregularity, and chaos is the pattern. Regardless, the community attempts to impose an almost monastic order on their lives. The colonists brings with them a massive clock, build communities in precise patterns, and carve up the landscape with linear canals and irrigation.
In classic missionary fashion, the colonists attempt to impose their religion and regularity on the humanoid inhabitants of Glory, nicknamed Flits, that spend their days indulging in their passions, seemingly random rituals, and goat herding. Using salt as a bribe, they momentarily convince the Flits to settle in a new village created by the colonists. After Brother Raymond and Sister Mary kidnap the chief of the Flits to identify the psychosis they think might underline their impulsive, random, and occasionally destructive actions, the true psychological truth of the planet emerges. Vance suggests that dogmatic religion must shift and change to adapt to the moment.
Fits in with an intriguing cluster of often brilliant 50s stories exploring the clash of Earth religion and the SFnal new–Ray Bradbury’s “The Man” (1949), Arthur C. Clarke’s “The Star” (1955), James Blish’s A Case of Conscience (novella 1953, novelized 1958), Walter M. Miller, Jr.’s A Canticle for Leibowitz (stories 1955-1957, novelized 1959), etc.
Somewhat recommended.
“Guinevere for Everybody” (1955), Jack Williamson, 4.5/5 (Very Good): An artificially created Guinevere stands “chained” in a “vending machine” tempting sleepy passengers in an airport with her plaintive calls (169). “You like me, huh?” she asks strangers as they pass (170). “Won’t you by me?” she cajoles (170). The implication is clear. The reason for her sudden appearance in train stations, and others of her model, far less so. Chimberley represents General Cybernetics, a company building “managerial computers” to replace human workers (171). Chimberley attempts the origins of “THE VITAL APPLIANCE!” with her all too human sex appeal, and disturbing tendency to spout advertisements for other products (170). He, little more than a cypher manifesting the displacement of the mechanical age, feels drawn to her as “his best friends were digital computers” (171). He discerns that she is a recent product created, produced, and distributed by one of these vast managerial computers. Giddy with excitement he sees her as “something human management would never have had the brains or the vision to accomplish” (172). He purchases her from the vending machine and sets off to find the producing facility. But a line has been crossed, and another.
This story bothered me (in a good way) far more than it should. Williamson integrates little comments about how the mechanical (think AI unleashed on the US government) ignores the human experience. And how Chimberley, alone, adrift, insular, feels fulfilled by a programmed device that is but a fragment of a capitalistic assault on the consumer. This disturbed satirical gem took me by surprise. I will be on the lookout for more 50s Williamson short stories.
Notes
- Eight if we count the one-volume Star Science Fiction Magazine (1958) and Star Short Novels (1954). ↩︎
- There is a ton of scholarship on both of these ideas that I have referenced in various reviews in the past. Here is a short list! Elaine Tyler May’s Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era (1988, rev. 2017); Thomas Bishop’s Every Home a Fortress: Cold War Fatherhood and the Family Fallout Shelter (2020); Laura McEnaney’s Civil Defense Begins at Home: Militarization Meets Everyday Life in the Fifties (2000); and Robert A. Beauregard’s When America Became Suburban (2006). ↩︎
- For “normalcy” see Anna G. Creadick’s Perfectly Average: The Pursuit of Normality in Postwar America (2010); For the growth of psychology as medical practice in the post-War moment see Ellen Herman’s The Romance of American Psychology: Political Culture in the Age of Experts (1995). ↩︎
- I am reminded of studies of childhood trauma conducted on the students of Abo Elementary, New Mexico, a school built underground as a fallout shelter. ↩︎
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For book reviews consult the INDEX
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#1950s #arthurCClarke #avantGarde #bookReview #bookReviews2 #books #chadOliver #fiction #frederikPohl #geraldKesh #isaacAsimov #jackVance #jackWilliamson #lesterDelRey #philipKDick #rayBradbury #richardMatheson #sciFi #scienceFiction #writing
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Book Review: Star Science Fiction Stories No. 3, ed. Frederik Pohl (1955)
- Richard Powers’ cover for the 1955 edition
3.5/5 (collated rating: Good)
Ballantine Books’ illustrious science fictional program started with a bang–Star Science Fiction Stories. According to Mike Ashley’s Transformations: The Story of Science-Fiction Magazines from 1950 to 1970 Frederik Pohl’s anthology series of original (mostly) stories was “intended as both a showcase of Ballantine’s authors and a lure to new writers.” Paying better rates than magazines, the Star series foreshadowed the explosion of original anthologies that would provide a sustained challenge to the eminence held in the 50s by the magazine.
I’ve selected the third volume of the six-volume series.1 It contains an illustrative cross-section of 50s science fiction. Philip K. Dick’s “Foster, You’re Dead” (1955), Richard Matheson’s “Dance of the Dead” (1955), and Jack Williamson’s “Guinevere for Everybody” (1955) are not to be missed.
Recommended.
Brief Plot Summaries/Analysis
“It’s Such a Beautiful Day” (1955), Isaac Asimov, 3.5/5 (Good): The anthology starts off with an effective Isaac Asimov satire of the suburban experience. The creation of suburbia in the 1950s (and subsequent mass white flight) generated increased commutes between home and urban work. The home became a bunker to protect the American family from any threat (fallout shelters, a community away from diversity and interaction with “the other,” etc.).2
Asimov speculates that new, almost instantaneous, transportation portals will isolate the family completely from the external world. A minor glitch in the transportation system instills a change in the young Richard Hanshaw, Jr. He isn’t as willing to trust the portal — and decides to trek to school by foot. His teacher calls mother in shock and suggests psychological treatment. An intriguing, and gentle, satire on American conceptions of normalcy, the new-fangled post-War emergence of psychology as a therapeutic practice, and the suburban experience.3
“The Strawberry Window” (1955), Ray Bradbury, 3/5 (Average): The story follows a family on Mars. The father, Will, spends his day constructing the settlement town. He’s possessed by the dream of Mars and humanity’s conquest of the stars: “It’s not just us come to Mars, it’s the race, the whole darn human race, depending on how we make out in our lifetime. This thing is so big I want to laugh, I’m so scared stiff of it” (31). His long-suffering wife Carrie yearns for the small sounds and big memories that anchor her to Earth. And so Will comes up with a compromise, an expensive compromise.
Ultimately, this is beautiful polish to a banal, almost jingoistic, defense of humanity’s supposed destiny to expand and conquer: “There’s nothing better than Man with a capital M in my book” (32). I am far more interested in the more subversive and quietly critical moments of Bradbury’s other Mars stories. This one is simplistic propaganda of conquest. Despite the enjoyable thematic core (the effects of leaving Earth) and polished telling, I’d classify “The Strawberry Window” amongst his most disappointing and forced. For superior Bradbury that I’ve covered, check out “The Highway” (1950) and “The Pedestrian” (1951).
“The Deep Range” (1955), Arthur C. Clarke, 3/5 (Average): One of the reasons I feel a special attraction to 50s SF is its interest in the working-class experience of the future. Of course, for the reader of the present futuristic trappings suggest a certain glorification of what would be a new form of the mundane daily grind. The heroic blue-collar stories in James Gunn’s fix-up Station in Space (1958) come to mind. In Clarke’s “The Deep Range” humanity farms the seas. Instead of terrestrial herds of sheep or cows, shepherds in submersibles with dolphin assistants protect herds of meat-yielding whales from predatory sharks.
An effective slice-of-working class experience set in an evocative locale. It’s an immersive little story that draws on Clarke’s own interest in scuba diving and underwater adventure. Regardless, I remain uninterested in returning to Clarke’s work in anything more than an anthologized tale here and there.
“Alien” (1955), Lester del Rey, 3/5 (Average): Due to an comically improbable collision at sea, Larry Cross and his alcoholic crewmate Al Simmonds find themselves stranded on an island with an alien which “could swim out of a sunken ship at the bottom of the sea” (51). Al Simmonds is injured and Cross must keep the man alive and figure out the alien’s intentions. A classic SF problem story in which man must figure out a modus operandi in a bizarre new scenario. It’s polished. It’s solid. It’s predictable.
“Foster, You’re Dead” (1955), Philip K. Dick, 5/5 (Masterpiece): Mike Foster spends his school days practicing survival skills–digging, making knives, weaving baskets–in case of a nuclear attack. The kids snicker at him as he walks past. They don’t own a fallout shelter at home. His father refuses to pay into the NATS (National Security fund). If a bomb hit, Mike wouldn’t even be granted access to the school shelter. He’s possessed by a deep, perpetual, encompassing trauma.4 His walk home is nightmarish. Mechanical newspaper machines shout excitedly about “war, death, amazing new weapons” (67). The public shelter beckons with its neon lights but he has no money in his pocket for entry. And the store with the new shelter model mocks with its advertisements: “a powered heating and refrigeration system” and “self-servicing air-purification network” with “three decontamination stages for food and water” (68). Reluctant to yet again confront his father about their lack of shelter, he gazes at the new model and talks to the salesmen. He imagines that every evening he’d sleep in its encapsulating embrace, womb-like.
One of the absolute best fallout shelter themed SF stories I’ve ever read. It’s a fascinating collision of crisp prose, commentary on the arms race, and an evisceration of the complicity of commercialism in Cold War terror. Joins William Tenn’s “Generation of Noah” (1951), Daniel Galouye’s Dark Universe (1961), Modecai Roshwald’s Level 7 (1959), and Fritz Leiber’s “The Moon Is Green” (1952) amongst the best on the theme.
“Whatever Happened to Corporal Cuckoo?” (1953), Gerald Kersh, 3.5/5 (Good): In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries surgical diagrams called “Wound Men” crop up in medical miscellanies in Europe. These illustrations–the human form hacked, slashed, smashed, cut, pierced, bloated–served as an annotated table of contents to guide the reader through various injuries and diseases. Kersh imagines a literary version of himself returning to New York City from WWII interacting with a fantastical manifestation of a Wound Man on board the Cunard White Star liner Queen Mary. Corporal Cuckoo, the “Wound Man” in question, regals the narrator (Kersh) with the history of his scarred and mutilated form that mysteriously heals from every injury.
The reader becomes immersed in a historical military narrative that begins in the early 16th century. There’s a bizarre sense of horror and fantastical displacement. Like some crushed and deformed specimen, Cuckoo becomes an encyclopedic, and culminative, glimpse of humanity’s relentless obsession with death and violence.
Interesting and memorable. I’ll keep on the lookout for more of Kersh’s SFF.
“Dance of the Dead” (1955), Richard Matheson, 4/5 (Good): My third favorite story in the anthology transplants the standard narrative of a young adult straying from the path set out by parents and small town community onto a break-neck road trip in a drug and alcohol drenched near-future. Len, Bud, Barbara, and Peggy race their car towards St. Louis. Bud tries to get Barb to take snuggle–“act of promiscuous love-play; usage evolved during W.W. III” (114)–and take drugs: “Have a jab, Bab” (115). In the kaleidoscope of the new and relentless peer pressure the lessons her mother taught her slowly erode. All her inhibitions come crashing down when the quartet see the transcendent nightmare that is the titular dance of the dead.
Manifesting the SPEED of the car, Matheson’s prose resonates with pulse and hum, snippets of song and signage, slang and youthful lust: “At a hundred miles an hour let me DREAM my DREAMS!” (115). It’s frantic. It’s zappy. It’s vibrant. Recommended for fans of the more linguistically experimental (and bleak) of 50s visions.
“Any More at Home Like You?” (1955), Chad Oliver, 2.75/5 (Below Average): Dangerously close to joke story territory (what I classify stories that rely on a silly last page twist designed to generate a chuckle), Oliver re-imagines the classic flying saucer story. A young “man” named Keith crashes his advanced spacecraft in the swanky Bel-Air neighborhood of LA. He seems friendly. Friendly residents take him in. He meets with politicians. He gives a canned speech at the UN. But what’s the secret behind his sudden appearance? Does he really represent a massive Galactic Civilization as he claims? When the pieces all fit together, there’s a gentle sense to it all mixed in with a little, rather silly, “snip” at humanity’s claims to galactic centrality.
If you’re new to Oliver, I recommend tracking downs his two generation ship short stories–“Stardust” (1952) and “The Wind Blows Free” (1957). This one was not for me.
“The Devil on Salvation Bluff” (1955), Jack Vance, 3.25/5 (Above Average): As my last Vance review came in 2021–The Languages of Pao (1958), I looked forward to this anthology as a way to return to his fiction. “The Devil on Salvation Bluff” imagines a religious colony (everyone calls each other “Brother” or “Sister”) on a planet named Glory without clear scientific or societal patterns. If anything, disorder, irregularity, and chaos is the pattern. Regardless, the community attempts to impose an almost monastic order on their lives. The colonists brings with them a massive clock, build communities in precise patterns, and carve up the landscape with linear canals and irrigation.
In classic missionary fashion, the colonists attempt to impose their religion and regularity on the humanoid inhabitants of Glory, nicknamed Flits, that spend their days indulging in their passions, seemingly random rituals, and goat herding. Using salt as a bribe, they momentarily convince the Flits to settle in a new village created by the colonists. After Brother Raymond and Sister Mary kidnap the chief of the Flits to identify the psychosis they think might underline their impulsive, random, and occasionally destructive actions, the true psychological truth of the planet emerges. Vance suggests that dogmatic religion must shift and change to adapt to the moment.
Fits in with an intriguing cluster of often brilliant 50s stories exploring the clash of Earth religion and the SFnal new–Ray Bradbury’s “The Man” (1949), Arthur C. Clarke’s “The Star” (1955), James Blish’s A Case of Conscience (novella 1953, novelized 1958), Walter M. Miller, Jr.’s A Canticle for Leibowitz (stories 1955-1957, novelized 1959), etc.
Somewhat recommended.
“Guinevere for Everybody” (1955), Jack Williamson, 4.5/5 (Very Good): An artificially created Guinevere stands “chained” in a “vending machine” tempting sleepy passengers in an airport with her plaintive calls (169). “You like me, huh?” she asks strangers as they pass (170). “Won’t you by me?” she cajoles (170). The implication is clear. The reason for her sudden appearance in train stations, and others of her model, far less so. Chimberley represents General Cybernetics, a company building “managerial computers” to replace human workers (171). Chimberley attempts the origins of “THE VITAL APPLIANCE!” with her all too human sex appeal, and disturbing tendency to spout advertisements for other products (170). He, little more than a cypher manifesting the displacement of the mechanical age, feels drawn to her as “his best friends were digital computers” (171). He discerns that she is a recent product created, produced, and distributed by one of these vast managerial computers. Giddy with excitement he sees her as “something human management would never have had the brains or the vision to accomplish” (172). He purchases her from the vending machine and sets off to find the producing facility. But a line has been crossed, and another.
This story bothered me (in a good way) far more than it should. Williamson integrates little comments about how the mechanical (think AI unleashed on the US government) ignores the human experience. And how Chimberley, alone, adrift, insular, feels fulfilled by a programmed device that is but a fragment of a capitalistic assault on the consumer. This disturbed satirical gem took me by surprise. I will be on the lookout for more 50s Williamson short stories.
Notes
- Eight if we count the one-volume Star Science Fiction Magazine (1958) and Star Short Novels (1954). ↩︎
- There is a ton of scholarship on both of these ideas that I have referenced in various reviews in the past. Here is a short list! Elaine Tyler May’s Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era (1988, rev. 2017); Thomas Bishop’s Every Home a Fortress: Cold War Fatherhood and the Family Fallout Shelter (2020); Laura McEnaney’s Civil Defense Begins at Home: Militarization Meets Everyday Life in the Fifties (2000); and Robert A. Beauregard’s When America Became Suburban (2006). ↩︎
- For “normalcy” see Anna G. Creadick’s Perfectly Average: The Pursuit of Normality in Postwar America (2010); For the growth of psychology as medical practice in the post-War moment see Ellen Herman’s The Romance of American Psychology: Political Culture in the Age of Experts (1995). ↩︎
- I am reminded of studies of childhood trauma conducted on the students of Abo Elementary, New Mexico, a school built underground as a fallout shelter. ↩︎
For cover art posts consult the INDEX
For book reviews consult the INDEX
For TV and film reviews consult the INDEX
#1950s #arthurCClarke #avantGarde #bookReview #bookReviews2 #books #chadOliver #fiction #frederikPohl #geraldKesh #isaacAsimov #jackVance #jackWilliamson #lesterDelRey #philipKDick #rayBradbury #richardMatheson #sciFi #scienceFiction #writing
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RIDER (1990)
Acrylic on Watercolor Board - 27" x 35"A race of turtle-like creatures conquers Earth, imposing a gentler set of values on humankind, outlawing destructive technology, and denying the validity of human scientific theories. 1/3
#sciencefiction #scifi #scifiart #illustration #frederikpohl #jackwilliamson
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RIDER (1990)
Acrylic on Watercolor Board - 27" x 35"A race of turtle-like creatures conquers Earth, imposing a gentler set of values on humankind, outlawing destructive technology, and denying the validity of human scientific theories. 1/3
#sciencefiction #scifi #scifiart #illustration #frederikpohl #jackwilliamson
-
RIDER (1990)
Acrylic on Watercolor Board - 27" x 35"A race of turtle-like creatures conquers Earth, imposing a gentler set of values on humankind, outlawing destructive technology, and denying the validity of human scientific theories. 1/3
#sciencefiction #scifi #scifiart #illustration #frederikpohl #jackwilliamson
-
RIDER (1990)
Acrylic on Watercolor Board - 27" x 35"A race of turtle-like creatures conquers Earth, imposing a gentler set of values on humankind, outlawing destructive technology, and denying the validity of human scientific theories. 1/3
#sciencefiction #scifi #scifiart #illustration #frederikpohl #jackwilliamson
-
RIDER (1990)
Acrylic on Watercolor Board - 27" x 35"A race of turtle-like creatures conquers Earth, imposing a gentler set of values on humankind, outlawing destructive technology, and denying the validity of human scientific theories. 1/3
#sciencefiction #scifi #scifiart #illustration #frederikpohl #jackwilliamson
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Please BOOST!
SPECIAL COLLECTORS edition of The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin,
US $290.00
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30895360507
or see the full collection here:
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#Literature #SciFi #ScienceFiction #books #bookstodon #UrsulaKLeGuin #FrederikPohl -
Gateway, Frederik Pohl
Brilliant exploration of the extreme jeopardy involved in space travel.
SPOILER:
https://rdmp.org/dale-mellor/bookblog/?review=gateway -
Gateway, Frederik Pohl
Brilliant exploration of the extreme jeopardy involved in space travel.
SPOILER:
https://rdmp.org/dale-mellor/bookblog/?review=gateway -
Gateway, Frederik Pohl
Brilliant exploration of the extreme jeopardy involved in space travel.
SPOILER:
https://rdmp.org/dale-mellor/bookblog/?review=gateway -
Gateway, Frederik Pohl
Brilliant exploration of the extreme jeopardy involved in space travel.
SPOILER:
https://rdmp.org/dale-mellor/bookblog/?review=gateway -
Gateway, Frederik Pohl
Brilliant exploration of the extreme jeopardy involved in space travel.
SPOILER:
https://rdmp.org/dale-mellor/bookblog/?review=gateway -
Fantastic Fiction: Star Stellar Starlight: Frederik Pohl’s 1953 Star Science Fiction anthology was not just the first of a string of noteworthy anthologies. His series inspired other editors to assemble similar series. The latest such work was released close to half a century after Pohl’s first anthology was published. … (#FrederikPohl #JudyLynnDelRey #PatrickNielsenHayden #StarScienceFiction #Starlight #Stellar)
Full post: https://seattlein2025.org/2024/11/08/fantastic-fiction-star-stellar-starlight/
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One of the delights of reviewing is following the development of a good idea through many decades. Take, for example, the progeny of Frederik Pohl’s Star Science Fiction anthologies.
The first Star anthology appeared in 1953. Five more volumes, as well as a collection of “short novels,” as they were called then (novellas now), followed, as well as a selection of the best stories, published as Star of Stars [Note 1]. The quality of Pohl’s anthologies is impressive; flipping through my copies reveals classic stories such as Arthur C. Clarke’s “The Nine Billion Names of God,” Jerome Bixby’s “It’s a Good Life,” and Fritz Leiber’s “Space-Time For Springers.” It’s a shame the series is out of print [Note 2].
In 1974, Judy-Lynn del Rey’s Stellar 1 appeared. Stellar 1 was followed by six sequels, as well as a novella anthology, Stellar Short Novels. The parallels with Pohl’s series are no coincidence. As del Rey explains in her introduction to her Stellar Short Novels, she very much had Pohl’s Star Science Fiction in mind when she created her series. Del Rey’s purpose was to prove there was still a market for straightforward adventure fiction [Note 3. While the result wasn’t quite as noteworthy as Pohl’s, it did foreshadow the manner in which the Del Rey imprint provided reliably entertaining material.
Lately we’ve had Patrick Nielsen Hayden’s Starlight series (1996—2001). The parallels with Star Science Fiction are weaker. There were only two subsequent volumes of Starlight anthologies. However, Nielsen Hayden namechecks Star in his introduction. Furthermore, the quality of the Starlight anthologies is as exemplary as Pohl’s. It is of such quality that one reviewer [Note 4] bizarrely recommended that one not buy the Starlight books themselves because the contents were so good that they would surely appear in various annual Best SF collections. This sort of advice is not how you get more installments, people.
I wouldn’t be surprised to discover Star Science Fiction had more progeny. In fact, I’d be delighted to find out that it did.
Notes
- Known as Star Fourteen in the UK, which might have sent readers off on wild goose chases for Stars Seven through Thirteen.
There was also a one-off Star magazine, released about the time the American News Company was liquidated. ANC distributed about half of the magazines sold in the U.S. before the liquidation, which may be why there was no issue number two.
⤴️ Return to reference 1
- Thanks to the huge print runs common when the 1970s editions of the Star Science Fiction anthologies appeared, I still see a copy or two when I peruse used bookstores.
⤴️ Return to reference 2
- I’d remembered Stellar 1 as a counter-reaction to the New Wave, but rereading reveals that del Rey was vexed at academics for some reason.
⤴️ Return to reference 3
- Not me.
⤴️ Return to reference 4
https://seattlein2025.org/2024/11/08/fantastic-fiction-star-stellar-starlight/
#FrederikPohl #JudyLynnDelRey #PatrickNielsenHayden #StarScienceFiction #Starlight #Stellar
- Known as Star Fourteen in the UK, which might have sent readers off on wild goose chases for Stars Seven through Thirteen.
-
One of the delights of reviewing is following the development of a good idea through many decades. Take, for example, the progeny of Frederik Pohl’s Star Science Fiction anthologies.
The first Star anthology appeared in 1953. Five more volumes, as well as a collection of “short novels,” as they were called then (novellas now), followed, as well as a selection of the best stories, published as Star of Stars [Note 1]. The quality of Pohl’s anthologies is impressive; flipping through my copies reveals classic stories such as Arthur C. Clarke’s “The Nine Billion Names of God,” Jerome Bixby’s “It’s a Good Life,” and Fritz Leiber’s “Space-Time For Springers.” It’s a shame the series is out of print [Note 2].
In 1974, Judy-Lynn del Rey’s Stellar 1 appeared. Stellar 1 was followed by six sequels, as well as a novella anthology, Stellar Short Novels. The parallels with Pohl’s series are no coincidence. As del Rey explains in her introduction to her Stellar Short Novels, she very much had Pohl’s Star Science Fiction in mind when she created her series. Del Rey’s purpose was to prove there was still a market for straightforward adventure fiction [Note 3. While the result wasn’t quite as noteworthy as Pohl’s, it did foreshadow the manner in which the Del Rey imprint provided reliably entertaining material.
Lately we’ve had Patrick Nielsen Hayden’s Starlight series (1996—2001). The parallels with Star Science Fiction are weaker. There were only two subsequent volumes of Starlight anthologies. However, Nielsen Hayden namechecks Star in his introduction. Furthermore, the quality of the Starlight anthologies is as exemplary as Pohl’s. It is of such quality that one reviewer [Note 4] bizarrely recommended that one not buy the Starlight books themselves because the contents were so good that they would surely appear in various annual Best SF collections. This sort of advice is not how you get more installments, people.
I wouldn’t be surprised to discover Star Science Fiction had more progeny. In fact, I’d be delighted to find out that it did.
Notes
- Known as Star Fourteen in the UK, which might have sent readers off on wild goose chases for Stars Seven through Thirteen.
There was also a one-off Star magazine, released about the time the American News Company was liquidated. ANC distributed about half of the magazines sold in the U.S. before the liquidation, which may be why there was no issue number two.
⤴️ Return to reference 1
- Thanks to the huge print runs common when the 1970s editions of the Star Science Fiction anthologies appeared, I still see a copy or two when I peruse used bookstores.
⤴️ Return to reference 2
- I’d remembered Stellar 1 as a counter-reaction to the New Wave, but rereading reveals that del Rey was vexed at academics for some reason.
⤴️ Return to reference 3
- Not me.
⤴️ Return to reference 4
https://seattlein2025.org/2024/11/08/fantastic-fiction-star-stellar-starlight/
#FrederikPohl #JudyLynnDelRey #PatrickNielsenHayden #StarScienceFiction #Starlight #Stellar
- Known as Star Fourteen in the UK, which might have sent readers off on wild goose chases for Stars Seven through Thirteen.
-
Man Plus (1976) by Frederik Pohl is hard science fiction at its best. As good as the science aspect of the story is, where Man Plus truly shines is in the human drama. And Pohl also adds a mischievous twist that appears near the end. It’s a mystery not for the characters but for the reader. Without question, Mars Plus is one of Pohl’s greatest efforts in his long career.
Mars. It’s inhospitable, cold, and very far away. The human fascination is unquenchable. And the idea of colonizing Mars is one that never seems to go away. But what would it take to become a true Martian?
The world is in turmoil. Countries are collapsing. Nuclear war is imminent. The unrest in the United States has put the country under martial law. Yet despite these obstacles, the U.S. President has deemed that America must send a mission to colonize Mars.
Roger Torraway is a hero astronaut and his life is almost perfect. His job is to create a monster. A monster capable of surviving on Mars. Will Hartnett is that monster. A cyborg capable of amazing feats, Hartnett is ready to survive the Martian environment. That is until catastrophe happens.
The Man Plus project is effectively dead but the President insists that it continue at all costs. That means they need a new monster. Roger Torraway is that monster and he will discover the true cost of becoming a Martian.
Man Plus is a chimera of a story. Many differing parts come together to make up an unexpected whole. Where Pohl to focus his efforts mostly on the technical side of the story it would be good. However, Pohl devotes equal, if not greater effort to make the characters real and believable.
Pohl focuses on the human cost of making a man into a monster. However, Pohl doesn’t just focus on the monster, Roger Torraway. Pohl shows what it does to the people around Roger and how his change affects them. Unsurprisingly, the costs may be higher than anyone expects.
Yet, despite the high cost, everyone is willing to continue with the project. This is, perhaps, the one drawback in Pohl’s thinking. This idea that everyone is willing to do whatever it takes for the mission to succeed is a little naïve. However, this probably stems from the 1960s effort to put a man on the moon and this extreme optimism carries over into Man Plus.
Pohl’s world-building is excellent. He takes the social and political situations of the mid-70s and extrapolates them into a not-unfamiliar future. Pohl may get some technical details wrong but the story does not feel technologically or socially quaint.
Toward the end of the story, a narrator begins to insert itself. This mysterious narrator doesn’t take over the story but adds a new line of reasoning to the story. Pohl uses the narrator as a mystery for the reader to solve. Leaving clues throughout the text Pohl expects you to figure out what is going on before he reveals it. I expect most readers today would pick up on it quite quickly but perhaps not so readily in the 1970s.
Frederik Pohl (1919-2013)There is a lot of pain in Man Plus, both physical and emotional. This thread of pain is the most motivating reason to read Man Plus. The idea of colonizing Mars is secondary to the struggles needed to get there.
Roger Torraway’s journey from man to man plus is a terrible one. In the end, his sacrifices change not only him but everyone around him. Not one person escapes the process unscathed. The scars may be subtle and invisible but they are there. But most change is hard and damaging in some way.
Pohl does something that a lot of hard SF fails to do. He balances the technical needs of the story with the human reactions beautifully. There are very few stories of similar style that wield as much emotional weight as Man Plus. If you’ve not read Man Plus, read it. If you have read Man Plus, read it again. It’s worth your time.
https://incompletefutures.com/2024/11/04/man-plus-remains-a-classic-of-hard-sf/
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Man Plus (1976) by Frederik Pohl is hard science fiction at its best. As good as the science aspect of the story is, where Man Plus truly shines is in the human drama. And Pohl also adds a mischievous twist that appears near the end. It’s a mystery not for the characters but for the reader. Without question, Mars Plus is one of Pohl’s greatest efforts in his long career.
Mars. It’s inhospitable, cold, and very far away. The human fascination is unquenchable. And the idea of colonizing Mars is one that never seems to go away. But what would it take to become a true Martian?
The world is in turmoil. Countries are collapsing. Nuclear war is imminent. The unrest in the United States has put the country under martial law. Yet despite these obstacles, the U.S. President has deemed that America must send a mission to colonize Mars.
Roger Torraway is a hero astronaut and his life is almost perfect. His job is to create a monster. A monster capable of surviving on Mars. Will Hartnett is that monster. A cyborg capable of amazing feats, Hartnett is ready to survive the Martian environment. That is until catastrophe happens.
The Man Plus project is effectively dead but the President insists that it continue at all costs. That means they need a new monster. Roger Torraway is that monster and he will discover the true cost of becoming a Martian.
Man Plus is a chimera of a story. Many differing parts come together to make up an unexpected whole. Where Pohl to focus his efforts mostly on the technical side of the story it would be good. However, Pohl devotes equal, if not greater effort to make the characters real and believable.
Pohl focuses on the human cost of making a man into a monster. However, Pohl doesn’t just focus on the monster, Roger Torraway. Pohl shows what it does to the people around Roger and how his change affects them. Unsurprisingly, the costs may be higher than anyone expects.
Yet, despite the high cost, everyone is willing to continue with the project. This is, perhaps, the one drawback in Pohl’s thinking. This idea that everyone is willing to do whatever it takes for the mission to succeed is a little naïve. However, this probably stems from the 1960s effort to put a man on the moon and this extreme optimism carries over into Man Plus.
Pohl’s world-building is excellent. He takes the social and political situations of the mid-70s and extrapolates them into a not-unfamiliar future. Pohl may get some technical details wrong but the story does not feel technologically or socially quaint.
Toward the end of the story, a narrator begins to insert itself. This mysterious narrator doesn’t take over the story but adds a new line of reasoning to the story. Pohl uses the narrator as a mystery for the reader to solve. Leaving clues throughout the text Pohl expects you to figure out what is going on before he reveals it. I expect most readers today would pick up on it quite quickly but perhaps not so readily in the 1970s.
Frederik Pohl (1919-2013)There is a lot of pain in Man Plus, both physical and emotional. This thread of pain is the most motivating reason to read Man Plus. The idea of colonizing Mars is secondary to the struggles needed to get there.
Roger Torraway’s journey from man to man plus is a terrible one. In the end, his sacrifices change not only him but everyone around him. Not one person escapes the process unscathed. The scars may be subtle and invisible but they are there. But most change is hard and damaging in some way.
Pohl does something that a lot of hard SF fails to do. He balances the technical needs of the story with the human reactions beautifully. There are very few stories of similar style that wield as much emotional weight as Man Plus. If you’ve not read Man Plus, read it. If you have read Man Plus, read it again. It’s worth your time.
https://incompletefutures.com/2024/11/04/man-plus-remains-a-classic-of-hard-sf/
-
Man Plus (1976) by Frederik Pohl is hard science fiction at its best. As good as the science aspect of the story is, where Man Plus truly shines is in the human drama. And Pohl also adds a mischievous twist that appears near the end. It’s a mystery not for the characters but for the reader. Without question, Mars Plus is one of Pohl’s greatest efforts in his long career.
Mars. It’s inhospitable, cold, and very far away. The human fascination is unquenchable. And the idea of colonizing Mars is one that never seems to go away. But what would it take to become a true Martian?
The world is in turmoil. Countries are collapsing. Nuclear war is imminent. The unrest in the United States has put the country under martial law. Yet despite these obstacles, the U.S. President has deemed that America must send a mission to colonize Mars.
Roger Torraway is a hero astronaut and his life is almost perfect. His job is to create a monster. A monster capable of surviving on Mars. Will Hartnett is that monster. A cyborg capable of amazing feats, Hartnett is ready to survive the Martian environment. That is until catastrophe happens.
The Man Plus project is effectively dead but the President insists that it continue at all costs. That means they need a new monster. Roger Torraway is that monster and he will discover the true cost of becoming a Martian.
Man Plus is a chimera of a story. Many differing parts come together to make up an unexpected whole. Where Pohl to focus his efforts mostly on the technical side of the story it would be good. However, Pohl devotes equal, if not greater effort to make the characters real and believable.
Pohl focuses on the human cost of making a man into a monster. However, Pohl doesn’t just focus on the monster, Roger Torraway. Pohl shows what it does to the people around Roger and how his change affects them. Unsurprisingly, the costs may be higher than anyone expects.
Yet, despite the high cost, everyone is willing to continue with the project. This is, perhaps, the one drawback in Pohl’s thinking. This idea that everyone is willing to do whatever it takes for the mission to succeed is a little naïve. However, this probably stems from the 1960s effort to put a man on the moon and this extreme optimism carries over into Man Plus.
Pohl’s world-building is excellent. He takes the social and political situations of the mid-70s and extrapolates them into a not-unfamiliar future. Pohl may get some technical details wrong but the story does not feel technologically or socially quaint.
Toward the end of the story, a narrator begins to insert itself. This mysterious narrator doesn’t take over the story but adds a new line of reasoning to the story. Pohl uses the narrator as a mystery for the reader to solve. Leaving clues throughout the text Pohl expects you to figure out what is going on before he reveals it. I expect most readers today would pick up on it quite quickly but perhaps not so readily in the 1970s.
Frederik Pohl (1919-2013)There is a lot of pain in Man Plus, both physical and emotional. This thread of pain is the most motivating reason to read Man Plus. The idea of colonizing Mars is secondary to the struggles needed to get there.
Roger Torraway’s journey from man to man plus is a terrible one. In the end, his sacrifices change not only him but everyone around him. Not one person escapes the process unscathed. The scars may be subtle and invisible but they are there. But most change is hard and damaging in some way.
Pohl does something that a lot of hard SF fails to do. He balances the technical needs of the story with the human reactions beautifully. There are very few stories of similar style that wield as much emotional weight as Man Plus. If you’ve not read Man Plus, read it. If you have read Man Plus, read it again. It’s worth your time.
https://incompletefutures.com/2024/11/04/man-plus-remains-a-classic-of-hard-sf/
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Frederik Pohl’s sci-fi novel Danger Moon was published in 1951. There's trouble on the Moon - suspected sabotage at a uranium mine. Reasonably realistic in the light of what was known in 1951 but basically a very conventional story.
My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2024/09/frederik-pohls-danger-moon-red-moon-of.html
#FrederikPohl #scifi #scifinovel #scifinovels #sciencefiction #pulpscifi
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Frederik Pohl’s sci-fi novel Danger Moon was published in 1951. There's trouble on the Moon - suspected sabotage at a uranium mine. Reasonably realistic in the light of what was known in 1951 but basically a very conventional story.
My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2024/09/frederik-pohls-danger-moon-red-moon-of.html
#FrederikPohl #scifi #scifinovel #scifinovels #sciencefiction #pulpscifi
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Frederik Pohl’s sci-fi novel Danger Moon was published in 1951. There's trouble on the Moon - suspected sabotage at a uranium mine. Reasonably realistic in the light of what was known in 1951 but basically a very conventional story.
My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2024/09/frederik-pohls-danger-moon-red-moon-of.html
#FrederikPohl #scifi #scifinovel #scifinovels #sciencefiction #pulpscifi
