"All You Zombies-" (Robert A. Heinlein, 1959)
"Reason" (Isaac Asimov, 1941)
"Desertion" (Clifford D. Simak, 1944)
"Mimsy Were the Borogoves" (Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore, 1943)
"The Million-Year Picnic" (Ray Bradbury, 1946)
"Thunder and Roses" (Theodore Sturgeon, 1947)
"That Only a Mother" (Judith Merrill, 1948)
"Brooklyn Project" (William Tenn, 1948)
"Coming Attraction" (Fritz Leiber, 1950)
"The Sentinel" (Arthur C. Clarke, 1951)
"Sail On! Sail On!" (Philip José Farmer, 1952)
"Critical Factor" (Hal Clement, 1953)
"Fondly Fahrenheit" (Alfred Bester, 1954)
"The Cold Equations" (Tom Godwin, 1954)
"The Game of Rat and Dragon" (Cordwainer Smith, 1955)
"Pilgrimage to Earth" (Robert Sheckley, 1956)
"Who Can Replace a Man?" (Brian W. Aldiss, 1958)
"Harrison Bergeron" (Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., 1961)
"The Streets of Ashkelon" (Harry Harrison, 1962)
"The Terminal Beach" (J. G. Ballard, 1964)
"Dolphin's Way" (Gordon R. Dickson, 1964)
"Slow Tuesday Night" (R. A. Lafferty, 1965)
"Day Million" (Frederik Pohl, 1966)
"We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" (Philip K. Dick, 1966)
"I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" (Harlan Ellison, 1967)
"Aye, and Gomorrah" (Samuel R. Delany, 1967)
"The Jigsaw Man" (Larry Niven, 1967)
"Kyrie" (Poul Anderson, 1968)
"Masks" (Damon Knight, 1968)
From Stand on Zanzibar (John Brunner, 1968)
"The Big Flash" (Norman Spinrad, 1969)
"Sundance" (Robert Silverberg, 1969)
From The Left Hand of Darkness (Ursula K. Le Guin, 1969)
"When It Changed" (Joanna Russ, 1972)
"The Engine at Heartspring's Center" (Roger Zelazny, 1974)
"Tricentennial" (Joe Haldeman, 1976)
INTRODUCTION
Below is a breakdown of the lengthy 12-part "Introduction" to the book.
- Science fiction's "Golden Age" had such a stylistic "cohesiveness" to it that the main attitudes of the genre could be encapsulated in a brief thought or phrase. However, during the 1950s, a magazine and paperback boom started, allowing for the appearance of new styles. This made the genre much more difficult to characterize in such concise and simple terms.
- From 1938-50, sf was dominated by John W. Campbell's tastes as editor on Astounding Stories. He defined sf as "the hopes and dreams and fears of a technically-based society", and claimed that sf made an "honest effort at prophetic extrapolation of the known (or theorized its development)".
- Gunn's first volume (The Road to Science Fiction #1: From Gilgamesh to Wells) dealt with people discovering a future which would be different from the past (or the present) due to scientific advancement or technological innovation. The second volume (The Road to Science Fiction #2: From Wells to Heinlein) saw people learning to think of themselves not as a tribe or nation, but as a species (humanity). This progression in thought was aided in large part by the mass distribution of magazines and pulps.
- Specialized pulps began in 1915 with Street & Smith's Detective Stories Monthly. The first sf magazine, Gernsback's Amazing Stories, appeared in 1926. Campbell took over Astounding in 1938 and began featuring "realistic" sf stories centered around scientists and engineers. He also stressed humanity's interaction with technology, rather than just describing new devices and concepts. Since Astounding paid the highest rates, this style became a popular one for writers.
-
Campbell's style opened the way for Gunn's third criteria of modern sf to arrive: the
adoption of an open mind about the universe (its beginning and its end)
and the future fate of man. Heinlein stated that, while most people are only
concerned with the present, sf writers are concerned with the entire
tapestry of time, past, present and future. This Campbellian period resulted in a new, generally-embraced "consensus"
(premise) among sf writers and readers in which man was destined to conquer space
and eventually expand outwards throughout the galaxy. Empires might wax and
wane along the way, but they would always go forward in the end. Examples of these "future destiny" tapestries can be
found in the works of Heinlein ("Future History"), Asimov ("Foundation"
series), E.E. Smith, Edmond Hamilton and Olaf Stapledon.
- New ideas appeared when The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (under editor Anthony Boucher) began publication in late 1949, followed by Galaxy (1950, under H.L. Gold). F&SF stressed good writing and allowed a fantasy element in his magazine (as well as more freedom). Galaxy emphasized entertainment value and preferred to feature stories in which the "average man" faced modern issues (allowing for pessimistic Wells-ian social satire). Astounding's dominance over the market was blunted due to F&SF and Galaxy's more competitive page rates, as well as an influx of many new lower profile sf magazines.
- In the late 40s and early 50s, the emergence of sf novels (led by publishers like Ace and Ballantine) provided another new outlet for writers uncomfortable with Campbell's restrictions. Well-paying anthologies of original sf began to appear as well (New Tales of Space and Time, R. Healy 1951), creating significant competition for magazines. In the 1960s, the definition of sf became much broader then it had been under Campbell, or even Boucher and Gold.
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Between 1940 and 1965, the modern world caught up with sf concepts
introduced in the Campbellian era, and the possibility of total nuclear annihilation
also brought a certain amount of fear. Some young people ("hippies") questioned the
value of learning and knowledge. A "new wave" appeared with the
appearance of Moorcock's New Worlds magazine (1964) and Damon
Knight's Orbit anthologies (1966). These platforms featured writers more
interested in "literature", and tended to rail against the sf of the past.
- Moorcock's New Worlds featured extreme expressions of style and morality as presented by writers like J.G. Ballard, Brian Aldiss, John Brunner, Charles Platt, Thomas Disch, John Sladek, Pamela Zoline, Norman Spinrad, James Sallis, Roger Zelazny and Gene Wolfe. The American writer-editor Judith Merrill became a great fan of New Worlds and began to push for a similar "new wave" in America (England Swings SF, 1968). Harlan Ellison soon published the trendsetting anthology Dangerous Visions in 1967. These experiments in style emphasized personal experience over "man's destiny" as defined by the Campbellian future history consensus.
- In the 1970s, most established writers abandoned short stories for novels, which paid better. New writers usually began in the magazines, and then worked their way towards novels. In any case, paperbacks were on the rise and magazines were on the wane.
- Readers began to look for consistency in order to make purchases. Because sf book series usually maintain a specific style, this familiar aspect helped support their sales (Frank Herbert, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Philip Jose Farmer, etc). Some publishing lines (such as Ballantine/Del Rey and DAW) began to specialize in sf styles. At the same time, some sf writers moved on to the mainstream (Vonnegut, John Barth, etc).
- The future of science fiction will be decided by general social trends as well as its creators (the next Wellses, Campbells, Heinleins, Asimovs and Kubricks).
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| The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, March 1959 |
Beyond These Horizons: Heinlein was Astounding's star author for four years, starting with the publication of his story "Lifeline". Afterwards, he moved on to other challenges. Heinlein was also able to establish a new world in the reader's mind with just a few important details in his prose. In the beginning, his characters represented the independent, "capable" man, but as the 60s arrived this kind of character became less popular with more liberal readers. In any case, he continued to come up with new concepts which would greatly influence sf.
Synopsis: In 1970, a bartender meets a man who had once been a woman (in other words, he had a sex change operation). As a woman, she had once had a brief fling with a mysterious man and then bore his child. This child had then been kidnapped. The bartender offers him a chance to meet the missing father so that he can gain vengeance on him. After the man agrees to the deal, the bartender unveils a time machine. The two of them travel through several time periods. In 1963, the man meets himself as a woman, and then fathers their child. In 1964, the bartender kidnaps the child and goes back to 1945 where he leaves the girl at an orphanage (the girl eventually grows up to be the man when he was a woman). The bartender then picks up the man in 1963 and brings him to 1985 to start working as a time operative, after which the bartender goes to 1993 to finish his recruitment report. He reflects on the irony of having recruited himself.
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| Astounding Science-Fiction, April 1941 |
The Cool, Clear Voice of Asimov: Isaac Asimov developed as a writer under the editorial guidance of John W. Campbell. Aside from the Foundation series, he also developed (with Campbell) his "Three Laws of Robotics":
- A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
- A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
- A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
This concept broke away from the traditional "berserker monster" introduced in Shelley's Frankenstein. For 20 years, Asimov's analytical style of sf acted as a model to many, but later this approach was criticized as being "unfeeling" (or at least too often naively portrayed man as a rational being).
Another Asimov story from 1941 ("Nightfall") was also included at the end of the previous volume.
Synopsis: Two technicians oversee a space station which harnesses energy from the sun's rays and transmits the energy to Earth in a tight beam. They are assisted by a team of robots. One day, the lead robot, "Cutie" (QT), reasons that it is illogical that imperfect beings such as humans could have built such superior beings as the robots. He conceives of a cult in which mankind and the planets are a "myth" created by the "Master" (the energy converter of the station). During a solar storm, QT takes over the controls of the station. The two technicians panic because they are unable to oversee the accuracy of the energy beam to Earth during this solar storm. Fortunately, Cutie maintains the beam as per the Master's "wishes". The two men are soon scheduled to return to Earth. When a new man appears to take their shift on the station, they wryly wish him well.
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| Astounding Science Fiction, November 1944 |
The Simak Reservation: Clifford D. Simak is known for pastoral, rustic stories in which aliens turn out to be friendly, humans are wise and communication barriers are breached peacefully. Animals frequently play a role as well. His book City is a collection tied together by the presence of dogs and robots.
Synopsis: On Jupiter, a dome administrator named Fowler has men to undergo a
"conversion" process whereby they are remolded into Jupiter's native life-form,
the Lopers. Only in this fashion can men hope to eventually become comfortable
living on Jupiter. Unfortunately, none of the five men who have so far undergone the conversion have returned from their expeditions outside the dome.
Uncomfortable with sending more men to their apparent doom, Fowler decides to
undertake the conversion and mission himself, accompanied by his dog Towser. Once he and Towser have been
reconstituted as Lopers, they go out into the Jovian atmosphere. Soon Fowler feels a
sense of health, pleasure and heightened intelligence. Additionally, Towser
can speak to him telepathically. Unwilling to return to the protective dome
and to be remade back into a mere man (and his pet), the two abandon the dome and
go off in order to seek adventure in this "paradise".
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| Astounding Science-Fiction, February 1943 |
Mimsy Were the Kuttners: The writing team of Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore introduced a higher level of literary quality and dramatic substance to science fiction. They expanded science fiction to encompass cultural elements usually not found in the genre, leading the way for others to incorporate other mainstream elements.
Synopsis:
- One million years in the future, a scientist puts a few of his son's old toys in a box and tests his time machine by sending the box back in time to 1942. It doesn't return, so he sends another box to the late 19th century. This too doesn't return and the scientist soon loses interest.
- In 1942, a boy named Scotty discovers the box and the toys it contains. He and his younger sister Emma begin playing with the toys and begin to see reality in unexplained ways (he can solve puzzles in a way which makes no sense). Scotty's father invites a psychologist over, who proposes that somehow the toys are teaching the children how to think by using non-Euclidean geometry and applying unconventional symbolism.
- In the late 19th century a young girl plays with some of the "magic toys" she had discovered in a box one day, and tells her Uncle (Lewis Carroll) strange stories, as well as a bizarre nonsense song ("Jabberwocky"). She explains that the nonsense rhyme reveals "a way out". Her Uncle promises to put her stories and the song in a book.
- In 1942, Scotty and Emma discover Carroll's book (Through The Looking-Glass), and using verses from "Jabberwocky", uncover a method by which they can open a way to another dimension. They depart to a more advanced level of existence (one more natural to the adults of one million years in the future), leaving their confused parents behind.
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| Planet Stories, Summer 1946 |
The Bradbury Chronicles: Ray Bradbury became more famous when he began writing for mainstream magazines. He tended to paint his stories with nostalgia, and his fantasies are weaved with an evocative writing style.
Synopsis: After a family arrives on Mars in their rocket, they enjoy
a ride down one of the Martian canals. The father hears a broadcast on his
radio which causes a serious expression to appear on his face. He tells his wife that
war on Earth has reached its logical final outcome, and that there is nothing left on
their home planet. Eventually, the family choose the ruins of a suitable
Martian city to camp in. The father tells his children that they can have the
city all to themselves. When one of the children asks to see some Martians,
the father brings them to the waterline and points down to their own
reflections.
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| Astounding Science Fiction, November 1947 |
More Than SF: After the dropping of the first atomic bomb, stories about atomic wars became popular. However, by the early 50s, such stories went out of fashion. Sturgeon's most important contribution to sf was his concern for style. His best stories also focus on love as the path to mankind's salvation, and eventual evolution into a greater being.
Synopsis: In the aftermath of an atomic attack, most of America exists as a radioactive wasteland. At one surviving military base, an traveling entertainer named Starr Anthim gives one last performance. Afterwards, she asks that her listeners refrain from taking vengeance on their enemies for fear of wiping out all life on Earth. However, a soldier named Pete Mawser has just discovered one of the secret triggers to launch such a nuclear counter-attack. Pete befriends Starr off-stage, and eventually witnesses her death (from radiation poisoning). With her last breath she begs Pete not to throw the switch. Pete's friend Sonny also knows about the switch and eventually realizes that it will launch the counter-attack that Starr had been singing about. Sonny impulsively moves to throw the switch in order to destroy the enemy nation, but Pete kills him and destroys all signs of the switch, honoring Starr's last wish.
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| Astounding Science Fiction, June 1948 |
Ecce Femina: Judith Merrill was one of the first female sf writers who did not obscure her gender behind an ambiguous name. She edited many fine anthologies and eventually helped solidify appreciation for the "New Wave" sf style.
Synopsis: While her husband Hank is away on assignment, a pregnant woman named
Margaret worries about the rising rate of mutant babies being born (affected by
atomic radiation). In several letters to her husband, she expresses excitement
after the child's eventual birth and praises the newborn's beautiful face and advanced
intelligence. When Hank finally returns home, he is horrified to discover that
their child has no limbs, although Margaret seems to be in denial of this
fact.
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| Planet Stories, Fall 1948 |
A Matter of Time: Time travel in sf was initially achieved as a result of over-sleeping (going to the future ala Rip Van Winkle, Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward) or getting hit on the head (going to the past as in Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court). H.G. Wells perfected modern time travel by introducing a technology-based mechanism by which his character could regulate his journey through time (The Time Machine). Later, time travel stories would address paradoxes, alternate timelines and fixed, unchangeable futures. William Tenn became known for his witty, satirical short stories and only wrote one novel. Nonetheless, "The Brooklyn Project" is one of the first sf stories to demonstrate the "Butterfly Effect", the time travel trope made famous in Ray Bradbury's "A Sound Of Thunder" (1952).
Synopsis: Prior to the demonstration of a working time-probe, a press conference is held. The speaker explains that the probe (a large sphere which can record images) will go back 4 million years into the past and then return. It will then immediately go back 2 million, then 1 million, then 500,000 years, etc. The reason for this "bounce" pattern is due to the fact that time-craft have time "inertia" and need to travel half again their distances repeatedly (like a pendulum) until they come to a rest in the present. The speaker also dismisses criticisms by colleagues who fear that the time probe's appearance in the past will cause the present to be changed in unexpected ways. When the test proceeds, the speaker continues his speech during the repeating time-swings the sphere takes. After each "bounce", present reality is changed more and more until the speaker and his audience exist as tentacled creatures speaking in non-English words. In other words, each appearance of the sphere in the past caused radical changes to the development of life on Earth, resulting in an unrecognizable present.
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| Galaxy Science Fiction, November 1950 |
The Social Side: During the Golden Age of sf, Astounding Science Fiction featured stories about technology's effect on scientists and engineers, and "bad endings" were the result of human failings. In the post-war era, two magazines, The Magazine of Science Fiction & Fantasy and Galaxy began publishing "social science fiction", which focused on technology's effect on society (the common man). These stories also implied that technology would automatically lead to pessimistic futures, regardless of human error or irresponsibility. Fritz Lieber's "Coming Attraction" is an excellent example of social sf, containing a perfect blend of story, style and speculation describing a pessimistic future and implying a critique of 1940s social trends.
Synopsis: In a dystopic future NYC dotted with radiation zones caused by an ongoing war with Russia, a visiting Englishman saves a masked woman from some street punks who try to scare her with their armored car. In thanks, she asks him to meet her later in the evening. In the meantime, the Englishman muses on how masks have become a normal standard for women's fashion in America, sometimes to hide ugliness and sometimes to lure beauty-seekers. That night, the two of them go to a club named "Heaven", where she asks the Englishman to help her escape to England. She tells him that her partner (a wrestler who wrestles women) beats her after he loses bouts. Her partner eventually shows up at the club and threatens the girl. When the Englishman knocks down the wrestler, the girl attacks the Englishman and comforts her lover. The Englishman unmasks the girl to reveal the face of a pathetic self-victim.
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| 10 Story Fantasy, Spring 1951 |
The Expanding Universe: SF in film did not become truly mature until Kubrick and Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey came out in theaters. The seed of this story came from Clarke's 1951 story "The Sentinel". Clarke as has three modes: extrapolative (Prelude To Space, Earthlight), ingenious ("History Lesson", "Hide And Seek", "The Nine Billion Names of God") and mystical ("The Star", The City And the Stars, Childhood's End).
Synopsis: In 1996, a lunar geologist discovers a pyramid-shape structure on a
high-altitude moon plateau, protected by an invisible dome. Eventually, using
atomic-powered explosives, the dome is breached - but the pyramid is
destroyed. The geologist realizes that this object cannot have originated from
an ancient lunar civilization, and is more likely an object left behind by an
interstellar space-faring civilization prior to life appearing on Earth. In
fact, the pyramid may have been a "sentinel" designed to alert its creators to mankind's penetration into space (with the sentinel now destroyed, a "signal"
has now stopped broadcasting). He is not sure if the alien builders of the
sentinel will be benevolent or hostile, but he expects them to arrive soon.
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| Startling Stories, December 1952 |
Farmerworld: Possibly the earliest alternate history story, Edward Everett Hale's "Hands Off" (1898) proposed that if the Biblical Joseph had led a different life, humanity would have found disaster. Murray Leinster cemented the concept in 1934 with "Sidewise In Time". Farmer's "Sail On! Sail On!" presents a history where the Church had supported Roger Bacon's experiments, leading to a technological leap (but framed in biblical terms). Farmer is known for stories breaking sexual taboos and for "homage" stories featuring historical and fictional heroes. He is also known for his "World of Tiers" series and his "Riverworld" series.
Synopsis: In a parallel-world 15th century Europe, a Friar on one of Columbus'
exploration ships monitors broadcasts from a fellow "Friar Sparks" on a
coastal station. Later, some of the crewmen ask the Friar how the broadcast
technology works. He explains that signals are carried by arrangements of tiny
invisible angels. However, he cannot explain why the angel signals do not
carry when the moon is in the sky. One crewman proposes that a prior ship
had sailed off the edge of the world and its signals are interfering with
their own. The Friar assures him that the Earth is round. However, a great
wave soon carries the ships past a "twanging border". The Friar then realizes
that the ship has sailed off the edge of the world, and the border was a
vibrating barrier encircling his hemisphere-shaped world.
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| Star Science Fiction Stories No. 2 |
The Science in Science Fiction: In "hard sf", scientific elements and an attempt at some form of accuracy are crucial to the story. Although Verne was an early hard sf writer, Hal Clement is the prototypical modern hard sf writer. Mission of Gravity was the first of his books to create an alien planet to house a drama based from the viewpoint of the native inhabitants. Other writers who also wrote hard sf include Arthur C. Clarke, Poul Anderson and Larry Niven.
Synopsis: Underneath the surface of Earth exists a race of intelligent, fluid beings who travel through solid rock. One member of this race, Pentong, discovers on his travels
that a massive block of ice (Antarctica) exists in the southern hemisphere. Since his race
finds oxygen poisonous, he decides that if the ice is melted, then more ocean
may cover the land mass, thus giving his people more territories to settle.
In a different underground region, a scientist named Derrell observes the behavior of
liquids when encountering an underground void and discovers that an invisible
force acts on objects in space (gravity). Later, he himself falls through open
space. He is not sure if his findings confirm that the melting of the ice will
actually result in the even spread of the ocean, and thus postpones their plan
to unleash molten magma over the Americas (in order to melt the southern ice).
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| The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, August 1954 |
Why Not Literature?: New magazines like Fantasy and Science Fiction and Galaxy emphasized literary quality over genre considerations. Alfred Bester's earliest work appeared in these magazines, but he is most well-known for his novels The Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination. Bester is more concerned with future science's relationship with the individual rather than the entire human race.
Synopsis: Because of his android's predilection to periodically go insane and
kill people, a man named Vandaleur is forced to continually abandon planets
and create new identities for himself and his android on new ones. Eventually,
he finds out that the android goes berserk when a temperature of 91 degrees is
exceeded in the room. In order to solve this problem, Vandaleur plots to move
his android and himself to a colder climate. However, the police track them down
before they can escape - the android is destroyed in a manhunt. Vandaleur
manages to escape, but after he gets a new android, the new one
begins to exhibit the same murderous habits as the previous one. It seems that Vandeleur has taken
on his first robot's mental issues through "psychotic projection", and is now
in turn projecting psychotic thoughts onto his new android. (Throughout the
narrative, the viewpoint is frequently mixed between that of Vandeleur and his
android.)
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| Astounding Science Fiction, August 1954 |
A Touch of Stone: "The Cold Equations" is considered a "touchstone" for hard-core sf, as well as for Campbellian sf. These kinds of stories are "thought experiments" which test mankind's ability to face science-fictional situations. In this story, Godwin states that man must deal with the hard facts of science regardless of sentimentality and ignorance.
Synopsis: On the way to a nearby planet to deliver precious medical supplies, the pilot of a spaceship discovers a stowaway, an 18-year old girl who had impulsively sneaked aboard in order to visit her brother, believing that she would only get fined for her transgression. Unfortunately, the pilot knows that he must jettison her into space, otherwise the ship will not have enough fuel to complete a safe landing on the planet below. Understandably shocked, the girl writes letters to her parents and has a last radio conversation with her brother before she steps into the airlock and is jettisoned.
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| Galaxy Science Fiction, October 1955 |
The Ballads of Lost C. Smith: Cordwainer Smith created sf constructs which stood out from the pattern of most future histories, and which included some unique elements. His stories of dangers in a near future include "Scanners Live In Vain" and "The Game of Rat and Dragon". His stories of a far future (such as "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell") describe man becoming almost unrecognizably god-like.
Synopsis:
- The Table: Because interstellar space holds deadly beings called "Dragons", spacecraft require telepaths ("Pinlighters") who can detect these creatures before they attack. However, since the Dragons are extremely fast, human Pinlighters need cat Partners who have much faster reflexes (the Pinlighters communicate telepathically with their feline Partners through "Pinsets"). To the Partners, the Dragons are "Rats".
- The Shuffle: The four members of a Pinlighter team roll dice to see which cat they will be paired with. A man named Underhill is pleased to be paired with an agreeable Persian cat named Lady May.
- The Deal: After sending Lady May out in a drone capsule, Underhill dons his Pinset headset, which enables him to perceive millions of miles of space in his mind and to communicate with Lady May.
-
The Play: While skipping through space ("planoforming"), the ship encounters
Dragons/Rats. When the human Pinlighters sense the Dragons, they send their cat partners towards the creatures in drone capsules so that their Partners can deploy photonuclear bombs (which
disperse the creatures). In one battle, Underhill is slightly wounded by one
of the Dragons, but Lady May destroys it.
-
The Score: Recovering in a hospital after his shift in space, Underhill
senses that the staff do not understand his relationship with his
Partner.
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| Playboy, September 1956 |
Scalpel of Wit: Sheckley wrote slick, wry fiction with a light touch, and was sometimes published in mainstream magazines like Playboy (which developed a reputation for paying high rates for quality writing).
Synopsis: Seeking "genuine love" on the fabled planet of Earth, an offworlder named Alfred Simon travels to New York where every possible fantasy is available, including one in which he is offered the chance to kill volunteer women in a shooting gallery. Mystified, Simon declines. Eventually, he ends up in the offices of Love, Inc, who provide a "love experience" developed through mental and physical means ("conditioning and proper stimulation of certain brain centers"). After an idyllic night with a girl named Penny, Simon demands to be able to marry the girl. However, he is informed that she is already been made over to be "in love" with another client. Simon returns to the shooting gallery of female targets, now a willing customer.
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| Infinity Science Fiction, June 1958 |
The British Are Coming!: Although modern sf started with the British writer H.G. Wells, the Gernsback years of the 1920s and 30s pushed American pulp sf to the forefront. However, new British writers soon began making their own mark in sf in the 30s-50s. These included John Wyndham, Vargo Statten, Eric Frank Russell, William F. Temple, Bertram Chandler, E.C. Tubb, Edmund Cooper, John Christopher and Arthur C. Clarke. In the 60s, New Worlds ushered in a new wave of British sf writers including J.G. Ballard, Charles Platt, Keith Roberts, Richard Cowper, John Brunner and Christopher Priest. Brian Aldiss, known for his "Hothouse" stories, wrote important British sf with a pessimistic bent.
Synopsis: Mankind uses robots of varying intelligence classes to handle labor in automated facilities and cities. With radioactivity having ruined most of the arable land on Earth, mankind is dying out. When a group of robots at a farming complex receive news that the last man has died, they decide to establish a new robot community in the mountains. Along the way they face various hardships from both the environment as well as hostile (mad) robots. Eventually they reach the mountains, but when a sickly man suddenly appears, they immediately return to subservience.
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| The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October 1961 |
The Sirens of Mainstream: Some writers tried to avoid being pigeon-holed as genre sf writers due its low critical status. Kurt Vonnegut was one of these writers, although his books Player Piano and The Sirens Of Titan were initially published as sf books. His novel Cat's Cradle found much success outside of sf circles. In later years, Vonnegut no longer shunned the sf label.
Synopsis: 2081: In order to eliminate the detrimental effects of competition from society, the Handicapper General enforces procedures in which exceptional men and women are forced to carry weights on their bodies, masks on their faces, or wear noise-emitting, headache-inducing earphones. One day, a strong and handsome man named Harrison Bergeron attempts to stage a rebellion in a television station. While his parents watch from home, Harrison tears off his handicap accoutrements and chooses an "empress", after which they engage in a stupendous dance. However, after the dance he is promptly executed, and his parents (and society) are forced to erase the incident from memory.
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| New Worlds Science Fiction, #122, September 1962 |
That Old-Time Religion: Religion has been featured as a subject for exploration in many sf stories over the years, frequently proposing that Christ and God are aliens or time-travelers. Harry Harrison's story explores the idea of missionaries in an sf world. Harrison also wrote the novels Deathworld, Make Room! Make Room! and entries in his Stainless Steel Rat series.
Synopsis: A missionary named Father Mark lands on Wesker, a planet populated by intelligent, inquisitive amphibious natives. The missionary's arrival angers a trader named Garth who does not want the Weskers' "untainted" society to be "poisoned" by Christian concepts. Nonetheless, Father Mark gains followers amongst the natives. One day, the Weskers state that they need a Biblical miracle in order to complete their conversion to Christianity. Horrified, Garth realizes what they plan to do, but he is overpowered before he can act. Father Mark is soon crucified in the same manner as Jesus Christ. Later, when Garth tells his Wesker friend that Father Mark will not actually rise from the dead, the native realizes that he has not been saved, but instead has become a murderer.
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| New Worlds Science Fiction, March 1964 |
Terminal Fiction: British writer Michael Moorcock took over New Worlds magazine in 1964 and began featuring more stylistically adventurous forms of modern literature, such as that found in the works of William S. Burroughs. Due to the convulsive times, the stories frequently had a nihilistic bent. J.G. Ballard's characters started out simply, but eventually became more and more mysterious or "bewildered". He had a unique "metaphorical style" which proposed to "condense novels".
Synopsis: After a man named Traven loses his wife and 6-year old son in a motor-accident, he aimlessly drifts at sea until he lands on an abandoned atoll once used for atom bomb testing. He roams over the island's concrete military structures as his mental and physical state slowly deteriorates. At times he likes to lose himself amongst a labyrinth of bunker blocks. He also sometimes sees visions of his lost wife and son. When a biologist discovers his presence on the island, Traven refuses to be rescued. One day, Traven discovers the desiccated corpse of a Japanese businessman half-buried in a dune. He props up the corpse in front of the bunker labyrinth as an "arch-angel" in order to guard it from Traven's trespass.
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| Analog Science Fact -> Science Fiction, June 1964 |
Again and Again: As in other genre literature, the urge to write book "series" became popular in sf. The most famous is Asimov's Foundation trilogy, but earlier ones include George Allan England's Darkness And Dawn trilogy (1912), Charles B. Stilson's Polaris trilogy (1915), J.U. Giesy's Dogstar trilogy (1918) and Edgar Rice Burroughs' various books. Other famous series include E.E. Smith's Lensmen series, Herbert's Dune series, James Blish's Cities in Flight, Moorcock's Dancers At the End of Time and Harry Harrison's Deathworld and Stainless Steel Rat books. Fantasy series include Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Pratt and de Camp's Compleat Enchanter, Andre Norton's Witch World, LeGuin's Earthsea, Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover and Stephen Donaldson's Covenant series. One of the most ambitious series in sf is Gordon Dickson's "Childe Cycle", known for its militaristic Dorsai race.
Synopsis: A dolphin scientist named Mal believes that if man can successfully communicate with another race (such as dolphins), he will have passed a "test" set before them by extraterrestrials. One day, his research station (Dolphin's Way) is visited by a magazine reporter named Jane Wilson. Mal explains to Jane his theory, hoping that she might help save his project from bankruptcy. Later, when Mal swims with his dolphin friends in the station pool, he realizes that, although man communicates through vocal sounds, dolphins also use movement and touch. Later, Jane Wilson reveals to Mal that she had witnessed his successful breakthrough the dolphins. However, it is the dolphins who have passed the test and who will be welcomed by the extraterrestrials.
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| Galaxy Magazine, April 1965 |
The Future as Metaphor: Although much science fiction ends up predicting the future, sf more frequently uses metaphor to highlight a contemporary issue (by presenting an extreme outcome). R.A. Lafferty used metaphor with a unique attention to narrative, wit and detail.
Synopsis: It is discovered that something named the "Abebaios block" regulates the speed of decision-making in the human brain. Soon, this block is removed from everyone at childhood. This causes an incredibly fast rate of change in society, industry and culture, with many fads, marriages, businesses and trends appearing and disappearing in a single night. This story describes the rise and fall of several individuals on a "slow Tuesday night".
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| Rogue, Feb/March 1966 |
Through a Glass Darkly: In the first half of the 20th century, some mainstream writers (Forster, Huxley, Orwell, C.S. Lewis) were "anti-utopian" in that they resisted ideas praising technology and progress. In 50s sf, some writers wrote of a pessimistic future, or "dystopia". The dystopias blamed not technology but mankind's own weaknesses. One of the most important early dystopias was Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth's The Space Merchants (1953). Pohl's early writing featured wit and satire, but his later work is more serious. He won a Nebula award for Man Plus (1976) and several other awards for Gateway (1977).
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| SF Impulse, October 1966 |
Synopsis: The narrator (Pohl) describes a love story taking place about a million days in the future. During a detailed rundown of the two lovers' unusual appearances, biological details and daily lives, Pohl anticipates his readers' disgust and playfully ridicules it as being hypocritical. For example, Dora is born with male genetic material but due to certain gender "aptitudes" has been developed as a female since birth. Don is a cyborg who is covered in copper shielding, yet he is considered extremely handsome. When Don and Dora make love, they interact with copies of digital avatars of each other, rather than the actual person. Although this imagery may seem strange to contemporary readers, Pohl proposes that modern 20th century life would be similarly bizarre to Tiglath-Pileser or Attila the Hun.
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| The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1966 |
Will Reality Please Raise Its Hand?: Some writers are storytellers (who adapt different styles to tell different narratives), and some are stylists, who develop a distinctive style and use that to essentially tell the same story. Storytellers include Kipling, Lewis and Steinbeck. Stylists include Hemingway and Faulkner. In sf, stylists include Lovecraft, Bradbury, Ballard and Philip K. Dick. Dick's stories address the nature of reality ("solipsism") and some (A Scanner Darkly) are tinged with drug experiences and paranoia. His book The Man In the High Castle (1962) won the Hugo award.
Synopsis: Doug Quail goes to a memory implantation company named Rekal so that he can be made to "remember" that he has satisfied his dream-fantasy of having gone to Mars as an agent of Interplan. However, the technicians at Rekal uncover Quail's real memories (buried by Interplan agents) of being an Interplan assassin on Mars. Exposed, Interplan attempts to kill Quail, but Quail makes a bargain with them. He asks them to implant a fantasy memory in his mind which will remove his need to seek out a false memory of adventure and accomplishment. After sessions with psychologists, it is revealed that Quail's most primal fantasy is that as a child he had saved the Earth from alien invaders, and that the aliens will not attack as long as Quail remains alive. However, when technicians at Rekal begin to implant this new scenario, it turns out this scenario is, in fact, a real memory as well.
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| If, March 1967 |
The New Thing: In the 1960s, writers who explored unique forms of style were lumped in as the "New Wave". These include Roger Zelazny, John Brunner and Samuel R. Delany. New Wave sf also tended towards pessimistic portrayals of the failure of mankind in its relationship to technology. Harlan Ellison's creation of the Dangerous Visions anthologies propelled New Wave sf in the U.S. His fiction is intensely personal and evokes a sense of protest. It also reflects his difficult upbringing in a hostile environment. In later years, he distanced himself from the sf label.
Synopsis: After mankind has turned the entire planet into a giant computer
named AM (Allied Mastercomputer), AM gains sentience and begins to hate its
creators for denying it mobility or any kind of existence as a physical
entity. It kills off all of mankind and keeps only 5 humans (1 woman and 4
men) alive. For the last 109 years these survivors have been tortured in the
bowels of the machine planet with mutation, starvation, boiling heat, locusts,
etc., although AM will not permit them to die. One day AM hints to the
survivors that there is food in the north. When they finally get there they
find that it is canned food, but they do not have any way of opening the cans
(they lack a can-opener). When violence erupts, the narrator, Ted, decides to
use the ice stalactites to finally put his companions out of their misery. In
retribution, AM transforms Ted in to a slug-like creature, unable to injure
itself or even scream.
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| Dangerous Visions (1967) |
Aye, and Delany: Samuel R. Delany found success and critical acclaim for his novels from the beginning of his career. His novels Babel-17 (1966) and The Einstein Intersection (1967) both won Nebula awards. A few years later he began writing in a more experimental manner and published the more difficult Dhalgren (1973). Delany's work investigates semantics, symbolism and the critique of the genre of science fiction itself.
Synopsis: Due to the dangers of radiation, astronauts are raised from birth as asexual beings. On Earth, a sexual fetish appears in which men and women become attracted to the unattainability presented by these "Spacers". A person who exhibits this fetish is called a "frelk", and is said to have a "free-fall-sexual-displacement complex." One day, a Spacer arrives in Istanbul and is invited to a prospective frelk partner's apartment. The Spacer eventually leaves after becoming annoyed at being regarded as an exotic prize.
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| Dangerous Visions #2 |
The New Scientific Revolution: The 60s saw new technological developments in particle physics, cosmology (black holes) and genetics (cloning, etc). Although the New Wave continued to grow, sf inspired by the styles of the past also thrived. Larry Niven has been compared to the hard sf writer Hal Cement, but his style is also informed by the writing of Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein. Niven's Ringworld became very popular, as well as his collaborations with Jerry Pournelle (The Mote In God's Eye, Inferno, and Lucifer's Hammer).
Synopsis: In the near future, people have failing body parts replaced by working organs obtained from storage. These organs are harvested from criminals after they been executed, frequently for even the smallest crimes. A man named Lewis escapes from his prison cell and reaches the hospital next door, which he discovers stores freshly-harvested organs. The police subdue him with sonic weapons, but before he falls unconscious, he has the satisfaction of destroying a large number of organ containment units. Later in court, he is charged with a series of traffic violations, the original crimes he had been arrested for.
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| The Farthest Reaches (1968) |
Hard Science and Soft People: Despite their general tendencies, "New Wave authors often base their stories on scientific speculations, and Old Wave authors (such as Poul Anderson) often write skillfully and sensitively about the human experience". Known primarily as a hard sf writer, he has also written a few fantasies. His novels include The Broken Sword (1954), Three Hearts and Three Lions (1961), and Tau Zero (1970). "He has worked with several series characters (and created a Heinleinian future history) about trader Nicholas van Rijn and the Polesotechnic League, about Dominic Flandry and the decay of a galactic empire, and, in collaboration with Gordon Dickson, about a race of intelligent bearlike creatures known as 'Hokas'. 'Kyrie' demonstrates that a story about a supernova and an alien energy creature can be at the same time a moving human experience."
Synopsis: On board a ship named the Raven, a woman named Eloise is linked telepathically with an Aurigean named Lucifer, a sentient being composed of plasma energy. Lucifer's task is to accompany the Raven as its crew investigates stellar phenomenon. When the Raven and Lucifer warp to the vicinity of a collapsing star, the Raven finds itself on a collision course with some solar debris. Lucifer successfully deflects the debris, but is so weakened by the feat that the being is caught in the gravity well of the collapsing star. Because of Eloise's unbreakable telepathic connection to Lucifer, she experiences feelings of distress from the Aurigean for the rest of her life, since Lucifer will continue to fall forever towards the event horizon of the gravity well (due to relativistic time dilation effects). Eloise eventually goes on to become a nun on the moon.
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| Playboy, July 1968 |
Out of the Knight: By the 1940s, some critical histories of the sf genre existed, although most of them concentrated on novels. Fan criticism of magazine-based short story sf started with Damon Knight (In Search of Wonder, 1956) and James Blish (The Issue At Hand, 1964). Knight's anthology series, Orbit, was notable for its quality and its inclusion of experimental styles. Knight's short stories include "To Serve Man" and "The Country of the Kind". Blish became more well-known for his Cities In Flight stories (Earthman Come Home, 1957) and his Star Trek adaptations.
Synopsis: A government official visits an installation whose sole function is to care for Jim, who has undergone an experimental procedure to have his brain housed inside an artificial body. Despite the doctors' best efforts, Jim takes to wearing a silver mask over his prosthetic face. He tells his technician friend Babcock that he thinks it might be better if his mind were simply implanted in a moon prospecting vehicle or a ship control system, thus allowing him to be useful in some functional way. In actuality, Jim's transformation has instilled in him disgust with all forms of organic life, and he simply wants to get away from it's "impurity". Later, he nonchalantly (and without sentiment) kills a trespassing dog, and then ruminates on the immaculate deeps of outer space.
Surviving the Future: In the 60s, popular subjects included the population explosion, the energy crisis, the local wars in Asia, and pollution (global warming). John Brunner found inspiration in these impending disasters. Although British, he often wrote novels with American settings. Stand On Zanzibar (1968), about over-population in the near-future, is considered his masterpiece. Although writing from a position of disillusionment, a thread of hope runs through his work.
Synopsis: Various extracts from advertisements, newspapers, epigrams and brief character portraits describe a near-future in the process of consuming itself. A man named Norman unleashes liquid helium on a crowd of unruly people. Another man named Donald finds himself amidst a scene of urban riot.
The Big Protest: The New Wave had elements of protest, linked to its rejection of optimistic assumptions of older styles. Although Norman Spinrad's stories avoided experimental form, they embraced contemporary language and the popular arts (rock music). His breakthrough book was Bug Jack Barron (1969), a novel written in Madison Avenue "hip" language about a television persona and his search for immortality. His book The Iron Dream (1972) pretends to be a science-fantasy written by Adolf Hitler.
Synopsis: In order to gain Presidential approval to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in an Asian conflict, the military must first make the idea appetizing to the American public. The Pentagon decides to support and promote a nihilistic, mesmerizing rock band named "The Four Horsemen" in order to popularize the concept. Although many at first find the band revolting, they eventually fall under its sonic and lyrical trance music, and the public begins to yearn for nuclear annihilation. Eventually, even the operators in charge of America's nuclear defense missiles fall under the band's spell. During a "Four Horsemen TV Special" they launch America's nuclear arsenal, resulting in "the big flash".
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| The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, June 1969 |
The Origin and Development of Science Fiction Writers: Silverberg was a prolific writer from the start, but his breakthrough came with To Open the Sky (1967), Thorns (1967), "Hawksbill Station" and "Nightwings". "Most of his recent work (ca. 1979) seems to involve the reworking of genre materials, returning to old science fiction ideas to ask how they would work out in real life, in human terms. Under such scrutiny the.hard realities of science fiction turn into metaphors, into adventures, and into frustrations." Sometimes leaning towards the mainstream, he eventually came out with the fantasy epic Lord Valentine's Castle.
Synopsis: Tom Two Ribbons, a man descended from generations of American Indians, finds himself part of an expedition to an alien planet to eradicate the native life form there (round, orange-furred "Eaters") in order to allow for human farming to thrive. However, he begins to suspect that these "pests" may actually be intelligent. After he spends time with them "in the wild" (and consuming some of the native food), he is eventually brought back to his camp and told that, despite his own memories, the expedition has not been exterminating the Eaters, only studying them. His friends tell him that, due to his deeply-held anger (borne from the knowledge of the slaughter of his people in the 19th century), Tom Two Ribbons has been living a drug-induced fantasy (a treatment) in which he believes himself to be part of an expedition to exterminate pests. This therapy would have theoretically helped him to identify with the "oppressors", so that he could eventually rejoin society. Unable to decide what to believe, Tom Two Ribbons' mind spirals out of control.
Science Fiction as Simile: Science fiction can propose puzzles and games which force the reader to reevaluate how they experience the world. "In The Left Hand of Darkness, the differences in Gethen civilization (their ambisexuality) should lead the reader to consider the ways in which the fact that humanity is divided into two sexes on Earth affects virtually every relationship men and women have with each other, including political structures, economics, education, art, myth, and almost everything else." Aside from her many award-winning books and stories, Le Guin also wrote a series of juvenile fantasy novels called the Earthsea Trilogy.
Synopsis: An political envoy named Ai seeks to establish diplomatic relations between the ambisexual (androgynous) people of Gethen and his own people, the Ekumen (an interstellar confederation). Ai attends a ceremony in the city of Karhide in which the King, Argaven, completes the construction of a new bridge by placing the final keystone. Later, Ai has dinner with Argaven's chief advisor Estraven, who intimates that Karhide's royal court is currently too filled with intrigue and distrust for Ai's mission to succeed. Ai is frequently mystified by Estraven's vague hints and is ultimately frustrated at his inability to conduct diplomacy with the inscrutable Gethen. (Full synopsis here.)
Issues and Controversies: SF writers have been able to address hot topics by placing them in "cool" sf environments, forcing the reader to confront issues anew. In 1979, the most explosive issue was women's liberation. "Perhaps the most vigorous attacks on male dominance have come from Joanna Russ." In 1975, she published her important novel The Female Man.
Synopsis: On the planet Whileaway, male colonists from Earth have died out generations ago due to a plague. For the last 600 years, only women have lived and prospered on the planet (they reproduce through a process of ovum manipulation). When men from Earth arrive, the visitors are amazed at the progress such an exclusively-female population has made, but still insist that the women of Whileaway are inferior or incomplete due to the lack of men in their society. Although the women of Whileaway are repulsed by these men, they fear that they cannot resist the inevitable.
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| Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, July 1974 |
The Science Fiction Art Story: "An 'art' story has a consciousness of style, an emphasis on characterization, and the personalization of narration." It is also usually pessimistic. Early art story writers included H.G. Wells and Ray Bradbury. Some of Kuttner and Moore's stories were also art stories. "In the 1960s, a group of writers emerged whose work fell naturally into the shape of the art story: Aldiss, Brunner, Ballard, and others in England; Delany, Ellison, Disch, Sallis, Spinrad, Wolfe, and Zelazny in the United States. Their appearance, or development, happened to coincide with the discovery of the New Wave...Roger Zelazny began to specialize in novels based on various religions and won a Hugo Award in 1966 with This Immortal (also titled . . . And Call Me Conrad) and another in 1968 with Lord of Light. In 1976 he won a Hugo and a Nebula for his novella "Home Is the Hangman.""
Synopsis: After being caught in a space accident, a man named Bork is made into a super-human cyborg in order to survive. He goes to a planet known for its "euthanasia colony", but after he arrives he realizes he enjoys the sense of "ending" more than he wishes to actually die. Despite the Center's wish to fulfill its euthanasia contract, Bork simply roams the beach, content. One day while exploring, he rescues a woman from some technicians from the Center. She also has changed her mind about ending her life. She eventually joins Bork in his peaceful lifestyle and they fall in love. One morning, Bork awakes and realizes that the girl is actually an agent of the Center when he sees the remains of a lethal injection ampoule. However, instead of using it on Bork, she has injected herself. Afterwards, Bork continues to roam the beach, but another part of him now dead.
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| Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, July 1976 |
The Uncertain Future: The New Wave style was eventually absorbed into the "mainstream" of sf. Many New Wave writers also left sf. In the late 60s and 70s, paperbacks were on the rise and magazines on the wane. "Early in the pre-history of “science fiction, genres controlled literary development: epics, travel stories, utopias... In the nineteenth century and the early twentieth, authors determined the new directions in which science fiction would go: Mary Shelley, Poe, Verne, Wells, Burroughs... From 1926 to the 1960s, publishers and editors were the key figures in the shaping of the genre: Gernsback, Campbell, Boucher, Gold... Now, with the magazines no longer the dominant force and other forms of publication becoming more influential and more lucrative, the work of individual authors once more becomes the determining influence in the evolution of science fiction. Haldeman's scientific background and his writing skills have produced stories with their science right and their writing often experimental."
Synopsis: After radio signals indicating sentient life are detected coming from the star Cygnus 61, scientists living on the space station L5 plot to send a spacecraft there to investigate. However, the people of Earth are not interested in such a venture. Nonetheless, L5 launches a starship named Daedelus under a cover story in which the crew will merely journey to a nearby binary star system and collect anti-matter in order to enrich Earth's energy supply (the trip is also publicized as part of the 2076 Tricentennial celebration of the United States' founding). However, in a freak accident the Daedelus' drive regulator is damaged, putting the ship on an uncontrolled acceleration towards deep space. Because the ship's speed approaches the speed of light, time dilation occurs so that by the time the ship's drive has been repaired, 1500 years have passed on Earth. Eventually the Daedelus finds a planetary system to colonize and sends a message back to Earth with the news. However, by this time (17 years later by Daedelus' time, and about 3000 by Earth time), Earth is no longer inhabited, and the occupants of L5 regard the star Cygnus 61 as merely a source of religious wonder.
