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Inspiration, v. 4, issue 1, April 1946

Page 26

26     INSPIRATION

10[[cent symbol]]
ASTONISHING
STORIES

     What the field needed, decided the powers that be in the publishing field, was a good 10[[cent symbol]] s-f magazine. So it was that in February of 1940, ASTONISHING STORIES became the first and, to date, the last dime mag in s-f. The name was a natural, having been used for a long time as an imaginary name, due to its resemblance in both sound and meaning to AMAZING and ASTOUNDING. The most surprising thing about it was that many of the stories were good.
     In the first issue, for example, was the well-known "Half-Breed" by Asimov. Also very good was Cross' "Chameleon Planet" and Gregor's "Asteroid". "Elephant Earth" by Barclay was another outstanding story, a perfect example of something or other, irony I guess. AT any rate I enjoyed it and thought the whole issue superlative, notwithstanding some tripe by Kummer. The greatest appeal lay in the freshness of plot and idea prevalent in most of the stories.
     April 1940 had Vincent's "Master Control" and Simak's "The Space Beasts". Junes lipped on the percentage of good stories printed, but came thru with one genuine classic, Rocklynne's "Into the Darkness", an almost perfect job of handling a difficult theme. Rocklynne is one of the most consistantly good writers in the field, and in this story he outdid himself.
     In August there was nothing exceptional, except the return of Jones' Professor Jameson. October had some good shorts, among them Grosser's "Mister Island" and Gallun's "Stepson of Space". December gave us the Asimov sequel, "Half-Breeds on Venus" and Wellman's "Rocket of Metal Men".
     February 1941 wasn't especially interesting, but the April issue had "Heredity" by Asimov, "Our Director" by Harry, and "Beyond Doubt" by Heinlein. The unusual types of stories which ASTONISHING was printing were its greatest asset.
     Gottesman's "Mars-Tube" was best for September, with Hasse's "Farewell to Fuzzies" also good. November 1941, and the last ASTONISHING in this review, had the Rocklynne sequel "Daughter of Darkness". Practically everything said about the original goes for this one as well, altho naturally it didn't have quite the freshness of "Into the Darkness". Same issue I liked very much DeCamp and Hubbard's "The last Drop" and, for some unaccountable reason, the Brackett space-opera "Retreat to the Stars".
     ASTONISHING, more than any other s-f mag at this time, specialized in unusual type of stories, and for some of these it is best remembered. Incidentally, the same holds true for any other mag, and the stories which are remembered longest, outside of those really good ones generally considered as classics, are those of an unusual type.

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26 INSPIRATION 10[[cent symbol]] ASTONISHING STORIES What the field needed, decided the powers that be in the publishing field, was a good 10[[cent symbol]] s-f magazine. So it was that in February of 1940, ASTONISHING STORIES became the first and, to date, the last dime mag in s-f. The name was a natural, having been used for a long time as an imaginary name, due to its resemblance in both sound and meaning to AMAZING and ASTOUNDING. The most surprising thing about it was that many of the stories were good. In the first issue, for example, was the well-known "Half-Breed" by Asimov. Also very good was Cross' "Chameleon Planet" and Gregor's "Asteroid". "Elephant Earth" by Barclay was another outstanding story, a perfect example of something or other, irony I guess. AT any rate I enjoyed it and thought the whole issue superlative, notwithstanding some tripe by Kummer. The greatest appeal lay in the freshness of plot and idea prevalent in most of the stories. April 1940 had Vincent's "Master Control" and Simak's "The Space Beasts". Junes lipped on the percentage of good stories printed, but came thru with one genuine classic, Rocklynne's "Into the Darkness", an almost perfect job of handling a difficult theme. Rocklynne is one of the most consistantly good writers in the field, and in this story he outdid himself. In August there was nothing exceptional, except the return of Jones' Professor Jameson. October had some good shorts, among them Grosser's "Mister Island" and Gallun's "Stepson of Space". December gave us the Asimov sequel, "Half-Breeds on Venus" and Wellman's "Rocket of Metal Men". February 1941 wasn't especially interesting, but the April issue had "Heredity" by Asimov, "Our Director" by Harry, and "Beyond Doubt" by Heinlein. The unusual types of stories which ASTONISHING was printing were its greatest asset. Gottesman's "Mars-Tube" was best for September, with Hasse's "Farewell to Fuzzies" also good. November 1941, and the last ASTONISHING in this review, had the Rocklynne sequel "Daughter of Darkness". Practically everything said about the original goes for this one as well, altho naturally it didn't have quite the freshness of "Into the Darkness". Same issue I liked very much DeCamp and Hubbard's "The last Drop" and, for some unaccountable reason, the Brackett space-opera "Retreat to the Stars". ASTONISHING, more than any other s-f mag at this time, specialized in unusual type of stories, and for some of these it is best remembered. Incidentally, the same holds true for any other mag, and the stories which are remembered longest, outside of those really good ones generally considered as classics, are those of an unusual type.