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Inspiration, v. 4, issue 1, April 1946

Page 33

INSPIRATION
33

The August 1941 ASTOUNDING has Schachner's "Jurisdiction" and Williamson's "Backlash". Asimov's "Nightfall" and Bester's "Adam and No Eve" were best in September.

Heinlein was back in October with "Common Sense", the excellent sequel to "Universe". MacDonald was back too, with an amusing time travel story called "By His Bootstraps". Asimov had "Not Final!"

November 1941 had another "Doc" Smith Lensman story, which was of course excellent. But I don't think "Second Stage Lensmen" was quite up to its "Gray Lensman" predecessor. Smith's plots were getting too large in scope and his characters too superhuman for even him to handle, and the result was probably a bit less than most of us anticipated.

December 1941 was the last of the regular sized ASTOUNDINGs, for the next issue was of the large size which eventually gave way in 1943 to the present pocket sized editions. However, December 1941 is as far as this review goes. In this issue I liked best a pair of unusual shorts, Arthur's "Operation Successful" and Craig's "Homo Saps".

Just what was the basic quality which ASTOUNDING possessed, which made it stand out so completely from the other s-f mags? A large part of the answer is given in Boucher's mystery story, "Rocket to the Morgue", which concerns a group of supposedly fictitious s-f writers and fans. The name of Don Stuart is used in place of Campbell, and SURPRISING in place of ASTOUNDING. And so, this quote from Anthony Boucher:

"...And science fiction was headed for a blind alley until the realization came that even science fiction much remain fiction, and fiction is basically about people, not subatomic blasters nor time warps.

"So there's a new school now, and I suppose Don Stuart, the editor of Surprising, is as responsible as anybody. Don's idea was this, and it was revolutionary: Grant your gadgets, and start your story from there.

"In other words, assume certain advances in civilization, then work out convincingly just how these would affect the lives of ordinary individuals like you and me.

"...In other words, to sum it all up in a phrase of Don's: 'I want a story that would be published in a magazine of the twenty-fifth century.'"
/././././././././././././././
And now I'm going to try something that should provoke a lot of arguments. I'm going to rate the various s-f mags that have been published in order of merit.

It's in some ways a hard job, since many of the mags only saw 2 or 3 issues, while others, like ASTOUNDING, have published over 100. I'm doing this on a basis of the amount of enjoyment I got from each, and that enjoyment depends almost entirely upon what I consider merit. To make things more even, I'm trying to base this upon an average issue, altho it's hard to keep from being prejudiced in favor of those which have published many issues, because there are necessarily a far greater number of good stories to be remembered. Here's the list, based upon the 21 sections into which this history was divided:

1. Astounding (Campbell)
2. Astounding (Tremaine)
3. Wonder
4. Super Science
5. Astounding (Clayton)
6. Amazing (Sloane)
7. Astonishing
8. Science Wonder
9. Air Wonder
10. Startling
11. Thrilling Wonder
12. Marvel
13. Planet
14. Comet
15. Science Fiction
16. Future Fiction
17. Cosmic
18. Stirring
19. Dynamic
20. Amazing (Palmer)
21. Captain Future

I suspect that much of the complaints about this will stem from the low rating given the Wollheim mags. Actually, I'm not counting the fantasy part of STIRRING, and enjoyed the mags listed above them better. Now, what's your list?

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INSPIRATION 33 The August 1941 ASTOUNDING has Schachner's "Jurisdiction" and Williamson's "Backlash". Asimov's "Nightfall" and Bester's "Adam and No Eve" were best in September. Heinlein was back in October with "Common Sense", the excellent sequel to "Universe". MacDonald was back too, with an amusing time travel story called "By His Bootstraps". Asimov had "Not Final!" November 1941 had another "Doc" Smith Lensman story, which was of course excellent. But I don't think "Second Stage Lensmen" was quite up to its "Gray Lensman" predecessor. Smith's plots were getting too large in scope and his characters too superhuman for even him to handle, and the result was probably a bit less than most of us anticipated. December 1941 was the last of the regular sized ASTOUNDINGs, for the next issue was of the large size which eventually gave way in 1943 to the present pocket sized editions. However, December 1941 is as far as this review goes. In this issue I liked best a pair of unusual shorts, Arthur's "Operation Successful" and Craig's "Homo Saps". Just what was the basic quality which ASTOUNDING possessed, which made it stand out so completely from the other s-f mags? A large part of the answer is given in Boucher's mystery story, "Rocket to the Morgue", which concerns a group of supposedly fictitious s-f writers and fans. The name of Don Stuart is used in place of Campbell, and SURPRISING in place of ASTOUNDING. And so, this quote from Anthony Boucher: "...And science fiction was headed for a blind alley until the realization came that even science fiction much remain fiction, and fiction is basically about people, not subatomic blasters nor time warps. "So there's a new school now, and I suppose Don Stuart, the editor of Surprising, is as responsible as anybody. Don's idea was this, and it was revolutionary: Grant your gadgets, and start your story from there. "In other words, assume certain advances in civilization, then work out convincingly just how these would affect the lives of ordinary individuals like you and me. "...In other words, to sum it all up in a phrase of Don's: 'I want a story that would be published in a magazine of the twenty-fifth century.'" /././././././././././././././ And now I'm going to try something that should provoke a lot of arguments. I'm going to rate the various s-f mags that have been published in order of merit. It's in some ways a hard job, since many of the mags only saw 2 or 3 issues, while others, like ASTOUNDING, have published over 100. I'm doing this on a basis of the amount of enjoyment I got from each, and that enjoyment depends almost entirely upon what I consider merit. To make things more even, I'm trying to base this upon an average issue, altho it's hard to keep from being prejudiced in favor of those which have published many issues, because there are necessarily a far greater number of good stories to be remembered. Here's the list, based upon the 21 sections into which this history was divided: 1. Astounding (Campbell) 2. Astounding (Tremaine) 3. Wonder 4. Super Science 5. Astounding (Clayton) 6. Amazing (Sloane) 7. Astonishing 8. Science Wonder 9. Air Wonder 10. Startling 11. Thrilling Wonder 12. Marvel 13. Planet 14. Comet 15. Science Fiction 16. Future Fiction 17. Cosmic 18. Stirring 19. Dynamic 20. Amazing (Palmer) 21. Captain Future I suspect that much of the complaints about this will stem from the low rating given the Wollheim mags. Actually, I'm not counting the fantasy part of STIRRING, and enjoyed the mags listed above them better. Now, what's your list?