Golden Age Fiction

It's one thing to blow a bubble of glib, journalistic lies. Quite another to have that bubble burst in a nightmarish, green beyond.

"The Man Who Found Out" appeared in the September 1954 issue of "Fantastic Universe" on pages 70 to 76.

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Roger D Aycock (6 December 1914 – 5 April 2004) was an American author who wrote under the pseudonym Roger Dee. He primarily wrote science fiction.

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Music: "Mesmerizing Galaxy" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

The crew of the Markab had been sent by Galactic Service to intercept and stop the alien ship that had attacked ships of the fleet. But Rik Guelf, who was on this mission to search for his father, was hoping to make contact with the crystal woman who apparently commanded the five-mile-long translucent ship...

"A World to Die For" was published in "Fantastic Universe," July, 1954, pages 74 - 82.

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Sam Carson was an American science fiction writer. He was a TV and radio reporter, and newspaperman.

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Music: "Mesmerizing Galaxy" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

One would have thought, with the invention of the wireless radio, that piracy would be a thing of the past. Jim Maitland, and the passengers and crew of the SS Andaman were to discover that modern pirates could use the wireless, too.

"The Seven Missionaries" appeared in "McClure's Magazine," October 1923, pages 35 - 41.

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Herman Cyril McNeile, MC (28 September 1888 – 14 August 1937), publishing under the name H C McNeile or the pseudonym "Sapper," was a British soldier and author. Drawing on his experiences in the trenches during the First World War, he started writing short stories for the Daily Mail. As serving officers in the British Army were not permitted to publish under their own names, he was given the pen name "Sapper" by Lord Northcliffe, then owner of the Daily Mail; the nickname was based on that of his corps, the Royal Engineers. After the war, McNeile left the army and continued writing, although he changed from war stories to thrillers. He was one of the most successful British popular authors of the inter-war period before his death in 1937 from throat cancer, which has been attributed to damage sustained from a gas attack in the war.

In 1920 he published "Bulldog Drummond," whose eponymous hero became his best-known creation. The character was based on McNeile himself, on his friend Gerard Fairlie, and on English gentlemen generally. McNeile wrote ten Bulldog Drummond novels, as well as three plays and a screenplay. McNeile interspersed his "Drummond" works with other novels and story collections that included two characters who appeared as protagonists in their own works; Jim Maitland and Ronald Standish. 

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Music: "Mesmerizing Galaxy" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Generations of men came and went while the computer pondered the data. 

"The Last Question" appeared in the November 1956 issue of "Science Fiction Quarterly" on pages 6 to 15.

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Isaac Asimov (c. January 2, 1920 – April 6, 1992) was an American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers, along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke. A prolific writer, he wrote or edited more than 500 books. He also wrote an estimated 90,000 letters and postcards. Best known for his hard science fiction, Asimov also wrote mysteries and fantasy, as well as popular science and other non-fiction.

Asimov's most famous work is the "Foundation" series, the first three books of which won the one-time Hugo Award for "Best All-Time Series" in 1966. His other major series are the "Galactic Empire" series and the "Robot" series. He also wrote more than 380 short stories, including the social science fiction novelette "Nightfall", which in 1964 was voted the best short science fiction story of all time by the Science Fiction Writers of America.

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Music: "Mesmerizing Galaxy" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Their orders were to leave the natives of the new planet strictly alone. But those surveyors' wives were women, and women don't obey orders—or leave people alone!

"Woman's Touch" appeared in "Super-Science Fiction," February 1957, pages 46 to 66.

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Evelyn E Smith (25 July 1922 – 4 July 2000) was an American writer of science fiction and mysteries, as well as a compiler of crossword puzzles.

During the 1950s, under her own name, Smith regularly published short stories and novelettes in such publications as Galaxy Science Fiction, Fantastic Universe and the The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Her short fiction ranges from satires set in a post-apocalyptic setting such as "The Last of the Spode" and "The Hardest Bargain," to "BAXBR/DAXBR," where she explores the dangers of Martian crossword puzzles. Her science fiction novels chiefly deal with questions of gender identity and, like all of her work, are characterized by their wit and humor.

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Music: "Mesmerizing Galaxy" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Civilization is established. Lensmen safeguard every world. But the threat of the Atomic Vortices still lingers. Neal 'Storm' Cloud, atomic physicist and human computer, is the only being capable of extinguishing these destructive forces. But there are other forces at work in the universe...

"Storm Cloud on Deka" appeared in the June 1942 issue of "Astonishing Stories", on pages 40 to 59.

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Edward Elmer Smith (May 2, 1890 – August 31, 1965) was an American food engineer and science-fiction author, best known for the Lensman and Skylark series. He is sometimes called the father of space opera. In 1963, he was presented the inaugural "First Fandom Hall of Fame" award at the 21st World Science Fiction Convention in Washington, D.C.

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Music: "Mesmerizing Galaxy" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Box Garden

The stranger had big ears, was terribly fearful of, and yet pitied, TV commercials, and kept going on about 'bansai,' with an 's.'

"Box-garden" was published in "Science Fiction Adventures," April, 1958.

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I, Gardener

I was early for my appoinment with the great Dr. Ozoneff, and consequently, had to talk to his gardener for a few minutes before I was allowed into the house. His gardener, it turned out, was quite mad.

"I, Gardener" was published in "Fantastic Science Fiction Stories," December, 1959, pages 89 to 95.

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Allen Kim Lang (b. 31 July 1928) is an American Science Fiction author who began publishing for Planet Stories in November 1950 and published a good number of action stories in the following decade: twenty titles are recorded, including the the comic novella "Cinderella Story" (May, 1961, "If"), and "Blind Man's Lantern" (December, 1962, "Analog").

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Music: "Mesmerizing Galaxy" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

One Parachute and Two Men—and the Ship Couldn't Land. What Happened?

"His to Fly" appeared in "The Popular Magazine", August 7th 1929, pages 106 to 115.

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Richard Howells Watkins (May 26, 1895 - ?) was an author in the adventure/detective genre, a World War I veteran, a lifelong traveler, and an auto racing, aviation, and maritime enthusiast.

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Music: "Mesmerizing Galaxy" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Captain Kingsford, the only survivor of the Essex's ill-fated mission to Aldebaran IX, was recruiting another crew to revisit Aldebaran IX, mine the hugely rich ore deposits on that planet, and hunt and kill the monster that had killed his crew. 

Philip "Buck" Rogers was sick of retirement and needed something to do, and Executive Officer on the Algonquin, Kingsford's new ship, seemed just the job to ease back into the space-faring life.

"A Time to Die" appeared in "Amazing Stories," June 1961, pages 47 - 66.

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Harold Calin was an author of science and WWII military fiction.

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Music: "Mesmerizing Galaxy" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

"We are the rats in the wainscoting of society—we operate outside of their barriers and outside of their rules. Society had more rats when the rules were looser, just as the old wooden buildings had more rats than the concrete buildings that came later. But they still had rats. Now that society is all ferroconcrete and stainless steel there are fewer gaps between the joints, and it takes a smart rat to find them. A stainless steel rat is right at home in this environment."

James Bolivar "Slippery Jim" diGriz was a criminal in a time when crime was almost non-existent. And he was good at it. His latest scheme had been a real money-maker, but now, he had to run and find a new caper on a new planet.

"The Stainless Steel Rat" appeared in "Astounding Science Fiction," August 1957, pages 41 - 59.

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Harry Max Harrison (March 12, 1925 – August 15, 2012) was an American science fiction author, known mostly for his character "The Stainless Steel Rat" and for his novel "Make Room! Make Room!" (1966). The latter was the rough basis for the motion picture Soylent Green (1973).

Long resident in both Ireland and the United Kingdom, Harrison was involved in the foundation of the Irish Science Fiction Association, and was, with Brian Aldiss, co-president of the Birmingham Science Fiction Group.

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Music: "Mesmerizing Galaxy" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.