Welcome to Flashback, where we revisit the age of New Wave science fiction and fantasy — the stories that came after the Golden Age of Science Fiction and before cyberpunk conquered the world.

This episode we’re diving into one of the magazines that shaped me as a reader and writer, the famed Amazing Science Fiction Stories. By 1982, Amazing had been on an extended rough patch, losing readers in a shrinking market for short genre fiction. This issue highlights some of the strategies the editors tried to attract new readers — big names in the genre and classics from the past — along with some of the weaknesses that plagued the magazine, like bad art and abysmal copyediting.

So, join in as we take a trip to the early ‘80s, complete with Nazis, sequelitis, and simmering racial tensions. Sound familiar?

Some of us caught the bug early, others later in life, but once you fall in love with reading books there’s no going back from a lifetime of stories.

But habits do change over time. Perhaps our tastes move from genre page turners to the classics shelf. Maybe the pressures of career and adulthood chip away at our free time to dive into new narratives.

But books are always calling. If you’re like me, they’re calling from the many, many “to be read” tomes stacked around the house or clogging up the e-reader.

Louis Bayard — bestselling author of The Wildes, Jackie and Me, The Pale Blue Eye, and more — joins me on The Back Half to talk about a lifetime of reading, from our earliest forays into books to how we see our reading habits evolving in the future. Plus, how being a professional writer means you’re also a professional reader.

Listen here on Substack or via Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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In this episode, Marshall Boswell (author of Understanding David Foster Wallace) joins Sean Bugg to talk about Infinite Jest, its enduring place in American literature, Wallace’s position as an avatar of Gen X, and how students today respond to Wallace’s weirdly prophetic novel about American addictions, entertainments, loneliness, and tennis. Marshall is a professor of American Literature and Fiction Writing at Rhodes College in Memphis. He’s also the author of the short story collection Trouble with Girls and the novel Alternative Atlanta.

Understanding David Foster Wallace, by Marshall Boswell

This is part of my series at The Back Half on books that changed me as a writer and a person. Check out A Most Excellent Fancy: Infinite Jest and America's Addictions at seanbugg.substack.com.

This episode we Flashback to 1981, when the Space Shuttle first took flight and Analog magazine took a victory lap for science fiction and science fact. Too bad that victory lap included fantasies of a militarized space and winnable nuclear wars. Following that, I outline my personal taxonomy of science fiction: escapist, optimistic, pessimistic, nihilistic. It sounds academic but it’s more fun than that! Except for the nihilism. And the fascism. Content and authors include: George R.R. Martin, Jerry Pournelle, Star Wars, Star Trek, Planet of the Apes, Elon Musk, and more.

In this episode, we’re on another Flashback, this time to September 1981 and Amazing Science Fiction Stories. By the late 1970s, the famed first science fiction magazine had hit new lows, cutting costs and corners until it became primarily a magazine of reprints. In 1981, a new editor was at work attempting to regain the glory years. But money was still tight, circulation was down, and advertising wasn’t setting records. As a result, some old habits were dying hard. Still, in this issue you’ll find the inescapable Harlan Ellison, both writing and being written about, and some top class stories once you make it past the filler. Plus, a column predicting the amazing future of fiber-optic communications gets some things right but some things very, very wrong.

The Back Half at Substack

And here we are with the third episode of The Back Half podcast and other episode of “Flashback,” examining the science fiction, fantasy, and horror writing that shaped me as a kid. This time I’m looking at the August 1981 issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine. I also dig a little deeper in the “why” behind this project. There are some serious topics in here but I promise we’re all going to have fun doing this!

Interested in the magazine and authors discussed? Here’s a list of resources for you to peruse:

Publications:

Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine: www.asimovs.com

Asimov’s, Aug. 3, 1981 contents list: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?59137+c

Authors:

Harlan Ellison: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_Ellison

Barry B. Longyear: https://www.barryblongyear.com

Jerry Pournelle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Pournelle

Mildred Downey Broxon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mildred_Downey_Broxon

Steve Rasnic Tem: https://stevetem.com

Martin Gardner: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gardner

Bob Shaw: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Shaw

J.P. Boyd: https://isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?11389

Hank Simpson: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?11516

Jeanne/Joanne Mitchell: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?11517

Somtow Sucharitkul/S.P. Somtow: https://www.somtow.com

F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._Gwynplaine_MacIntyre

Dona Vaughn: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?11518

Michael Kube-McDowell: http://alternities.com/wp/

I’m back with the second episode of The Back Half podcast, this time a "Flashback" to the November 1982 issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine. Content warning: Disturbing mental imagery of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.

In other, less fraught topics, I cover the kindly science fiction editors of my youth; George R.R. Martin being playful; and why you should read “The Postman” even though Kevin Costner screwed the movie up.

Original post at The Back Half, complete with L. Ron Hubbard's ad for Battlefield Earth: "Dispatches from the Cold War"

Welcome to the first episode of The Back Half podcast, kicking off with an audio version of my piece on The Word for World Is Forest for those of you who prefer getting your words aurally. There’s more to come and in the near future I plan to bring in some guests to help expand and explore on these topics even more.

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