P. Schuyler Miller

"As Never Was" © Astounding, Jan 1944 The Titan, 1952 --/ cool sf story --/ wonder award "The Cave" © Astounding Stories, Jan 1943 --/ fourth place sf story --/ wonder award --/ adventure award --/ rare find "Dust Of Destruction" © Wonder Stories, Feb 1931 --/ fourth place sf story --/ wonder award --/ adventure award --/ rare find ---------------------------------------------- "The Fate of the Neptunians" (Cosmos Series) © Science Fiction Digest, Jul 1932 Fantasy Magazine, Dec 1934 Perry Rhodan, Ace Books --/ fourth place space sf series --/ wonder award --/ awesome scale --/ rare find Unreal... Simply most unique event in the history of science fiction, the collaboration of the brightest stars in the field, some at the beginning of their career, some at the peak of their powers. The list of writers is shining "all-star" galaxy in itself. The fiction is... well, it's big-scale, full of grand conflict, ridiculous science, unpronounceable names and places, more bang that you ever encountered between soft book covers - testing the limits of reader's imagination and believability. Impossibly hard to find today, the serial spanned the issues of "Science Fiction Digest", and then "Fantasy Magazine" (The installments of the Cosmos round-robin were not printed in the issues themselves but as separately-bound supplements). Personally I liked the "Last Poet" part and the crazy, absolutely delirious space battle extravaganza by Lloyd Arthur Eshbach. Multi-dimensional "Wrongness of Space" anomaly attacks our system, alien menaces and mad scientists pop out of every wrinkle of time and space, flying around (some may say chaotically) in droves, driving the serial to its bang-up finish - incomparable Edmond Hamilton destroying the planets Pluto, Neptune, and Uranus with an atomic disintegrator ray in his "Armageddon in Space". A monumental literary artifact from the "wonder pulps" era, quite enjoyable even to this day. (cover images credit: Chris Perridas) review: 10-Jan-08 (read in 2008) ---------------------------------------------- "Forgotten" (also as ``The Forgotten Man of Space'') © Wonder Stories, Apr 1933 The Titan, 1952 --/ cool sf story --/ wonder award "Living Isotopes" © Super Science Stories, Sep 1940 --/ cool sf story --/ wonder award --/ rare find "Old Man Mulligan" © Astounding Stories, Dec 1940 The Titan, 1952 --/ fourth place sf story --/ wonder award "The Sands of Time" © Astounding Stories, Apr 1937 --short fiction : 1971 Astounding/Analog All-Time Poll /10 --/ fourth place sf story --/ wonder award --/ adventure award --/ rare find ---------------------------------------------- P. Schyler Miller "Spawn" © Weird Tales, Aug 1939 --/ second place apocalyptic sf novella --/ wonder award --/ idea award: Elemental Monsters --/ style award --/ awesome scale --/ emotion award --/ shock value --/ rare award Some stories are docile and can be easily re-told by the campfire, or in a circle of friends; some stories are so ferocious and wild, that you can only shake your head, utter "what the heck was that?" and forget trying to tell someone about the experience. How could anyone convey the steam-roller impact of crushing imagery and seriously twisted cataclysmic events, over-the-top emotional charge and enough horrific visuals to make any special effects producer sweat with professional envy? This is a shocking story, which inherits some fearsome atmosphere from H. P. Lovecraft, some from Clark Ashton Smith, some from Donald Wandrei. The mesmerizing, almost trance-like narrative, which only gets weirder with every page until it reached some feverish pitch that no writer or reader can sustain for long. You are almost exhausted by the time the story ends... It's enough to say that even seasoned dark fantasy writers of the period (Henry Kuttner, for example) were overwhelmed and deeply impacted by it. The Elemental Beings arise from sinister spores: the carnivorous ocean, the hungry gold-mountain, the undead prophet and his undead spawns - all wage battles against each other and against stunned mankind. All this looks and feels like Japanese disaster animation on drugs, 50 years ahead of its time. Add to it some kind of Russian revolution "red terror" mad marriage with Apocalypsis. I guarantee you, you will never forget the imagery in this warped tale, for better or for worse. review: 23-Jan-07 (read in 2007) ---------------------------------------------- "Status Quondam" © New Tales of Space and Time, 1951 --/ cool sf story --/ rare find "Tetrahedra of Space" © Wonder Stories, Nov 1931 Startling Stories, Sep 1948 --/ fourth place sf story --/ wonder award --/ adventure award --/ awesome scale --/ idea award "The Thing on Outer Shoal" © Astounding Stories, Sep 1947 --/ fourth place sf story --/ wonder award --/ adventure award --/ rare find --------------------------

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