Astounding Stories, June 1935

Pretty intense issue, with 9 stories and one serialization packed between the covers. Not bad at all. ---------------------------------------------- Raymond Z. Gallun "Blue Haze on Pluto" © Astounding, Jun 1935 --/ third place space sf story --/ wonder award --/ adventure award --/ emotion award --/ rare find Very simple and very effective adventure tale; the definitive "planetary crash" experience with noble characters doing noble deeds without being too sugary or heroic about it. Great descriptive passages of starscapes, landscapes, blue sentient mistballs and aggressive sentient ice crystals. Spectacular, pure, gorgeous story, proving that a classic simple plot sometimes is the most effective. (it also helps to be the first on the scene, as this story was written in 1935, before such heroic storylines were shamelessly over-used.) review: 25-Dec-07 (read in 2007) ---------------------------------------------- Nat Schachner "The Orb of Probability" © Astounding, Jun 1935 --/ fourth place sf story --/ wonder award --/ awesome scale --/ rare find The same machines-as-saviors future that was later very effectively used in Arthur Clarke's "The Lion of Comarre". The same vista of endless centuries fruitlessly spent under the watchful eye of all-knowing and all-caring machines. The same rebellious character who strives for an element of unpredictability, imagination and risk. The only difference is that Schachner got there first, and this novelette is one of the original & great treatments of this idea. Read this when you need an injection of grand scale and wide perspective (as with almost any Nat Schachner story) review: 25-Dec-07 (read in 2007) ---------------------------------------------- Donald Wandrei "Murray's Light" © Astounding, Jun 1935 Strange Harvest, 1965 --/ cool sf story --/ wonder award This is not the best story of Donald Wandrei, by any means. Yet, its readable, appropriately large-scale scientific disaster yarn, with convoluted, florid style: check it out: "Destiny donned impalpable fingers. Phantasmal ribbons fluttered from oceans of light that raged mysterious. The sky crept down to earth in countless questing festoons." and so it goes - rather a painting than a story. review: 25-Dec-07 (read in 2007) ---------------------------------------------- Harl Vincent "The Plane Compass" © Astounding, Jun 1935 --/ cool sf story --/ wonder award Pretty standard pulp fare with the mad scientist scheming some sinister inter-dimensional plots, but that's the cheesy pleasure of it. Nice adventure, with campy romantic interest, and the other interest being, who will fall into the dimensional oblivion never to return. I think this story did the exact same thing, too. review: 25-Dec-07 (read in 2007) ---------------------------------------------- John W. Campbell "The Invaders" (as Don A. Stewart) © Astounding, Jun 1935 --/ cool sf story --/ wonder award --/ shock value This has been a bit of a surprise: Don A. Stewart supposed to be lyrical and somewhat poetic alter-ego of John W. Campbell, but certainly not in this story, which is a gritty account of invasion by cannibalistic aliens, who take human specimens for grizzly scientific anatomy investigations. In times, the story seemed to be shocking just for the sake of it, and in this respect belongs more in "Marvel Tales"-like pulp. Certainly an oddity, no wonder it was not often reprinted. review: 25-Dec-07 (read in 2007) ---------------------------------------------- David R. Daniels "Into the Depths" © Astounding, Jun 1935 --/ cool sf story --/ wonder award I can read such stories by the dozen, not tiring a bit: a gradual descent into unknown ocean depths, many kilometers of weird darkness and monsters... with stars and planets at the end... what?! Well, don't ask, really crazy idea, I know. review: 25-Dec-07 (read in 2007) ---------------------------------------------- Also in this issue: John Taine "Twelve Eighty-Seven" (nv) © Astounding Stories, 1935 John Duthie "Electrolythic Onslaught" © Astounding Stories, 1935 Horace Gold "Fog" (as C. C. Campbell) © Astounding Stories, 1935 Harry Bates "Alas, All Thinking" © Astounding Stories, Jun 1935 --/ cool sf story ----------------------------------------------

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