Astounding Stories, August 1934

"ASTOUNDING STORIES", August 1934 ---------------------------------------------- Nat Schachner "Stratosphere Towers" © Astounding Stories, Aug 1934 --/ third place sf story --/ wonder award --/ awesome scale --/ rare find Where is the publishing industry when you need it? How come there is no Nat Schachner short story collection out there? Here is a guy who personified the kind of story that can only be called "stupendous, inventive pulp blockbuster hit" (and I am not talking of Mr. John W. Campbell, the great granddaddy of space opera). Here is a guy who (in his most epic stories) unleashed cinematic wonders on par with WETA Digital effects - and he is not reprinted? that does not seem fair. Although, it's not that surprising: short story collections (especially reprints) are falling by the wayside, eclipsed by the cult of 500-plus page Almighty Novel. They don't move off the shelves. Oh well, soon there are not going to be any shelves to move from (Borders is ailing, and there is going to be a lot of unsold inventory next year) - and surely in the new Google book-digitizing universe many sf pulps will become freely available again. But enough rambling, get this: Nat Schachner crafted a sort of "Independence Day" here: swarms of robotic planes attack huge stratosphere-height mega-cities... villains, heroes and sheer gleeful wonderment galore (mmm... Schagatastic!!). It's hard to ignore Nat Schachner at the top of his strength (see his novella "Crystallized Thought", for example). Late 1930s Astounding was the prime market for this kind of thing, and I unabashedly lust for more of the same stuff... if I can find it. ---------------------------------------------- E. E. "Doc" Smith "The Skylark of Valeron" (nv) (Skylark series #3) © Astounding Stories, Aug-Oct 1934 Fantasy Press, 1949 --/ cool space sf novel --/ awesome scale "As the mighty spaceship Skylark roved the intergalactic world, scientist Richard Seaton and his companions uncovered a world of disembodied intelligences. A world of four dimensions where time was insanely distorted and matter obeyed no terrestrial laws... where three-dimensional intellects were barely sufficient to thwart invisible mentalities!" The Skylark series did not click with me, mostly because of incredibly clunky narrative style... no matter how forgiving I decide to be, dealing with 4 pages of narration recounting the events of previous books (conveniently told by a child to his mother: incredibly amateurish writing trick) is just too much. Sure, it's got bigger scale than the previous books, and a 1000km long spaceship, and all kinds of extra-dimensional mumbo jumbo. But I can't adore "Pontiac Aztec" no matter how bustling with features it promises to be. The Skylark series is just too cartoonish. Good for comic books, I suppose. ---------------------------------------------- Dr. Arch Carr (with Carl Buchanan) "Warriors of Eternity" (Daniel Futrell series) © Astounding Stories, Aug 1934 --/ cool sf novella To make a long story short.... wait, you can't. Too many epic conflicts, each totally insignificant and uninteresting, melded into some kind of pulpish Katamari Damacy whole. ---------------------------------------------- Thomas Calvert McClary (as by Calvin Peregoy) "Dr. Conklin—Pacifist" © Astounding Stories, Aug 1934 --/ cool sf story --/ humour award This reads like a typical "Amazing Stories" material, a run-of-the-mill inventor story. And yet, it's funny in a P. G. Wodehouse sort of way. Thomas Calvert McClary wrote a few big novels for "Astounding" in the late 1930s, but he hides under a pen name here. ---------------------------------------------- David O. Woodbury "Aground in Space" © Astounding Stories, Aug 1934 --/ cool sf story --/ wonder award --/ idea award --/ rare find It's a pity this author only wrote two stories ever, according to ISFDB. The concept has promise, it's aptly executed, with good scientific romance and an adventure plot (although absolutely preposterous science, but it's even better this way). I am not going to spoil the mind-boggling central idea of the story for you - just think about how a reversal of the properties of space and matter (what is considered solid, and what is not) can affect space travel - with a wide-eyed galaxy-spanning trip that results from this (kind of reminds me of the ending in "The City and the Stars" by Clarke). Greatly entertaining story, a hidden gem. ---------------------------------------------- Frank Belknap Long "The Last Men" © Astounding Stories, Aug 1934 Rim of the Unknown, 1972 --/ cool apocalyptic sf story --/ wonder award Widely anthologized, this short story features giant mutant insects and the last humans subjected to them. As you can imagine, it's a classic, but hardly original. However, this being Frank Belknap Long (one of the masters of pulp colorful prose), the narrative is engaging and... check out this illustration! Who cares that bugs can't grow this big? In this story they did, and so did their appetites. ---------------------------------------------- Arthur Leo Zagat "Beyond the Spectrum" © Astounding Stories, Aug 1934 --/ fourth place sf story --/ shock value --/ rare find Something from outer space turns villagers into zombies (and worse than zombies). Done in a visceral, horror-infused way, this tale is a precursor to movies by George Romero, and such unapologetic gore-fests as "Slither" or Peter Jackson's "Dead Alive" . It has a much creepier tone than any of these movies though, because it leaves the worst parts unseen, only hinted. There is something about blinded people walking around the countryside that is deeply scary - this was in part replicated by Stalin in the 1930s, who turned the whole nation into blinded zombies intent on destroying each other. ---------------------------------------------- CONTINUE TO OTHER PULP REVIEWS

Click to go to "Dark Roasted Blend" site