1934 - Year in SF&F: Reviews

THE WONDER TIMELINE: SF&F RETROSPECTIVE Read other issues here ---------------------------------------------- "ASTOUNDING STORIES", August 1934 - Full Review: ---------------------------------------------- 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. ---------------------------------------------- Horace Gold (as Clyde Crane Campbell) "Inflexure" © Astounding Stories, October 1934 (first story) --/ fourth place apocalyptic sf story --/ wonder award --/ idea award: time & dimensional storms --/ awesome scale --/ rare find Clunky style, mind-boggling scale, epic "global disaster" canvas, a guilty treat to all lovers of pulp fiction, this crazy tale has everything, defining the genre of "apocalyptic pot-boiler": the obligatory drunk (yet still brilliant) scientist, prehistoric monsters crawling out of every hole, the element of surprise by an imminent, unavoidable doom, and most of all - the lasting image of Earth being saved by a cohort of hardened scientists in a huge battered airship. Come to think of it, the premise is quite intricate and spectacular even by the "wonder" standards of 30s Astounding: a fourth-dimensional star passes through the Solar System, turning Earth's dimensions inside-out and rotating time plane perpendicular to all other dimensions (don't ask). No wonder scientists get drunk in droves, unable to even start to explain this swirling, ROYAL MESS. Among the side-effects of this extra-dimensional star collision: ALL past and future inhabitants of Earth appear on its surface at once, creating hilarious religious and political repercussions. Gold has a blast describing individual and totalitarian ways to cope with such global heresy. The sudden collapse of all physical laws lead to stupendous human suffering, in some ways reflecting the fears and premonitions of pre-war era. With enough ideas to fill rows of books, this story predates such classics as "Riverworld" of Philip Jose Farmer and "Time Storm" by Gordon R. Dickson (they might, or might not have read it, but their books seem to be written as "Inflexure" remakes). The ultimate doom is (surprisingly) delayed by the titanic effort of past & future science geniuses, but then, sure enough, humanity turns to mutual extermination with a renewed vigor, and more apocalyptic visions soon follow. I loved this "wonder soup". It seems that Gold has put all of his "pulp-blockbuster" ideas and "hackish" writing energies into this, his very first, tale - and then continued to write significantly less frantic, and frankly, more boring science fiction & fantasy. review: 23-Dec-07 (read in 2007) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- C. L. Moore "Black God's Kiss" (Jirel Of Joiry series) © Weird Tales, October 1934 Jirel Of Joiry, 1977 --/ third place f story --/ wonder award --/ adventure award --/ style award --/ emotion award --/ shock value Subtitled as the "Weirdest Story Ever Told", this story would easily bring entire Industrial Light and Magic to their knees. I'd like to see computers grow up to render even 10 frames of the climactic scenes of that story. The visionary world is mind-numbingly intense here, almost psychedelic, the landscapes and magic wonders quickly speed up to sweep a reader along - and the reader is only all too happy to follow such an engaging red-haired heroine as Jirel of Joiry. These were the times when writers weren't afraid to be too sentimental or passionate, too "purple" in their prose or blood-red in their intentions. This is fantasy fiction ALIVE... as opposed to some bleary-eyed lobsters, which sluggishly crawl inside a tank in the supermarket, ready to be consumed - oh boy, you can tell I hate the diluted prose... C. L. Moore writing had spunk, gusto, you name it. "Black God's Kiss" is a hugely entertaining piece of amazon sorcery adventure (with time / space warps thrown in for the good measure), which launched Jirel of Joiry series and C. L. Moore popularity with readers. ---------------------------------------------- Jack Williamson "The Legion of Space" (nv) (The Legion of Space series) © Astounding Stories, Apr-Aug 1934 Fantasy Press, 1947 --/ fourth place space sf series --/ wonder award --/ adventure award --/ awesome scale The first entry in this seminal space opera series is a bit one-dimensional. Actually, quite one-dimensional, primitive and mostly flat. The adventure is fine (but very predictable), color is there (but not full throttle yet), characters are introduced over a grandiose background, and conflicts are hatched to be resolved on ever-so-widening cosmic scale. Also, I see how this series was different from other outer space outings (by Campbell, for example) - it's more free-wheeling and less rigid. "The Legion of Space" has all makings of a classic, but it does not age too well. Read it for a dose of wide-eyed wonder and lower your stylistic expectations. Here is a good plot summary. One thing I am going to mention - the cosmic superweapon is entrusted to a beautiful woman... which adds to her mystery and complicates her marriage quite a bit. See, the Medusae want the weapon, too: "they vaguely resemble a jellyfish, but are actually elephant-sized, four-eyed, flying beings having hundreds of tentacles." Cool. ---------------------------------------------- Richard Vaughn "The Exile of the Skies" (nv) © Wonder Stories, Jan-Mar 1934 --/ cool sf story --/ wonder award --/ awesome scale --/ rare find Some mighty superhero-pulp adventure here, full of inimitable purple "wonder-prose", stupendous conflicts and primitive romance. The figure of an outcast super-scientist is so comic-like and iconic, that pulp lovers might even cringe from "over-pulpiness". The (mad, mad, mad) genius nurtures the (mad, mad, mad) designs of global dominations, which are fatally thwarted by the (mad, mad... but charming) female fellow scientist and some invisible aliens on some asteroid in deep space. Do not read this if you never liked super-hero comics from the 30s. Kudos to the author, though, for the adventurous rocket-scientist brunette heroine. review: 20-Dec-07 (read in 2007) ---------------------------------------------- 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. ---------------------------------------------- Return to the Wonder Timeline

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