Modern Masterpieces of Science Fiction

by Sam Moskowitz

  The editor of another new periodical, THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION (Fall, 1949) was Anthony Boucher, well-known detective story writer, critic and a former contributor to ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION. He was completely sold on Campbell's bill-of-fare, most partic-ularly the emphasis on skillful writing. All of Campbell's top-notchers who could cleverly turn a phrase eventually turned up in the pages of his magazine.

  The most costly raid came with the appearance of GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION (October, 1950) edited by H. L. Gold, who had previously written and edited science fiction. Up un-til now, Campbell had gotten first look at a substantial part of the stories by his favorites that appeared elsewhere. However with his rates matched by THRILLING WONDER STORIES and TAE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION and topped by GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION, that situa-tion ended. In its introductory issue GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION carried Campbell's heavy guns, Clifford D. Simak, Theodore Sturgeon, Fritz Leiber and Isaac Asimov.

  Campbell raised his rates and creatively continued to de-velop new talent, but whereas before he could exercise severe discipline in building them into top-notchers by reason of his commanding economic and prestige position in the field, now he found that after a single good story they would often begin showing up elsewhere. GALAXY SCIENCE FICTIONS policy was but an extension of Campbell's, but with greatest emphasis on the psychological aspects of science fiction, as introduced by ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION in such masterpieces as Clifford D. Simak's Huddling Place.

  Outside of Campbell's sphere of influence, the action school of science fiction as exemplified by PLANET STORIES and THRILLING WONDER STORIES had published the emotion-packed space parables of the stylistic virtuoso Ray Bradbury. Scores of his best stories were bought and published at but a penny a word, and new anthologies rarely appeared without a Bradbury story, solidifying transient pulp popularity into rec-ognition and prestige. This laid the foundation for his suc-cessful career. Equally as honored, Arthur C. Clarke was one of the upcoming young British literary lions, influenced by Campbell's writing and first published in ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION in this country, yet, like many other likely prospects, quickly lured away to contribute his best work to the competition.

  By 1952 the science fiction tide was cresting. At one time 32 different titles were on the stands simultaneously. The earlier boom in 1939 had healthily stabilized with science fiction magazines aimed at different strata of readership. This boom took the cue of "follow the leader." THRILLING WONDER STORIES and STARTLING STORIES, once the bastions of teen-age action, under the successive administrations of editors Sam Merwin and Sam Mines, in content had become indistinguishable from ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION, GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION and THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION. Not only had the stories been lifted to a new height of sophistication, but in August, 1952, like a bombshell they exploded a novel, The Lovers, by Philip Jose Farmer which proved a milestone in the history of science fiction, opening up the various manifestations of sex to writers of modern science fiction, breaking a taboo which had been rigidly inflexible before.

  It was not that the incorporation of sex into science fiction proved unhealthy—the field would be much poorer without the contributions of Farmer—it was the completeness of the usurpation of the strongholds of scientific wonder, action, and romance by stories of a philosophical, psychiatric or sexual bent that posed a danger.

  A number of forces contributed to the switch by most of the remaining holdouts to the publication of "modern" sci-ence fiction to the virtual exclusion of any other type. Predominant was the weight of new titles, far too burdensome to be supported by the existing readership. As the complete pie of audience was sliced ever thinner by the accumulation of new titles, publishers attributed their circulation problems to editorial policy. On every hand (even in their own pages) reviewers praised the polished works of the modern masters and ridiculed any other form. To publish and read "modern" science fiction had also become a status symbol, a badge of prestige and maturity. Was that not the logical direction to take?

  AMAZING STORIES, which had been the circulation leader the entire decade between 1940 and 1950, abandoned its policy of elementary science fiction and with the April-May, 1953 number converted from pulp to digest size with slick stories by Robert A. Heinlein, Theodore Sturgeon, Murray Leinster and Ray Bradbury.

  FAMOUS FANTASTIC MYSTERIES, symbolic of those maga-zines publishing reprints of escapism for 14 years, folded with its June, 1953 number. PLANET STORIES did not abandon its policy but found a declining pool of usable ma-terial at its low rates. It perished in 1955 as did TIIRILL-INO WONDER STORIES and STARTLING StOrIES. At the onset of 1956, "modern" science fiction was all there was. All other forms had vanished. For better or for worse, science fiction stories with the emphasis, on the turn of phrase, with the plot twists pivoting on various aspects of psychol-ogy, philosophy, psychiatry, religion, sociology and sex domi-nated the field.

  One man in particular bitterly deplored the changeover —John W. Campbell. It had never been his intent to super-sede the other forms of science fiction. He had set out to add a new, more mature dimension to the existing body of the literature. The field needed the elementary types. Now there were many universities but no grammar schools.

  Actually John W. Campbell had already taken a divergent tack. He had always been interested in the exploration of hidden powers in the human mind. This first took the form of what he called mutants and led to the writing of such stories as Slan by A. E. van Vogt, of a human species with flesh--and-blood antennae called tendrils, that can read other minds. This approach was followed by Henry Kuttner under the pen name of Lewis Padgett in a series about the "baldies," a mind-reading group attempting to integrate into the pop-ulace.

  The theories of Charles Fort regarding strange events that seemed to defy the tenets of scientific theory, also fascinated him, and it was his interest in this phase that led to publi-cation of Eric Frank Russell's novel Sinister Barrier, in which it is discovered that the human race is nothing more than the kept cattle of a superior culture.

  Stories based on intellectually superior mutants and vari-ous ramifications of Charles Fort's presentation were to become frequent in ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION. When new competitors appropriated most of the tenets he had pro-moted in "modern" science fiction, John Campbell moved his authors further in the Fortean direction. The kick-off piece was an article titled Dianetics: The Evolution of a Science by L. Ron Hubbard (ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION, May, 1950). Hubbard was a prolific pulp writer, who made a good record on naval duty during World War II and claimed to have been the actual inspiration for the title character of the play Mi-. Roberts. He had done some remarkable writ-ing of science fiction for Campbell, his novel Final Blackout without question ranking as one of the finest future war stories ever written.

  Dianetics proposed to be a system of self-help therapy that could cure all forms of insanity where there had been no brain damage; a technique for curing non-germ diseases such as ulcers, arthritis and asthma; a method of giving a man a perfect, error-free memory, among other things. A book titled Dianetics proved a best seller and launched Hubbard on a career that eventually found him living in a great Eng-lish mansion, unabashedly wealthy.

  Campbell, with considerable vigor, attempted to get stories based on Dianetics (Hubbard wrote a fantasy involv-ing Dianetics, Masters of Sleep, for FANTASTIC ADVEN-TURES, October, 1950). He also pushed forward a search for evidence of the existence of extra-sensory motivated equip-ment (which he termed psionic machines) and new principles of dynamics which led him to champion a prototype of an "anti-gravity" device called the Dean Drive.

  Some very clever and entertaining stories did result from this divergence, though they were actually sheer fantasies based on hypothetical, imaginary sciences. The better re-jects trickled down to the lower paying markets and by this method, "psi" stories become an integral part of what is today called "modern" science fiction.

  "Modern" science fiction has be
en criticized for many things. The most damning has been the charge that its cas-ual narration, its stress on indirection and its interweaving of background as part of the story flow has deleted a great deal of what has been euphemized as "sense of wonder" from its context. Another major criticism has been that with the em-phasis on psychology, philosophy, psychiatry, sociology and psi, there has been a lag in new concepts, and scientific ad-vances have been rapidly turning many tried and true gambits into history. A consequence of this is that backgrounds in "modern" science fiction stories tend to be props, standard-ized so as to make it easier to make a point in a plot in which the science and technology

  are merely incidental.

  Even if all the foregoing are acknowledged, it still must be admitted that "modern" science fiction has recorded unpre-cedented achievement. There is not a major reference work on English literature produced in the past 10 years without material on science fiction, and it is rare that such a volume does not assign at least minor status to certain science fic-tion writers.

  A quarter of a century ago, any science fiction writer de-veloped by the magazines who could boast even a single hardcover book to his credit, was regarded by his fellows with awe. Today, one would be sorely pressed to find a published magazine story by a ranking science fiction writer that had not gone into book form or at least been included in an an-thology.

  Every technologically advanced non-Communist nation in the world today regularly publishes science fiction, and the majority of it is reprints of America's "modern" science fiction. Almost anywhere in the world it is possible to secure a selection of outstanding American authors. Behind the Iron Curtain, American science fiction is translated and reprinted. Science fiction is as much a cultural export of this nation as jazz and has resulted in the formation of conven-tion-sponsoring clubs even as far away as Japan.

  The six authors anthologized in this volume are beyond doubt among the major shapers of "modern" science fiction. These are the writers who gave it substance, contributed something distinctive and have written a disproportionate share of the landmarks in the format. Two authors, who had a monumental influence on the development of "modern" science fiction are not included here, because they belong to an earlier era. They are Olaf Stapledon and Stanley O. Weinbaum. From Stapledon was derived the emphasis on philosophical concepts as a plot basis for science fiction. From Weinbaum the methods of combining narrative, dialogue and background in a non-interrupted flow.

  Murray Leinster and Jack Williamson had made reputations in the field long before the popularity of modern science fiction and were among the old guard that most successfully converted to and contributed to the development of the new form. One author who initially appeared in 1930, Clifford D. Simak, is not presented in this group because his was only a secondary figure until the forties.

  L. Sprague de Camp, among the transitional discoveries made while ASTOUNDING STORIES was becoming ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION, is an extremely able satirist in the Mark Twain tradition.

  Isaac Asimov is one of those who most purely symbolize what is referred to as "modern" science fiction. He not only gave the field the "Three Laws of Robotics" which, by limit-ing the action of robots, offered authors unprecedented story opportunities, but wrote the most successful of all detective stories in a science fiction context.

  C. L. Moore was discovered by WEIRD TALES magazine, and gained her first reputation in tales of science fantasy, the supernatural and the horrifying. She is probably the most outstanding of modern women writers of science fiction. Her tales of Northwest Smith, space rover, won her first reputa-tion and she gained another writing as Lawrence O'Donnell, for Campbell. The C. L. Moore story has been taken from FAMOUS FANTASTIC MYSTERIES to provide a sample of the

  romantic scientific fantasies with which they held in thrall many loyal readers for 14 years, to contrast with other stories in this collection.

  Finally, one of the most recently acclaimed masters of "modern" science fiction—Arthur C. Clarke—has broken with the traditionalists of his school and scored in a uniquely indi-vidualistic fashion. He has most effectively combined valid scientific insight with poignant poetry and Before Eden ranks as one of his finest.

  This anthology is in every sense a companion to the edi-tor's Seekers of Tomorrow, which is a webwork history of modern science fiction, presented in the form of in-depth studies of all the authors featured in this book, plus certain others who made outstanding contributions. This book is in-tended to give superior examples of the actual fiction of six of the most influential practitioners of modern science fiction.

  Together with Seekers of Tomorrow, this collection forms a basic reference of a literary phenomenon of our time.

  Sam Moskowitz

  Newark, New Jersey

  THE VORTEX BLASTER

  by

  Edward E. Smith

  Safety devices that do not protect.

  The "unsinkable" ships that, before the days of Bergenholm and of atomic and cosmic energy, sank into the waters of the earth.

  More particularly, safety devices which, while protecting against one agent of destruction, attract magnet-like another and worse. Such as the armored cable within the walls of a wooden house. It protects the electrical conductors within against accidental external shorts; but, inadequately grounded as it must of necessity be, it may attract and upon occasion has attracted the stupendous force of lightning. Then, fused, volatized, flaming incandescent throughout the length, breadth, and height of a dwelling, that dwelling's existence thereafter is to be measured in minutes. Specifically, four lightning rods. The lightning rods protecting the chromium, glass, and plastic home of Neal Cloud. Those rods were adequately grounded, grounded with copper-silver cables the bigness of a strong man's arm; for Neal Cloud, atomic physicist, knew his lightning and he was taking no chances whatever with the safety of his lovely wife and their three wonderful kids. He did not know" he did not even suspect, that under certain conditions of atmospheric potential and of ground-magnetic stress his perfectly designed lightning-rod system would become a super-powerful magnet for flying vortices of atomic disintegration.

  And now Neal Cloud, atomic physicist, sat at his desk in a strained, dull apathy. His face was a yellowish-grey white, his tendoned hands gripped rigidly the arms of his chair. His eyes" hard and lifeless, stared unseeingly past the small, three-dimensional block portrait of all that had made life worth living. For his guardian against lightning had been a vortex magnet at the moment when a luckless wight had attempted to abate the nuisance of a "loose" atomic vortex. That wight died, of course-they almost always do-and the vortex, instead of being destroyed, was simply broken up into an indefinite number of widely-scattered new vortices. And one of these bits of furious, uncontrolled energy, resembling more nearly a handful of material rived from a sun than anything else with which ordinary man is familiar, darted toward and crashed downward to earth through Neal Cloud's new house.

  That home did not burn it; it simply exploded. Nothing of it, in it, or around it stood a chance, for in a fractional second of time the place where it had been was a crater of seething, boiling lava-a crater which filled the atmosphere to a height of miles with poisonous vapors; which flooded all circumambient space with lethal radiations.

  Cosmiscally, the whole thing was infinitesimal. Ever since man learned how to liberate intra-atomic energy, the vortices of disintegration had been breaking out of control. Such accidents had been happening, were happening, and would continue indefinitely to happen. More than one world, perhaps, had been or would be consumed to the last gram by such loose atomic vortices. What of that? Of what real importance are a few grains of sand to an ocean beach five thousand miles long, a hundred miles wide, and ten miles deep?

  And even to that individual grain of sand called "Earth"-or, in modern parlance,

  "Sol Three," or "Tellus of Sol," or simply "Tellus"-the affair was of negligible importance. One man had died; but, in dying, he had added one more page to
the thick bulk of negative results already on file. That Mrs. Cloud and her children had perished was merely unfortunate. The vortex itself was not yet a real threat to Tellus. It was a "new" one, and thus it would be a long time before it would become other than a local menace. And well before that could happen—before even the oldest of Tellus' loose vortices had eaten away much of her mass or poisoned much of her atmosphere, her scientists would have solved the problem. It was unthinkable that Tellus, the point of origin, and the very center of Galactic Civilization, should cease to exist.

  But to Neal Cloud the accident was the ultimate catastrophe. His personal universe had crashed in ruins; what was left was not worth picking up. He and Jo had been married for almost twenty years and the bonds between them had grown stronger, deeper, truer with every passing day. And the kids . . . It couldn't have happened . . . fate COULDN'T do this to him ... but it had ... it could. Gone ... gone

  ... GONE.

  And to Neal Cloud, atomic physicist, sitting there at his desk in torn, despairing abstraction, with black maggots of thought gnawing holes in his brain, the catastrophe was doubly galling because of its cruel irony. For he was second from the top in the Atomic Research Laboratory; his life's work had been a search for a means of extinguishment of exactly such loose vortices as had destroyed his all. His eyes focused vaguely upon the portrait. Clear, honest grey eyes . . . lines of character and humor . . . sweetly curved lips, ready to smile or to kiss. . . . He wrenched his eyes away and scribbled briefly upon a sheet of paper. Then, getting up stiffly, he took the portrait and moved woodenly across the room to a furnace. As though enshrining it he placed the plastic block upon a refractory between the electrodes and threw a switch. After the flaming arc had done its work be turned and handed the paper to a tall man, dressed in plain grey leather, who had been watching him with quiet, understanding eyes.