Search Results for: short reviews

The Xi Effect, by Philip Latham was the cover story for the January 1950 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. For whatever reason, it was stripped out of the Archive.org scan of the issue, but if you’re a masochist, it can still be read here at Wikisource. Welcome to my Friday column, where each week I […]

…And Now You Don’t (Part 2), by Isaac Asimov was published in the December 1949 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. It can be read here at Archive.org. A young woman privy to knowledge of a galaxy-shaking conspiracy finds herself a potential political prisoner on the world where a tyrant had sought to rebuild a space […]

L. Ron Hubbard’s A Can of Vacuum appeared in the December 1949 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. It can be read here at Archive.org. A Can of Vacuum is a droll Mil-SF short about officer-hazing (which makes Hubbard’s own military service worth briefly noting; here, it’s been noted). A green ensign, Bigby Owen Pettigrew, has […]

The second installment of Gulf by Robert Heinlein appeared in the December 1949 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. It can be read here at Archive.org.  Robert Heinlein’s Spy-Fi thriller, Gulf, showed so much promise before sinking into the Campbellian morass of dull thinkery. Whereas Part 1 featured covert cat & mouse action, high stakes interrogation, and a […]

Reversion by M.C. Pease appeared in the December 1949 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. It can be read here at Archive.org We’re back to Bad Astounding with this one. One step removed from the Dialogues, in which multiple eggheads discuss their thinks, is the Monologue, in which one egghead goes on at length on a subject. […]

Final Command by A.E. van Vogt appeared in the November 1949 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. It can be read here at Archive.org. Councilman Barr, Director of the Council, has been given a burdensome task: find out what the response would be from robots if the Council decided to shut down and destroy all robots. […]

The first installment of Gulf, by Robert Heinlein, appeared in the November 1949 issue of Astounding. It can be found here at Archive.org. Gulf is a slow-burn sci-fi spy thriller. It’s very dark and atmospheric, and while the hook, some of the window dressing, and the MacGuffin are science-fiction, Gulf stands up as a fairly […]

Over the Top, by Lester del Rey, appeared in the November 1949 issue of Astounding. You can’t read it at Archive.org, because John Betancourt had it scrubbed. A little birdie told me it can be found as a .cbr here, though. After that Asimov stinker, this issue of Astounding makes a fabulous 180 with not one, […]

…And Now You Don’t, by Isaac Asimov, was serialized in three parts beginning with the November 1949 issue of Astounding. It was later anthologized as the second half of the book “Second Foundation”. It can be read here at Archive.org. This is it, guys! One of the touchstone sagas of Campbell’s Astounding and the Golden […]

Defense Mechanism by Katherine MacLean appeared in the October 1949 issue of Astounding. It can be read here at Archive.org. Defense Mechanism was tucked behind the book reviews and letters to the editor, so I almost missed it! Considering how influential its writer would go on to be, it’s ironic that her debut could go […]

The Finan-Seer by E. L. Locke appeared in the October 1949 issue of Astounding. It is his only short story (Locke was primarily an essayist for the magazine), the story is something of a follow-up of his essay on cybernetics in the previous issue. This may have been the Astounding story that has defeated me. […]