If you missed the last one…
This post is brought to you by Ships of Steel edited by G. W. Thomas. This anthology of Space Opera and SF Adventure tales features four novellas, each with its own illustration by M. D. Jackson. If you enjoy your Science Fiction with more action this is the book for you. Manhunts across a giant spaceship, a quest for stolen space pirate treasure with killer androids, a lost child that is the key to a mystery and a planet with a deadly secret that will cause a galactic war. These are stories that move but will also move you.
Last time we presented stories from John W. Campbell’s Astounding Science Fiction that made their way onto the Radio. This time the picking is much easier with a dozen from Horace L. Gold’s Galaxy, one of two newcomers to SF in the age of digests. The other was Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas’s Fantasy & Science Fiction. These new magazines were more literary in focus with Galaxy being the social smart-ass of the pair. The good news for Radio fans: these stories worked great on Radio. No long diatribes on nuclear power. Just aliens tricking humanity into becoming food. (I, of course, refer to Damian Knight’s “To Serve Man”, which was the quintessential Galaxy tale. “It’s a cookbook!”)
Something that surprised me after picking these stories was that the list of authors is largely the same. A writer like Murray Leinster could write a science-based puzzle for Campbell then turnaround and do “If You Was a Moklin” for Gold. Most of these writers could do this as well, some moving from Astounding to Galaxy, while others were comfortable in both. (You have to remember 1950 marked the first appearance of Dianetics along with its focus on “mutants” and”psi”, causing some authors, even old mainstays like Isaac Asimov, to move on.) Galaxy and F&SF were the new places to go.
“The Stars Are the Styx” (Galaxy, October 1950) by Theodore Sturgeon, broadcasted on July 24, 1956. This story was from the very first issue of Galaxy.
“Honeymoon In Hell” (Galaxy, November 1950) by Fredric Brown, broadcasted on December 26, 1956. Probably my least favorite Brown story for some reason?
“If You Was a Moklin” (Galaxy, September 1951) by Murray Leinster, broadcasted on June 12, 1956 (The Harry Rosenbaum illos look like Lee Brown Coye from Weird Tales.)
“C-Chute” (Galaxy, October 1951) by Isaac Asimov, broadcasted on February 8, 1956. An alien shoot-out from Ike!
“Star, Bright” (Galaxy, July 1952) by Mark Clifton, broadcasted on April 10, 1956
“Surface Tension” (Galaxy, August 1952) by James Blish, broadcasted on August 28, 1956
“The Defenders” (Galaxy, January 1953) by Philip K. Dick, broadcasted on May 22, 1956
“The Seventh Victim” (Galaxy, April 1953) by Robert Sheckley, broadcasted on March 6, 1957. This one became a film as The Tenth Victim (1965). Sheckley turned the idea into a three novel pieces with Victim Prime (1981) and Hunter/Victim (1988).
“At the Post” (Galaxy, October 1953) by H. L. Gold, broadcasted on March 27, 1957. This one was written by the editor of Galaxy. Usually Gold published his stuff in other magazines. Not this one.
“The Tunnel Under the World” (Galaxy, January 1955) by Frederik Pohl, broadcasted on March 14, 1956
“Project Mastodon” (Galaxy, March 1955) by Clifford D. Simak, broadcasted on June 5, 1956 Simak expanded this one into a novel. For more on this story, go here.
“A Gun For Dinosaur” (Galaxy, March 1956) by L. Sprague de Camp, broadcasted on March 7, 1956. Classic time travel tale along with Ray Bradbury’s “A Sound of Thunder”.
Conclusion
It is always fun to see how Radio will adapt a visual scene from a story, such as an Earthman defending himself from an alien, or a dinosaur eating a hunter, or an army of robots attacking a crowd. Sound effects can handle half the job but there is usually someone around to describe what we need to know. The other challenge is when you have a largely cerebral idea like that in “Star, Bright” without dinosaurs or explosions. It is up to characters and dialogue to get across the big idea the author is delivering. This was the challenge with many of the Astounding stories, big ideas that need to be illustrated somehow in the script. Galaxy is a more satirical magazine, so this is easier because dialogue is going to be used more often. You decide. Were the Astounding tales harder to pull off than the Galaxy? Either way, these are classic SF tales that are fun to listen to.
Discover these RAGE m a c h i n e SF books
Leave a Reply