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Last Enemy

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" Last Enemy " is a science fiction short story by American writer H. Beam Piper , and is a part of his Paratime series. The title is a reference to 1 Corinthians 15:26, “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” (KJV)

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144-544: It made its first appearance in August 1950, in Astounding Science Fiction magazine (now Analog ). In 2001, "Last Enemy" was nominated for the 1951 Retro-Hugo Award for Best Novella . The story begins at a dinner party given by Garnon of Roxor. The party is a voluntary discarnation feast, or suicide party. Garnon has been planning his discarnation for years, but has decided to proceed now, to assist in

288-461: A Changewar . Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore began to appear regularly in Astounding , often under the pseudonym "Lewis Padgett", and more new writers appeared: Hal Clement , Raymond F. Jones , and George O. Smith , all of whom became regular contributors. The September 1942 issue contained del Rey's "Nerves", which was one of the few stories to be ranked top by every single reader who voted in

432-692: A Stone Age culture having evolved on Earth independently, but never advanced. The means of traveling through timelines is a flying saucer -shaped "conveyor" using the Ghaldron-Hesthor field generator, which was developed via a fortuitous fusion of attempts to develop faster than light space travel with ones attempting to explain certain psychic phenomena. Conveyors are fixed in place, which means that as they travel through timelines, they may end up inside nuclear reactors or other hazards or be caught in warfare (a common activity on at least one timeline in nearly every trip, Paratimers note). Weakening of

576-474: A cent a word, on publication (or sometimes later)—and consequently Astounding attracted some of the better-known pulp writers, such as Murray Leinster , Victor Rousseau , and Jack Williamson . In February 1931, the original name Astounding Stories of Super-Science was shortened to Astounding Stories . The magazine was profitable, but the Great Depression caused Clayton problems. Normally

720-968: A child because, without covers showing men with ray guns and women with large breasts, "it didn't look like an SF magazine". The period beginning with Campbell's editorship of Astounding is usually referred to as the Golden Age of Science Fiction , because of the immense influence he had on the genre. Within two years of becoming editor, he had published stories by many of the writers who would become central figures in science fiction. The list of names included established authors like L. Ron Hubbard , Clifford Simak , Jack Williamson , L. Sprague de Camp , Henry Kuttner , and C.L. Moore , who became regulars in either Astounding or its sister magazine, Unknown , and new writers who published some of their first stories in Astounding , such as Lester del Rey , Theodore Sturgeon , Isaac Asimov , A. E. van Vogt , and Robert Heinlein . The April 1938 issue included

864-409: A circulation over 100,000. William Clayton , a successful and well-respected publisher of several pulp magazines, considered starting a competitive title in 1928; according to Harold Hersey , one of his editors at the time, Hersey had "discussed plans with Clayton to launch a pseudo-science fantasy sheet". Clayton was unconvinced, but the following year decided to launch a new magazine, mainly because

1008-439: A clear identity in the market that would distinguish it from both the existing science fiction magazines and the hero pulps, such as The Shadow , that frequently used sf ideas. The "thought variant" policy may have been introduced for publicity, rather than as a real attempt to define the sort of fiction Tremaine was looking for; the early "thought variant" stories were not always very original or well executed. Ashley describes

1152-640: A colonel of scouts. By the time of Great Kings' War , Vall has taken over as Chief of the Paratime Police, replacing the newly retired Tortha Karff. Hadron Dalla is a psychical researcher and has been married to Verkan Vall twice. On the home timeline, she is a member of Rhogom Memorial Foundation of Psychic Science in Dhergabar. Dalla traveled to the Akor-Neb sector to continue research, where she discovered evidence that human consciousness survives

1296-647: A disastrous move. Clayton did not have the money to complete the transaction, and in October 1932, Clayton decided to cease publication of Astounding , with the expectation that the January 1933 issue would be the last one. As it turned out, enough stories were in inventory, and enough paper was available, to publish one further issue, so the last Clayton Astounding was dated March 1933. In April, Clayton went bankrupt, and sold his magazine titles to T.R. Foley for $ 100; Foley resold them in August to Street & Smith ,

1440-608: A feature that Campbell had run in the early 1940s that published tall tales—humorous stories with ludicrous or impossible scientific premises. Also in 1979 Schmidt began a series of columns titled "The Alternate View", an opinion column that was written in alternate issues by G. Harry Stine and Jerry Pournelle, and which is still a feature of the magazine as of 2016, though now with different contributors. The stable of fiction contributors remained largely unchanged from Bova's day, and included many names, such as Poul Anderson, Gordon R. Dickson, and George O. Smith, familiar to readers from

1584-400: A girl who stows away on a spaceship, generated much reader debate, and has been described as capturing the ethos of Campbell's Astounding . The spaceship is carrying urgently needed medical supplies to a planet in distress, and has a single pilot; the ship does not have enough fuel to reach the planet if the girl stays on the ship, so the "cold equations" of physics force the pilot to jettison

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1728-471: A gradual decline over the Bova years, from just over 92,000 in 1981 to almost 110,000 two years later. Starting with the first 1981 issue, Davis switched Analog to a four-weekly schedule, rather than monthly, to align the production schedule with a weekly calendar. Instead of being dated "January 1981", the first issue under the new regime was dated "January 5, 1981", but this approach led to newsstands removing

1872-605: A hideout of a crime organization that traded slaves across timelines. In the Second Level, the colony succeeded, but there were intermittent periods of Dark Ages between civilizations. The Akor-Neb civilization of Last Enemy is Second Level; its technology is almost identical to the Home Timeline except for paratemporal transposition. The culture there has legends or records of their Martian origins. The Jak-Hakka civilization follows an ideology of "Dictatorship of

2016-611: A nuclear battery to 200 degrees Celsius . A commonly used curse by Verkan Vall is "By the Fangs of Fasif" referring to the religion common in the Kiftan Sector. Third Level timelines, as Piper described them, were "A few survivors—a shipload or so—were left to shift for themselves while the parent civilization on Mars died out. They lost all vestiges of their original Martian culture, even memory of their extraterrestrial origin." Some Third Level timelines have developed space travel;

2160-508: A paratemporal slave-trading ring in Time Crime . (In Home Timeline usage, family names precede personal names.) The Abzar Sector is one where the survivors exhausted the resources of Earth and exterminated each other in a series of wars. Apparently the Home Timeline was only saved from a similar outcome by the discovery of paratime travel, which allowed it to exploit the resources of other timelines. Some Abzar Sector timelines were used as

2304-543: A planet-wide Assassins’ Truce, holding the leaders personally responsible with their carnate existence for keeping it. Klarnood accepts the idea, and wishes Vall and Dalla well, expressing hope that he see neither of them ever again. On their trip back to the First Level city of Dhergabar, Dalla expresses her regret at the forces she has released in the Akor-Neb Sector, but Vall assures her that she can only see

2448-594: A poor relationship with Campbell, sold several covers to Bova. Bova won the Hugo Award for Best Professional Editor for five consecutive years, 1973 through 1977. Stanley Schmidt was an assistant professor of physics when he became editor of Analog , and his scientific background was well-suited to the magazine's readership. He avoided making drastic changes, and continued the long-standing tradition of writing provocative editorials, though he rarely discussed science fiction. In 1979 he resurrected "Probability Zero",

2592-561: A publisher would pay a printer three months in arrears, but when a credit squeeze began in May 1931, it led to pressure to reduce this delay. The financial difficulties led Clayton to start alternating the publication of his magazines, and he switched Astounding to a bimonthly schedule with the June 1932 issue. Some printers bought the magazines which were indebted to them: Clayton decided to buy his printer to prevent this from happening. This proved

2736-674: A short description of stories in the next issue, titled "In Times To Come"; and in March, he began "The Analytical Laboratory", which compiled votes from readers and ranked the stories in order. The payment rate at the time was one cent a word, and Street & Smith agreed to let Campbell pay a bonus of an extra quarter-cent a word to the writer whose story was voted top of the list. Unlike other editors Campbell paid authors when he accepted—not published—their work; publication usually occurred several months after acceptance. Campbell wanted his writers to provide action and excitement, but he also wanted

2880-477: A subsistence agriculture economy to survive. The culture is pacifistic and nonaggressive, though Dwarma peoples eat meat. One major event people remembered for years is when a farmer and trader contradicted themselves on the price of a pig; they raised their voices and shouted at each other. Verkan Vall and Hadron Dalla were planning a vacation in the Dwarma Sector when it was interrupted by the discovering of

3024-529: A well-established publisher. Science fiction was not entirely a departure for Street & Smith. They already had two pulp titles that occasionally ventured into the field: The Shadow , which had begun in 1931 and was tremendously successful, with a circulation over 300,000; and Doc Savage , which had been launched in March 1933. They gave the post of editor of Astounding to F. Orlin Tremaine , an experienced editor who had been working for Clayton as

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3168-490: Is "Gulf" , by Heinlein. Other stories and articles were written by some of the most famous authors of the time: Asimov, Sturgeon, del Rey, van Vogt, de Camp, and the astronomer R. S. Richardson . By 1950, Campbell's strong personality had led him into conflict with some of his leading writers, some of whom abandoned Astounding as a result. The launch of both The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and Galaxy Science Fiction in 1949 and 1950, respectively, marked

3312-532: Is a member of the nobility of the Home Timeline, able to style himself His Valor, the Mavrad of Nerros, though he does not and often forgets he has a title. (This indicates that a mavrad is approximately equivalent to a duke .) Vall's Paratime Police position is Special Assistant to the Chief of the Paratime Police, Tortha Karff's personal roving inspector. He serves as a general troubleshooter for Chief Tortha Karf and

3456-562: Is assigned to cases that require special attention from the Paratime Police. In Police Operation , he has to hunt down a Venusian night-hound that escaped onto our timeline; in Temple Trouble , he must rescue Home Level paratimers from torture and execution; in Last Enemy , he must locate researcher Hadron Dalla; and in Time Crime , he is in charge of an investigation to track down a large criminal organization of slave traders. At

3600-481: Is called Vall by his friends, Hadron Dalla is known as Dalla to her friends and so on. It is also the case that nearly all male names have a two-syllable family name and a one-syllable personal name. Verkan Vall was born on the island of Nerros ( Cuba ) in the Home Timeline some time in the late 1800s; in Last Enemy , he noted he was eighty when he and Dalla Hadron were first married. He is described as having "handsome regularity of his strangely immobile features." He

3744-572: Is convinced that he is inescapably right and that whoever differs with him is not only an ignoramus but a venal scoundrel as well.” Feigning insult at one Statisticalist’s statements, Vall succeeds in getting each of the three to challenge him to individual duels, which in Akor-Neb are to the death. The first duel is handled with knives, and Vall succeeds in killing his opponent, Marnark of Bashad, in eight seconds. The remaining two duels are handled with guns, and Vall succeeds in killing these opponents, Sirzob of Abo and Yirzol of Narva, with one shot each to

3888-650: Is more important than one outtimer's life. Sometimes they stumble out of the conveyor onto another timeline: this could have happened to British diplomat Benjamin Bathurst in He Walked Around the Horses (Note: This "could" is almost a certainty since the details of the story of such an occurrence that Tortha Karf tells in Police Operation match exactly the events in this story) or to the stranger on

4032-569: Is probably Jack Williamson's "The Legion of Space", which began serialization in April, but other notable stories include Murray Leinster's "Sidewise in Time", which was the first genre science fiction story to use the idea of alternate history ; "The Bright Illusion", by C.L. Moore , and " Twilight ", by John W. Campbell, writing as Don A. Stuart. "Twilight", which was written in a more literary and poetic style than Campbell's earlier space opera stories,

4176-601: Is the home of the Paratime civilization. This is the only known timeline with paratime travel capacity, and protection of the Paratime Secret is the highest priority. Venus and Mars are also colonized by the Home Timeline (or in the case of Mars, reclaimed), and paratime transport exists there as well. The Dwarma sector is one where paratime travel was never discovered, and the Martian colonists settled down into

4320-456: The Paratime plots nearly all "rely on the self-sufficient human. This type of person, nearly always male, uses inner strength to pull through situations that weaker persons cannot survive". The Guide notes Piper's expertise for exploring "'what if' history" the Paratime stories. Karen Hellekson explains that "Piper divides his worlds into levels, based on their proximity and likeness to

4464-520: The April 1946 Astounding , and another British writer, Christopher Youd , began his career with "Christmas Tree" in February 1949. Youd would become much better known under his pseudonym "John Christopher". William Tenn 's first sale, "Alexander the Bait", appeared in May 1946, and H. Beam Piper's "Time and Time Again" in the April 1947 issue was his first story. Along with these newer writers, Campbell

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4608-552: The April 1965 issue Analog reverted to digest size once again. Circulation, which had been increasing before the change, was not harmed, and continued to increase while Analog was in slick format. From the April 1965 issue the title switched the "fiction" and "fact" elements, so that it became Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact . Campbell died suddenly in July 1971, but there was enough material in Analog ' s inventory to allow

4752-753: The Aryan-Transpacific sector, the Aryans moved east, through Asia into North America (the Minor Land Mass); one timeline in Aryan-Transpacific is the setting of Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen . After Piper's death, three additional books have been written based in this universe. The Proto Aryan Sector had the Aryan migration occur 1500 years later than in our sector, where the presence of established Sumerian and Nile civilizations inhibited their migration. Near our timeline are timelines where there

4896-479: The Assassins go to a restaurant, they find themselves sitting next to a table that contains three Statisticalists who are loudly denouncing Dalla’s work and disappearance as a politically inspired hoax. The three men “were of a breed Verkan Vall had learned to recognize on any time-line -- the arrogant, cocksure, ambitious, leftist politician, who knows what is best for everybody better than anybody else does, and who

5040-609: The Campbell era. This continuity led to criticisms within the field, Bruce Sterling writing in 1984 that the magazine "has become old, dull, and drivelling... It is a situation screaming for reform. Analog no longer permits itself to be read." The magazine thrived nevertheless, and though part of the increase in circulation during the early 1980s may have been due to Davis Publications' energetic efforts to increase subscriptions, Schmidt knew what his readership wanted and made sure they got it, commenting in 1985: "I reserve Analog for

5184-599: The Caribbean Islands, who were reputed to be the best fighters in all paratime. In Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen , Vall investigates the wounding of a Paratime Policeman by Calvin Morrison and determines whether or not Calvin should die or live. He decides that Morrison is no threat to the Paratime Secret, though he must have deduced it. Vall takes occasional service with the Morrison-led army of Hos-Hostigos as

5328-452: The Chosen," it has been used as an example of political structures the Home Timeline wishes to avoid. The Khiftan sector is one whose cultures are brutal and violent. Their cities are low domes, for protection against nuclear blasts; the priesthood of Fasif punishes blasphemy with torture; and an example of Khiftan craftsmanship seen in Time Crime is a whip, the tip of which can be heated by

5472-481: The Esaron civilization developed space travel before it developed the germ theory of disease and suffered a great setback when Venusian microbial life killed off most of the population. The Caribbean islands of this sector are overrun with pirates reported to be the best knife fighters in all of Paratime. Verkan Vall learned his knife fighting technique from them. The Fourth Level is the level of highest probability:

5616-442: The First Level she refuses. It seems that one ramification of her studies has escaped her –- if a Paratimer dies in the Akor-Neb Sector, and later takes one of this sector’s past-life recall procedures, then the Paratime secret will be utterly revealed. Conditioned, like all Paratimers, to protect the Paratime secret at all costs, Dalla realizes that it is imperative that they leave Akor-Neb as soon as possible. Before they can leave

5760-570: The First Paratime Level. It is from Dalla, and introduces its bearer as Dirzed, who has come to take Vall to her. She is hiding out in a hunting lodge that belongs to Prince Jirzyn of Starpha, a nobleman and important leader among the Volitionalists. Dalla is overjoyed to see Vall, and happily tells him about all of the advancements she has made with past-life recall. But, when Vall tells her that she must immediately return to

5904-402: The Home Timeline civilization must ever know about paratime travel. The Paratime Transposition Code sets out legal penalties for this, as well as other crimes involving paratime, such as kidnapping and enslavement. Paratime Police officers are authorized to use extrajudiciary means, such as assassination, of both Home Time residents or outtimes, to protect the secret if necessary. This action is at

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6048-518: The Home Timeline hold a reserve commission as Paratime officers, and are expected to activate their powers when needed. The Chief of the Paratime Police at the beginning of the series is Tortha Karf. Special Chief's Assistant Verkan Vall is the protagonist of most of the Paratime stories. All persons in the Paratime stories have names where the family name is first, somewhat similar to usage in Asiatic cultures in our timeline. For example, Verkan Vall

6192-400: The Home Timeline, overall, believe themselves to be scientific rationalists , otherwise known as Rational Empiricists , and atheists . Their calendar numbers days of the year rather than months. The Home Timeline's capital city apparently is Dhergabar, as is the home of many of its prominent scientific and cultural institutions. Based on clues in the stories, Dhergabar seems to be located in

6336-680: The July 1941 issue, was the first story in his "Weapon Shop" series, described by critic John Clute as the most compelling of all van Vogt's work. The September 1941 issue included Asimov's short story " Nightfall " and in November, Second Stage Lensman , the next novel in Smith's Lensman series, began serialization. The following year brought the first installment of Asimov's " Foundation " stories; "Foundation" appeared in May and "Bridle and Saddle" in June. The March 1942 issue included Van Vogt's novella "Recruiting Station", an early version of

6480-515: The Lens . In the November 1948 issue, Campbell published a letter to the editor by a reader named Richard A. Hoen that contained a detailed ranking of the contents of an issue "one year in the future". Campbell went along with the joke and contracted stories from most of the authors mentioned in the letter that would follow the Hoen's imaginary story titles. One of the best-known stories from that issue

6624-685: The March 1972 issue with " The Gold at the Starbow's End ", which was nominated for both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, and that summer Joe Haldeman 's "Hero" appeared. This was the first story in Haldeman's " Forever War " sequence; Campbell had rejected it, listing multiple reasons including the frequent use of profanity and the implausibility of men and women serving in combat together. Bova asked to see it again and ran it without asking for changes. Other new writers included Spider Robinson , whose first sale

6768-623: The Paratime Police The Paratime series written by H. Beam Piper and subsequently by John F. Carr consists of several short stories, one novella, and one novel, all but one of which were originally published in Astounding Science Fiction under the editorship of John W. Campbell . The series deals with an advanced civilization that is able to travel between parallel universes with alternate histories, and uses that ability to trade for goods and services that its own, exhausted Earth cannot provide. The protagonists of

6912-537: The Second Level Akor-Neb society. The Statisticalist party believes that reincarnation is a statistically random event, and as such private property and wealth should be socialized to give everyone an equal opportunity. The Volitionalist party, on the other hand, believes that everyone reincarnates as they please, or of their own volition, so they favor the present system of private property and capitalism. Dallona’s new discoveries have completely undermined

7056-444: The Starbow's End ", which was nominated for both a Hugo and Nebula Award, and Joe Haldeman 's "Hero", the first story in the Hugo and Nebula Award–winning " Forever War " sequence; Pohl had been unable to sell to Campbell, and "Hero" had been rejected by Campbell as unsuitable for the magazine. Bova won five consecutive Hugo Awards for his editing of Analog . Bova was followed by Stanley Schmidt , who continued to publish many of

7200-570: The Starpha people gain the upper hand, and seem ready to discarnate the lot of them, help does indeed arrive and the Paratimers are saved. But all is not well, the lodge is rocked when an atomic bomb is detonated some forty miles distant, the first one fired in anger in a thousand years. In Akor-Neb society, an Assassins’ Truce is a temporary cessation of hostilities, and before he leaves Vall recommends to President-General Klarnood that he declare

7344-734: The Statisticalists' position, and they are determined to suppress the studies, and do away with Dallona permanently. In reality, Dallona of Hadron is actually Hadron Dalla , a psychic-science researcher, from the Paratime First Level . And now that she has mysteriously disappeared, Tortha Karf , the Chief of Paratime Police, sends his special assistant, Verkan Vall , to the Second Level Akor-Neb Sector to find her and bring her back before she can be forcibly discarnated (i.e., murdered). Arriving in

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7488-474: The Sun as seen from Mercury for the February 1938 issue. He also introduced Charles Schneeman as a cover artist, starting with the May 1938 issue, and Hubert Rogers in February 1939; Rogers quickly became a regular, painting all but four of the covers between September 1939 and August 1942. They differentiated the magazine from rivals. Algis Budrys recalled that " Astounding was the last magazine I picked up" as

7632-419: The agent's discretion. Another method to protect the Paratime Secret involves spreading uncertainty and doubt about accounts of encountering paratimers. In the case of pre-scientific cultures, this is easier; actions can be explained as acts of the gods. In our timeline, in which the concept of alternate realities is common, the Paratime Police have spread stories which are implausible when investigated; however,

7776-452: The body and reincarnation is a scientific fact; this research led to a major upset of Akor-Neb politics and societal structure, and forced Verkan Vall to retrieve her lest the Paratime Secret be disclosed (see Last Enemy ). Dalla remarries Vall. Before they can go on a vacation on the Dwarma sector, Vall is called to investigate a gang of paratime slave traders; Dalla goes along with him on

7920-527: The competing magazines, including the two main extant titles, Wonder Stories and Amazing Stories , were publishing space opera, stories of interplanetary adventure, or other well-worn ideas from the early days of the genre. Campbell's attempts to make science fiction more mature led to a natural division of the writers: those who were unable to write to his standards continued to sell to other magazines; and those who could sell to Campbell quickly focused their attention on Astounding and sold relatively little to

8064-439: The decade he championed psionics and antigravity devices. Although these enthusiasms diminished Campbell's reputation, Astounding continued to publish some popular and influential science fiction. In 1953, Campbell serialized Hal Clement's Mission of Gravity , described by John Clute and David Langford as "one of the best-loved novels in sf", and in 1954 Tom Godwin 's " The Cold Equations " appeared. The story, about

8208-428: The direction of the magazine lessened his chances with Condé Nast. The Condé Nast vice president in charge of selecting the new editor decided to read both fiction and nonfiction writing samples from the applicants, since Analog ' s title included both "science fiction" and "science fact". He chose Ben Bova , afterwards telling Bova that his stories and articles "were the only ones I could understand". January 1972

8352-459: The director, to become familiar with Dalla’s research and its full political fallout. Through his associate with the Society of Assassins and the constabulary, Olirzon finds evidence that suggests that Dalla is in fact alive, and hiding out with her Assassin-bodyguard, Dirzed. Vall realizes that it will prove impossible to find Dalla, so he must do something to get her to contact him. When Vall and

8496-438: The early 1930s as a writer, publishing space opera under his own name, and more thoughtful stories under the pseudonym "Don A. Stuart". He started working for Street & Smith in October 1937, so his initial editorial influence appeared in the issue dated December 1937. The March 1938 issue was the first that was fully his responsibility. In early 1938, Street & Smith abandoned its policy of having editors-in-chief, with

8640-414: The ebook numbers not reflected in the published annual circulation numbers, which by 2011 were down to under 27,000. In 2004 the January and February issues were combined, so that only ten issues a year appeared. Having just surpassed John W. Campbell's tenure of 34 years, Schmidt retired in August 2012. His place was taken by Trevor Quachri , who continues to edit Analog as of 2023. From January 2017,

8784-415: The editor of Clues , and who had come to Street & Smith as part of the transfer of titles after Clayton's bankruptcy. Desmond Hall, who had also come from Clayton, was made assistant editor; because Tremaine was editor of Clues and Top-Notch , as well as Astounding , Hall did much of the editorial work, though Tremaine retained final control over the contents. The first Street & Smith issue

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8928-405: The end of Astounding ' s dominance of science fiction, with many now regarding Galaxy as the leading magazine. Campbell's growing interest in pseudoscience also damaged his reputation in the field. Campbell was deeply involved with the launch of Dianetics , publishing Hubbard's first article on it in Astounding in May 1950, and promoting it heavily in the months beforehand; later in

9072-529: The end of Time Crime Vall is promoted to Chief of Duplicate Paratime Police, a new system set up on Police Terminal to seek out and destroy large organized crime syndicates operating across Paratime like the Organization described in Time Crime . Vall is a crack shot with either hand (like most Paratimers, he is ambidextrous) and learned knife fighting from the Third Level Khanga pirates of

9216-616: The eyes of Mike Ashley , a science fiction historian, Bates was "destroying the ideals of science fiction". One historically important story that almost appeared in Astounding was E.E. Smith 's Triplanetary , which Bates would have published had Astounding not folded in early 1933. The cover Wesso had painted for the story appeared on the March 1933 issue, the last to be published by Clayton. When Street & Smith acquired Astounding , they also planned to relaunch another Clayton pulp, Strange Tales , and acquired material for it before deciding not to proceed. These stories appeared in

9360-580: The fact that Pohl doesn't use the same idea of "nearness" as Piper, and that Pohl makes a heavier use of analogous characters who develop differently between timelines. Alva Rogers says the "stories were entertaining tales not intended to be taken too seriously", noting the stories attempts to answer various " Fortean mysteries". Rogers says that Piper even got the initial idea from Charles Fort . In Piper's Paratime universe, there are an infinite number of timelines , but in each timeline, events occurred differently. They are grouped into five Levels, based on

9504-519: The first Street & Smith Astounding , dated October 1933. This issue and the next were unremarkable in quality, but with the December issue, Tremaine published a statement of editorial policy, calling for "thought variant" stories containing original ideas and not simply reproducing adventure themes in a science fiction context. The policy was probably worked out between Tremaine and Desmond Hall, his assistant editor, in an attempt to give Astounding

9648-531: The first of the genre sf magazines to be published in digest format, beginning with the November 1943 issue. The format remained unchanged until Condé Nast produced 25 bedsheet issues of Analog between March 1963 and March 1965, after which it returned to digest format. In May 1998, and again in December 2008, the format was changed to be slightly larger than the usual digest size: first to 8.25 x 5.25 in (210 x 135 mm), and then to 8.5 x 5.75 in (217 x 148 mm). Paratime series#The Paratime Secret and

9792-571: The first story by del Rey, "The Faithful", and de Camp's second sale, " Hyperpilosity ". Jack Williamson's " Legion of Time ", described by author and editor Lin Carter as "possibly the greatest single adventure story in science fiction history", began serialization in the following issue. De Camp contributed a nonfiction article, "Language for Time Travelers", in the July issue, which also contained Hubbard's first science fiction sale, "The Dangerous Dimension". Hubbard had been selling genre fiction to

9936-576: The first, Nat Schachner 's "Ancestral Voices", as "not amongst Schachner's best"; the second, "Colossus", by Donald Wandrei , was not a new idea, but was energetically written. Over the succeeding issues, it became apparent that Tremaine was genuinely willing to publish material that would have fallen foul of editorial taboos elsewhere. He serialized Charles Fort 's Lo! , a nonfiction work about strange and inexplicable phenomena, in eight parts between April and November 1934, in an attempt to stimulate new ideas for stories. The best-remembered story of 1934

10080-542: The general vicinity of our timeline's India - Malaysia , some three hours travel by rocket from the east coast of North America over the North Pole . The government of the Home Timeline, the "Management", is a parliamentary system. Many of the inhabitants of the Service Sector, as well as servants and low-status workers in Home Timeline, are Fourth Level tribesmen from primitive cultures who are recruited by

10224-471: The girl, killing her. Later in the 1950s and early 1960s writers like Gordon R. Dickson , Poul Anderson, and Harry Harrison appeared regularly in the magazine. Frank Herbert 's Dune was serialized in Analog in two separate sequences, in 1963 and 1965, and soon became "one of the most famous of all sf novels", according to Malcolm Edwards and John Clute. 1965 marked the year Campbell received his eighth Hugo Award for Best Professional Magazine ; this

10368-533: The goal of stimulating story ideas. The main contributors of these were R.S. Richardson , L. Sprague de Camp, and Willy Ley . Campbell changed the approach to the magazine's cover art, hoping that more mature artwork would attract more adult readers and enable them to carry the magazine without embarrassment. Howard V. Brown had done almost every cover for the Street & Smith version of Astounding , and Campbell asked him to do an astronomically accurate picture of

10512-501: The great majority of readers were subscribers, as newsstand sales declined to only 15,000. In 1992 Analog was sold to Dell Magazines , and Dell was in turn acquired by Crosstown Publications in 1996. That year the Mid-December issues stopped appearing, and the following year the July and August issues were combined into a single bimonthly issue. An ebook edition became available in 2000 and has become increasingly popular, with

10656-652: The head. After the duels, Klarnood, the President-General of the Society of Assassins, who served as a witness to the duels, takes Vall aside, and informs him that the three men he has just killed were high among the leadership of the Statisticalist party, and that the Statisticalists will be as determined to discarnate him as they are Hadron Dalla. Also, he has certain knowledge that Dalla and Dirzed were alive four days previous, and that in three or four days he might be able to put Vall in communication with

10800-460: The home time line", meaning the time line of the people who know how to move between parallel worlds. She explains this as a useful technique for developing the alternative histories of the story. Hellekson compares Paratime to Frederik Pohl 's The Coming of the Quantum Cats , describing similarities in the approach to parallel timelines, as well as some meaningful differences including

10944-604: The interior artwork as "entrancing, giving hints of higher technology without ignoring the human element", and singles out the work of Elliot Dold as particularly impressive. Tremaine's policy of printing material that he liked without staying too strictly within the bounds of the genre led him to serialize H.P. Lovecraft 's novel At the Mountains of Madness in early 1936. He followed this with Lovecraft's " The Shadow Out of Time " in June 1936, though protests from science fiction purists occurred. Generally, however, Tremaine

11088-566: The investigation. Her skills as a psychic researcher and investigator are highly valuable to the investigation, and she becomes a member of the Paratime Police. Dalla goes with Vall to the kingdom of Hos-Hostigos in Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen , serving as a second pair of eyes and a companion to Princess Rylla, who becomes Morrison's wife. This disturbs Vall a little bit; he regards the two women as two identical sticks of dynamite, believing that whatever sort of trouble one of them didn't think of,

11232-485: The issue as the start of the Golden Age. Other first sales that year included Heinlein's "Lifeline" in August and Sturgeon's "Ether Breather" the following month. One of the most popular authors of space opera, E.E. Smith, reappeared in October, with the first installment of Gray Lensman . This was a sequel to Galactic Patrol , which had appeared in Astounding two years before. Heinlein rapidly became one of

11376-502: The job; Poul Anderson did not want to leave California, and neither did Jerry Pournelle , who also felt the salary was too small. Before he died, Campbell had talked to Harry Harrison about taking over as editor, but Harrison did not want to live in New York. Lester del Rey and Clifford D. Simak were also rumored to have been offered the job, though Simak denied it; Frederik Pohl was interested, but suspected his desire to change

11520-543: The key figures were van Vogt, Simak, Kuttner, Moore, and Fritz Leiber , all of whom were less oriented towards technology in their fiction than writers like Asimov or Heinlein. This led to the appearance of more psychologically oriented fiction, such as van Vogt's World of Null-A , which was serialized in 1945. Kuttner and Moore contributed a humorous series about an inventor, Galloway Gallegher, who could only invent while drunk, but they were also capable of serious fiction. Campbell had asked them to write science fiction with

11664-547: The kind of science fiction I've described here: good stories about people with problems in which some piece of plausible (or at least not demonstrably implausible) speculative science plays an indispensable role". Over the decades of Schmidt's editorship, many writers became regular contributors, including Arlan Andrews , Catherine Asaro , Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff , Michael Flynn , Geoffrey A. Landis , Paul Levinson , Robert J. Sawyer , Charles Sheffield and Harry Turtledove . Schmidt never won an editing Hugo while in charge of

11808-452: The late 1940s, both Thrilling Wonder and Startling Stories began to publish much more mature fiction than they had during the war, and although Astounding was still the leading magazine in the field, it was no longer the only market for the writers who had been regularly selling to Campbell. Many of the best new writers still broke into print in Astounding rather than elsewhere. Arthur C. Clarke 's first story, " Loophole ", appeared in

11952-494: The lodge, they and their Assassins come under attack from the Starpha family servants. It seems that Prince Jirzyn has changed his mind, and now wishes Lady Dallona dead –- Dalla’s experiments are beginning to bear more unexpected fruit. It seems that years ago Jirzyn of Starpha had murdered his brother to gain the title and position that his brother had, and now a man has found out that he was that brother in his most recent reincarnation and he has filled suit against Jirzyn to retrieve

12096-436: The magazine much more quickly, since the date gave the impression that it was a weekly magazine. The cover date was changed back to the current month starting with the April 1982 issue, but the new schedule remained in place, with a "Mid-September" issue in 1982 and 1983, and "Mid-December" issues for more than a decade thereafter. Circulation trended slowly down over the 1980s, to 83,000 for the year ending in 1990; by this time

12240-401: The magazine simultaneously switched to the larger bedsheet format, but this did not last. Astounding returned to pulp-size in mid-1943 for six issues, and then became the first science fiction magazine to switch to digest size in November 1943, increasing the number of pages to maintain the same total word count. The price remained at 25 cents through these changes in format. The hyphen

12384-403: The magazine switched from untrimmed to trimmed edges; Brian Stableford comments that this was "an important symbolic" step, as the other sf pulps were still untrimmed, making Astounding smarter-looking than its competitors. Tremaine was promoted to assistant editorial director in 1937. His replacement as editor of Astounding was 27-year-old John W. Campbell, Jr. Campbell had made his name in

12528-416: The magazine was sold to Street & Smith . The new editor was F. Orlin Tremaine , who soon made Astounding the leading magazine in the nascent pulp science fiction field, publishing well-regarded stories such as Jack Williamson 's Legion of Space and John W. Campbell 's "Twilight" . At the end of 1937, Campbell took over editorial duties under Tremaine's supervision, and the following year Tremaine

12672-510: The magazine, but after he resigned he won the 2013 Hugo for Editor Short Form . Schmidt retired in August 2012, and his place was taken by Trevor Quachri , who mostly continued the editorial policies of Schmidt. Starting in January 2017, the publication became bimonthly. Editorial history at Astounding and Analog : Astounding was published in pulp format until the January 1942 issue, when it switched to bedsheet. It reverted to pulp for six issues, starting in May 1943, and then became

12816-408: The monthly Analytical Laboratory poll; it dealt with the aftermath of an explosion at a nuclear plant. Campbell emphasized scientific accuracy over literary style. Asimov, Heinlein, and de Camp were trained scientists and engineers. After 1942, several of the regular contributors such as Heinlein, Asimov, and Hubbard, who had joined the war effort, appeared less frequently. Among those who remained,

12960-400: The most prolific contributors to Astounding , publishing three novels in the next two years: If This Goes On— , Sixth Column , and Methuselah's Children ; and half a dozen short stories. In September 1940, van Vogt's first novel, Slan , began serialization; the book was partly inspired by a challenge Campbell laid down to van Vogt that it was impossible to tell a superman story from

13104-590: The names used in Genesis follow the conventions used in all of the Paratime stories but not used in Piper's other stories. Additionally the events in He Walked Around The Horses are referred to by Tortha Karf in the story Police Operation where he describes the event briefly to Verkan Vall. The Reader's Guide to Twentieth-Century Science Fiction notes that, as in most of Piper's stories,

13248-501: The number of stories to investigate lessens the chance of detecting the truth. Headquarters for the Paratime Police is at the city of Dhergabar, which is the Capital city on home Timeline. There is also a separate timeline that is exclusively for the use of the Paratime Police; they can locate conveyors wherever necessary there, or commandeer private property to locate a temporary conveyor. In many timelines, business agents working from

13392-438: The other magazines. The expansion of the market also benefited Campbell because writers knew that if he rejected their submissions, they could resubmit those stories elsewhere; this freed them to try to write to his standards. In July 1939, the lead story was " Black Destroyer ", the first sale by van Vogt; the issue also included " Trends ", Asimov's first sale to Campbell and his second story to see print. Later fans identified

13536-511: The other pulps for a few years, but this was his first story in Astounding . In October, de Camp began a popular series about an intelligent bear named Johnny Black with " The Command ." The market for science fiction expanded dramatically the following year; several new magazines were launched, including Startling Stories in January 1939, Unknown in March (a fantasy companion to Astounding , also edited by Campbell), Fantastic Adventures in May, and Planet Stories in December. All of

13680-406: The others were slicks, such as Vogue . All the advertisers in these magazines had plates made up to take advantage of this size, and Condé Nast changed Analog to the larger size from the March 1963 issue to conform. The front and back signatures were changed to glossy paper, to carry both advertisements and scientific features. The change did not attract advertising support, however, and from

13824-536: The owner of Davis Publications, contacted Condé Nast with a view to acquiring Analog. Analog had always been something of a misfit in Condé Nast's line up, which included Mademoiselle and Vogue , and by February 1980 the deal was agreed. The first issue published by Davis was dated September 1980. Davis was willing to put some effort into marketing Analog , so Schmidt regarded the change as likely to be beneficial, and in fact circulation quickly grew, reversing

13968-471: The pair. It is at that point that Vall explains that his reason for provoking the duels was to advertise his presence, so that Dalla can get in touch with him. Quickly checking a news broadcast on a visiplate, the pair finds that the duels are the top news story. The next day, as the Earth of the Akor-Neb Sector descends into civil war, Verkan Vall receives a sealed message written in the alphabet and language of

14112-468: The point of view of the superman. It proved to be one of the most popular stories Campbell published, and is an example of the way Campbell worked with his writers to feed them ideas and generate the material he wanted to buy. Isaac Asimov's "Robot" series began to take shape in 1941, with "Reason" and "Liar!" appearing in the April and May issues; as with "Slan", these stories were partly inspired by conversations with Campbell. Van Vogt's "The Seesaw", in

14256-579: The probabilities of success of an attempt by Martians to colonize Earth 75,000 to 100,000 years ago; humans, on timelines where they are present, are the descendants of the Martian colonists. Timelines with points of divergence before the Martian colonization attempt are not discussed. This is the level of complete success of the Martian colonization. However, in this level are several sectors of several thousand timelines each: Home Timeline, and its associated Fifth Level Commercial, Fifth Level Passenger, Fifth Level Industrial Sector, Fifth Level Service Sector,

14400-573: The provincial city of Ghamma, Vall, travelling under the pseudonym of Lord Virzal of Verkan, makes contact with the local representative of the Outtime Export and Import Company, and acquires a pair of Assassin bodyguards named Olirzon and Marnik. Together they then travel to the city of Darsh, where Dalla was doing her research, and where Garnon’s feast was held. At the Independent Institute of Reincarnation Research Vall talks to

14544-440: The publication frequency became bimonthly (six issues per year). The first incarnation of Astounding was an adventure-oriented magazine: unlike Gernsback, Bates had no interest in educating his readership through science. The covers were all painted by Wesso and similarly action-filled; the first issue showed a giant beetle attacking a man. Bates would not accept any experimental stories, relying mostly on formulaic plots. In

14688-421: The pulps for several years by that time. The same issue contained Clifford Simak's "Rule 18"; Simak had more-or-less abandoned science fiction within a year after breaking into the field in 1931, but he was drawn back by Campbell's editorial approach. The next issue featured one of Campbell's best-known stories, " Who Goes There? ", and included Kuttner's "The Disinherited"; Kuttner had been selling successfully to

14832-406: The real-world secret research program. Military Intelligence agents called on Campbell to investigate, and were satisfied when he explained how Cartmill had been able to make so many accurate guesses. In the words of science fiction critic John Clute, "Cartmill's prediction made sf fans enormously proud", as some considered the story proof that science fiction could be predictive of the future. In

14976-441: The remaining staff to put together issues for the rest of the year. Condé Nast had given the magazine very little attention, since it was both profitable and cheap to produce, but they were proud that it was the leading science fiction magazine. They asked Kay Tarrant , who had been Campbell's assistant, to help them find a replacement: she contacted regular contributors to ask for suggestions. Several well-known writers turned down

15120-419: The result that Tremaine was made redundant. His departure, on May 1, 1938, gave Campbell a freer rein with the magazine. One of Campbell's first acts was to change the title from Astounding Stories to Astounding Science-Fiction , starting with the March 1938 issue. Campbell's editorial policy was targeted at the more mature readers of science fiction, and he felt that " Astounding Stories " did not convey

15264-423: The right image. He intended to subsequently drop the "Astounding" part of the title, as well, leaving the magazine titled Science Fiction , but in 1939 a new magazine with that title appeared. Although "Astounding" was retained in the title, thereafter it was often printed in a color that made it much less visible than "Science-Fiction". At the start of 1942 the price was increased, for the first time, to 25 cents;

15408-411: The same authors who had been contributing for years; the result was some criticism of the magazine as stagnant and dull, though Schmidt was initially successful in maintaining circulation. The title was sold to Davis Publications in 1980, then to Dell Magazines in 1992. Crosstown Publications acquired Dell in 1996 and remains the publisher. Schmidt continued to edit the magazine until 2012, when he

15552-495: The same freedom from constraints that he had allowed them in the fantasy works they were writing for Unknown , Street & Smith's fantasy title; the result was " Mimsy Were the Borogoves ", which appeared in February 1943 and is now regarded as a classic. Leiber's Gather, Darkness! , serialized in 1943, was set in a world where scientific knowledge is hidden from the masses and presented as magic; as with Kuttner and Moore, he

15696-439: The saviors of their species.” As they talk, Dalla realizes that all her experiments prove that death isn’t forever, and that the last enemy -– death -– has finally been conquered. But Vall assures her that they still have one enemy left, stupidity, and death has no power over that. The story ends with Vall and Dalla vowing to return to the Akor-Neb Sector in a hundred years and see what changes have occurred. In 2001, "Last Enemy"

15840-452: The scientific experiment of Dallona of Hadron. Immediately after Garnon’s death, a nearby sensitive, already placed in a hypnotic trance, begins to channel Garnon’s spirit, giving proof positive that disincarnate individuals are fully conscious, telepathically sensitive, capable of telepathic communication, and capable of exercising choice in the vehicle for their reincarnation. But, Dallona’s discovery has important political considerations for

15984-587: The sheet on which the color covers of his magazines were printed had a space for one more cover. He suggested to Harry Bates , a newly hired editor, that they start a magazine of historical adventure stories. Bates proposed instead a science fiction pulp, to be titled Astounding Stories of Super Science , and Clayton agreed.       Harry Bates        F. Orlin Tremaine       John W. Campbell       Ben Bova       Stanley Schmidt Astounding

16128-500: The stories are the Paratime Police, the organization that protects the secret of paratime travel. These stories were written by Piper: Sequels not written by Piper and mainly written by John F. Carr : Some persons dispute He Walked Around The Horses and Genesis being Paratime stories, however Genesis is the account of a group of Martian colonists arriving on Earth between 75,000 and 100,000 years ago exactly as described by Piper in several of his Paratime Police stories. All of

16272-494: The stories to appeal to a readership that had matured over the first decade of the science fiction genre. He asked his writers to write stories that felt as though they could have been published as non-science fiction stories in a magazine of the future; a reader of the future would not need long explanations for the gadgets in their lives, so Campbell asked his writers to find ways of naturally introducing technology to their stories. He also instituted regular nonfiction pieces, with

16416-434: The story in question. As the 1970s went on, Bova continued to publish authors such as Anderson, Dickson, and Christopher Anvil , who had appeared regularly during Campbell's tenure, but he also attracted authors who had not been able to sell to Campbell, such as Gene Wolfe , Roger Zelazny , and Harlan Ellison . Frederik Pohl, who later commented in his autobiography about his difficulties in selling to Campbell, appeared in

16560-405: The surface of the immediate situation, and that it is impossible to know what the long-term results will be. He compares the situation to that on Fourth Level Europo-American, where scientists regret their invention of the atomic bomb. Vall is confident that just what the sector needs is a “series of all-out atomic wars” and that, “in a century or so, the inventors of the atomic bomb will be hailed as

16704-554: The survivors lost all concept of their Martian origins and believe themselves to have developed on Earth. The Nilo-Mesopotamian cluster of sectors, including the Macedonian Empire Sector, the Alexandrian - Roman , Alexandrian- Punic , Indo- Turanian and Europo-American (which includes our own timeline), there was an Aryan invasion of Eastern Europe and Asia Minor about four thousand elapsed years ago. In

16848-476: The title, which he felt was too sensational. At about the same time Street & Smith sold the magazine to Condé Nast , and the name changed again to its current form by 1965. Campbell remained as editor until his death in 1971. Ben Bova took over from 1972 to 1978, and the character of the magazine changed noticeably, since Bova was willing to publish fiction that included sexual content and profanity. Bova published stories such as Frederik Pohl 's " The Gold at

16992-408: The title. This suit calls into question all the laws of inheritance, and has made the position of the rich and titled frighteningly unstable. Besieged in an underground level of the hunting lodge, Vall and Dalla and their Assassin-bodyguards fight for their lives; their only hope being that when the shooting had started Marnik had been able to go to Klarnood for the help that he had promised. Just when

17136-459: The top of the pile and read stories until he had found enough to fill the issue. Now, to be perfectly fair, Tremaine would take the stack of remaining stories and turn it upside down, so next month he would start with the stories that had been on the bottom this month. Gruber pointed out that stories in the middle might go many months before Tremaine read them; the result was erratic response times that sometimes stretched to over 18 months. In 1936

17280-523: The train in Crossroads of Destiny as it did to Pennsylvania State Police officer Calvin Morrison in Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen . In those cases, the Paratime Police try to return them to their home timelines with memory obliteration. In other cases, such as a "Christian Avenger" of the Hitler-victory timeline, they decided he's better off dead and will let the locals do the job. The people of

17424-409: The transposition field is a concern of Paratimers. Because there are so many timelines and many conveyors, it is possible for two conveyors to "cross" each other and end up with mutually weakened fields. In this case, objects from the outside may penetrate the conveyor. Often these objects are alive. If they are people, they face two choices: be shot or have their memory obliterated. The Paratime Secret

17568-562: The tribe to work. They are not mistreated, but they do not have Citizen status, which can be granted through adoption into a Citizen family. At least two divisions of soldiers are stationed in Service Sector to deal with riots and rebellion. To supervise Paratime, the Paratime Commission exists; to enforce the Paratime Code, the Paratime Police exists. There is only one law that is totally inviolate: no one from outside

17712-475: The year: The Skylark of Valeron by E.E. Smith, and The Mightiest Machine , by Campbell. By the end of the year, Astounding was the clear leader of the small field of sf magazines. Astounding ' s readership was more knowledgeable and more mature than the readers of the other magazines, and this was reflected in the cover artwork, almost entirely by Howard V. Brown , which was less garish than at Wonder Stories or Amazing Stories . Ashley describes

17856-514: Was "The Guy With the Eyes" in the February 1973 issue; George R.R. Martin , with "A Song for Lya", in June 1974; and Orson Scott Card , with " Ender's Game ", in the August 1977 issue. Two of the cover artists who had been regular contributors under Campbell, Kelly Freas and John Schoenherr , continued to appear after Bova took over, and Bova also began to regularly feature covers by Rick Sternbach and Vincent Di Fate . Jack Gaughan , who had had

18000-479: Was a Second American Civil War, as well as a band where racial-based fascism rules North America as a result of a Nazi victory in 1940. The Fifth Level are those where the colonization either failed or never took place; they are empty of Martian derived human life. Piper described the Fifth level as "on some sectors Subhuman brutes...on most of it nothing even vaguely human...". Fifth level Neanderthal man exists in

18144-428: Was complete by October; for several issues both "Analog" and "Astounding" could be seen on the cover, with "Analog" becoming bolder and "Astounding" fading with each issue. Street & Smith was acquired by Samuel Newhouse , the owner of Condé Nast, in August 1959, though Street & Smith was not merged into Condé Nast until the end of 1961. Analog was the only digest-sized magazine in Condé Nast's inventory—all

18288-426: Was dated October 1933; until the third issue, in December 1933, the editorial team was not named on the masthead. Street & Smith had an excellent distribution network, and they were able to get Astounding' s circulation up to an estimated 50,000 by the middle of 1934. The two main rival science fiction magazines of the day, Wonder Stories and Amazing Stories , each had a circulation about half that. Astounding

18432-402: Was dropped from the title with the November 1946 issue. The price increased again, to 35 cents, in August 1951. In the late 1950s, it became apparent to Street & Smith that they were going to have to raise prices again. During 1959, Astounding was priced at 50 cents in some areas to find out what the impact would be on circulation. The results were apparently satisfactory, and the price

18576-511: Was in September 1937 with " The Isolinguals ". Tremaine printed some nonfiction articles during his tenure, with Campbell providing an 18-part series on the solar system between June 1936 and December 1937. Street & Smith hired Campbell in October 1937. Although he did not gain full editorial control of Astounding until the March 1938 issue, Campbell was able to introduce some new features before then. In January 1938, he began to include

18720-410: Was initially published by Publisher's Fiscal Corporation, a subsidiary of Clayton Magazines . The first issue appeared in January 1930, with Bates as editor. Bates aimed for straightforward action-adventure stories, with scientific elements only present to provide minimal plausibility. Clayton paid much better rates than Amazing and Wonder Stories —two cents a word on acceptance, rather than half

18864-695: Was let go, giving Campbell more independence. Over the next few years Campbell published many stories that became classics in the field, including Isaac Asimov 's Foundation series , A. E. van Vogt 's Slan , and several novels and stories by Robert A. Heinlein . The period beginning with Campbell's editorship is often referred to as the Golden Age of Science Fiction . By 1950, new competition had appeared from Galaxy Science Fiction and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction . Campbell's interest in some pseudo-science topics, such as Dianetics (an early non-religious version of Scientology ), alienated some of his regular writers, and Astounding

19008-404: Was no longer regarded as the leader of the field, though it did continue to publish popular and influential stories: Hal Clement 's novel Mission of Gravity appeared in 1953, and Tom Godwin 's " The Cold Equations " appeared the following year. In 1960, Campbell changed the title of the magazine to Analog Science Fact & Fiction ; he had long wanted to get rid of the word "Astounding" in

19152-421: Was nominated for the 1951 Retro-Hugo Award for Best Novella . Astounding Science Fiction Analog Science Fiction and Fact is an American science fiction magazine published under various titles since 1930. Originally titled Astounding Stories of Super-Science , the first issue was dated January 1930, published by William Clayton , and edited by Harry Bates . Clayton went bankrupt in 1933 and

19296-457: Was not interested, and refused to assist Analog with marketing or promotions. Bova resigned in June 1978, having stayed for a little longer than he had planned, and recommended Stanley Schmidt to succeed him. Schmidt's first issue was December 1978, though material purchased by Bova continued to appear for several months. In 1977, Davis Publications launched Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine , and after Bova's departure, Joel Davis,

19440-421: Was particularly influential, and Tremaine encouraged other writers to produce similar stories. One such was Raymond Z. Gallun 's "Old Faithful", which appeared in the December 1934 issue and was sufficiently popular that Gallun wrote a sequel, "Son of Old Faithful", published the following July. Space opera continued to be popular, though, and two overlapping space opera novels were running in Astounding late in

19584-425: Was raised with the November 1959 issue. The following year, Campbell finally achieved his goal of getting rid of the word "Astounding" in the magazine's title, changing it to Analog Science Fact/Science Fiction . The "/" in the title was often replaced by a symbol of Campbell's devising, resembling an inverted U pierced by a horizontal arrow and meaning "analogous to". The change began with the February 1960 issue, and

19728-425: Was replaced by Trevor Quachri . In 1926, Hugo Gernsback launched Amazing Stories , the first science fiction (sf) magazine. Gernsback had been printing scientific fiction stories for some time in his hobbyist magazines, such as Modern Electrics and Electrical Experimenter , but decided that interest in the genre was sufficient to justify a monthly magazine. Amazing was very successful, quickly reaching

19872-432: Was replaced by R.V. Happel. Tremaine remained in control of story selection. Writer Frank Gruber described Tremaine's editorial selection process in his book, The Pulp Jungle : As the stories came in Tremaine piled them up on a stack. All the stories intended for Clues in this pile, all those for Astounding in that stack. Two days before press time of each magazine, Tremaine would start reading. He would start at

20016-557: Was simultaneously publishing fantasies in Unknown . Campbell continued to publish technological sf alongside the soft science fiction . One example was Cleve Cartmill 's " Deadline ", a story about the development of the atomic bomb. It appeared in 1944, when the Manhattan Project was still not known to the public; Cartmill used his background in atomic physics to assemble a plausible story that had strong similarities to

20160-399: Was still publishing strong material by authors who had become established during the war. Among the better-known stories of this era are " Vintage Season ", by C.L. Moore (under the pseudonym Lawrence O'Donnell); Jack Williamson's story " With Folded Hands "; The Players of Null-A , van Vogt's sequel to The World of Null-A ; and the final book in E.E. Smith's Lensman series, Children of

20304-432: Was the first issue to credit Bova on the masthead. Bova planned to stay for five years, to ensure a smooth transition after Campbell's sudden death; the salary was too low for him to consider remaining indefinitely. In 1975, he proposed a new magazine to Condé Nast management, to be titled Tomorrow Magazine ; he wanted to publish articles about science and technology, leavened with some science fiction stories. Condé Nast

20448-626: Was the last one he would win. Bova, like Campbell, was a technophile with a scientific background, and he declared early in his tenure that he wanted Analog to continue to focus on stories with a scientific foundation, though he also made it clear that change was inevitable. Over his first few months some long-time readers sent in letters of complaint when they judged that Bova was not living up to Campbell's standards, particularly when sex scenes began to appear. On one occasion— Jack Wodhams ' story "Foundling Fathers", and its accompanying illustration by Kelly Freas —it turned out that Campbell had bought

20592-538: Was the leading science fiction magazine by the end of 1934, and it was also the largest, at 160 pages, and the cheapest, at 20 cents. Street & Smith's rates of one cent per word (sometimes more) on acceptance were not as high as the rates paid by Bates for the Clayton Astounding , but they were still better than those of the other magazines. Hall left Astounding in 1934 to become editor of Street & Smith's new slick magazine, Mademoiselle , and

20736-493: Was unable to maintain the high standard he had set in the first few years, perhaps because his workload was high. Tremaine's slow responses to submissions discouraged new authors, although he could rely on regular contributors such as Jack Williamson, Murray Leinster, Raymond Gallun, Nat Schachner, and Frank Belknap Long . New writers who did appear during the latter half of Tremaine's tenure included Ross Rocklynne , Nelson S. Bond , and L. Sprague de Camp , whose first appearance

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