Afterward- This Year in SF 1966

8/12/2019 Afterward- This Year in SF 1966

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AFTERWORD

THE YEAR IN SF (1966)

I believe that SF attracts the more imaginative, inquiring child!ho can ma"e a success in the scienti#ic #ield$ %od "no!s !e tye$

Dr.&'(ES T$ SI)O*, '$ S$ Atomic Energy +ommission

It !as de#initely the year o# the boo" in -..$ One seciality boo" dealer, the F$ and S$F$ /oo" +o$, in#ormehe had to !or" overtime to #ill his orders and that he loo"ed #or!ard to an even better year ahead$ There !ere aro1- science #iction boo"s ublished during this t!elve2month eriod3 o# this number, seventy2three !ere hardbound!ere aerbac" boo"s$ Doubleday and +omany led the hardbound ublishers !ith t!enty2si0 boo"s, and Ace /oo"s toother aerbac" houses !ith seventy2t!o titles$

These #igures are not entirely accurate3 as soon as you loo" at them closely they begin to shimmer and change$ Thublishers !ere co2oeration itsel#, it roved immensely di##icult to trac" do!n all o# the ublishers$ )any o# the titdiscovered, roved to be in that shado!y borderland o# 6but is it science #iction76 Should !e include the DocSavagebo/antameven though the editors o# /antam themselves do not consider the bron8e man9s heroic e0loits to be SF7 A

about that mysterious aerbac" #irm o# +orinth !ho ublished 5: titles in -.. that they dredged u #rom the old ulto bring a tear to the middle2aged eye; PhantomDetective,OperatorNo.5,DustyAyres?Are they SF7 In the light oresent the above #igures as being about asscience2#ictional as the !or"s under discqssion and, in essence, a artly conclusion$

So much #or quantity!hat about quality7


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unconditionally recommended$ >revie!ers9 caitali8ation? and it is to his credit that he manages to sustain interest to the very end$ A !ea" boo" #rom!riter, yet enCoyable nevertheless$ >Simon Schuster?

)ac" Reynolds; O$!o"li3ePo1er.Another e0cellent olemical novel by a neglected novelist$ In this one, Reyn

his tone Cust right$ The story o# a rohet o# a ne! religion oosed by a cheas"ate radio announcer never becomes toor !himsical and, marvelously, rohet and announcer are credible$ So are the ne! religion, and all the thrusts against#at society$ It haens to be #un to read as !ell as ringing true$ >/elmont?

Robert Silverberg; Nee"le inaTimestac3.A collection o# ten Silverberg stories, Silverberg in a rather thought#There9s a lot o# contemorary oint to such stories as 6The =ain =eddlars6!hen the latent sadism o# those medic sagidiot bo0 is not so damned latentand a sound moral trim to the unishment used by a #uture society in 6To See the I)an$6 >/allantine?

E$ E$ Smith3 The (ensman Series; Triplane$ary,Firstensman,!alacticPatrol,!rayensman,Secon"Stage

#hil"reno$theens.It can be argued that, a#ter the oening sentence, 6T!o thousand million or so years ago t!o gala0colliding,6 !e are in #or si0 volumes o# anticlima0, and, at the same time, to remain #ascinated by this !or"the longe


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hard2core SF sagas$ Even i# it remains cos and robbers !ithout transcending into %ood and Evil, it still stays #resh in i

charming !ooden !ay, and the various aliens remain more human than the human characters$ >=yra2mid?

The7ohn+yn"ham Omnius.+ontains Wyndham9s three best novels, TheDayo$ theTri$$i"s, The8ra3en+a

#hrysali"s.Too little has aeared #rom the once2roli#ic Wyndham o# late3 here9s the reason in one unarallelled volu

resting adequately on his laurels$ The very English method o# narration suits the theme o# the leisurely magn

civili8ation9s #all$ >Simon Schuster?

William F$ Temle; Shootatthe-oon.=erhas an SF #irst, !ith a Sillane2tye !ise2crac"ing tough2guy nabout roc"etshis$ >Simon Schuster? While /ill Temle is too nice a guy to be as #oul as this e0ercise demands, he stthe story along at a nice cli 2so that it has the readability o# a good mystery$ This desite the rough and tough chstartling ability to thro! quotes at each other rather than bric" bats$ 6/ecause I9m in mourning #or my li#e,6 thedeclaims, and the hero instantly recog2ni8es it as )asha9s line #rom TheSeagull.There is a lot more li"e this, and, surenough, =angborn9s The7u"gment o$)ve is shot #ull o# the same "ind o# thing$ =erhas !e ma"e too much ocoincidence, but can it be ossible that these are #irst signs o# intellectual a!areness, that science #iction is art and literature and not a #orm o# suer2ul some!here bet!een the !estern and the romance7

There is certainly some evidence #or this belie#$ +ritical boo"s about SF aear regularly and stay in rint$ -bumer year$ =ride o# lace goes to the )IT 6n"e9totheScienceFiction-aga:ines,-@2-.$ This inde0, o# all thand all the authors in all the maga8ines during this eriod, !as ublished by the university science #iction society !#itting Custice, used a comuter to rocess the material$

Advent, a seciality ublishing house that roduces only non#iction about SF, brought out &ames /lish9s The*an", a collection o# this author9s best critical essays$ They also ublished The ;niverses o$).). Smith, the sam

re#erred to earlier, by R$ Elli" and /$ Evans, an unusual volume that is re#erred to as 6a concordance to the (ensS"ylar" novels$6 Well A symosium conducted by the American Academy o# Arts and Sciences roduced -um$or"an";topianThought>@O0#ord 'niversiEnglish, or Scottish rather, in origin, dealing !ith the lethora o# invasion and rebellion stories that the nine2teenthe0ecially France, %ermany, and /ritain, in#licted on itsel#$ +lar"e is s"il#ul at sho!ing ho! the develoment

!eaon led to a ne! attac" o# nerves and consequently a ne! attac" o# invasion SF$ *o! !e are saddled !ith the aralo# alien invasion$ The transi2tion oint is mar"ed by Farrar, Straus?, !hich hag already attracted much attention else!here$ And !e have as!arm o# novels on the !ell2tramed theme o# alien2invasion o# Earth, or the !ell2tramed dec"s o# mighty starshis$

+learly, the science #iction novel is in a lusty state, but !hat o# the short story and the novelette in SF this yearduty, and artial leasure, the undersigned have read a great number o# stories to #ul#ill our editorial obligations$ Wto!ering imaginations, !e have no di##iculty in imagining these yearly Neulaanthologies and the yearly *ebula A!being handed out in A$D$ 4BBB, This laces us under considerable ressure to discharge honorably our resonsibeditors$ (ast year sa! the #irst A!ards and the #irst Anthology$ The =resident o# the controlling body$ Science Fiction


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o# America, contrib2uted the Introduction, and !as concerned !ith introducing the !hole scheme to the ublic$ As tresult o# his, Damon night9s, hard !or", SF+A,the *ebula A!ards, and the *ebula Anthology, are an established aliterary scene$ /ut !e still have a recedent to establish here$ A recedent o# resonsibility$

SF+A!as established to #urther the interests o# science #iction !riters every!here$ We do not see ho! those inteultimately be #urthered !ithout the interests o# the reader being also cared #or$ We #eel that, in certain vital resects, this being neglected$

And this is !here our resonsibilities come in$ As readers as !ell as !riters, !e see our loyalties choed t!o !

editors, !e see the t!in temtations !hich !ill beset all #uture editors o# this series >the editor o# the A$D$ 4BBB vrobably yet unborn, but his resonsibility is !aiting #or him?3 those temtations lie bet!een er#orming a roer Cobas critics and uttering ublicity matter on behal# o# %ood Old SF$

/oth the resent editors have devoted and do devote the adolescent and adult years o# their lives to science #ictcontend that this demonstrates su##iciently their love #or the medium$ They also edit a small irregular Cournal o# critic

*ori:ons. In this Cournal, they came to a conclusion that they haily ass on here to #uture *ebula story editorsgeneral !el#are and good o# science #iction is succored only by good science #iction stories$ They have long since believereached that mello! age !here they are as at to discuss their !aistlines as se0that high2o!ered ballyhoo does nothinin#erior roduct$

The #e! beauti#ul stories garnered and be2laurelled here !ere retrieved #rom a decidedly non2vintage year$ A dangart medium is that it !ill become victim o# its conven2tions3 this danger seems to threaten science #iction$ Onassumtions that man might travel through interlane2tary sace in machines built #or the urose, or visit disto!ered by a #aster2than2light drive, or even ste into the ast and #uture in time2machines, are daring no longer$ cliches$ Originally, they had bold and imaginative thin"ing behind them3 no!, they merely annihilate thin"ing$

An e0amle$ In one o# this year9s more oular stories, !e came across this assage; 6The Antoranite hove close,class !ith !ic"ed2loo"ing guns$


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bo! to the more stimulating erils o# the here2and2no!$ That bothersome and endless !ar in Gietnam may be having itsWould it not be a relie# i# !e had a #e! stories dealing imaginatively !ith that situation7 It should attract scienc

!riters and readers$ Robert

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Afterward- This Year in SF 1966