Monday, December 21, 2009

Free fiction: 6 years worth of Astounding

Scans in CBR format of 72 issues at Crosseyed Cyclops. Inside 30 RAR packs in two separate posts.

About half the issues are edited by John W Campbell, Jr, & have a marquee list of authors. Of the rest, there are a few Harry Bates edited issues which have been online at Internet Archive for over a year now, some even in text files at Project Gutenberg - so these may be unnecessary downloads for some. Also included are some issues from mid-1930s that are neither edited by Harry Bates nor John Campbell.

Among the lot are some of the most famous stories of science fiction:

  1. Fredric Brown's "Arena" & "The Waveries".
  2. Original magazine version of the second book in Asimov's original Foundation Trilogy.
  3. Bits & pieces that later got incorporated in E E "doc" Smith's "Skylark" & "Lensman" series.
  4. Clifford D Simak's "Desertion" & "Huddling Place"
  5. Theodore Sturgeon's "Killdozer" & "Thunder and Roses"
  6. C L Moore's "No Woman Born"
  7. Henry Kuttner's "Nothing But Gingerbread Left"
  8. Fritz Leiber's "Wanted - An Enemy" & "Sanity"
  9. John Pierce's "Invariant"
  10. Murray Leinster's "First Contact", "The Ethical Equations", "Proxima Centauri", & "A Logic Named Joe"
  11. A Bertram Chandler's "Giant Killer"
  12. Eric Frank Russell's "Allamagoosa"
Some of these have been online in text or MP3 form a while now; try searching the site. Others aren't. Many aren't the right ones for genre newbies, others probably appeal more to an older generation. But all are famous, & some are very influential.

Scan quality (legibility of text) varies. Campbell issues generally have decent quality. Others sometimes are very poor scans, other times descent enough.

Many RARs are broken, & WinRAR gives error. WinRAR will extract these if you set "Keep broken files" flag in extraction dialog (default is off); these files generally have at least a few pages missing.

This is a large download - over 5 GB, can be downloading only one RAR file at a time, & each download must be started manually. Means needs a bit of human time too. I'll be posting individual issue ToCs of at least the most interesting issues later - so only the really brave need to spend time downloading all (look for links on individual issues).
  1. "Astounding rar 1": May 1943. Has so many pages missing that only parts of two stories survive. Not worth the download.
  2. "Astounding rar 2": August 1943, December 1943, June 1944. Among the authors: Henry Kuttner, C L Moore, Anthony Boucher, Fritz Leiber, A E van Vogt, P Schuyler Miller, Murray Leinster, Fredric Brown, & Hal Clement.
  3. "Astounding rar 3": April 1943, August 1944. Among the authors: Henry Kuttner, C L Moore, A E van Vogt, & Isaac Asimov.
  4. "Astounding rar 4": July 1944, November 1944. Among the authors: Fritz Leiber, Clifford D Simak, Theodore Sturgeon, Henry Kuttner, C L Moore, A E van Vogt.
  5. "Astounding rar 5": April 1944, December 1944. Among the authors: A E van Vogt, Clifford D Simak, Fritz Leiber, C L Moore.
  6. "Astounding rar 6": February 1942, November 1945. Among the authors: Henry Kuttner, C L Moore, Leigh Brackett, Theodore Sturgeon, E E "doc" Smith, Isaac Asimov.
  7. "Astounding rar 7": January 1942, February 1945. Among the authors: Jack Williamson, Eric Frank Russell, L Ron Hubbard, E E "doc" Smith, Henry Kuttner, C L Moore, Fritz Leiber.
  8. "Astounding rar 8": August 1945, October 1945, March 1946. Among the authors: A E van Vogt, Ross Rocklynne, Lester del Rey, Murray Leinster, Isaac Asimov, A Bertram Chandler, Henry Kuttner, C L Moore.
  9. "Astounding rar 9": January 1945, May 1945. Among the authors: A E van Vogt, Fredric Brown, Murray Leinster.
  10. "Astounding rar 10": June 1945, July 1945. Among the authors: Henry Kuttner, C L Moore, A Bertram Chandler, A E van Vogt, Murray Leinster, Ross Rocklynne, Eric Frank Russell.
  11. "Astounding rar 11": January 1946, April 1946, November 1947, December 1947. Among the authors: Henry Kuttner, C L Moore, Ross Rocklynne, Murray Leinster, Arthur C Clarke, Theodore Sturgeon, E E "doc" Smith, Clifford D Simak, A E van Vogt.
  12. "Astounding rar 12": August 1949, September 1949. Among the authors: L Sprague de Camp, L Ron Hubbard, Fredric Brown, Poul Anderson, Arthur C Clarke.
  13. "Astounding rar 13": October 1949, November 1949. Among the authors: L Ron Hubbard, Poul Anderson, Isaac Asimov, Robert A Heinlein, Theodore Sturgeon, Lester del Rey, A E van Vogt, L Sprague de Camp.
  14. "Astounding rar 14": June 1955, July 1958. Among the authors: J Francis McComas, Poul Anderson, Jack Vance, Christopher Anvil, Hal Clement.
  15. "Astounding rar 15": September 1935, October 1935. Among the authors: Jack Williamson, C L Moore, John W Campbell, Stanley G Weinbaum, Raymond Z Gallun.
  16. "Astounding rar 16": May 1935, August 1935. Among the authors: John W Campbell, Eando Binder, Raymond Z Gallun, Jack Williamson, Ross Rocklynne.
  17. "Astounding rar 17": February 1935, March 1935. Among the authors: Stanley G Weinbaum, John W Campbell, E E "doc" Smith, Murray Leinster, Raymond Z Gallun.
  18. "Astounding rar 18": November 1935, December 1935. Among the authors: Stanley G Weinbaum, Eando Binder, Raymond Z Gallun, Murray Leinster.
  19. "Astounding rar 19": March 1933, October 1959. Among the authors: Jack Williamson, Murray Leinster, Christopher Anvil, Jack Vance.
  20. "Astounding rar 20": April 1955, May 1955. Among the authors: Poul Anderson, Isaac Asimov, Eric Frank Russell, Algis Budrys.
  21. "Astounding rar 21": July 1945, December 1945. Among the authors: Henry Kuttner, C L Moore, Ross Rocklynne, Eric Frank Russell, Murray Leinster, Isaac Asimov.
  22. "Astounding rar 22": January 1943, June 1957. Among the authors: A E van Vogt, Anthony Boucher, Ross Rocklynne, Henry Kuttner, C L Moore, P Schuyler Miller, Murray Leinster, Poul Anderson, A Bertram Chandler.
  23. "Astounding rar 23": February 1930, May 1930, June 1930, July 1930. All 4 issues are also available elsewhere. Among the authors: Murray Leinster.
  24. "Astounding rar 24": January 1930, March 1930, April 1930. All 3 issues are also available elsewhere.
  25. "Astounding rar 25": May 1932, June 1932, September 1932, November 1932. Among the authors: Clifford D Simak.
  26. "Astounding rar 26": January 1932, March 1932, April 1932.
  27. "Astounding rar 27": September 1931, October 1931, November 1931. Among the authors: Edmond Hamilton.
  28. "Astounding rar 28": March 1941, November 1941. Among the authors: Robert A Heinlein, Clifford D Simak, Theodore Sturgeon, E E "doc" Smith, Eric Frank Russell.
  29. "Astounding rar 29": March 1931, April 1931, May 1931. Among the authors: Jack Williamson.
  30. "Astounding rar 30": December 1930, January 1931, February 1931. Among the authors: Murray Leinster.
Related: Fiction from Astounding/Analog (only from issues edited by John Campbell, Harry Bates).

5 comments:

Paul said...

I tried these kind of files a few months back. They're huge. I don't have the bandwidth.

Tinkoo said...

Each RAR is 150-200MB & contains 2-4 monthly issues.

I thought bandwidth in US is much cheaper & abundant than in India? My big problem with this wasn't bandwidth but human time - you need to watch when one RAR is over so you can start another; they've word verification, so you cannot setup a download manager & leave it running a couple of nights.

In any case, where else can you get these magazines?

Paul said...

I agree, the only other option is to buy them off a used book site.

Tinkoo said...

IF you can find them, & the used book site accepts payments in the currency of your country. I've so often given up on online purchases because the sites expect everybody to pay in a single currency!

Maitresinh said...

Sadly, original link to the cbr is down. Any to repost it ?