"Science Fiction Plus", Vol 1 No 6 (October 1953) (ed Hugo Gernsback) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents

Scans of this magazine in CBR format are online as part of a larger package.

There is an interesting call for authors on ToC page: "$100.00 will be paid by this magazine for each Short-Short Science-Fiction Story. These stories must be real science fiction, not fantasy, & should not run over 1,000 words.The Short-Short + will occupy one full page." Doesn't that make it the highest paying flash fiction market of its time?

Note: Magazine seems to interchangeably use "Science Fiction Plus" & "Science Fiction +" as its titles. Cover logo blends the two.

Table of contents. 

Links on authors fetch more fiction by author. Where I have a separate post on a story, link on story title goes there.

1. [novelette] Thomas Calvert McClary's "The Celestial Brake".
2. [short novel] Philip Jose Farmer's "Strange Compulsion": "The conquest of many of the most distressing infirmities is made difficult by the veil of prudery which covers such illnesses as venereal diseases, & even today there exists the absurd notion that it is not respectful to have cancer or a hernia. It seems logical that even the most careful preparation will not avoid the contraction of new diseases when man conquers space--& should those ills be fostered by prudery, the result might prove tragic."
3. [ss] Jack Williamson's "Operation: Gravity": "at present we simply have no concept of the nature of gravity. If ... we should have the opportunity of studying gravity under special conditions, we may arrive at an understanding that will make science-fiction notions about gravitation a possibility."
4. [ss] Eric Frank Russell's "Postscript" aka "P.S." (A): 'How great are the odds against human beings feeling emotions of sympathy, understanding, & compassion for any alien races that may be discovered on distant worlds in the years following interplanetary travel? View the great difficulty the peoples of the world seem to have in getting along with human beings who are different only in color of skin. Consider the tendency to treat groups of opposing religious or political thought as "different," & something less than human.'
5. [ss] Roger Dee's "Worlds Within Worlds": "what would happen if we discovered that an insuperable barrier imprisoned us to the surface of the Earth forever"?
6. [ff] Anne McCaffrey's "Freedom of the Race".

See also.

1. Fiction from old "pulp" magazines.
2. Fiction from 1950s.

Best women genre authors

A panel presentation at SF Signal.
Note: At the moment, link doesn't seem to work. Hopefully, should be back live sometime.

My own favorites: C L Moore, Mary Shelley, & J K Rowling. I don't recall Shelley even mentioned in above panel; her classics (at least the ones I've read), including Frankenstein, actually make a light reading in spite of being very influential.
PS: Did you know Moore's "Black God's Kiss" is sometimes regarded as the defining story of sword-&-sorcery subgenre? Few others of the subgenre I've read appear to be poor rehashes. And her "The Bright Illusion" is among the first stories where aliens appear as truly alien; I'm not sure if this came before Weinbaum's "A Martian Odyssey" or not - but both are remembered for this feature, & I've an impression both came around the same time. While her superlative works came later in life, with Henry Kuttner, she has several good solo works too from her early career (apart from, sadly, several crappy ones too). She's often very original - a dream author for those who regard sf as a genre of ideas.

On my to-read list: Ursula K Le Guin & Andre Norton. I've heard good things about both, but have read only one story from each, neither of them particularly noteworthy. SF Signal link above has some suggested readings of Le Guin.

Lois McMaster Bujold is a name I've heard often but never read. Would like to check something out, particularly any short fiction.

Two well regarded names that don't really figure in my list: Anne McCaffrey & Alice Sheldon (better known by her pseudonym James Tiptree, Jr). I've only read "Weyr Search" of McCaffery, the original story of the massive Pern series; not bad, but didn't really make me seek more. I've read 3 or 4 stories of Sheldon, & liked only one of them - Hugo & Nebula winner "The Screwfly Solution" which actually has the same identical plot as one of the Murray Leinster's Med Ship stories I cannot recollect the name of.

Anne McCaffrey's "Weyr Search" (novella, fantasy): A low-status woman ends up a queen

You probably will like this very readable story even more than me if you like stories about dragons & feudal lords. Surprise was Hartwell's labeling of it as "hard sf"; it's much closer to a fantasy.

Story summary.

Story is set on an extra-Sol planet called Pern at an unspecified date. Pern is generally indistinguishable from earth. It was colonized by humans & lost touch with other colonies. It's now a human world fallen to barbarism.

Pern orbits a star called Rukbat, "in the Sagittarian sector". It's third of the 6 planets.

Rukbat has another planet, called "Red Star" by Pernese, that is in a wild elliptic orbit that brings it rather close to Pern every 200 years. This coming close affects Pern in a rather strange way. Turns out this other world also has native life - "Threads", apparently unintelligent but alive. And Threads like going to Pern whenever the two worlds are close. How Threads travel through still vast interplanetary distance & vacuum is left as an exercise for the reader.

These Threads are a big threat to local ecology of Pern. "Not one Thread must fall to the rich soil, to burrow deep and multiply, leaching the earth of minerals and fertility." Why they haven't done so till Man arrived at this world is not explained, but humans must prevent them from touching the surface of their world!

Now Pern has a native life form indistinguishable from familiar dragons! They are not only winged & fire-breathing - they are smart & telepathic! And some of the humans are able to communicate with them telepathically. These humans will become dragon-riders. During the raid of Threads, these humans will ride the dragons up in the air, & make dragons burn the Threads with their fire!! We are not told how the few dragon riders with only natural vision will ensure no thread falls anywhere on the planetary surface.

Because they are planet saviors, the dragon riders are held in high esteem - so high, they are practically kings. These kings live high in inaccessible mountain caves. The region they live in is called Wyrn, as far as I can make out. Or is it the kingdom they rule? And they are benign good rulers.

Problem is: threat from Threads is once in 200 years event. After the event, in this primitive world, people tend to forget about it. It becomes myth. At the time the story is set, only one Wyrn ("Benden") survives of the original 6 - now protecting the entire planet.

A peculiar aspect of Wyrns plays a key role in the story. Among the dragons they control is a queen dragon - probably the only female dragon. For some reason, she must be paired with a human female, the "Weyr woman" - I could not figure out why. Because of the importance of female dragon, the human woman controlling her is extremely important - effectively the queen of Wyrn.

Under Wyrn are local lords, ruling territories called Holds. These are typical barbaric feudal lords. One of these Holds is called Ruath. Fax, originally the ruler of a neighboring Hold, had raided some half dozen neighbors; all those Holds are now ruled by Fax, "Lord of the High Reaches".

When raiding Ruath, Fax had killed entire family of rulers. Except Lessa, heroine of this story. She was very young then, & somehow survived; Fax doesn't know that she survived.

She is a very smart lady, out to get revenge. On the surface, she is a lowly servant; underneath she is working to make Ruath such a financial burden on Fax that he will disgustedly give it up.

Ten years have lapsed since the fall of Ruath. Red Star is about to approach. Current Weyr-woman has died. A new one must be quickly found - to be paired with queen dragon's about to be born daughter. Queen dragon herself will die after giving birth - not only to future queen, but many male dragons too. The dragon/human pairing, called "First Impression", must be done as soon as the chicks hatch - so time to find the future Weyr-woman is running out.

So a Search is mounted by Wyrn over all Pern - to locate the next "Weyr woman". F'lar, the current head of Wyrn, with his deputy F'nor & some others have arrived at Fax's headquarters riding their dragons.

They quickly figure there won't be a suitable candidate in Fax's own Hold. Next stop is Ruath. Lessa will contrive a knife duel between F'lar & Fax. Fax will die in the fight.

Predictably, F'lar finds Lessa suitable, convinces her to come to Wyrn, etc. Wise rulers are appointed at Holds now without a lord. We are shown a bit of Wyrn. End scene is where kids are paired with just born dragon chicks; Lessa, of course, gets paired with the future queen dragon.

Collected in.

1. David Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer (Ed)'s "The Ascent of Wonder: The Evolution of Hard SF".

Fact sheet.

"Weyr Search", short story, review
Alternate titles: "Pern"?
First published: Analog, October 1967.
Rating: B
Hugo Award 1968 in novella category.
Nebula Award nomination 1967 in novella category.