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For my fellow Golden Age SF fans
Jul. 27th, 2006 02:15 pm(I'm lookin' at you, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
schmallturm...)
So I was in a used book store a couple of weeks ago and I found--in two different editions--all 4 of E.E. "Doc" Smith's Skylark books, for very cheap. ($4 for all four books) Only problem involved the fact that the books were in two different editions--with two different listings of the order the series goes in. (Turns out, strangely, that the newer edition is the correct one.) At any rate, in order to determine the correct order I turned to the easiest source of all knowledge, wikipedia. So, I spent a few enjoyable minutes reading about Doc's life and career. (I had no idea he's credited by some for essentially creating the powdered donut!)
The site had a lot to say about Doc's work, and his reported opinion on it. For example, Smith is quoted as saying he believed his best science fiction (as opposed to space opera) story was a novel I'd never read called The Spacehounds of IPC, first published by Amazing Stories in the summer of 1931. It was not a tremendous commercial success (in fact, it set his career back a bit) precisely because it was more scientifically viable. Originally, it took place solely within the solar system, which readers complained about. The editor of Amazing made what wiki refers to as "unauthorized changes," but I have no idea how extensive those changes were, not being at all familiar with the story. So where is this leading? Oh, c'mon, you know where this is leading.
Yep, The Spacehounds of IPC is available, complete, on the web! This is the "original magazine version," so presumably it contains the changes alluded to above. And no, I still haven't read it yet, though I plan to. But I thought I should share, since I know at least some of you would be interested! Enjoy!
[EDIT: Only problem is that it turns out this is a scan of the original magazines, and the scans are freaking huge, making it kind of hard to read on a screen. Anyone got any ideas on how to make it smaller, but still readable?]
schmallturm...)So I was in a used book store a couple of weeks ago and I found--in two different editions--all 4 of E.E. "Doc" Smith's Skylark books, for very cheap. ($4 for all four books) Only problem involved the fact that the books were in two different editions--with two different listings of the order the series goes in. (Turns out, strangely, that the newer edition is the correct one.) At any rate, in order to determine the correct order I turned to the easiest source of all knowledge, wikipedia. So, I spent a few enjoyable minutes reading about Doc's life and career. (I had no idea he's credited by some for essentially creating the powdered donut!)
The site had a lot to say about Doc's work, and his reported opinion on it. For example, Smith is quoted as saying he believed his best science fiction (as opposed to space opera) story was a novel I'd never read called The Spacehounds of IPC, first published by Amazing Stories in the summer of 1931. It was not a tremendous commercial success (in fact, it set his career back a bit) precisely because it was more scientifically viable. Originally, it took place solely within the solar system, which readers complained about. The editor of Amazing made what wiki refers to as "unauthorized changes," but I have no idea how extensive those changes were, not being at all familiar with the story. So where is this leading? Oh, c'mon, you know where this is leading.
Yep, The Spacehounds of IPC is available, complete, on the web! This is the "original magazine version," so presumably it contains the changes alluded to above. And no, I still haven't read it yet, though I plan to. But I thought I should share, since I know at least some of you would be interested! Enjoy!
[EDIT: Only problem is that it turns out this is a scan of the original magazines, and the scans are freaking huge, making it kind of hard to read on a screen. Anyone got any ideas on how to make it smaller, but still readable?]
