[Due to an oversight (clearly!), Galactic Journey was not included on Locus' Awards Ballot this year. If you're a fan of the Journey, we be grateful if you'd fill us in under Fanzine!] by Gideon Marcus A New Leaf Today's special birthday (mine!) edition of the Journey is for the fans. It seems F&SF has … Continue reading [February 21, 1964] For the fans (March 1964 Fantasy and Science Fiction)
by Victoria Silverwolf The planet Mars and its inhabitants have long been favorite themes for science fiction writers, from The War of the Worlds to The Martian Chronicles. Will the age of space travel put an end to our wildest fancies about that alluring world? The Soviet spacecraft intended to study Mars have all failed. … Continue reading [June 16, 1963] Blues for a Red Planet (August 1963 Worlds of Tomorrow)
by Gideon Marcus Science fiction has risen from its much maligned, pulpish roots to general recognition and even acclaim. Names like Heinlein, MacLean, Anderson, Asimov, and St. Clair are now commonly known. They are the vanguard of the several hundred men and women actively writing in our genre. One name that comes up again and … Continue reading [Apr. 17, 1963] Would-be poetical (May 1963 Fantasy and Science Fiction)
[if you’re new to the Journey, read this to see what we’re all about!] by Gideon Marcus Thirteen years ago this month, amidst the post-war boom of science fiction digests, Galaxy Science Fiction was born. Its editor, H.L. Gold, intended his brainchild to stand above and apart from the dozens of lesser mags (remember those … Continue reading [Sep. 10, 1962] Leading by Example (the terrific October 1962 Galaxy)
[if you’re new to the Journey, read this to see what we’re all about!] by Gideon Marcus Once again, the best and the brightest of the fans (and many of the rest of them) congregated for the biggest SFnal shindig of the year: WorldCon. This year, Chicago won the bid to hold this prestigious event. … Continue reading [Sep. 4, 1962] Differences of opinion (the 1962 Hugo Awards!)
If you are in the accounting profession, you are familiar with the concept of "closing the books," wherein you complete all your reconciliations and regard a month as finished. Here at the Journey, Month's End does not occur until the last science fiction digest is reviewed. Thus, though the bells have already rung for the … Continue reading [January 2, 1961] Closing out the month (the January 1961 Fantasy and Science Fiction)
Galaxy's little sister, IF Science Fiction has settled into a predictable format. Filled with a number of "B" authors, mostly neophytes, it generally leads with a decent novelette, and the rest of the stories are two and three-star affairs. I don't think the blame can be put on IF's shadow editor, Fred Pohl (Horace Gold … Continue reading [Oct. 2, 1960] Second-rate fun (November 1960 IF Science Fiction)
The Journey presents that annual assemblage of scientifiction (stf or "steff") fans known as WorldCon! all pictures from fanac.org Of course, I wasn't actually present at the con, it being held some 2500 miles away on the 17th floor of the Penn Sheraton in Pittsburgh. But I know people, and I have access to a … Continue reading [September 6, 1960] The 1960 WorldCon in Pittsburgh!
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction regularly beats out the other regular digests in terms of consistent quality. This month's, April 1960, is no exception. There's a lot to cover, so let's dive right in: Daniel Keyes, who wrote the superb Flowers for Algernon, has returned with the issue's lead novelette, Crazy Maro. Our … Continue reading [March 26, 1960] Among the Best (April 1960 Fantasy and Science Fiction)
Science fiction is dead. Long live science fiction. Naysayers have been predicting the end of the genre since 1953 when the first post-war boom started to lose momentum. Since then, I've read a lot of science fiction (and fantasy). It's true that a lot of the lesser magazines have folded in the past 6 years, … Continue reading [Dec. 8, 1959] Best of the Best! (The Galactic Stars Awards, 1959)
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