The Show That Went Wrong, AKA review of Galaxy science fiction magazine (episode 13)

We had some serious technical issues with this episode, so what you're about to hear is a bit of a patchwork, with variable technical quality and some parts we had to re-record. However, we think the information content makes it a good listen...

In this latest episode of Science Fiction 101, we travel back in time to review the Christmas 1951 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction magazine.

Galaxy was the magazine which led the science fiction field in the 1950s, bringing to the genre a greater concern for humanist themes, sociology, psychology and social satire. Among its successes were the first publication of Ray Bradbury's "The Fireman" (soon expanded into Fahrenheit 451) and the first appearance of Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man. We review the December 1951 issue from cover to cover - we even review the book reviews and the ads!

If you want to read along with us, you can find the whole issue online at the Internet Archive, here.

The stories we review are as follows:

World Without Children (Damon Knight)
A Pail Of Air (Fritz Leiber)
With These Hands (C.M.Kornbluth)
Winner Lose All (Jack Vance)
Not A Creature Was Stirring (Dean Evans)
Pillar To Post (John Wyndham)

There are some famous names there - with the possible exception of Dean Evans, each of these authors put out significant works in the 1950s or after, and many of them were future winners of Hugo and/or Nebula Awards. At the time this issue was published, Galaxy was coming to the end of a difficult first year, but would go on to become the most arguably the most important SF magazine of all.

So, with final apologies for the Frankensteinian nature of this recording, here is the episode:

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