John W. Campbell (1) (1910–1971)

The stories in this collection are pretty solid, from the sci-fi horror of the title story and the currently topical horror of Dead Knowledge, through the maguffin-based gadget stories, to the far-future tales about the Heat Death of the universe. The tone runs from an optimistically plucky "Good Ole American Grit Will Overcome", to a decidedly pessimistic "What's the Point?", even if that end is untold billions of years in the future.

I like to do a bit of reading about authors, and looked show more up Campbell on Wikipedia, where I was disappointed to be reminded that he was the editor of the sci-fi magazine who rejected A [author:Samuel R. Delany|49111] story with a Black protagonist because he considered that his readers wouldn't accept a Black character. From which, I suddenly understand that all the characters I've just read about are, without any statement as such, White. There is just one outright racist view expressed in the book, not out of keeping for the time and audience for which it was written, but jarring and shocking to see on the page now.

Reading of other writers' (including [author:Isaac Asimov|16667]) condemnation of Campbell's racist and right-wing views reminded me of a note by [author:Philip K. Dick|4764] for his story The Golden Man in [book:The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick, Volume 3: The Father-Thing|165913], in which he spoke of an editor who insisted that stories submitted on the subject of mutants would only be accepted if they were presented as superior to the common run of people, and ready to shepherd the "inferior" races into a utopian paradise. Sure enough, this editor turns out to be Campbell, by whom PKD refused to be constrained and sold his stories elsewhere, feeling unable to work with Campbell's supremacist views, which PKD explicitly compares to Nazi ideology.

Does it matter after all the years which have passed, and with Campbell's own passing? I think so. I'm put in mind of the Star Trek DS9 episodes in which Captain Sisko believes himself to be a 1950s sci-fi writer whose latest story, "Deep Space 9", is rejected by his editor because the captain of the space station is Black. Those episodes, surely inspired by Campbell and Delany, graphically illustrate the evil of systemic racism, of which Campbell was, as an influential editor, a significant part, and which system of oppression we clearly see continues today.

This understanding of Campbell's character and beliefs casts a different light on his stories of alien invaders determined to wipe out humanity (by which we now know he means Whites), of shapeshifting infiltrators able to pass as human instead of the sub-human beings they 'really' are, so that they can overrun us, and that "just one" instance of undisguised racism can be recognised as the tip of a most unpleasant iceberg.

Otherwise, pretty solid sci-fi. show less

Four centuries in the future, humanity has colonised the solar system and is doing great when an alien race from a capricious and erratically-behaving star decide that the côterie of resource-rich planets around our much more stable Sun will be their new home. After an alien scouting party shows off their superior technology, a lone millionaire physics genius serving in the navy only has limited time to bring humanity's tech up to a level where they can compete with the Strangers. On top of show more that, he's got to do it single-handedly, and develop not only atomic power, but also faster-than-light space travel and a host of other militarily useful science.

This science fiction short was dated in so many respects that I found it hard to enjoy. First, there's the Van Vogtesque millionaire genius who, largely by himself, invents increasingly hand-wavey technological wonders to the point of ridiculousness (protective magnetic shielding, destructive UV rays, faster-than-light travel, culminating in his harnessing the power of Uncertainty itself). Then there's its naive conception of atomic power as consequence-free (the story was published in the 1930s) and easily neutralised with a "neutron gun". And finally, there's the complete lack of female characters: everyone is a strong-jawed male with a background in the military, and the whole thing reeks of mid-20thC American exceptionalism (historical and mathematical references are to 20thC USA).

A time capsule more than genuinely fun to read. show less

It literally took me years to finish this book. John W. Campbell is, or was, an icon in science fiction for his editing, leading, and tastemaking in the field. But, recently, his name was stripped from an award because of his fascist, racist, sexist editorials and more. But in reading this book, I discovered one more thing - he wasn't a very good writer. Not at all. Some of the early stories have the dullness of synthesized history like E E Doc Smith. I found it at times impossible to keep show more my attention on some stories, some better than others. I'd put the book down, then, admonished myself for that and continue months, years, later. None of the writing is outright bad in terms of laughable, but it's often dull. It's not the gap of reading stories from the 1930s, there are plenty of great pre-war stories. And you might think, "oh he tells more than shows" yes, but not like Stephenson, the science in these stories is, well, thin, not good, often the likes of psychic powers. I wouldn't even say idea-laden, the majority of stories seem to be about Earth being conquered and subjected by aliens for a long time, an odd thing to be obsessed about. The final story, "Who Goes There" is the exception, it is a good, fast read (it is the basis for "The Thing" films, and, yes, the Carpenter film is closer to the source.) But, I finished the book, and would I recommend it, oh dear, perhaps if you're a completist, sf historian, and/or a lover of highly caffeinated drinks? show less

Who Goes There? is a solid read, and if you’re a fan of The Thing, you’ll definitely get some enjoyment out of it. It’s maybe a bit more pulp-y than Carpenter’s adaptation which serves as a very subtle yet interesting deviation from the film. That being said, the core paranoia and isolation that make the film so effective are all here on the page.