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Transformations by Mike Ashley
This second volume in Mike Ashley's ‘History of the Science Fiction Magazine’ covers the years 1950-1970. It follows the magazines through the decline of the pulps in the fifties and the rise of the digests, such as Galaxy, If, and F&SF, and on into the sixties, where the times they were a-changing with the appearance of the New Wave in SF, especially in New Worlds under the editorship of John Carnell and Michael Moorcock.
The volume gets bogged down a bit in chapter four, where the author covers the work of sixty-odd writers in a single chapter, leading to a barrage of names, dates and story titles, but we soon get back to the changes in the magazines themselves and how they reacted to the competition of sci-fi TV and reality overtaking fiction, with the rise of the space program at the end of the sixties. The volume contains the same appendices as volume one, covering non-english language magazines, publication dates of the magazines, a directory of editors and publishers and a directory of cover artists. A fine continuation of the first volume, highly recommended to all pulp enthusiasts and SF history buffs. |
SciFiMike Rating ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆