Space Ships! Ray Guns! Martian Octopods!: Interviews With Legends of Science Fiction edited by Richard Wolinsky (book review)

‘Spaceships! Ray Guns! Martian Octopods! ‘Interviews With Science Fiction Legends’ is a book of interviews with a difference. Instead of having one author, editor or agent at a time share their story, it’s divided by subject matter and quotes multiple interviewees on the topic at hand. The way to read the book is to imagine you’re at a cocktail party, wandering around and overhearing different conversations. In one corner, Anne McCaffrey and Jack Williamson are talking about the early days of science fiction magazines.

In another, Charles D. Hornig and Julius Schwarz remember the first fan magazines and Hugo Gernsback’s ‘Amazing Stories’. Quotes from interviews are compiled as if the individuals were on a panel, discussing the same subject. It works well. Hell, it works beautifully to create an oral history of science fiction in the 20th century.

The original interviews were conducted in various places and media by Richard Wolinsky, Richard A. Lupoff and Lawrence Davidson, and this text was compiled and edited by Richard Wolinsky. It must have been a huge job. It recounts the history of science fiction magazines, as told in their own words by the editors and writers who created them, spanning from the 1920s to the 1960s.

‘Chapter One: Science Fiction In The 1920s’ covers the early pulps, Hugo Gernsback’s ‘Amazing Stories’ and other lesser magazines. The interviewees include Jack Williamson and E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith. Gernsback, it seems, was a cheat who didn’t pay his bills and did his best to avoid paying writers who often had to sue to get their money. But he originated the science fiction pulp magazines, and so he has an award named after him.

Chapter two is the story of ‘Weird Tales’ and features plenty of chat about H.P. Lovecraft by E. Hoffman Price, Frank Belknap Long and Robert Bloch, who all knew him quite well. Hoffman Price says that Lovecraft was a whimsical and delightful companion, and the long-faced, solemn scholars looking for significance in his work have it all wrong. ‘It had no goddamn significance, the lot of it. It was just the fun of the moment. They can’t get that through their pointed heads, though.’ Price was a real character.

Chapter Three covers the years of the depression and the triumph of the pulps. This tells about ‘Astounding’ under early editors from Harry Bates to F. Orlin Tremaine and how young fans like Mort Weisinger, Julius Schwartz and Charles D. Horning turned professional. Hornig became editor of Hugo Gernsback’s ‘Amazing Stories’, aged just seventeen, mostly because he was cheap. I like his humility. Asimov wrote somewhere that Hornig was the only person in the field with absolutely no talent. Hornig cornered the great man in New York and said, ‘You really hit it on the head. I never had any talent for it; that’s why I was an editor.’ Hornig’s defence was that he was enthusiastic and interested in science fiction, couldn’t write it and wanted to be involved. I think that’s fair enough. I mean, you could say the same about book reviewers. Hornig published two very early Asimov stories in ‘Future Fiction’, which helped him at the start of his career.

Mort Weisinger and Julius Schwartz became agents and editors. A good agent who knew the magazines and knew the editors and what they wanted could place a story for a writer, saving him lots of time posting it all over, and was worth his ten per cent. Julius Schwartz took an unsold Lovecraft story, ‘At The Mountains Of Madness’, to F. Orlin Tremaine at ‘Astounding’ and got $350 for it. Lovecraft had $315, and ‘it was the biggest cheque he ever received in his life’. Literary agents are infamous for various scams and schemes, of course, but you get bad eggs in any profession. Mort and Julie continued their careers at DC Comics after they left Science Fiction. Horace Gold reckoned that Weisinger was very creative and great at coming up with ideas. However, the leap from idea to finished story is a large one. Later, in the book, Asimov mentions that he was worried he might be a fraud because all his best stories came from ideas by John W. Campbell, Jr., but Junior himself told Asimov, ‘I gave ideas to hundreds of writers; there’s only one you.’

Campbell is dubbed ‘the King of Science Fiction’ and gets virtually the whole of chapter four to himself with sections on his editing, his policies, his personality and his later years. Campbell launched the careers of Asimov, Heinlein, van Vogt and many others, and ‘Astounding’ was the top magazine for at least a decade. In later life, he fell for wacky ideas like Dianetics, and the quality of his editing slipped, though he was still pretty sharp. Send him an idea for a short story, and he would likely write back six pages telling how it could make a series of novels.

‘Chapter Five: World War II And Beyond: Science Fiction In The Forties’ ranges widely beyond ‘Astounding’ to discuss ‘Amazing Stories’ under Ray Palmer, ‘Fantastic Adventures’ under Palmer and then Howard Browne, and the lovely ‘Planet Stories’. Some SF was getting a bit highbrow, but plenty of readers still wanted ray guns and rocketships, and plenty of writers were happy to supply them. Robert Silverberg made a fortune banging out this stuff.

Chapter six has a lot about the rise and fall of the magazines because there was a boom in the 1950s, but it didn’t last. Various people talk fondly of Horace Gold and ‘Galaxy’, even more so of ‘The Magazine Of Fantasy And Science Fiction’ and Anthony Boucher. These rightfully get a lot of attention, but several interviewees make it clear that the smaller publications were important to boost the careers of beginning writers or those who didn’t fit with certain editors. Campbell had his favourite themes, Gold had different ones, and Boucher had another set. Yet there were plenty of ideas which didn’t suit them and still needed publication. Larry Shaw at Infinity dared to print ‘A Case Of Conscience’ by James Blish. Cele Goldsmith, one of the few female editors, was in charge of ‘Amazing Stories’ and ‘Fantastic’ from 1959 to 1965 and published early works by Roger Zelazny, Ursula Le Guin and Tom Disch. She also encouraged Fritz Leiber to write more ‘Fafhrd-Mouser’ tales. Who knows what budding writers might have quit without encouragement from the little publishers?

Chapter seven covers fandom, from the Science Fiction League to the Futurians. Science fiction may be the only genre where fans get so fanatical and also become professional writers or editors themselves. They form cliques, fall out, have feuds, marry, divorce and generally have a good time. I found this section less interesting, but having recently reread ‘The Futurians’ by Damon Knight, I might just be fed up with them.

‘Spaceships! Ray guns! ‘Martian Octopods!’ is a treasure trove for anyone interested in the history of science fiction and pulp magazines and probably of no interest whatsoever to billions of normal humans. I loved it. It will sit well on the bookshelf with ‘The Futurians’ and ‘Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard’ and ‘The Golden Age Of Science Fiction.

My advance review copy was an electronic version that was not at all navigable, and I assume the finished eBook will be better in that respect. I recommend splashing out on paper. This is one you will want to pick up at random and read wherever the page opens, at least, I would. Some sites allow you to download a ten per cent sample for free so you can check it out before deciding which format to buy. Recommended for old nerds or young ones with a sense of history.

Eamonn Murphy

August 2025

(pub: Tachyon Publications, 2025. 384 page enlarged paperback. Price: £16.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-61696-442-9. Ebook price: £ 8.78 (UK)).

check out website: https://tachyonpublications.com/product/space-ships-ray-guns-martian-octopods-an-oral-history-of-science-fiction/