Gateways to Forever: The Story of the Science-Fiction Magazines from 1970 to 1980

The Story of the Science-Fiction Magazines #3

by Mike Ashley

This third volume in Mike Ashley's four-volume study of the science-fiction magazines focuses on the turbulent years of the 1970s, when the United States emerged from the Vietnam War into an economic crisis. It saw the end of the Apollo moon programme and the start of the ecology movement. This proved to be one of the most complicated periods for the science-fiction magazines. Not only were they struggling to survive within the economic climate, they also had to cope with the death of the father of modern science fiction, John W. Campbell, Jr., while facing new and potentially threatening opposition. The market for science fiction diversified as never before, with the growth in new anthologies, the emergence of semi-professional magazines, the explosion of science fiction in college, the start of role-playing gaming magazines, underground and adult comics and, with the success of Star Wars, media magazines. This volume explores how the traditional science-fiction magazines coped
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Genres: Science Fiction

507 pages, Paperback

First published May 14, 2007

About the author

Michael Raymond Donald Ashley is the author and editor of over sixty books that in total have sold over a million copies worldwide. He lives in Chatham, Kent.

Reviews

[Saul · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a non-fictional account of the SF magazine business spanning the 70s and 80s. Simply put, it's amazing. Anyone wishing to know how SF transformed from magazines to books and media should read this. Thoroughly researched and full of details, Mike Ashley has done an incredible job documenting this formative period of the SF publishing industry. And even though it seems impossible, I believe Ashley has read every published work covered during the book's timespan. If that's true, I'm in awe. I classify this a must read for any SF professional.

[David H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the volume of Ashley's history series on the SF magazines I was looking forward to the most since it covered a period I was most interested based on the dates of the magazines my dad gave me. It definitely delivered! One thing I've personally noted in the first two volumes was his extreme focus on SF magazines, and here he finally loosens up slightly to give more context (my favorite word!) to a wider publishing industry (with original anthology books, things like Heavy Metal, the semiprofessional magazines, academic criticism, etc.). It just made it an all around fascinating periods as so many things were happening in this decade.

It was sad to see certain magazines I'd been following for a while like Galaxy and Amazing essentially fall apart. Sometimes it's hard to figure what these publishers were thinking, but magazines is apparently a rough business if you don't have money or if you want to expand beyond a small sustainability. I was also shocked to see just how little subscriptions seemed to matter to some magazines; most of the pro magazines relied heavily on news-stand sales with other magazines.

This book covered a lot so it's hard to narrow in on any one element, but I did have one bone I wanted to pick--the author really puts out a defense for John W. Campbell when he passed away at the beginning of this book that I think rather misses the point--it just felt like an old school defense of "oh, Campbell just likes to provoke people when he writes literally racist editorials! He's just trying to make you think when he acts like a jerk!" Friggin' give me a break. You can recognize that Campbell made a positive contribution to the field in certain respects while also acknowledging his faults and failures in others. Anyway. I did appreciate Ashley's attempt to untangle the Roger Elwood phenomenon, and I think he makes a decently convincing case in defense of Elwood's impact on original anthologies (though it's very clear that 90% of Elwood's anthologies were crap).

As always, I love that the closer we get to the modern era, the more and more authors I know and love are showing up, such as Lois McMaster Bujold in the Star Trek fanzine section (back when she was 18 years old!) or Connie Willis finally getting a break in the short-lived Galileo magazine.

Amusing side note: Ashley finally admitted in this volume he wasn't going to be able to finish the series in three books, but he thinks he'll do it in four volumes (it will actually be five).

[Michael O'Donnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This third volume in Mike Ashley's 'History of the Science Fiction Magazine' covers the 1970's, a period of upheaval and change in the SF magazine world.

The first chapter covers the death of John W. Campbell, Jr. and the impact this had on a world he had dominated for over thirty years. The chapter goes on to assess the positions of the 'Big Six' magazines (Analog, F&SF, Galaxy, If, Amazing and Fantastic) at the start of the decade and how they changed as the 70s progressed.

Chapter two covers the threat posed to the magazines from the explosion in paperback original anthologies published in the mid-seventies and the influence of female writers on the field.

The third chapter covers semi-prozines and comics, such as Metal Hurlant, and gaming magazines, which appeared in the wake of the 'Dungeons and Dragons' craze. The chapter also charts the rise of academic criticism of SF, with the appearance of magazines and journals such as Riverside Quarterly, Science Fiction Review, Extrapolation and Foundation.

The fourth chapter covers the resurgence of the magazines in the late 70s, with the appearance of new magazines such as Galileo, Asimov's, and Omni, as well as the decline and ultimate fall of Galaxy. The new media magazines, which flourished in the wake of Star Wars and Star Trek, are also covered.

The volume has the same appendices as the previous volumes - Non-English language SF magazines, summary of SF magazines, directory of editors and publishers, and directory of magazine cover artists. Also included for the first time in this series is a chronology and a schedule of magazine circulation figures.

This volume is a first class continuation of an excellent series by Mike Ashley. The only reason I don't give it five stars is I personally think it would be improved with a few cover illustrations by the artists covered and a few photographs of editors and writers in order to put names to faces.

Despite the lack of illustrations, I would highly recommend this series to any SF history buff or magazine collector.

All that is now required is for the author to stop tapping away at the keyboard and for Liverpool University Press to publish the long awaited fourth volume in the series (and reprint volume 1, which is currently out of print and as scarce as the proverbial rocking horse s**t).

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am going to go off the subject of this book almost immediately. Gateways to Forever is the third book in Mike Ashley's invaluable four-volume history of science fiction magazines.

The fourth volume, which I have not read, is Science-Fiction Rebels: The Story of the Science Fiction Magazines from 1981 to 1990. The lowest price I can find for this, including delivery, is $84.79.

I will admit that book pricing is a mystery to me. Some of the books I would like to own in any readable copy just seem extraordinarily expensive to me. Science fiction/mystery author Fredric Brown's posthumously published unfinished novel Brother Monster, the only novel by Brown that I don't own, currently has a minimum price of $129.50. For critic Stanley Kauffmann's final collection of his film reviews, Forward Observer: Stanley Kauffmann at the Cinema, 1999-2013, prices appear to start at $1001.08.

It does not surprise me that a signed, first edition copy of The Great Gatsby would be out of my price range. But what makes other books such as the ones I have mentioned so expensive? I honestly have no idea, and would like to know.

None of which has any relevance to Gateways to Forever. This is an extremely complete discussion of the publication of science fiction of less than novel length, both in and outside of science fiction magazines, from 1970 to 1980. Of course, someone could do an even more complete study, with a detailed assessment of every fantasy and science fiction story published in that period. That won't happen, though, and if someone did, who would have world enough and time to read it?

I don't agree with every opinion that Ashley expresses, but I think that both opinions and facts here are presented fairly and lucidly.

I might be missing information given somewhere in this book, but it appears to me that the fine cover of the book is not credited. The Internet Science Fiction Database (ISFDb) says that it is a reproduction of Frank Kelly Freas's cover for Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, December, 1972.

[Carol Kean · Rating 5 out of 5]

I confess, I haven't read the whole book, but I love what I've seen so far. Mike Ashley scores personal interviews with the big names of the science fiction magazine industry, adding details that I haven't seen anywhere else on the internet. The section of Perihelion Science Fiction, for example, includes quotes from Sam Bellotto, Jr, that just don't exist anywhere else I've searched. An interesting addition to the story of Eric M. Jones and Sam creating their own magazine in college is that decades later, they have revived Perihelion as a 21st Century ezine, and it's still going strong (and stronger all the time!).