Astounding Stories, November 1936

Astounding/Analog

by F. Orlin Tremaine (Editor), Howard V. Brown (Illustrator), Nat Schachner (Contributor)

Vol 18, No 3.

Contents:
14 • The Eternal Wanderer • novelette by Nat Schachner
38 • The Path • short story by Raymond Z. Gallun
43 • Red Death • [A Study of the Solar System] • essay by John W. Campbell, Jr.
48 • The Last Selenite • short story by A. Macfadyen, Jr.
59 • Dynasty of the Small • novelette by John Russell Fearn
83 • Macklin's Little Friend • short story by Howard Wandrei [as by H. W. Guernsey]
94 • The Incredible Invasion (Part 4 of 5) • serial by Murray Leinster (book publication as The Other Side of Here 1955)
112 • The Thought Web of Minipar • short story by Nat Schachner [as by Chan Corbett]
123 • Science Discussions • [Editorial (Astounding)] • essay by The Editor
124 • Anton Moves the Earth • novelette by Ross Rocklynne
150 • Brass Tacks (Astounding Stories, November 1936) • [Brass Tacks] • essay by The Editor
151 • Letters.

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160 pages, pulp magazine

Published October 21, 1936

About the author

Frederick Orlin Tremaine (1899–1956) was an American science fiction magazine editor, most notably of the influential Astounding Stories . He edited a number of other magazines, headed several publishing companies, and sporadically wrote fiction.

Reviews

[Kurt Reichenbaugh]

We watched energy being born into the original chaos of night and void, explaining the mystery of the creation; out of the primal, homogenous of energy, we saw swirls and knots come, vast seas of energy which coalesced into nebulae, hardened into supergalaxies, galaxies, local star systems, solar systems, and knew that in the universe this process was still going on, releasing in the form of losses that hardest known form of energy, the cosmic rays." - from "The Last Selenite by A. Macfadyen, Jr.

The lever jerked downward. At once the chamber was filled with leaping blue flames. Tubes whined and sizzled; giant disks whirled in a blue of motion. The great pointing funnel jerked under invisible impacts. Yet nothing happened. For a moment a wild hope pulsed through Cliff that the dread machine would not function, that perhaps it was all a ghastly jest...Then suddenly, a deep violet leaped from the orifice, bathed him in its glare. Instantly he felt himself shattered into a million, million tiny bits. He opened his mouth to cry out with the supernal torture of that horrible sensation, but he had no mouth. He flung against his manacles but they were no longer there. Harg's pitying gaze, Vesgo's face aflame with satisfied cruelty, instruments of the chamber itself, hazed, faded, were lost in an infinity of space and time. Only the unfolding, rending flame remained... from "The Eternal Wanderer by Nat Schachner

Death's planetary poison, iron, is finishing its work. Far more rapidly now, for Mars' atmosphere is sharp with that virulently active ozone that units so swiftly with rocks and ferrous iron. It is time to write up the obituary; ozone is hastening the red death of the red planet. from "Red Death" by John W. Campbell, Jr.

The most important scientists of Minipar were gathered around in concentric rings at the central interlacement to watch the repetition of an ancient experiment. The fierce green light of binary suns beat down on the angular surface of Minipar, picked out in shining detail the science web that flung its gleaming strands from pinnacle to pinnacle. Other webs, for storaged food, for mating periods, for contemplative solitude, for growth and thought transference, dotted the vast, rock tortured landscape. Long thin strands flung their slimness across the voids for swift intercommunication. from "The Thought Web of Minipar" by Chan Corbett

My final vintage ASTOUNDING pulp read from the 1930s for July 2025. ASTOUNDING would change editors, bringing on John W. Campbell and opening the doors to writers like A.E. van Vogt, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov and other more familiar names to science fiction fans. Science Fantasy stories featuring aliens from Mercury or Venus, beings from other dimensions, zombies from Pluto, and all the melodrama, would gradually be jettisoned in favor of harder SF stories with a firmer grounding in hard science as it was known at the time.

[Paul]

A (excellent):

The Incredible Invasion (pt 4 of 5) by Murray Leinster
Science Fact: Red Death (Mars) by John W. Campbell, Jr.

B (very good):

Macklin's Little Friend by H.W. Guernsey (Howard Wandrei)
The Thought Web of Minipar by Chan Corbett (Nat Schachner)

C (average):

The Eternal Wanderer by Nat Schachner
Dynasty of the Small by John Russell Fearn
Anton Moves the Earth by Ross Rocklynne
The Path by Raymond C. Gallun
The Last Selenite by A. Macfadyen, Jr.