Transformations: The Story of the Science Fiction Magazines from 1950 to 1970

The Story of the Science-Fiction Magazines #2

by Mike Ashley

This is the second of three volumes which chart the history of the science fiction magazine from the earliest days to the present. The first volume Time Machines traced the development of the sf magazine from its earliest days and the creation of the first specialist magazine, Amazing Stories. Transformations takes up the story to reveal a turbulent period that was to witness the extraordinary rise and fall and rise again of science. Britain's foremost sf historian, Mike Ashley charts the sf boom years in the wake of the nuclear age that was to see the 'The Golden Age' of Science Fiction with the emergence of magazines such as Galaxy, Startling Stories and Fantastic, as well as authors like Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick and Frank Herbert . He then goes on to explore the bust years of 1954-1960 followed by the renaissance in the 1960s led by the new wave of British authors like Michael Moorcock and J.G. Ballard and the rise in interest of fantasy fiction, encouraged by Lord of the
Rings and the Conan

Genres: Science Fiction, Books About Books

410 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2005

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

[David H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second in Mike Ashley's history of the science fiction magazines, and it's just as fascinating or more as the first volume. It turns out that keeping a SF magazine going is very difficult. Big highlights in this volume are the introductions of Galaxy and F&SF, the frankly hilarious roasting of British SF in the early '50s, and the description of the various booms and busts, and the increased competition with TV, paperbacks, and comics. Michael Moorcock's handling of New Worlds and the New Wave is also explored.

My favorite bits as we go on are seeing favorite writers and editors as little baby writers and editors, learning about some stories and writers I frankly do want to check out. It's still fairly dry as a book goes, and Ashley's focus on science fiction over a broader "speculative fiction" umbrella still annoys me, but seeing the field struggle to find their way in the frankly quite weird world of publishing is fascinating.

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

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 1, 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.

[Danielle]

This is another one of the books I used for my research project the other semester. The appendices were extremely helpful and this book specifically covered the space race time period I ended up narrowing my research down on.