Suggestions for Astounding-Analog Project

[Extollager]

I have a copy of Rogers' Requiem for Astounding as a guide for the beginning to 1959. I thought I might gradually try to read some of the better stories of the magazine from its beginning to about 1965, which I think is more or less the era of Dune. Stories I might be able to track down by using Contento's science fiction index, which is available online.

Requiem for Astounding may be read online at archive.org.

So for the 1960-1965 period, what stories and novels do you recommend?

No promises that I will report back here on this, but then I might pop in from time to time to do so.

Thanks.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

This is going to take some time and effort to research.

Starting with 1960, both serialized novels Deathworld by Harry Harrison and The High Crusade by Poul Anderson are very good.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

(I am looking at the contents of the magazine's issues for each year on ISFDB to see if anything sticks in my memory as worthy of note.)

1961: Lloyd Biggle's novelette "Monument," later expanded into a novel of the same name. An unusual story for Analog at the time, as it deals with the way the protagonist prevents a low-tech, semi-Utopian planet from being exploited by human developers.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

1962:

"The Circuit Riders" by R. C. FitzPatrick (short story) -- a device that detects emotional states and its use in crime prevention
"The Sound of Silence" by Barbara Constant (short story) -- about telepathy; a theme way overused in the magazine, but this is an unusually effective example, from an author who only published one other story in the field (according to ISFDB.)
"Listen! The Stars!" by John Brunner (novella, later expanded into the novel "The Stardroppers") -- devices that allow people to hear messages from the stars and the consequences thereof.

 

[Extollager]

Many thanks, Victoria. I intend to track these down, either in their original story form or the novelizations.

 

[Christine Wheelwright]

You've prompted me to attend to the caption competition thread.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

1963:

"Code Three" by Rick Raphael (novella) -- traffic cops of the super-highways of the future. Followed by the sequel novella "Once a Cop" in 1964. Both combined and expanded into the novel Code Three. The same author also had "The Thirst Quenchers" (novelette) the same year. It also deals with public service professionals of the future.

"The Last of the Romany" by Norman Spinrad (short story) -- the author's first published story, an emotional work about a man trying to find his people's culture in a homogenized future.

"New Folks' Home" by Clifford D. Simak (novelette) -- displays the author's warm, humane style in this tale of humans and aliens.

The December 1963 has the first part of the serial Dune World (later just Dune) so that takes us up to the time you indicated.

 

[Extollager]

Thank you -- these suggestions will be good guides.