Book Review: Astounding by Alec Nevala-Lee

I have read a number of novels/stories by the authors focused on in this work of scholarship (Asimov, Heinlein, and Campbell) with the exception of Hubbard. I was always put off by the ridiculous TV advertisements with exploding meteors and claims of intellectual wonders used to promote Dianetics in the 1970s and ‘80s.

Nevala-Lee’s work here however brings all four of these individuals together and weaves their relationship with one another with their frequent editor, collaborator, mentor, and frenemy, Campbell at the center of everything.

I had not known how tightly they were associated with one another professionally and personally—from employment as writers to that as workers within industry during WWII…from sharing ideas on their work to familial relationships. Coming together and falling apart numerous times over the span of 40+ years, each on to their own deserves a deep biography.

Here it is more their interconnected stories and how they relate to Campbell as the force that pushed them out into worldwide acceptance that is the focus. The work stands as a fantastic primer for understanding any of these complex men who all had deep faults yet unique geniuses as well.

Nevala-Lee doesn’t preach at the reader regarding these faults and largely is able to stay in the background, revealing what they are without being overly judgmental—which must have been immensely difficult given what some of these faults were (gross racism, parental negligence, fraud, sexual assault, and so on). Now…to be fair, some of these behaviors were products of their time, simply doing business as business was done and what were acceptable societal norms at the time and so Lee does an excellent job of steering away from applying modern mores to distant years.

Leaving that behind, the work is stunning in its capture of the cultural impact that these writers and Campbell in particular have had on our views and media. With Dune coming out this year in its second full film workup, it is worth noting that as we see in Astounding Herbert was yet another of Campbell’s discoveries as a writer and had a major if not primary influence on other contributors to how we see science interacting with, benefiting, and threatening humanity including Philip K. Dick, Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison, Carl Sagan, Arthur C. Clarke, and numerous others. Also note the recent Amazon development of Foundation as a long form series broadcast this year and George RR Martin’s Game of Thrones mid ‘10’s juggernaut as examples of Cambpell’s influence 40+ years after his death.

A very readable work of literary scholarship I’m sure Lee’s efforts here will spawn numerous imitators and inspiration for other works diving into these authors to treat them with the respect they deserve from the standpoint of real “art”. This may be one of the best (not first) steps towards putting Campbell, Heinlein and Asimov in particular on pedestals alongside others such as Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Mark Twain, Poe, and others who are deemed worthy of such examination. Not Hubbard though…I still can’t get past those exploding meteors…

Truly I am only scratching the surface of what is contained in Astounding. There is so much here that warrants mentioning that Lee goes into. Campbell’s story on the development of a nuclear bomb that came under scrutiny from the Feds during the Manhattan Project because it was felt that it was too close to the truth is one. The absolute batshit insanity of Hubbard and Campbell’s earnest beliefs that things like Scientology, psionics, telepathy, reincarnation and other such fantastical ideas were not only legitimate but that personally controllable, is another. There will be works to come that Astounding will be used as a primary source for a hundred years or more. It is not a good work…but a great one and one that anyone seeking to understand much of our modern culture and thinking must understand given how influential these authors have been on the great powers and thinkers of our time.

Three Sci-Fi Novels...Two Good...One, Not So Much...

Maybe I’m just a classic Sci-Fi fan and am officially an “old”….

But then again…I’ll take the fact that I greatly enjoyed Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and could not stand Consider Phelbas as a sign that I’m not quite ready for “retirement” yet.

Philip K. Dick’s seminal “DADOES” is of course the basis for the movie Bladerunner and one of if not the most well known of his works. Having read other novels by Dick I was not prepared for such a straightforward read. Less psychedelic than something such as Lies, Inc. or retro as The Man in the High Castle DADOES is more of a futuristic Raymond Chandler work than anything else with the beaten down gumshoe, perpetrators in hiding and femme fatale all included. Its a bit hard to read without picturing Harrison Ford as the protagonist and Rutger Hauer as Roy Batty given how closely the movie hewed to the book but seeing the film first and then reading the novel does not ruin the experience and each stands on its own as a masterpiece of its format. Ridley Scott’s film ends up being far more cyberpunk in nature and while still a core of any sci-fi curriculum, DADOES resembles The Man in the High Castle than it does something like Neuromancer or Snow Crash. Regardless, you will still be stunned by how prescient it is and how many underlying themes of AI, the nature of consciousness, role of media, etc. that are present here look out from their post some 50 years ago at today’s world. Putting this up there with 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 is completely appropriate.

Consider Phelbas on the other hand is an overly long, meandering, mess of a “space opera”. I began reading it as, well, Elon Musk kept naming his drone ships used to recover SpaceX rockets out in the ocean after ships present in these novels and I kept hearing about how these series of books by Iain Banks were so great and such a wonderful representation of AI, that I had to read them. I could not have been more disappointed. Outrageously long (seriously, do some authors get paid by the word?), silly in its action, disjointed, muddled, without purpose and seemingly just a series of ridiculous mishaps befalling the main character over and over. Throw in moronic depictions of “aliens” all over the place and you have a cajun soup of spacefaring tropes….I’ll pass regardless of who may think the book is worth it. Musk likely enjoyed it during an acid trip or two where everything seems “cool” without real analysis…

Lastly and unmentioned till now is Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers which is barely a sci-fi novel to begin with and unlike DADOES, its film version is NOTHING like the novel and in fact rather than honoring the novel, the film seeks to repudiate and make fun of the novel (connecting the Starship Troopers film to DADOES, Paul Verhoven the Starship Troopers director also filmed Total Recall, a film version of We’ll Remember it for You Wholesale another Phillip K. Dick short story). The written work contains nothing of the “action” one would expect. Outside of a short battle scene at the very beginning of the novel and a somewhat longer one that concludes the work the vast majority of the book is alternatively a description of training and integration into the Mobile Infantry as well as what are long, descriptive viewpoints given by various authority figures under which the protagonist receives his tutelage. Many a critic has taken issue with this, seeing it as merely being a mouthpiece for the author to express his views on the military, evils of communism, and growing softness of the West in general. Others have taken it further and put the work under scrutiny for racism, misongynism, and all sorts of other perceived evil “isms”. Critics, like Verhoven the direct of the film “version” miss much of the underlying themes or care not to find value in them. Heinlein was a well known Libertarian…not a facist, not a racist (hell, the main character here is of Philippine lineage). Heinlein was also vehemently anti-communist—thus the communistic nature of the “bugs” that are fought here. Value is placed in sacrifice of self for the benefit of society and I can hardly think of a more “leftist” viewpoint…but that is ignored by critics because of the positive light the military is given. Here the military is the savior of society…not just a somewhat necessary evil that many liberal school indoctrinated critics and “artists” see it as. Pairing this work with Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is a phenomenal start for anyone interested in looking at the world through eyes which do not distinguish between race, religion, or any other characteristic other than what an individual brings of value to their fellow humans. Great works both.