The older SciFi stories by JWC, H Beam Piper & others of the 40’s & 50’s are FUN! Sure, they may not be 100% technically accurate...but, so what? As well, since I listen to them at bedtime , i’ve had some really fun, exciting & vivid dreams!
Some of my favorite things about these stories and the *Golden Age of Science Fiction:* - How anything "atomic" can be used to advance almost everything - They get antsy when they can't go from theoretical design of purely speculative tech to mass production within a few weeks. - That gargantuan capacitors, vacuum tubes, rheostats, relay switches, etc. equal more powerful computers. I suppose a lot in this book makes sense from a scientific perspective, even if just fun hypothetical extrapolation of popular theories. But I do wonder how much would actually qualify as "hard science fiction" for the time, especially given John W. Campbell was a physics major at MIT when he wrote these stories. 🤔 Edit: Swap the word "apparatus" for "computers" above. The first computer hadn't been invented yet in 1930, when the 3 novellas in this book were first published in the sci-fi pulp magazine "Amazing Stories."
13:07 "My gas reacts to produce a virulent poison" .... Man, I can relate to that... I had some garlic pesto bread with mozzarella a couple hours ago and the virulent poison is so bad my cat left the room...
"We can't have a pretty girl christen this ship, that's sure. A flying bachelor's apartment christened by a mere woman? Never!" -Arcot LOL... these stories truly were targeted towards nerdy teenage boys with no time for girls! Or in the words of John W. Campbell: _In 1930, the only audience for science-fiction was among those who were still young enough in spirit to be willing to hope and speculate on a new and wider future -and in 1930 that meant almost nothing but teen-agers. It meant the brightest group of teen-agers, youngsters who were willing to play with ideas and understandings of physics and chemistry and astronomy that most of their contemporaries considered "too hard work."_ I love it!
I read the second book some ~36 years ago and loved it, but yeah... some of the older stuff can be a real doozy. I just got past the part at 2:21:06 with the flying bachelor's apartment, and find myself marveling at the idea pooh-poohing women for the christening. Aside from that very thing having been the standing tradition for ship christenings when the story was written, I simply can't relate (and couldn't when I was ~13) to the implicit idea of preferring to hang out with a bunch of guys in some boys' club rather than a mixed crew (unless the characters were meant to be bi or gay, logically, though that didn't seem to be the case with the characters in question).
Totally. I love vintage sci-fi and I'm not a social justice woke warrior BUT I always think it's pretty silly and cliche for old sci-fi to have terrible roles for women if any. Usually there's just one woman who falls immediately in love with the hero and her role is to just be the damsel in distress. "oh, help me Popeye" lol
Miss Eli, I like his reading style, too! I have chronic medical problems that keep me flat on my back 12-18 hours/day...or more...and i’ve listened to more stories/books that are read by the same guy than I can recall, and he’s help me pass untold hours while i’ve been in so much pain that I can’t get comfortable or sleep!
As of 2021, most readers will not realize that John W Campbell’s main claim to fame was that he was the primary editor, in the late 30s, of the hit sci-fi works of L Ron Hubbard. It was Campbell who encouraged Hubbard into that genre.
@@Seven-Planets-Sci-Fi-Tuber You're welcome! ❤️ (And I just now checked my playlist: those vids are still available, unlike so many others that get taken down after a month or a year. 🙂 )
Thanks! l already bookmarked them. I saved your playlist to my library to exore it at leisure, but, oh boy! So many dead videos! Could you clean them out? I have some scifi playlists too I'm working on if you want to check out my playlists. Cheers! Seven🚀
@@Seven-Planets-Sci-Fi-Tuber 😲 Wow, that's so cool: yay, I've been useful to someone! ❤️ (And while that might sound sarcastic, it's not meant that way: I'm very emotive.) I'd totally clean out the dead links if I could and replace them with functional ones, when possible), but all that the list tells me is "Unavailable videos are hidden". 😞 (I don't suppose that you have any suggestions to fix this, by chance? I'm open to whatever might work.) I've opened your page in another tab for now; it's gonna take me a bit to go through a few of the juicy play lists, but I do look forward to it!
I like how he pronounces xenon "exanon"; kidding aside, the reader does a good job, given Campbell's technical writing style (Edit: By the end, he racks up another dozen or so mispronunciations. "Hemo-goblin" made me grit my teeth.)
I would rather think there was poor proof reading in pulp paper back sci-fi mags in 1930. The readers read every word as written and can not make their own editing.
If they dont know what the gas is how can they test the C32L gas mask? a little later in the story they have tested the C32L mask and the test subject dies but even after that time they say they have no idea what the gas is.....M
MrMal1956 im not really concerned about it lol, I didn't even finish highschool! so I don't understand half the shit the talk about! still......I love this book!!!!!!!!!!
What if they strapped the mask to a dog and hid it inside targeted plane? I think that would do it. As I understand, pirate visits vere quite frequent.
@@pingasbungus4517 But then PETA would get involved. They would turn world opinion against the pirates to such an extant that the pirates would have to stop being pirates, become dentists (their gas would be awesome for patients!) and there would be no story for us to critique... I mean listen to.
17:00 "Time and time again the pirate slipped in undetected" ... Damn pirates... Always after ye booty... ...Hopefully there's not too much gas during horizontal maneuvers or they may not succeed in beating off interplanetary patrol...
Lol! 20:12 "That's a pretty big order isn't it Dick? How are you going to handle it? Or even get it into your apparatus?"... 3 years later and I guess I'm still no more mature. This story makes it too easy though. Too many lines about gas and fitting things into your apparatus and stuff.
No matter how great a narrator is there's always one guy saying it's terrible. As far as the story goes I enjoy it. Sometimes I just want an oversimplified sloe paced story to relax with.
Easy to follow plot, fun story, lots of real science. If you like the Skylark series you will like this. Golden Age Sci Fi. 👍👍
Practical concepts rooted in theoretical physics and a narrator with the perfect tone and inflections; love it.
The older SciFi stories by JWC, H Beam Piper & others of the 40’s & 50’s are FUN! Sure, they may not be 100% technically accurate...but, so what? As well, since I listen to them at bedtime , i’ve had some really fun, exciting & vivid dreams!
Me tooo!
I feel reasonably assured that much of what we call scientific fact today will be looked upon as ridiculous in 100years. It's just how things go. 😇
@@otterrivers3765 For sure, if they even survive next year. Lol
Some of my favorite things about these stories and the *Golden Age of Science Fiction:*
- How anything "atomic" can be used to advance almost everything
- They get antsy when they can't go from theoretical design of purely speculative tech to mass production within a few weeks.
- That gargantuan capacitors, vacuum tubes, rheostats, relay switches, etc. equal more powerful computers.
I suppose a lot in this book makes sense from a scientific perspective, even if just fun hypothetical extrapolation of popular theories. But I do wonder how much would actually qualify as "hard science fiction" for the time, especially given John W. Campbell was a physics major at MIT when he wrote these stories. 🤔
Edit: Swap the word "apparatus" for "computers" above. The first computer hadn't been invented yet in 1930, when the 3 novellas in this book were first published in the sci-fi pulp magazine "Amazing Stories."
It amazes me how close some of them are, considering that this one is close to a hundred years old! I've really enjoyed them.
13:07 "My gas reacts to produce a virulent poison" .... Man, I can relate to that... I had some garlic pesto bread with mozzarella a couple hours ago and the virulent poison is so bad my cat left the room...
😂😂😂
Haha! I was getting ready to make a joke about that here and i saw i already did it two years ago!!!
Omg. I'm always finding stupid comments I made years ago LOL!!!
"We can't have a pretty girl christen this ship, that's sure. A flying bachelor's apartment christened by a mere woman? Never!" -Arcot
LOL... these stories truly were targeted towards nerdy teenage boys with no time for girls! Or in the words of John W. Campbell:
_In 1930, the only audience for science-fiction was among those who were still young enough in spirit to be willing to hope and speculate on a new and wider future -and in 1930 that meant almost nothing but teen-agers. It meant the brightest group of teen-agers, youngsters who were willing to play with ideas and understandings of physics and chemistry and astronomy that most of their contemporaries considered "too hard work."_
I love it!
I read the second book some ~36 years ago and loved it, but yeah... some of the older stuff can be a real doozy.
I just got past the part at 2:21:06 with the flying bachelor's apartment, and find myself marveling at the idea pooh-poohing women for the christening. Aside from that very thing having been the standing tradition for ship christenings when the story was written, I simply can't relate (and couldn't when I was ~13) to the implicit idea of preferring to hang out with a bunch of guys in some boys' club rather than a mixed crew (unless the characters were meant to be bi or gay, logically, though that didn't seem to be the case with the characters in question).
Totally. I love vintage sci-fi and I'm not a social justice woke warrior BUT I always think it's pretty silly and cliche for old sci-fi to have terrible roles for women if any. Usually there's just one woman who falls immediately in love with the hero and her role is to just be the damsel in distress. "oh, help me Popeye" lol
The sequels to this story are "islands of space" and "invaders from the infinite" Fyi
Book 2 "Islands of Space" = ua-cam.com/video/DeUiCj3jPug/v-deo.html and book 3 "Invaders from the Infinite" = ua-cam.com/video/R7FiDxOTQto/v-deo.html
@@charlesrockafellor4200 Awesome. Thank you.
I enjoyed this reader. Science Fiction read by a strong male voice always makes the story more interesting for me.
Miss Eli I didn't like it all. The emphasis and exclamations were all in the wrong places. I couldn't finish it.
Miss Eli, I like his reading style, too! I have chronic medical problems that keep me flat on my back 12-18 hours/day...or more...and i’ve listened to more stories/books that are read by the same guy than I can recall, and he’s help me pass untold hours while i’ve been in so much pain that I can’t get comfortable or sleep!
@@Visitor2Earth Sorry to hear about your condition. I too have enjoyed this narrator's voice. Wishing you well from Australia.
If you like this you'd like "Empire" by Clifford Simak. It's on youtube.
As of 2021, most readers will not realize that John W Campbell’s main claim to fame was that he was the primary editor, in the late 30s, of the hit sci-fi works of L Ron Hubbard. It was Campbell who encouraged Hubbard into that genre.
Lol thanks a lot Campbell.
Book 2 "Islands of Space" = ua-cam.com/video/DeUiCj3jPug/v-deo.html and book 3 "Invaders from the Infinite" = ua-cam.com/video/R7FiDxOTQto/v-deo.html
Thank you!
@@Seven-Planets-Sci-Fi-Tuber You're welcome! ❤️ (And I just now checked my playlist: those vids are still available, unlike so many others that get taken down after a month or a year. 🙂 )
Thanks! l already bookmarked them.
I saved your playlist to my library to exore it at leisure, but, oh boy! So many dead videos! Could you clean them out?
I have some scifi playlists too I'm working on if you want to check out my playlists.
Cheers! Seven🚀
Erratum: explore
@@Seven-Planets-Sci-Fi-Tuber 😲 Wow, that's so cool: yay, I've been useful to someone! ❤️ (And while that might sound sarcastic, it's not meant that way: I'm very emotive.)
I'd totally clean out the dead links if I could and replace them with functional ones, when possible), but all that the list tells me is "Unavailable videos are hidden". 😞 (I don't suppose that you have any suggestions to fix this, by chance? I'm open to whatever might work.)
I've opened your page in another tab for now; it's gonna take me a bit to go through a few of the juicy play lists, but I do look forward to it!
I like how he pronounces xenon "exanon"; kidding aside, the reader does a good job, given Campbell's technical writing style (Edit: By the end, he racks up another dozen or so mispronunciations. "Hemo-goblin" made me grit my teeth.)
😂😂
There were lots of anomalies in the writing as well.
I would rather think there was poor proof reading in pulp paper back sci-fi mags in 1930. The readers read every word as written and can not make their own editing.
Yeah. Who knows...
Lol. Hemo "Goblin" still cracks me up. Makes me wonder what should a reader do if something is misspelled? Should they correct it or read it as is?
If they dont know what the gas is how can they test the C32L gas mask? a little later in the story they have tested the C32L mask and the test subject dies but even after that time they say they have no idea what the gas is.....M
MrMal1956 im not really concerned about it lol, I didn't even finish highschool! so I don't understand half the shit the talk about! still......I love this book!!!!!!!!!!
It's simple but I'm not revealing the secrets of science fiction in a UA-cam comments section...
What if they strapped the mask to a dog and hid it inside targeted plane? I think that would do it. As I understand, pirate visits vere quite frequent.
@@pingasbungus4517 But then PETA would get involved. They would turn world opinion against the pirates to such an extant that the pirates would have to stop being pirates, become dentists (their gas would be awesome for patients!) and there would be no story for us to critique... I mean listen to.
MrMal. Best not to ask questions when it comes to older sci-fi. I try to just ignore those things otherwise I can't enjoy an otherwise great story!
It was funny when he said "trying to beat off the interplanetary patrol"
Horizontal manoeuvres! Tee hee
I was just listening to the sequel "islands of space" and he said "beating off" a couple times then too.. I'm 41 and I'll probably never grow up....😇
17:00 "Time and time again the pirate slipped in undetected"
... Damn pirates... Always after ye booty... ...Hopefully there's not too much gas during horizontal maneuvers or they may not succeed in beating off interplanetary patrol...
@@otterrivers3765 OMG lollolz
Lol so trippy reading goofy stuff you wrote three years ago!
Lol! 20:12 "That's a pretty big order isn't it Dick? How are you going to handle it? Or even get it into your apparatus?"... 3 years later and I guess I'm still no more mature. This story makes it too easy though. Too many lines about gas and fitting things into your apparatus and stuff.
Book 3 Pro log
4:37:30
Propellor planes in the 22nd Century??? Mr. Campbell was not adept at predicting the future.
Not as good as you eh tiger?
@@tyroniousyrownshoolacez2347 I predicted the iPhone in 2007.
Lol tyro!
4:50
Enjoyable, but not up the standard of ERB. This has rather too much chatting and techno- babble.
Mar 14.
This reader should read children’s books. This reading is terrible.
No matter how great a narrator is there's always one guy saying it's terrible. As far as the story goes I enjoy it. Sometimes I just want an oversimplified sloe paced story to relax with.