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Tag: The Golden Age of Science Fiction

The Golden Age of Science Fiction: Jack L. Chalker

The Golden Age of Science Fiction: Jack L. Chalker

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Cover by H.R. Van Dongen
Cover by H.R. Van Dongen

Photo by Chaz Baden Boston
Photo by Chaz Baden Boston

Cover by Joe Wehrle, Jr.
Cover by Joe Wehrle, Jr.

The Skylark Award, or more formally, the Edward E. Smith Memorial Award for Imaginative Fiction” is presented annually by NESFA at Boskone to honor significant contributions to science fiction in the spirit of E.E. “Doc” Smith. The award was first presented in 1966 to Frederik Pohl. The award takes the form of a lens on top of a podium. When Jane Yolen received the award in 1990, she placed the award in the picture window in her kitchen. On the next clear day, the lens focused the sun’s rays and burnt Yolen’s coat. Ever since, this cautionary tale has been related to the award’s winner.

The Edmond Hamilton/Leigh Brackett Memorial Award was presented at Octocon by the Spellbinders Foundation in the 1970s and 80s, with the award voted on by the attending membership of the convention. The convention and the award were only in existence for a handful of years, with the first award presented in 1977 to Katherine Kurtz at Octocon 1. The award recognized promotion of the “sense of wonder” in science fiction and fantasy. Some sources list the award as going, in general to the author, while other sources indicated the award was presented for a specific work.

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The Golden Age of Science Fiction: “The Migration of Darkness,” by Peter Payack

The Golden Age of Science Fiction: “The Migration of Darkness,” by Peter Payack

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Cover by Alex Schomburg
Cover by Alex Schomburg

Cover by Tim Mullins
Cover by Tim Mullins

The Rhysling Awards, named for Robert A. Heinlein’s poet from The Green Hills of Earth, were established by the Science Fiction Poetry Association in 1978. Both the association and the award were founded by Suzette Haden Elgin. Each year, awards are given for Short Form poetry and Long Form poetry. The first three years of the award resulted in ties, with three poems tying in the first year, and two each tying in the second and third year.

Payack’s poem “The Migration of Darkness” appeared in the August 1979 issue of Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, edited by George Scithers. The poem postulates that darkness, rather than being the absence of light, is made up of infinitesimal pieces of darkness that breed in dimmer regions, such as the poles, and migrate south each night to cover the world in darkness, only to migrate back to the polar regions, or possible westward, with the coming of night. Pieces of darkness that don’t make the migration congregate behind buildings and trees to form shadows, but their lives of, of necessity, short since the light will eventually find them and kill them off.

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The Golden Age of Science Fiction: Piers Anthony

The Golden Age of Science Fiction: Piers Anthony

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Piers Anthony
Piers Anthony

Chthon
Chthon

Cover by Michael Whelan
Cover by Michael Whelan

DeepSouthCon has presented the Phoenix Award annually since 1970. The first Rebel Award was presented to Richard C. Meredith. The 1980 award was presented on August 23 at DeepSouthCon 18/ASFICon in Atlanta, Georgia, which was chaired by Cliff Biggers.

While Piers Anthony may currently be best known for his series of Xanth novels, in 1980, when he was presented with the Phoenix Award, the series was just getting started. A Spell for Chameleon had appeared in 1977 and been awarded the British Fantasy Award and nominated for the Balrog Award. Castle Roogna followed it in 1978 and The Source of Magic appeared in 1979, and that was all: a trilogy.

Anthony had published numerous successful series up to that point, including the Omnivore/Orn/OX series between 1968 and 1976, the first four volumes of the Cluster series and the Tarot trilogy. His Battle Circle trilogy had appeared between 1968 and 1975 and the Chthon duology was published in 1967 and 1975. In 1980, he had just published Split Infinity, the first novel in his Apprentice Adept series.

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The Golden Age of Science Fiction: “Encased in the Amber of Eternity,” by Robert Frazier

The Golden Age of Science Fiction: “Encased in the Amber of Eternity,” by Robert Frazier

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Cover by Vincent di Fate
Cover by Vincent di Fate

Cover by Tim Mullins
Cover by Tim Mullins

The Rhysling Awards, named for Robert A. Heinlein’s poet from The Green Hills of Earth, were established by the Science Fiction Poetry Association in 1978. Both the association and the award were founded by Suzette Haden Elgin. Each year, awards are given for Short Form poetry and Long Form poetry. The first three years of the award resulted in ties, with three poems tying in the first year, and two each tying in the second and third year.

Robert Frazier’s poem “Encased in the Amber of Eternity” depicts a Pacific Northwest in the aftermath of a nuclear war that has depopulated the North American continent (and presumably most of the rest of the world). His imagery moves briskly from descriptions of various objects associated with lights and fire representing the falling missiles, to the bone-like remnants of human civilization, represented by Portland. The poem’s narrator, who seems to be a survivalist type, has managed to come through the catastrophe and offers a glimpse of hope that he will be able to find other survivors to rebuilt some sort of civilization, or, even if it is only him, at least he is still around.

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The Golden Age of Science Fiction: Janice Bogstad and Jeanne Gomoll

The Golden Age of Science Fiction: Janice Bogstad and Jeanne Gomoll

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Janice Bogstad
Janice Bogstad

Janus 15, Cover by Jeanne Gomoll
Janus 15, Cover by Jeanne Gomoll

Jeanne Gomoll
Jeanne Gomoll

The Fan Activity Achievement Award (FAAN) were presented from 1976 through 1980 to recognize achievement by those who write, edit, and illustrate fanzines. The awards were revived in 1994 and have presented every years since, with the exception of 1996. The Best Fan Editor Award was only presented during the initial run of the award from 1977 to 1980. It was won in each of the first two years by Rob Johnson. Janice Bogstad and Jeanne Gomoll won the FAAN Award for Best Editor in both 1979 and 1980 for their editorial work on the fanzine Janus. They were also nominated in both those years (as well as 1978) for the Hugo Award.

Janice Bogstad began editing the fanzine Janus in 1975. She was joined in editorial duties by Jeanne Gomoll with issue 2 and the two co-edited the zine from 1975 through 1980, producing a total of 18 issues of the fanzine. The zine was nominated for the Best Fanzine Hugo three times, in 1978, 1979, and 1980. When Bogstad and Gomoll decided to stop editing the zine, the editorial duties to Diane Martin, who continued publishing another 8 issues between 1981 and 1990 under the auspices of SF3, although name of the fanzine was changed to Aurora. Following the publication of Janus, Bogstad began publishing the zine New Moon in 1981.

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The Golden Age of Science Fiction: Fantasia

The Golden Age of Science Fiction: Fantasia

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Fantasia Poster
Fantasia Poster

Fantasia Poster
Fantasia Poster

The Balrog Award, often referred to as the coveted Balrog Award, was created by Jonathan Bacon and first conceived in issue 10/11 of his Fantasy Crossroads fanzine in 1977 and actually announced in the final issue, where he also proposed the Smitty Awards for fantasy poetry. The awards were presented for the first time at Fool-Con II at the Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas on April 1, 1979. The awards were never taken particularly seriously, even by those who won the award. The final awards were presented in 1985. The Film Hall of Fame Awards were not presented the first year the Balrogs were given out, being created in 1980.

Released on November 13, 1940, Fantasia was the third feature length animated film made by Walt Disney, following on the heels of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pinocchio.  The film built on the Silly Symphonies series of shorts Disney released between 1929 and 1939.  While the Silly Symphonies married images to original music, Fantasia would take eight pieces of known classical music and use them to tell stories.

While Snow White and Pinocchio were aimed at a juvenile audience, Fantasia is very much a film for adults. The lack of dialogue, and what dialogue there is being expository, mean that, although certain sections of the film will appeal to children, most kids will be bored through much of the movie.

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The Golden Age of Science Fiction: A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L’Engle

The Golden Age of Science Fiction: A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L’Engle

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Cover by Carolyn Beresford
Cover by Carolyn Beresford

Cover by Jody A. Lee
Cover by Jody A. Lee

Cover by Matt Mahurin
Cover by Matt Mahurin

The National Book Awards were established in 1936 by the American Booksellers Association. Although the Awards were not given out between 1942 and 1949 because of World War II and its aftermath, the awards were reestablished in 1950 and given out annually since then. Since 1950, only US authors are eligible for the award, which is designed to celebrate the best of American literature, expand its audience, and enhance the value of good writing in America. From 1980 through 1983, the American Book Awards were announced as a variation of the National Book Awards, run by the Academy of the American Book Awards.

The first Children’s Book award was presented to Meinhardt DeJong for Journey from Peppermint Street. In 1980, the award rebranded as the American Book Awards (TABA) and increased the number of awards given, including creating both a hardcover and paperback award for Children’s Books. The winner of the first Paperback Children’s Book Award was Madeleine L’Engle’s A Swiftly Tilting Planet.

A Swiftly Tilting Planet was the third book published in Madeleine L’Engle’s Time Quintet (although it is the fourth volume viewed by internal chronology). It follows the established character of Charles Wallace Murry who must save the world from an impending nuclear disaster. Charles Wallace has demonstrated the ability to read other people’s minds and thought and connect to his older sister, Meg, through a process called kything.

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The Golden Age of Science Fiction: Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke

The Golden Age of Science Fiction: Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke

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Cover by Brian Boyle
Cover by Brian Boyle

Cover by Bruce Pennington
Cover by Bruce Pennington

Cover by Hal Siegel
Cover by Hal Siegel

The Seiun Awards are often described as the “Japanese Hugo Awards” since they are voted on by the membership of annual Japanese Science Fiction Convention. This description almost invariably is followed up by pointing out that Seiun is Japanese for Nebula. A Seiun Award for Best Foreign Novel and Best Foreign Short Fiction has been presented since 1970, although in 1980, the year being explored in this series, no Short Fiction Seiun was awarded. The first Seiun Award for Best Novel was presented to J.G. Ballard’s The Crystal World (originally published in 1966) and the first award for Short Fiction was presented to Thomas M. Disch for “The Squirrel Cage,” published in the same year. Because the awards are presented for works in translation, there is generally a lag of a few years from first publication. For many years, the Seiun Award foreign categories were presented at Worldcon as part of the Hugo Award ceremony.

Arthur C. Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama was first published in 1973 and by the time it was translated into Japanese, it had won the Nebula Award, the Hugo Award, the Locus Award, and the BSFA Award. In a Locus Poll in 1975, it was ranked the 20th best novel in science fiction history.

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The Golden Age of Science Fiction: “The Last Defender of Camelot,” by Roger Zelazny

The Golden Age of Science Fiction: “The Last Defender of Camelot,” by Roger Zelazny

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Cover by Paul Alexander
Cover by Paul Alexander

Cover by Alicia Austin
Cover by Alicia Austin

Cover by Lela Dowling
Cover by Lela Dowling

The Balrog Award, often referred to as the coveted Balrog Award, was created by Jonathan Bacon and first conceived in issue 10/11 of his Fantasy Crossroads fanzine in 1977 and actually announced in the final issue, where he also proposed the Smitty Awards for fantasy poetry. The awards were presented for the first time at Fool-Con II at the Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas on April 1, 1979. The awards were never taken particularly seriously, even by those who won the award. The final awards were presented in 1985. Presented variously for “Short Fiction” and “Short Story,” this award was given out each year the Balrogs were presented.

Roger Zelazny’s “The Last Defender of Camelot” places an eternal Sir Lancelot in the modern era, dealing with such enemies as street muggers. Unsure of why he has a long life, he wanders the globe aimlessly, adapting to the new world while remembering the glory that was Camelot and searching for the Holy Grail. A (possibly) chance meeting with a fortune teller who turns out to be an equally long-lived Morgana LeFay informs him that he will never succeed in finding the Holy Grail, but instead the reason for his long life is that Merlin is about to awaken from his millennia long sleep and will need Lancelot to provide him with a guide to this future world.

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The Golden Age of Science Fiction: Robert A. Heinlein

The Golden Age of Science Fiction: Robert A. Heinlein

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Heinlein accepting the Nebula
Heinlein accepting the Nebula

Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein

The Forry Award has been presented annually by LASFS (the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society) since 1966 and is named for Forrest J Ackerman.  The award celebrates lifetime achievement in science fiction and the recipients are selected by a vote among LASFS members. The first award was presented in 1966 to Ray Bradbury and has generally been presented to science fiction professionals, although an occasional fan has received the award as well.  Ackerman didn’t receive the award until 2002. Robert A. Heinlein received the award in 1980. The award was presented at Loscon 7, the weekend of November 28-30 at the Anaheim Sheraton.

Books have and will continued to be written about Robert A. Heinlein, some recent examples being William H. Patterson’s two volume Heinlein biography and Farah Mendlesohn’s The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein. From 1979, there was H. Bruce Franklin’s Robert A. Heinlein: America as Science Fiction, which I discussed on May 6. Of course, Heinlein also has his staunch devotees and partisans as well as his detractors.

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