![]() ![]() ![]() There are covers for books by authors that you may recognise – Arthur C Clarke covers for Pan Books, for example, as well as British covers for Alfred Bester, John Wyndham, van Vogt, Kornbluth and Frederik Pohl, Jack Williamson, and many more – and they make a wonderfully nostalgic means of journeying through SF history.īut for me it is the less well-known British magazines and novels from authors forgotten today that intrigue more. Some are now understandably instantly identifiable, but there are many here that I suspect have not been seen for decades. There are thousands of covers resurrected here. This is a book that revels in the imagery and enthusiasm of those simpler times. At the same time the end of the Second World War had created a societal fascination with technology but also an optimism that such technology could create a brighter and better future, before the late 1960s and 70s showed an alternative, much more cynical one. You have to remember that most of these covers were produced initially in a time of austerity, when food rationing still existed in Britain, paper had only just become more available and disposable income was still scarce for many. The importance of these covers to British science fiction cannot be underestimated. Together they created that sense of wonder escapism that made the dreary and mundane real world more bearable. Titles such as Robot Mutation, Mushroom Men from Mars, and Dawn of the Mutants were food for the imagination and reflected society’s hopes and fears in this new Space Age, and the magazine’s colour covers were an enticement to buy, to access the entertainment within. The magazines were often a contradiction in style and tone, contrasting the stiff upper lip stoicism of their characters in prose with colour covers and an enthusiasm for (*cough*) out-of-this-world derring-do. There were heroes, heroines, villains, and yes, rayguns and rocketships, where plots were what was expected and readers keen for more. The publisher’s motto was clearly quantity over quality, with (rather ironically) stories rarely out-of-the-ordinary. The Dawn of the Space Age in the UK in the 1950’s, like that of the US, led to a proliferation of pulp SF, often quickly written and published, designed to be bought by an eager readership but then quickly discarded and forgotten when the next story arrived next month. There was a time when SF was a much simpler and less complicated genre. Author and graphic designer Rian Hughes ( XXX, The Black Locomotive) has compiled a book to show us where SF once was and how it has inspired the writers and artists of today. With this in mind, this art book is a fascinating glimpse into this past. As much as we are about progression forwards, I appreciate from where we have come. Personally, as much as I enjoy new SF, I also like to see how we have got to where we are – I find fascinating the foundations of SF, with all of its opportunities and challenges it presents to a modern audience. I think that one consequence of this though is that the past history of the genre is ignored or forgotten. It is a fine ideal, and often what makes the genre attractive for many readers. For many readers today, Science Fiction is of the now – or possibly the future! – using science fictional tropes to examine current themes and issues. ![]()
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