SPACE SHIPS! RAY GUNS! MARTIAN OCTOPODS! - Richard Wolinsky, editor

 Science fiction readers of a certain age (let's say 60 and older) are probably going to really enjoy this because the authors (and artists) interviewed are generally authors we grew up with (Theodore Sturgeon, Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch, C.L. Moore, Philip K. Dick, Roger Zelazny, Kelly Freas, Anne McCaffrey, Frank Belknap Long, and many, many, many others), and they are talking about magazines and editors and publishers that, if we didn't read, we knew (or thought we knew) about them.

There's plenty of dirt dished out - which editors paid well and on time, and which ones did not, how some got their start selling to one of the pulps, and how their stories got edited ... or how they didn't. I particularly enjoyed Frank M. Robinson's story about a time he'd been chatting with an editor of one science fiction magazine:

 ...we talked over a story that he wanted me to write, and I went home and wrote the story. Realizing that they always changed the title, I didn’t bother giving it a title. I just called it “Untitled Story,” and sent it off to Fred Pohl, who was my agent at the time. Freddie heard there was a 12,000 word hole over in Astounding, shipped it over there. Campbell bought it, printed it, and it came out as “Untitled Story.” I didn’t know that.

Little nuggets like this make up the bulk of the book. It's almost impossible to open to any page without finding some little piece of gold.

The stories and anecdotes come from interviews these authors had with  Richard Wolinsky, Richard A. Lupoff, & Lawrence Davidson on the "Probabilities" radio show which began in the mid-1970's.

It would have been easiest if someone had simply published the show transcripts (maybe even to edit them down to cut out some of the non-essential dialog), but editor Richard Wolinsky takes on a Herculean task and edits snippets of conversations together on specific topics. More than once the book read as though three or four of the authors were in the room together talking on various topics. It's fun when they sometimes had opposing viewpoints about a topic.

A female point of view isn't very present, but that has more to do with science fiction publishing in its early years. A few giants in the field are represented here, such as Anne McCaffrey, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Margaret Atwood. One woman was someone I was not familiar with: Jane Roberts.

I highlighted so much in this book - things I want to look into, anecdotes that amused me, and stories and books I want to read, that it's going to take me a week to go through all these highlights.

Fans who like to be 'in the know' (which, from my experience, is most science fiction fans) really enjoy this. Anyone who enjoys reading science fiction owes it to themselves to become familiar with the origins of modern scifi by reading this book.

Looking for a good book? Richard Wolinsky has edited a great collection of interviews with science fiction authors, editors, and artists into an engaging book in Space Ships! Ray Guns! Martian Octopods! 

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

4-1/2 stars

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 Space Ships! Ray Guns! Martian Octopods!

editor: Richard Wolinsky

publisher:  Tachyon Publications

ISBN:  9781616964429

paperback, 264 pages