She Treads Softly: Space Ships! Ray Guns! Martian Octopods!

Thursday, August 21, 2025

Space Ships! Ray Guns! Martian Octopods!

Space Ships! Ray Guns! Martian Octopods! by Richard Wolinsky
9/2/25; 264 pages
Tachyon

Space Ships! Ray Guns! Martian Octopods! by Richard Wolinsky is a highly recommended compilation of interactive discussions between writers from the Golden Age of science fiction, between 1920 and 1960. The discussions are from Probabilities, a radio show which ran from 1977-95 and the text follows a free flowing discussion on topics rather than an interview of one author at a time. The interviews were conducted on air by Wolinsky and his fellow writers and co-hosts Richard A. Lupoff and Lawrence Davidson.

There is a lot of discussion of various pulp magazines, editors, science fiction publishers, inside gossip, and personal opinions all from more than fifty legendary writers. The Table of Contents will provide readers with insight on how this collection is organized by era, starting in the 1920's, and topic. It also lists who is being interviewed and some of the pulp magazines (additional ones are mentioned by authors in the text) for that era.

Chapters are: Chapter 1 Space Ships! Ray Guns! Martian Octopods!: Science Fiction in the 1920s; Chapter 2 The Story of Weird Tales; Chapter 3 The Years of the Depression: Triumph of the Pulps; Chapter 4 The King of Science Fiction: John W. Campbell & Astounding; Chapter 5 World War II & Beyond: Science Fiction in the Forties; Chapter 6 The Fifties: The World Rushes In; and Chapter 7 From the Science Fiction League to the Futurians: Fans for All Seasons. Appendix II lists the interviews.

Wolinky suggests you read the book following George Plimpton's advice (for a book he wrote) and approach it as if you were at a cocktail party and happen to overhear discussions. Many of the discussions do resemble a group of friends discussing various topics and people they know, with all the gossip, opinions, complaints, and insider's knowledge that this implies. One drawback of the book for me is how the interviews are not by individual writer, but are an amalgamation of several authors addressing a topic. It does create a nice discussion format, but I was expecting more individual interviews.

Space Ships! Ray Guns! Martian Octopods! is definitely a good choice for anyone who enjoys early science fiction. Thanks to Tachyon Publishing for providing me with an advance reader's copy via Edelweiss. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.