Unknown Orbits

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Unknown Orbits Two writers discuss the Golden Age of Science Fiction, from Gernsback to Roddenberry.

28/06/2023

What would you do if you turned around and found a fourteen-inch Zanti misfit staring at you? So would I. In Howard Fast's The Large Ant the protagonist makes the same decision, and that - of course - leads to a philosophical discussion of Mankind's place amoung intelligent species.

21/06/2023

In A Can of Paint by A. E. van Vogt, the first landing on Venus finds a simple can of paint. But is it really simple, or an advanced alien artifact? Then we touch on the writing techniques of A. E. van Vogt and others.

14/06/2023

Spheres, domes and bottomless holes appear in C. M. Kornbluth's The Silly Season, but how are they connected? We discuss this memorable story from 1950, then move on to the actual newspaper silly season, secret aircraft, UAPs, and the time we embarrassed a Milwaukee Journal reporter.

07/06/2023

Today we talk about Arthur C. Clarke and his 1953 novel Childhood's End, and how some science fiction writers helped poularize space exploration during the early U.S. space program.

31/05/2023

Fritz Leiber's A Pail of Air is a unique view of life on Earth after the end of the world. This inspires us to categorise end of the world movies, and somehow we spend a lot of time talking about Tarzan and the Valley of Gold (a.k.a. Tarzan and the Lost City).

24/05/2023

Foundation by Isaac Asimov leads us into discussing other future histories in science fiction, then we go on to our own view of the quality and style of Asimov's writing.

17/05/2023

Could you rebuild civilization without tools, books, or even the fillings in your teeth? In Jerry Sohl's Costigan's Needle, a neighborhood of 400 people are thrust naked into a different Earth, one without people. We finish by discussing Jerry Sohl's scriptwriting career.

10/05/2023

Did the producers of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms get inspiration from Ray Bradbury's The Foghorn? Or did the connection between the two get some help from Ray Harryhausen? After the discussion we go on to compare our favorite monster movies from the 1950s.

03/05/2023

We discuss the Hugo Award winning novel, A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, a huge maintream success. Then we take a quick look at High School recommended reading lists.

Listen to our review of Nightfall, by Isaac Asimov, the acclaimed story of the terrors of an ordinary night sky. htt...
01/05/2023

Listen to our review of Nightfall, by Isaac Asimov, the acclaimed story of the terrors of an ordinary night sky.
https://tinyurl.com/mswu4f8u

Check our review of Day of the Triffids, the British classic featuring giant, murderous plants. https://bit.ly/3L...
28/04/2023

Check our review of Day of the Triffids, the British classic featuring giant, murderous plants.
https://bit.ly/3LjGATo

Check out our review of Who Goes There? John W. Campbell's pioneering tale of science fiction horror. https://bit...
27/04/2023

Check out our review of Who Goes There? John W. Campbell's pioneering tale of science fiction horror.

https://bit.ly/3LzKfha

26/04/2023

Scanners Live in Vain by Cordwainer Smith is a classic story of the genre. So naturally we disagree over it, then switch things up by argueing about world-building.

12/04/2023

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester is featured in this episode, and then we take a personal journey into the writers and books that have inspired us.

05/04/2023

We discuss the four-novel series "Cities in Flight" by James Blish in which entire cities lift off into space to search for economic opportunity. Then we argue the difference between conceptual and speculative science in fiction.

01/04/2023

Today we discuss the 1949 story Tangent, by the infamous F. L. Clarke, who was known as one of the worst human beings to become a science fiction writer, hated by writers and editors alike, yet somehow always managing to be at the center of the science fiction universe.

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