Book Review: The Futurians by Damon Knight

The Futurians by Damon Knight

Hardcover, 276 pages

Published 1977 by John Day Company

This book is only for two narrow groups of people in the world. Absolute and total science fiction golden age fans and the scholars of the field. I consider myself in both camps however it is the later that pushed me to pick up this book. As co-host and resident historian of the Dickheads podcast, I am always researching the writing and editorial process that my man PKD went through with each and every title. Over and over we learned little tid-bits about the influence of his long-time editor (first at Ace and then at DAW) Don Wollheim.

I think Wolheim's influence on PKD's novels and ultimately his career is extremely underrated. From changing almost all his titles to rejecting Man in the High Castle and Martian-time Slip which pushed SMLA to send those novels to a bigger publisher. Recently we got a first-hand account from Barry Malzberg about how mand Wollheim was that PKD won a Hugo for a book he had not even considered Science Fiction. I had become very interested in any detail I could get about Don Wollheim whose lasting impact was mostly hidden as a behind the scenes editor.

While there are bigger more popular figures in the genre in this book from Asimov, Phol and Judith Merrill my interest was mostly in the who sat behind a desk in NYC and bought those early PKD novels. You know the guy who knew Solar Lottery was a better title than Quizmaster Takes All and that there was no way we would have a Mars colony by 1994. That was the reason he turned down one of PKD's most-loved novels Martian Time-Slip.

This book has all kinds of funny and uncomfortable stories about the sci-fi nerds of the 1930s. This is an important history and explains the lineage of the genre as we knew it in the 20th century. As a stand-alone history it misses a lot and is mostly from Knight's POV. I also read Lisa Yazek's Future is Female and Alec N. Lee's Astounding. As a trilogy, they really work. If you want to really understand the whole history of 20the century Sci-fi that is the way to go.

For me it was all about Wollheim, I learned about his earliest zines, and stories. The dramas of the early scene and how he rose to form ACe books and why he left. How he started DAW. Valuable info that will show up in our podcast in the future.