Book Review: Amazing Stories: Cents of Wonder Edited by Steve Davidson and Kermit Woodall

 

 

Amazing Stories: Cents of Wonder Edited by Steve Davidson and Kermit Woodall

Publication September 2022

I am not sure why but at some point, Hasbro Toy company owned the rights to Amazing Stories magazine which was started in the mid-1920s by Hugo Gernsbeck. Yep, The Hugo of THE Hugo awards. You probably know that but part of writing about the history of the genre is not assuming that any knows because many people don’t. Steve Davidson at some point noticed that the trademark lapsed and now the former professional paintballer is the owner and publisher of Amazing Stories. Without him, we wouldn’t have the 88th-anniversary edition so you go, Steve!

Sure he is keeping the tradition alive by doing new issues and but with this book Cent$ of Wonder he doing serious rediscovery which is normally the job of academics. This book is history and contains 14 stories that would’ve been lost to history. Steve sent me this book and I am glad he did. It was after I did my five-part series on 1930 SF.  I thought that was OLD, but how about the 20s? These stories written between 26 and 30  are special for another reason.

These were not pros, and as best I can tell only two went on to become noted writers. The stories in this book were entries in a series of writing contests that used a piece of art as a story prompt. Writers could submit stories inspired by the art and Gernsbeck choose winners and honorable mentions. There was a cash prize for the top winners. The reason for this contest is simple. Gernsbeck needed to encourage new writers and to expand his pool of talent.

$500 was a shitload of money now. The sad thing is, that is more than most outlets can afford to pay writers today.  All the introductions and histories in this book are as valuable, if not more useful than the stories themselves. Most of the stories are not that great, but that is not the point. They are really cool to read because you get a view into how the writers were translating the image.

I was amazed that some of the stories didn’t feel as dated as they could have. Most of the flaws come from narrative flow and things more experienced writers would iron out. Two of the three best stories in the collection were by authors who would go on to succeed. That didn’t surprise me. 

So the first part of the book was the Amazing Stories December 1926- to April 1927 contest.  The magazine published the first through third-place winners as well four honorable mentions. I got something out of all the stories, one of the drawbacks were the length of the stories, some of them drag. I think Gernsbeck understood this so the later stories are shorter.

The two best in this half in my opinion were the third and first-place stories. Coming in at third place was the only author I knew already - Claire Wagner Harris. Her story Miracle of the Lily is a stand-out in Lisa Yazsek’s first volume of The Future is Female. Her story 'The Fate of Poseidonia' comes with a back-handed insulting sexist introduction by Gernsbeck, who seems shocked to give the prize to a woman and says “As a rule, women do not make good scientifiction writers.” He goes on to compliment the story and calling it an exception to the rules. Wow, 1927.

Harris to me is the best writer in the book so no surprise she is the one I knew before. Still, she didn’t have the success she probably deserved and had to be rediscovered. This story has sweeping vistas of time and involves lots of the solar system. It has a very powerful scene when the far future of 1945 sees the pacific ocean receding and world-wide panic. The story has a futuristic trans-Atlantic plane. And does all the stuff you want a retro SF story to do. Create a surreal future envisioned by a woman in 1927. It is a cool end-of-the-world story and certainly my favorite of the book.

The first place story The Visitation by Cyril G. Waters was also pretty cool. It was a delightfully weird tale of the SS Shah of Iran a vessel involved in a bizarro first contact story. Those were the two real standouts of the first half for me.

I enjoyed the results of the second contest a little more. Part Two of the book was the Cover story contest for the November 1929 issue of Science Wonder Stories. They had a cover that had a flying saucer holding a skyscraper and the Effiel Tower in space.  $300 prize and more importantly a shorter word count. This meant the stories in this half took less time to read and the ones of lesser quality felt like less of a chore to read. It was also a bit harder a scenario to explain.

The first-place winner is an early story by Charles Tanner who would go on to be a Weird Tales regular and write the classic “Tumithak Of The Corridors.”  In that context, while spelled differently the title Color of space, similar to Lovecraft's tale made me smile. The Colour Out of Space was published two years earlier. Tanner according to the intro had been a Gernsbeck reader since 1908 in Modern Electronics. His story involves scientists trying to overcome gravity, it is the use of gravity and space travel in the late 20s that makes this story fun. No real attempt at science even for the time. There is however a story that tries to do the science of the time.

My third favorite story from the book The Relics From the Earth by John Pierce. He didn’t go on to be a writer but he was a hang glider and apparently a student at the California institute of technology. I was impressed for his hard SF approach. The story of the post-earth exodus out into the solar system written in 1929 holds better than you might think.

I like the stories in the second half better because they are shorter and sweeter and the bad ones wasted less of my time. That said the book as a whole is an important document. Entertainment sure, a great historical document. I have to thank Steve and Kermit Woodall for putting in the work to get this out there. It is an important historical document in the development of SF. Anyone interested in the early glory days of the genre should really put it on their shelf.