Gimme that old time dystopia…

…it sure beats the one we’re living through right now!

And to escape from the spectacle of 2020, I’ve been reading a number of things. One which has been giving me a lot of pleasure is the Avon Fantasy Reader #13 from 1950, edited by Donald Wollheim, a legendary name in science fiction history.

Too bad we can’t find magazines like this on newsstands today! Wait a minute..there are hardly any newsstands left anymore… 😮

 

The title story, “The Love Slave and the Scientists,” by Frank Belknap Long, which inspired the cover by artist Manuel Rey Isip (according to the Internet Speculative Fiction Database here)  is set in a “utopia” where men take their extramarital pleasures with lovely androids. But times haven’t changed that much…these fellas don’t like their wives to do similarly with male androids! An enjoyable, witty tale.

Even better is a story called “Original Sin” by S. Fowler Wright, wherein humankind overthinks itself into extinction…but its one hope for starting again has an unexpected twist that shows people will stay people, and fallible, no matter how you think you can perfect them.

And best of all is “The Forgotten Planet,” by Sewell Peaslee Wright, from 1930, which almost seems like something of a forerunner of the 1960s Star Trek series, complete with a spaceship run along nautical lines by a brave captain (Captain John Hanson) and staffed with loyal officers who try to prevent him from doing things like going on perilous missions by himself…shades of Kirk, Spock, and Bones! I highly recommend this imaginative tale. You can find an informative article about the sadly forgotten but very talented author here…

…and you can enjoy all these stories yourself on the Internet Archive here! Maybe they’ll also take your mind for a little while off the stresses of life today.