[kabdib]

When I was 12 or 13 I discovered E E "Doc" Smith, John W Campbell and Philip Nowlan. I'd been reading more contemporary authors like Heinlein and Andre Norton, and the sheer "noise" of these older books were astonishing. What teenage boy doesn't like antimatter planets being flung at Boskonian space pirate outposts, or spaceships powered by solidified light? For a while I loved them.

I still have fond memories of Smith's galaxy-spanning Skylark series, the planet bashing swagger of the Lensman series, and Campbell's unapologetic "super science", but the prose has not aged well and I find them difficult to read now. I feel a little sad about that.

I can still recommend Smith's The Skylark of Space and Skylark Three, and Campbell's The Moon is Hell, but not much else.

[MaysonL]

Who Goes There?, as well as Twilight and Night, all published by Campbell under the Don Stuart pseudonym, still work for me.