1958 In Science Fiction
   HOME





1958 In Science Fiction
The year 1958 was marked, in science fiction, by the following events. Births and deaths Births *Wayne Barlowe *Jay Caselberg *Bradley Denton *A. R. Morlan (d. 2016) *Don Sakers (d. 2021) *David Sherman * Johanna Sinisalo *Allen Steele * Peter Watts *Lynda Williams Deaths * E. Everett Evans (b. 1893) * Cyril M. Kornbluth (b. 1923) *Henry Kuttner (b. 1915) * R. DeWitt Miller (b. 1910) Literary releases First editions * ''A Case of Conscience'' by James Blish, a Jesuit priest grapples with the morality of an alien civilization. * '' The Cosmic Rape'' by Theodore Sturgeon, humanity is absorbed into a collective alien consciousness. * ''The Languages of Pao'' by Jack Vance, language manipulation shapes the destiny of an alien world. * ''Methuselah's Children'' by Robert A. Heinlein, a long-lived family flees Earth to escape persecution. * '' Non-Stop'' by Brian W. Aldiss, a generational spaceship's inhabitants discover their true situation. * '' Slaves of the Klau'' by J ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Science Fiction
Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space exploration, time travel, Parallel universes in fiction, parallel universes, and extraterrestrials in fiction, extraterrestrial life. The genre often explores human responses to the consequences of projected or imagined scientific advances. Science fiction is related to fantasy (together abbreviated wikt:SF&F, SF&F), Horror fiction, horror, and superhero fiction, and it contains many #Subgenres, subgenres. The genre's precise Definitions of science fiction, definition has long been disputed among authors, critics, scholars, and readers. Major subgenres include hard science fiction, ''hard'' science fiction, which emphasizes scientific accuracy, and soft science fiction, ''soft'' science fiction, which focuses on social sciences. Other no ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Jack Vance
John Holbrook Vance (August 28, 1916 – May 26, 2013) was an American mystery, fantasy, and science fiction writer. He also wrote several mystery novels under pen names, including Ellery Queen. Vance won the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 1984, and he was a Guest of Honor at the 1992 World Science Fiction Convention in Orlando, Florida. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America made him its 15th SFWA Grand Master, Grand Master in 1997, and the EMP Museum#Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Science Fiction Hall of Fame inducted him in 2001, its sixth class of two deceased and two living writers. His most notable awards included Hugo Awards in 1963 for ''The Dragon Masters'', in 1967 for ''The Last Castle (novella), The Last Castle'', and in 2010 for his memoir ''This Is Me, Jack Vance!''; the Nebula Award in 1966, also for ''The Last Castle''; the Jupiter Award (science fiction award), Jupiter Award in 1975 and the World Fantasy Award in 1990 for ''Lyonesse: M ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Worlds Of Science Fiction
Worlds may refer to: * Worlds, the plural of world * Worlds (short story collection), a 2009 collection of science fiction and fantasy short stories by Eric Flint * Worlds (novel), a 1981 novel by Joe Haldeman * Worlds (Joe Lovano album), 1989 * Worlds (Porter Robinson album), 2014 * Worlds, abbreviated name for a world championship event See also * World (other) The world is a common name for the whole of human civilization, specifically human experience, history, or the human condition in general, worldwide, i.e. anywhere on Earth. World, worlds or the world may also refer to: Astronomy * Universe, al ...
{{dab ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov ( ;  – April 6, 1992) was an Russian-born American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers, along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke. A prolific writer, he wrote or edited more than 500 books. He also wrote an estimated 90,000 letters and postcards. Best known for his hard science fiction, Asimov also wrote mystery fiction, mysteries and fantasy, as well as popular science and other non-fiction. Asimov's most famous work is the ''Foundation (book series), Foundation'' series, the first three books of which won the one-time Hugo Award for "Best All-Time Series" in 1966. His other major series are the ''Galactic Empire series, Galactic Empire'' series and the ''Robot series, Robot'' series. The ''Galactic Empire'' novels are set in the much earlier history of the same fictional universe as the ''Foundation'' series. Later, with ''Foundation an ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

The Feeling Of Power
"The Feeling of Power" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. The story first appeared in the February 1958 issue of '' If: Worlds of Science Fiction'', and was reprinted in the 1959 collection '' Nine Tomorrows'', the 1969 retrospective ''Opus 100'', the 1970 anthology '' The Stars Around Us'', the 1986 collection '' Robot Dreams'', the 1990 anthology "The Complete Stories (Asimov)" volume 1. In the introduction to ''Robot Visions'', Asimov lists this story as one of the notable robot stories. The story is representative of the genre of sci-fi that started in the 1950s as a reaction to computers, around the theme of caution against human mental atrophy in the computer era. Arthur C. Clarke's 1960 story " Into the Comet" is in a similar vein. Plot summary In the distant future, humans live in a computer-aided society and have forgotten the fundamentals of mathematics, including even the rudimentary skill of counting. The Terrestrial Federation is at ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


The Tower Of Zanid
''The Tower of Zanid'' is a science fiction novel by American writer L. Sprague de Camp, the sixth book of his '' Viagens Interplanetarias'' series and the fourth of its subseries of stories set on the fictional planet Krishna. Chronologically it is the seventh Krishna novel. It was first published in the magazine '' Science Fiction Stories'' for May 1958. It was first published in book form in hardcover by Avalon Books, also in 1958, and in paperback by Airmont Books in 1963. It has been reissued a number of times since by various publishers. For the later standard edition of Krishna novels it was published together with '' The Virgin of Zesh'' in the paperback collection '' The Virgin of Zesh & The Tower of Zanid'' by Ace Books in 1983. An E-book edition was published by Gollancz's SF Gateway imprint on September 29, 2011 as part of a general release of de Camp's works in electronic form. The novel has also been translated into Italian and German. ''The Tower of Zanid'' wa ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


The Time Traders
''The Time Traders'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Andre Norton, the first in ''The Time Traders'' series. It was first published in 1958, and has been printed in several editions. It was updated by Norton in 2000 to account for real world changes. It is part of Norton's Forerunner universe. ''The Time Traders'' introduces the premise: a confrontation between Western heroes and the "Reds", AKA the Soviets, plus the "Baldies", a mysterious alien race that has used time travel to alter Earth. This novel alternates among the present day, a trading tribal society in Britain, 2000 B.C., and a glacial outpost in the last ice age. Premise In her Time Trader novels Norton tacitly assumes that the physics of time travel differs so significantly from the physics of space travel, especially hyperdrive-propelled interstellar flight, that a civilization that discovers the technology of one simply will not discover the technology of the other. Earth’s physicists have discov ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Robert Silverberg
Robert Silverberg (born January 15, 1935) is a prolific American science fiction author and editor. He is a multiple winner of both Hugo Award, Hugo and Nebula Awards, a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, and a SFWA Grand Master, Grand Master of SF since 2004. Especially noted Silverberg works include the novella ''Nightwings (novella), Nightwings'' (1969) and the novels ''Downward to the Earth'' (1970), ''The World Inside'' (1971), ''Dying Inside'' (1972), and ''Lord Valentine's Castle'' (1980; the first of the Majipoor series). Silverberg has attended every Hugo Award ceremony since the inaugural event in 1953. Biography Early life Silverberg was born on January 15, 1935, to Jew, Jewish parents in Brooklyn, New York. A voracious reader since childhood, he began submitting stories to science fiction magazines during his early teenage years. He received a BA in English Literature from Columbia University, in 1956. While at Columbia he wrote the juvenile ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Starman's Quest
''Starman's Quest'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Robert Silverberg. It was published in 1958 by Gnome Press in an edition of 5,000 copies, of which only 3,000 were bound. It was reprinted as a second edition in hardcover by Meredith Press in 1969. Plot summary The story revolves around protagonist Alan Donnell, having just turned 17 and living on a space ship for all his life. While mankind has finally mastered interstellar travel, it is still bound to the speed of light using so-called Lexman drives. As a result, spacefarers experience the FitzGerald contraction, aging only a couple of weeks during their flights, where—depending on the actual distance traveled—years or even centuries pass by. This leads to the strange situation that Alan biologically is 17, but 300 in earth years. Rumor has it that already in 2570, i.e. 1,300 years prior to the story time, the Cavour hyperdrive was invented by seclusive scientist James Hudson Cavour, who however vanished a ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Andre Norton
Andre Alice Norton (born Alice Mary Norton, February 17, 1912 – March 17, 2005) was an American writer of science fiction and fantasy, who also wrote works of historical and contemporary fiction. She wrote primarily under the pen name Andre Norton, but also under Andrew North and Allen Weston. She was the first woman to be Gandalf Grand Master of Fantasy, to be SFWA Grand Master, and to be inducted by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. Biography and career Biography Alice Mary Norton was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1912. Her parents were Adalbert Freely Norton, who owned a rug company, and Bertha Stemm Norton. Alice began writing at Collinwood High School in Cleveland, under the tutelage of Sylvia Cochrane. She was the editor of a literary page in the school's paper, ''The Collinwood Spotlight'', for which she wrote short stories. During this time, she wrote her first book, ''Ralestone Luck'', which was eventually published as her second novel in 1938. ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Star Gate (novel)
''Star Gate'' is a science fantasy novel by American writer Andre Norton, published by Harcourt, Brace & Company in 1958. The story is science fiction with a blend of sword and sorcery, mingling technologically advanced humans from Earth with the human natives of the far-off world of Gorth and a native culture that has achieved the development level of medieval Europe. Premise In her prologue, Norton postulated a mechanism that enables people to travel between alternate versions of the same world and even meet alternate versions of themselves. Plot Long ago people came from beyond the sky and landed on Gorth. There they raised the human natives out of the wild state and led them to develop a civilization analogous to that of medieval Europe. Then they went away, leaving behind a few of their number, memories, and a small population of cross-breeds. Kincar s’Rud is one of those cross-breeds. Part native and part Star Lord, he has assumed that he will inherit the throne of ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Slaves Of The Klau
''Slaves of the Klau'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Jack Vance written in 1958. It is about an Earth man, Roy Barch, who is kidnapped into slavery by a warlike alien race, the Klau and taken to a forced labour planet. Roy develops a plan to escape back to Earth by stealing an anti-gravity ship from the Klau and turning it into a spaceship. Vance's preferred title is ''Gold and Iron'', with gold being a reference to the gold skin tone of the benevolent Lekthwan aliens and iron a reference to Roy Barch's iron-willed resolution to escape his captors. It was first published in ''Space Stories ''Space Stories'' was a pulp magazine which published five issues from October 1952 to June 1953. It was published by Standard Magazines, and edited by Samuel Mines. Mines' editorial policy for ''Space Stories'' was to publish straightforwar ...'' magazine with the title ''Space Pirates''; when Ace published it in a book, they changed the title to ''Slaves of the Klau'' a ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]