I have had a life long love of science fiction and consider myself something of a science fiction aficionado with a specific interest in science fiction from the 1950s. I find reading old science fiction stories is an interesting experience as they often provide us with insights about the present as well as allowing us to look back and reflect on the past. The ’50s was an interesting time when the threat of nuclear holocaust was a real and present danger. The aftermath of World War 2 cast a long shadow over the length of the following decade. The atomic age was characterised by contemporary literature that appeared to only be able to imagine a dark, post-apocalyptic, dystopian future.
Some ’50s science fiction stories are astonishingly bleak. Many of them, by modern standards, are shockingly sexist. But some of them are brilliant. There is something to be said for the value of the short story as, if not an art form, as a valid means of creative expression. They allow for the expression of ideas and concepts in a far more condensed form than a novel. In terms of science fiction, a short story is more like a single episode of a TV show than a movie. It probably won’t come as a surprise to discover than many of the authors included in my anthology series had their stories adapted for TV shows like the Twilight Zone. In the second decade of the 21st Century, the best parallel is probably Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror, where each episode is a stand-alone story.
The goal of this website is primarily to encourage people to buy my books or purchase my Audiobooks on Audible. However, achieving this goal isn’t quite as simple as “If I build it, they will come”. The only way I could think of attracting visitors to my site was to fill it with original content. A side effect of this is that it would force me to create more content and give me a source of quality content to post on social media. To this end, I have created an ambitious plan to review 100 greatest science fiction novels of all time. These will either be books that I read or audiobooks that I have listened to. I spend a lot of time listening to science fiction audiobooks as well as reading them.
In order to help cover the hosting costs of this website, I’m also planning to try and generate some affiliate income from my affiliate relationship with Jeff Bezos’ website, by providing links where you can purchase any of the books I review in a variety of formats. My plan is to produce no less than twelve volumes of Incredible Science Fiction Amazing Tales from the ’50s and Beyond over the next few years. My hope is that this curated collection of 50’s Science Fiction will become a definitive source of some of the greatest science fiction stories ever written.
If you would like to follow me on this journey of discovery then please subscribe to my mailing list, follow me on Twitter and like my Facebook Page. If you would like to support this venture in more tangible material terms they please head over to my shop and buy some of my books!
