IF Worlds of Science Fiction

  • IF Worlds of Science Fiction on archive.org: I'd previously found a couple later years of this, but they've since uploaded almost the entire run. IF's heyday was earlier, then was consumed by Galaxy in '74, and had a short attempt at a relaunch in the '80s.

Some fantastic stuff in here, Fritz Leiber, James Gunn, Fred Pohl, Keith Laumer, etc. I bet there's not a single bad issue if you like classic SF. Download & read it all.

Well, there's some dated stuff, too. Happily, Poul Anderson's estate pulled all his shit (he wrote some less-than-toxic stories, but also some of the worst), but also Lester Del Rey's articles (but not all his stories) are missing. There's issues with Robert Heinlein's awful John W. Campbell jr-outlined story "Farnham's Freehold"; don't read that, but there's an A.E. Van Vogt story in the same issue, which makes up for it.

First issue, 1952-03, Howard Browne's "Twelve Times Zero": Starts with a shitty "cop beats suspect with aliens alibi" premise, then actually turns into a good mystery… then SPOILER: The implausibly Human aliens (ugh, pre-DNA aliens) who run the Galaxy and can teleport instantly say they don't have explosives or war-making, just terrene/contraterrene energy. Uh. Maybe you hadn't understood Einstein's formula, Howard. Doesn't flinch from the ending, tho. This should've been in Brian Aldiss' Galactic Empires.

Pretty smart people, the Mythoxians—in more ways than one.
And Kirk, for no apparent reason, thought of a phrase common among children during his own childhood. "Who died and left you boss?"