Of Pebbles and Pulps

The cover of Galaxy Science Fiction Novel #14
The cover of Galaxy Science Fiction Novel #14

Sometimes the world of science fiction publishing seems like the Wild, Wild West to me. I don’t mean the wacky 1960s teevee show. I probably don’t mean the real Wild, Wild West either because I suspect that was pretty brutal. What do I mean? The Wild West I mean is the one that I grew up with. It lived in shows like The Big Valley and the Star Trek episode “Specter of the Gun” with a little Firefly thrown in for good measure. It also lived in timeless classics like The Cheyenne Social Club. That’s the entire list, I wasn’t much of a Western guy. In fact, I only saw The Big Valley if I was home sick from school. Still, I mean chaotic and lawless in a mostly family-friendly sanitized PG kind of way.

Also, I realize that the inclusion of Firefly implies that I was still growing up when I was nearly forty. That tracks. On my last birthday, I entered my seventh childhood.

So my brain thinks that a novel comes out in hardcover and then some indeterminate time later the paperback edition follows. Mass market paperbacks were just getting started in the early 1950s and in SF publishing, although penny dreadfuls and dime novels were long gone, pulp magazines were still dominant. The other Galactic Empire novels were serialized in major pulp magazines as were the first two Robot Novels. But not Pebble in the Sky, its first paperback edition didn’t exist until 1957. What did we get instead? Two things.

Taking the second thing first, in 1953, Pebble in the Sky was published as the 14th Galaxy Science Fiction Novel. These were reprinted novels that were published monthly in the same digest format as Galaxy Science Fiction. We get a nice new cover illustration, but these have no interior artwork. The Galaxy novel isn’t the inspiration for this post.

The first though arrived in late 1950. Pebble was also published in the first issue of Two Complete Science-Adventure Stories (2CS-AB). And this does have some interior artwork. It took me a while to track it down but I eventually found it at the Luminist Archives which, like Archive.org, is a treasure trove that includes a lot of Golden Age Science Fiction. Each of the two novels opens with an illustrated two-page spread. Here’s the one for Pebble.

The Opening Image for Pebble in the Sky in Two Complete Science-Adventure Stories.

The image from the contents page matches the cover image with the glass hats and the ray guns.

The cover of an Italian Languste version of Pebble in the Sky

This is, so far as I know, the only Pulp Art for Pebble in the Sky. if you know of some more, please let us know in the comments! I’ll leave you with one final image, from an Italian language edition of Pebble. Unlike the 2CS-AB images above it has a clear and relevant relation to the events from the novel.

Resources

Stars End S5E16

We encounter the back cover of the Good Doctor’s first actual book as we wrap up The Pebble in the Sky with chapters 14 through 22.

Cover of the Bantam Paperback edition of Pebble in the Sky (1957)

“Podcast Along With Me The Best is Yet to Be.”

If you’ve been around for a while you probably remember our discussions of the “Great Man Theory of History” vs the “Bottom-Up” paradigm. In other words, do remarkable individuals with unique characteristics write history or is it driven by powerful historical forces that generate great leaders when they are needed? It’s a false dichotomy, but a useful one. In the Foundation Universe the bottom-up theory must dominate otherwise psychohistory could not work the way it does.

But Joseph Schwartz is just the right Jewish tailor with a special kind of trick memory who is accidentally thrust to an exact moment in Earth’s future. Once there he is brought to the only scientist on Earth doing a particular type of brain research. He then survives a dangerous experiment that gives him an unlikely set of psychic powers which he uses to save the lives of nearly every human in the galaxy.

Put those numbers into your Prime Radiant and crunch them!

This probably delayed the creation of psychohistory by hundreds of years. “I just don’t understand it, Hari, the math says everyone in the galaxy should be dead right now.”

You’ll want to hear this! Let’s GO!

Stars End S5E15

Here’s your chance to join the discussion about Pebble in the Sky, Chapters 7 through 13! Also, we’ll open up the “Stars End Mailbag” and talk about Star Trek: Discovery!

Cover of Pebble in the Sky, paperback ed. , circa 1992

“There is Only One Reason Why a Synapsifier Can Possibly Be Used – To Improve a Podcast”

A lot of us who are past the point where we would be culled by the 60 take supplements to, theoretically, help improve our memory. Just the other day I couldn’t remember the title of the Star Trek episode “Return to Tomorrow.” That was no fun. I think most of us would like to be at least a little smarter and maybe some of what would come from a device like the synapsifier could be helpful.

I’ll pass on the parts about being lost in the department store, wandering about the automat, or being driven mad by the thoughts of strangers though. Those don’t sound fun either. “Lost in the Supermarket” by the Clash might sum up all of these potential side effects.

It would though, improve a podcast, to a point. Remembering what we want to say would help quite a bit. And having perfect recall would save a lot of note-taking. But telepathic communications would ruin things even with state-of-the-art recording equipment unless an hour of silence would be an improvement.

In the meantime, we’ll muddle through and bring you the best podcast possible with regular human brains and imperfect memory! Let’s GO!

Stars End S5E14

We begin our conversation about Pebble in the Sky with Chapters 1 through 6.

Pebble In The Sky First Edition Cover

“Between One Podcast and the Next.”

Isaac Asimov is famously prolific; if you know one thing about the Great and Glorious Az it might be that he wrote more than 500 books. Asimov-Reviews.net puts the number at 514 counting the Good Doctor’s dissertation. Asimov.Fandom.com puts the number at a much more modest 506.

The Back Cover of Opus 100. Asimov’s First 100 books.

Why is this relevant? Well, Pebble in the Sky is Asimov Book #001; it’s the first thing he wrote that got stuck between its own two covers (unless you count his dissertation, which he did not). It’s also only his first novel even though he had already been writing professionally for eleven years. Most of I, Robot and the Foundation Trilogy were in the rearview mirror; those quickly became books 002, 004, 006, and 009. Pebble in the Sky is also a lot of fun!

Don’t miss it as we delve into this significant moment in Asenion history! Let’s GO!

Stars End S5E13

In which we talk about “Cal” and “The Fun They Had” with special guest Rachel from the Menuscript Podcast.

“The Podcasts They Had”

“Cal” has been called “the last great Asimov short story” and it looks like it’s his very last robot story. Cal is a robot who learns how to write fiction and develops into an odd sort of Asimov avatar throughout the story.

“The Fun They Had,” is one of the Great and Glorious Az’s most reprinted works featuring a student thinking back to how great school must have been back in the long, long ago of the 20th century.

We’re joined by special guest Rachel Schwartzbard who has just started her own podcast, the Menuscript, which is excellent. She’ll talk about it in this episode. You don’t want to miss that; afterward, you’ll want to check out her podcast!

The stories and Rachel’s podcast can be found right here.

Let’s GO!

Image Credits:

  • Featured Image: The Featured Image was “Designed by Freepik” at <www.freepik.com>.

Next Time on Stars End

I like to try things I haven’t done before and, on Thursday I decided to make a serious attempt at learning some video editing skills. It’s still a work in progress because, as one of my professors in graduate school once said, “Everything takes longer than it does.” 9999 more videos and I’ll be an expert.

Meanwhile, Season 5, Episode 13 will be out tomorrow. In the meantime please enjoy this preview.

Once you do, you’ll want to follow these links!

Image Credits:

  • Featured Image: From “The Fun They Had” in Tomorrow’s TV, from the Raintree Reading Series 2, 1982 Fair Use

Stars End S5E12

We finish our discussion of Foundation and Earth with Part VII: Earth. That includes chapters 19 — “Radioactive?” 20 — “The Nearby World,” and 21 — “The Search Ends.”

“The Podcast Seems to be Crowded with Things I Dont Quite Understand.”

I haven’t bothered with spoiler alerts for a while. This time, though, if you haven’t finished the novel and don’t want to be spoilered, seriously, don’t look even at the video below.

And speaking of things we don’t quite understand, this is a musical intro to a non-musical episode. Because, c’mon, if we’re wrapping up Foundation and Earth, how can we fail to reference ⁠Man on the Moon⁠ by REM?

Here are some Foundation-specific alternative lyrics.

Golan started searching for the psychohistoric.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah…

Fallom playing music making Alpha euphoric.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah…

Bliss is along and that means Gaia is here.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah…

Janov got to Earth because he centered the sphere.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah…

Now, Daneel, did you hear about this one?
Tell me, are you upgrading soon?
Danny, are you goofing on Seldon? Hey, baby, can you carry the boon?

If you believed they put a man in the moon, man in the moon,
If you believe there’s nothing up his sleeve, Then nothing is cool!

Here’s the bonus verse promised in the episode description. This was our first draft but it’s centered in the teevee world and we wanted to concentrate on the novel.

Here’s a little clone who’s a front for power
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Demerzel dropped the orbital tower
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Dump the First Law instead here’s the zero
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Another little clone is guided to inferno
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Feel free to play along in the comments, it’s fun!

And a quick show note; in our next episode we’ll be talking about two short stories, “Cal” and “The Fun They Had.” Plus a special guest!

But right now, the Man in the Moon! Let’s Go!

Image Credits:

  • Featured Image: The two figures on the lower left-hand side of the image were generated by Open Art Free at <OpenArt.ai>.

Stars End S5E11

Here we go again! Let’s talk about Foundation and Earth, Part VI: Alpha!

“We Have Old Men in These Parts Who Love to Podcast of Ancient Days”

If you like…

complex calculations in a cross between archeology and astronavigation, agrarian societies that nonetheless have advanced weather control and bioengineering, and telekinetic performances on woodwind instruments then chapters 16, 17, and 18 are bananas!

Also, Trevize gets lucky and is it just me or is he getting too much stuff wrong for the man with the magic intuition?

Plus, some Foundation show news from the long, long ago back before the interregnum! And we open up the Stars End Mail Bag! Don’t miss this one! Let’s GO!

Stars End S5E10

A cover of Foundation and Earth featuring an illustration from Part V.

We’re back and we’re diving back into Foundation and Earth! This time we’re discussing chapters 13, 14, and 15 or, if you prefer, Part V: Melpomenia. This is all of Part V and nothing but Part V.

“Any Podcast Would Be in Serious Trouble if Its Social Structure Broke Down Completely”

In this section, we bid a not-so-fond farewell to Solaria as our little trio becomes a quartet with the addition of Fallom. We travel to the third and final Spacer world for which we have coordinates. What do we learn on Melpomenia? Does that help us in our quest to find Earth? And what’s bothering Trevize this time? Listen and find out!

Also Star Trek, non-Euclidean geometry and marsupials. You can’t miss that, right? Let’s go!!

Stars End S5E09

Join the conversation as we discuss Foundation and Earth chapters 10, 11, and 12 which is to say, the entirety of Part IV: Solaria.

“There Are Old Legends of Life After Podcasting.”

I began our description of ⁠S3E18⁠, with “You know what? Solaria is weird.”

And here we are again on Solaria. It’s been twelve millennia and in the meantime, they’ve really leaned into the weirdness. The Solarians have been busy genetically engineering themselves into the quintessential Spacers. They’ve gone so far as to grow their own Tesla coils inside their own brains so that they can wirelessly power their robots. And that isn’t all! But don’t take my word for it! Read “Robots,” “Underground,” and “To the Surface” and see for yourself! Then join us here for the episode!

On another note, our first episode dropped on 26 April 2021. Thus, this episode marks the third anniversary of our podcast! To mark the occasion, here are two mug shots of Joseph’s cat Lavender at age 4 weeks and 108 weeks. These were taken right around our first and third anniversaries.

Thanks to everybody who has come along for the ride!