In this episode, we’re on another Flashback, this time to September 1981 and Amazing Science Fiction Stories. By the late 1970s, the famed first science fiction magazine had hit new lows, cutting costs and corners until it became primarily a magazine of reprints. In 1981, a new editor was at work attempting to regain the glory years. But money was still tight, circulation was down, and advertising wasn’t setting records. As a result, some old habits were dying hard. Still, in this issue you’ll find the inescapable Harlan Ellison, both writing and being written about, and some top class stories once you make it past the filler. Plus, a column predicting the amazing future of fiber-optic communications gets some things right but some things very, very wrong.
The Back Half at Substack
