"Scientists Are Stupid" John W. Campbell "Coincidence Day" John Brunner "The Adventure of the Extraterrestrial" Mack Reynolds "Fighting Division" Randall Garrett "Computers Don't Argue" Gordon R. Dickson "Say It wtih Flowers" Winston P. Sanders "Mission "Red Clash"" Joe Poyer "Countercommandment" Patrick Meadows "Balanced Ecology" James H. Schmitz "Overproof" Jonathan Blake MacKenzie
John Wood Campbell, Jr. was an influential figure in American science fiction. As editor of Astounding Science Fiction (later called Analog Science Fiction and Fact), from late 1937 until his death, he is generally credited with shaping the so-called Golden Age of Science Fiction.
Isaac Asimov called Campbell "the most powerful force in science fiction ever, and for the first ten years of his editorship he dominated the field completely."
As a writer, Campbell published super-science space opera under his own name and moody, less pulpish stories as Don A. Stuart. He stopped writing fiction after he became editor of Astounding.
The contents here are taken solely from Analog stories from 1965. Only the Schmitz (“Balanced Ecology”) and the Reynolds (“The adventure of the Extraterrestrial”) stories would appear in my long list of recommended reading for the year. Then again there probably wasn’t much else of worth published in the magazine that year, except possibly Garrett’s Lord Darcy story “Muddle of the Woad” and another Schmitz title, “Trouble Tide”. R: 2.8/5.0