Lost Planets And Rediscovered Science Fiction Manuscripts: Illustrated (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781514337059)

How did I get hooked on science fiction? That's an easy question: In high school I had a geeky friend named Tommy. His face was covered in pimples. His hair oily. He had fat lips and a goofy, lopsided grin. He was veeeery, veeeery smart. He wasn't popular. After he flubbed a reading of "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" in English Class, he was forever dubbed The Albatross. Not to suggest that he was burdensome; it was simply an appellation that identified him from all the other Tommys in our class. The Albatross was a reader. No, he didn't bother reading the homework assignments. That wasn't important to him. He read science fiction novels. During our sophomore year, he loaned me a tattered paperback edition of Ralph 124C41+ by Hugo Gernsback. I still have it. Also he loaned me a copy of What Mad Universe by Frederic Brown. I have that too. He was always loaning me sci-fi books. Introducing me to new authors. And new worlds. While I'd cut my teeth on Robert A. Heinlein's juvenile sci-fi books, Tommy had discovered more thoughtful offerings. And he loaned these books to me, showing me that in addition to classic militaristic space opera there were other fascinating, mind-blowing sci-fi themes to explore -- y' know, parallel universes, doppelgängers, time travel, robots and cyborgs, futuristic threats to humankind (although we called it mankind back in those pre-enlightened days). Despite this spate of mind-blowing science fiction tomes, Tommy believed there were no original plots left. He introduced me to Plotto, a system for generating plots devised by William Wallace Cook back in 1928. Its mix-'em-and-match-'em approach could be boiled down to this simplistic formula: "Purpose opposed by Obstacle yields Conflict." True enough for most fiction, but I think Tommy underestimated the inventiveness of his own favorite genre -- sci-fi. If ever a type of storytelling demanded yet-to-be-devised plots, here it was. I reveled in them. As I recall, Tommy wrote a few short stories that he privately shared with me. Wish I'd kept them. They would certainly fall within the scope of this anthology: lost science fiction manuscripts. As it turned out, I went off to college and Tommy didn't. We lost touch. I heard Tommy ended up working for a tire company. No silly, futuristic imaginings are required in that line of work. It was a loss to the world of science fiction, no doubt. I often wonder what Tommy dreams about in the privacy of his sleep.