Rocket Science: 1966 – 1967

1966: Tricon, Cleveland, Ohio
Short Fiction: “Repent, Harlequin!” Said the Ticktockman by Harlan Ellison
Next time you find yourself running late, consider yourself lucky to be living anywhere but in the society Harlan Ellison imagines here. The society is so obsessed with keeping it all running that, to prevent anyone from slowing things down, the [...]

Rocket Science: 1963 – 1965

1963: Discon I, Washington, DC
Short Fiction: “The Dragon Masters” by Jack Vance.
In “The Dragon Masters,” Jack Vance (1916 -) introduces the reader to three sets of people at the outset, each represented by one character. The first two are Joaz Banbeck and Ervis Cancolo, who are leaders of two separate factions of humans. They are [...]

Rocket Science: 1960 – 1962

1960: Pittcon, Pittsburgh, PA
Short Fiction: “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes
progris riport 1 – martch 5, 1965
Dr. Strauss says I shud rite down what I think and evrey thing that happins to me from now on.

There haven’t been many science fiction stories with as wide an appeal as Daniel Keyes’s “Flowers for Algernon.” It [...]

Rocket Science: 1958 – 1959

1958: Solacon, South Gate, California.
Short Story: “Or All the Seas with Oysters” by Avram Davidson
Ferd and Oliver own a bicycle shop. Oliver is a womanizer; Ferd a deep thinker. Oliver leaves Ferd alone, a lot, and Ferd uses that time to study nature. A seemingly insignificant observation by a customer (why can’t we ever find [...]

Rocket Science: 1955 – 1956

Introducing a new column for 2009, Rocket Science, a tour of the winners of past Hugo Awards in the various short fiction categories. Your guide will be Scott D. Danielson; please keep your feet and arms inside the ride at all times.
1955: Clevention, Cleveland, Ohio.
Novelette: “The Darfstellar” by Walter M. Miller, Jr.

Walter M. [...]