I wish I could tell you that I met with Mr. Peabody and Sherman who fired up their Way Back Machine to help me write this sci-fi bio, but that would be giving away a secret.
My breakthrough into science fiction came after a visit to the Pinecrest Elementary School library, where I checked out Tom Swift and his Deep-Sea Hydrodome by Victor Appleton II. This was the first time I imagined the immense power that it would take to fuel the vehicles and structures painted in the story.
Back in my elementary classroom, Tom Swift gave me a new motivation for our “duck and cover” atomic bomb safety drills as I scooted under my desk.
Luckily, Superman arrived just in time. My shaky little psyche needed him. I was proud of my collection of comic book superhero beings flying around in outer space vanquishing supervillains until I went to the movies where my mind was blown away by 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clark and Stanley Kubrick.
I was hooked.
I became a star child.
I was afloat in that time-space continuum.
Just months later, I watched on live tv, our first steps on the moon. I was ready for Star Trek: “These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.” Gene Roddenberry gave me a mission. Star Trek’s “first contacts” with new worlds and new life led me to Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein, which is also hotly discussed in Episode 1 of this podcast and holds a spot in the Life Death Sci-fi blog.
Much later I read Carl Sagan’s First Contact and found his character, Palmer Joss’, faith and science argument, fascinating. Spending summers on the shores of Lake Michigan’s Sleeping Bear Dunes only lured me to believe in the Fremen of Arrakis of Dune by Frank Herbert.
By now, I was an official sci-fi fan. Back then, in those early café conversations when someone would ask, “what kind of books are you reading?” I would talk about space operas, time travel, utopia, and aliens.
I will say that science fiction blending fantasy caught my reading attention as I matured. Dragons, wizards, and magic dimensions fascinated me and still do. I read most of Ann McCaffrey’s world of dragons, one of my favorites being the Dragon Song trilogy. McCaffrey combines magical beasts, music, and misunderstood youth perfectly. Ursula Le Guin awakened me to the power of names with her Earthsea series. Though I still have trouble remembering people’s names.
Honorable mentions of my early sci-fi consciousness include Fantastic Voyage by Harry Kleiner, Logan’s Run by William F. Nolan, The Time Machine by H. G. Wells (listen to S03E01), Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut (listen to S03E03) and, many, many, more.
A nudge from Mr. Peabody and Sherman tells me the Way Back Machine is beckoning.
Stepping back through its doors, I find my journey to be roundtrip and the next sci-fi book I read is soon to be posted on Life Death Sci-fi.
— Eric Bueschlen
Read Chris’s story here.