Mark Cole’s article in the latest issue of Clarkesworld is on a topic near and dear to us old-time SF fans: the influence (for good and ill) of the legendary John W. Campbell.

In September of 1959, Jason Howley walked into the Golden Casino in Reno, Nevada, carrying a small, black, plastic box. Within a matter of minutes, he’d won over three hundred thousand dollars. When the device was opened up by investigators, they found nothing in it but a plastic lens, two silver contacts, white paint, and a series of diagrams drawn in black ink.

Regular readers of Astounding Science Fiction recognized it immediately when they read “David Gordon” (Randall Garrett)’s story, “…Or Your Money Back” : it was a version of the Hieronymus Machine, a “psionic amplifier” promoted by Astounding’s editor, John W. Campbell…

One thing more than anything else ushered psychic powers into the mainstream of SF: the influence of one of the genre’s greatest editors, in the pages of one of the most distinguished SF magazines of the Golden Age.

The influence of John W. Campbell and his work in Astounding.

Read Cole’s article “Fans Are Slans”: A Study in Campbellian Influence for the complete story.

Issue #107 of Clarkesworld has six stories — four new, and two reprints — from Martin L. Shoemaker, J.B. Park, Han Song, Emily Devenport, Peter M. Ball, and Neal Asher

Short stories featured this issue are:

“Today I Am Paul” by Martin L. Shoemaker
“It Was Educational” by J.B. Park
“Security Check “by Han Song (from Southern People Weekly Magazine, September 2014; translated by Storycom)
“The Servant” by Emily Devenport
“Dying Young” by Peter M. Ball (from Eclipse Four, 2011)
“Softly Spoke the Gabbleduck” by Neal Asher (from Asimov’s Science Fiction, August 2005)

And the non-fiction:

“Fans Are Slans”: A Study in Campbellian Influence by Mark Cole
Writing for Video Games: A Conversation with E. Lily Yu, Yoon Ha Lee, Robert Reed, Seth Dickinson, and Karl Schroeder by Alvaro Zinos Amaro
Another Word: Hipsters of Zombieland by Emily Devenport
Editor’s Desk: Editing Reality by Neil Clarke

We last covered Clarkesworld with Issue 106.

Clarkesworld is edited by Neil Clarke and Sean Wallace, and published by Wyrm Publishing. The contents are available for free online; individual issues can be purchased for $3.99, and monthly subscriptions are $2.99/month. A 6-month sub is $17.94, and the annual price is $35.88. Learn more and order individual issues at the magazine’s website.

This issue’s cover, “Descendant,” is by Julie Dillon.

See the complete issue here.

Our mid-August Fantasy Magazine Rack is here. See all of our recent fantasy magazine coverage here.