Search Worlds Without End

For many years, hiding under a cloak of anonymity, the most penetrating critic of the field of magazine science fiction was known as "William Atheling, Jr." It soon became a challenge to guess his real identity. And that was no easy game, for Atheling's dissection did not spare even his other ego, the noted science-fiction writer James Blish.

Having shed his protective covering, Mr. Blish has assembled many of the Atheling papers and edited them into the present book. While it covers principally the science-fiction magazines from 1952 to 1963, it is a timeless textbook for would-be writers of science fiction. Nor is its value limited to that genre; the rules of good writing are universal, and Atheling's critiques are not restricted to the peculiarities and special interests of science fiction.

The essays take the aspiring authors and editors--the Heinleins and Campbells of tomorrow--by the hand and lead them painstakingly through the dense forests of "said-bookism," the treacherous moors of "repetitive phrasing," and other forbidden territories. And even an old hand or three will find cause to wonder and reflect, and perhaps even to re-evaluate professional skills too long taken for granted.

No subject is too sacred or taboo for Atheling's shredding typewriter; from sex to God, from religion to satirical poetry. No author, however fragile, is spared the bloody mark of his relentless lash; from Anderson to Heinlein to Zirul. . . and all stops in between. No editor or publisher, from Campbell to Columbia, is spared his--or its--due share of any responsibility.

But most important, The Issue at Hand is not just--or even primarily--a textbook for students of writing. It is a vastly entertaining collection in its own right, affording many hours of pleasant and informative reading and re-reading, urging the reader ahead with the wry comments, unexpected humor, and undeviating attention to standards that were the hallmarks of William Atheling, Jr.

James Blish, in his incarnation as "William Atheling, Jr.," has written more than his share of the most incisive criticism of contemporary science fiction. In 1964 Advent brought out The Issue at Hand, a collection of Atheling's critical essays on stories in the science-fiction magazines.

Now we present a new volume which concentrates on science-fiction books. As before, Atheling's rapier skewers literary malefactors of many kinds, including some well-known authors whose great popularity is all the more puzzling because there seems to be so little reason for it.

To be sure, Atheling does not stint praise where it is due--see especially the chapters on Budrys and Sturgeon--but it is in the nature of criticism that the sins and errors be dealt with in greatest detail. As Atheling puts it:

"There is no such thing as destructive criticism. That is just a cliche people use to signal that their toes have been stepped on. After all, the whole point of telling a man he is doing something the wrong way is the hope that next time he will do it right.

"Simply saying that a given book is bad may serve the secondary function of warning the public away from it, if the public trusts the critic. But if you do not go on to say in what way it is bad, your verdict is not destructive criticism, or any other kind of criticism; it is just abuse.

"A good critic is positively obliged to be harsh toward bad work. By a good critic, I mean a man with a good ear, a love his field at its best, and a broad and detailed knowledge of the techniques of that field. The technical critic (not, please, the scientific or technological one), should be able to say with some precision not only that something went wrong--if it did--but just how it went wrong.

"In writing, as in any other art, there is a medium to be worked in, and there are both adroit and clumsy ways to work with it. The writer should know the difference between what is adroit and what is clumsy. If he does not, it is the function of the technical critic to show it to him. Technical critics are, or should be, invaluable to the writer who is serious about the lifelong task of learning his craft.

"Such a critic is also useful to the reader. Here his work usually takes the form of explication du texte: he uses special knowledge to unearth and expose some element in the work of art which the ordinary reader probably did not know was there."