"My love affair with science fiction" (Part 2)

In the fall of 1973 my family moved from Tacoma, Wash., back home 2 Boise, Idaho, & the house we rented (which was practically in downtown Boise) turned out 2 B 3 blocks from a pretty good used bookstore, back in the days when U could buy a 2nd-hand paperback 4 a quarter. I Nded up spending lotsa time there.
This tiny bookstore (whose name I've 4gotten, doesn't matter, it ain't there no more) also carried lotsa back-issue science-fiction magazines, so I could renew my addiction from a coupla yrs earlier. There I learned ANALOG magazine was still the best-looking SF mag around, & under new, more open-minded Editor Ben Bova, the mag was printing some occasional outstanding stories, like George R.R. Martin's "A Song for Lya," Joe Haldeman's "Hero," Roger Zelazny's "The Engine at Heartspring's Center," Cynthia Bunn's "And Keep Us from Our Castles," & others. The high-quality stories, the Xcellent artwork, the great graphics & flashy layout -- ANALOG was clearly the best of the mags, even if it sometimes printed some really lousy, boring stories as well. At least the mag had lightened-up since John W. Campbell had died....
I also started looking at GALAXY, & wasn't that impressed until Editor Jim Baen took over. Tho GALAXY printed some good stories (Lou Fisher's "Triggerman," James White's novel THE DREAM MILLENNIUM), it looked TIRED. Jack Gaughan had bn doing almost ALL the artwork from 1969 thru early 1974, & he mostly looked worn-out. After Baen took over, he raised the level of quality at GALAXY until it Bcame SF's best, most Xciting magazine Btween 1975-77. More about this later....
I also discovered THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION, which at 1st boggled me completely. No interior art, the covers weren't all that great, it was printed on rather poor-quality paper, the book reviews were stuck-up & snooty, written by some self-centered so-called genius named John Clute (now my favrite active SF critic) who was WAY tougher & way more critical than P. Schuyler Miller over at ANALOG -- at 1st I thot the only good thing about F&SF was the chatty introductory blurbs that went along w/ the stories: Editor Ed Ferman always let U know what the writers had bn working on recently, what novels were due out, what awards the writers had won. Later on, I noticed the quality of the stories in F&SF was pretty high, & late in '74 the magazine started printing the work of John Varley, 1 of the best new SF writers of the '70s....
I also took home copies of AMAZING & FANTASTIC, which I always thot woulda worked better combined in2 1 mag. Editor Ted White was obviously working under a budget that wouldn't get U a cuppa coffee, but he still got some great artwork from artists like Steve Fabian, high-quality features & book reviews, & an occasional suprise like Harlan Ellison's "Somehow I Don't Think We're in Kansas Anymore, Toto," the hilarious & horrifying story of Harlan's immense & pointless work 2 create the hideous, 4got10, short-lived TV series THE STARLOST.
I only remember a few good stories ever appearing in AMZ or FANT, like Brian Stableford's rock&roll fable "Judas Story," or Dave Bischoff's odd "In Medias Res," R.A. Lafferty's "Been a Long, Long Time," Robert Silverberg's intense novel THE SECOND TRIP, mayB some leftovers from George R.R. Martin or Barry N. Malzberg -- it was obvious Ted White was picking up what no1 else wanted. The best things in both magazines were the features.
Around this same time I inherited a big box of old SF books & magazines from my distant cousin Dave when he went off 2 the Navy. Most of the box was filled w/ mid-level SF novels from the late '60s & early '70s; I can't even remember what mosta them were. There were also a few old issues of WORLDS OF IF magazine from around 1968. Almost everything in the box got traded-off at the used bookstore in Xchange 4 back-issue SF magazines. I was about 2 or 3 yrs away from appreciating what was in the box -- if it didn't look recent or intresting in some obvious way, I didn't need it. If I had that box back now it'd probly take me MONTHS 2 go thru it. Can't really remember what was in there, tho I'm sure a lot of it was standard adventure-SF (E.C. Tubb, A. Bertram Chandler, early Fred Saberhagen, a little early Larry Niven), but there were also some old Ace Double-novels & other obscurities, & I'm sure I probly let something priceless get away, like a paperback copy of HARLAN ELLISON PICKS OFFBEAT CLASSICS OF SF, or something....
Around this same time I started reading SF novels, reluctantly at 1st -- novels took 2 long 2 give me the same kick I got from short stories, but I musta run outta short stories 2 read. Can't remember what I read 1st, but by early '74 I was reading Frank Herbert's DUNE (brilliant after a rough & confusing opening), then John Brunner's STAND ON ZANZIBAR (ditto), slightly later Robert Silverberg's DYING INSIDE & DOWNWARD TO THE EARTH (both brilliantly written, tho a bit of a downer), Robert A. Heinlein's marvelous THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS, & Samuel R. Delany's THE EINSTEIN INTERSECTION & EMPIRE STAR.
There were disappointments along the way: Arthur C. Clarke's dull RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA (serialized in GALAXY), Alexei Panshin's boring RITE OF PASSAGE, Ursula K. LeGuin's mostly cold & distant THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS, Silverberg's A TIME OF CHANGES, Heinlein's STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND & STARSHIP TROOPERS, Roger Zelazny's anticlimactic LORD OF LIGHT & THIS IMMORTAL, Samuel R. Delany's thin BABEL-17 & rushed NOVA.... I Bcame quite a little critic at an early age.
But I kept going. The bug had bitten me & I wasn't stopping now.

...2 B Continued....