PODCAST

Classic SF with Andy Johnson

Andy Johnson

Exploring classic science fiction, with a focus on the 1950s to the 1990s.

fiction science fiction

All Episodes

10:08

#165 After two catastrophes: The Uncertain Midnight...

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2025/07/24

Edmund Cooper is hardly a familiar name today, but he was once a significant presence on the British science fiction scene. For 23 years, he reviewed new SF books for The Sunday Times, and one of his short stories was adapted into the 1957 film The Invisible Boy - which featured the second screen appearance of Robby the Robot, introduced in the more famous Forbidden Planet. More relevantly, Cooper was also a novelist who had an abiding interest in post-nuclear war scenarios. This episo...

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7:51

#164 The world outside: Non-Stop (1958) by Brian Aldiss

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2025/07/17

The generation starship is a classic concept in science fiction. Other stars are hugely far away, and our spacecraft are slow - why not condemn several generations of our descendants to live on board ship, in the hope of reaching a new world in hundreds of years' time? What could possibly go wrong? Brian Aldiss, who became a major figure in British SF, made his novel debut with a unique exploration of this theme. Non-Stop, published in 1958, is a generation ship classic and also a superb ex...

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7:58

#163 Mind of the ocean: The Jonah Kit (1975) by Ian...

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2025/07/10

Back in episode 131, we looked at The Embedding, Ian Watson's startling debut novel published in 1973. Watson was soon to ascend to new heights, winning the BSFA Award for Best Novel for his second effort, 1975's The Jonah Kit. Like his debut, this is a kaleidoscopic, multi-threaded novel set in multiple countries and asking big questions about consciousness, intelligence, and the nature of the universe. What does all of this have to do with the sperm whale? Get in touch with a text message! ...

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8:11

#162 The back of beyond: Way Station (1963) by...

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2025/06/27

The backwoods of Wisconsin may not seem like the likeliest place for humanity's future in the stars to be decided, but only outside of a Clifford D. Simak story. Wisconsin was his preferred setting, particularly the woodsy Wisconsin of his youth. With his novel Way Station, he parlayed this nostalgic affection into the 1964 Hugo Award for Best Novel. Get in touch with a text message! For more classic SF reviews and discussion, visit andyjohnson.xyz. To get free weekly classic SF updates...

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15:45

#161 Cognitive shock: five concepts to enhance your...

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2025/06/12

Rather than looking at a specific work of classic SF, this episode takes a wider view. It's my personal introduction to five concepts which I think can help enhance your science fiction reading, to boost your understanding and appreciation. Most of these concepts are highly specific to SF, and represent aspects of what makes it a unique genre with its own particular traditions and effects. Get in touch with a text message! For more classic SF reviews and discussion, visit andyjohnson.xyz. T...

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7:49

#160 Illusion, USA: Time Out of Joint (1959) by...

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2025/06/06

Science fiction icon Philip K. Dick is such a well known figure now - over 40 years after his death - that it is possible to lose sight of the struggles he faced in his career. Back in the 1950s, he longed to break into the mainstream fiction market but was frustrated at every turn. His lifeline was Ace Books, for whom he produced a string of short novels. Time Out of Joint, which takes its title from a line in Hamlet, was one of Dick's efforts to escape his situation. Published in hardcover...

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6:55

#159 Built-in obedience: Nekropolis (2001) by Maureen...

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2025/05/29

Science fiction has seen many audacious heroes who use their wit and guile to overthrow dictatorships, bring the truth to light, and save the world. While this kind of wish fulfilment has its place, so too do stories in which protagonists know only too well that they cannot change the status quo. Maureen F. McHugh made her name with a story of this type, with her 1992 debut novel China Mountain Zhang. In 2001's Nekropolis, McHugh built a story around another outsider protagonist, this time l...

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7:43

#158 Built different: The Rod of Light (1985) by...

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2025/05/23

A soulful sequel to The Soul of the Robot (1974) In episode 119, I took a look at The Soul of the Robot from 1974, the best-known novel by the little-known British SF author Barrington J. Bayley. As I continue to explore Bayley's strange, anarchic works, it is time to address his only sequel. Published in 1985, just before Bayley went on a long hiatus, The Rod of Light continues the adventures of the bronze-black robot Jasperodus, the only one of his kind to be blessed - or cursed - with a so...

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7:55

#157 Spirit and science: The Shadow Hunter (1982) by...

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2025/05/15

A clash of the deep past and the near future Featured in episode 107, Pat Murphy's 1986 novel The Falling Woman was one of my favourite reads of 2024. This episode covers her debut novel, The Shadow Hunter, originally published in 1982. While fairly obscure, it is every bit as good as The Falling Woman, and arguably deserves to be seen as a classic of the early 1980s. In this story of clashing worlds, a time machine is used to drag a young Neanderthal boy hundreds of thousands of years into ...

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8:17

#156 Superstructure: The World Inside (1971) by...

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2025/05/08

Confinement and culture shock in a hyper-urban world Recent projections suggest that the human population will peak somewhere around 2085; it could even occur, according to some models, as early as 2060. But what would society look like if it was governed by an obsessive push to increase population - to strain against every social and ecological obstacle? Originally published in 1971, The World Inside is Robert Silverberg's exploration of extreme human population growth and density. It is se...

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8:05

#155 Fork in the road: The Two-Timers (1968) by Bob Shaw

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2025/05/01

A personal struggle with cosmic consequences Some people are their own worst enemy - that's particularly true for John Breton. One night, he finds himself confronted with an identical, rival version of himself - who has crossed over from another timeline. Originally published in 1968, The Two-Timers is the second novel by Bob Shaw, a follow-up to his debut Night Walk which was covered in episode 129. Both a painful exploration of a collapsing marriage, and an SF story about a threat to the ...

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6:54

#154 Trial by fire: Rite of Passage (1968) by Alexei...

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2025/04/25

Coming of age on a hollowed-out asteroid The critic Algis Budrys said of this novel, "one feels a real shock as one realizes that Panshin after all has never been a girl growing up aboard a hollowed-out planetoid". He was praising Rite of Passage, Alexei Panshin's 1968 novel which went on to win the Nebula Award for Best Novel while up against tough competition. A part of the first series of Ace Science Fiction Specials edited by Terry Carr, Rite of Passage is both a powerful coming of age ...

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8:57

#153 Scarcity and abundance: Ring Around the Sun...

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2025/04/16

A tall tale of impossible products, mutants, and parallel Earths Clifford D. Simak explores the parallel worlds theme to intriguing, energetic effect in his 1953 novel Ring Around the Sun. In this tall tale, originally serialised in Galaxy magazine, a young writer discovers that he has the power to visit many alternate versions of the Earth, each unsullied by human hands. One of these worlds is already in use, however, to make seemingly impossible products that threaten to topple the w...

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7:52

#152 The last city: Cinnabar (1976) by Edward Bryant

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2025/04/10

Entropic tales from the end of time It is a bit of a truism to say that people are entranced by imagining the end of the world. But what about the end of time? In this immensely distant scenario, entropy has had its way with the universe, life has withered away, and all change and incident has ceased. A true entropic scenario leaves little room for story-telling, and so SF writers tend to cheat, finding ways to keep some eccentric humans alive at the end of time. Cinnabar is a 1976 col...

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8:09

#151 Ancient mistakes: Look to Windward (2000) by...

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2025/04/03

The Culture is run by Minds - AI constructs of immense computing power, some of the greatest intelligences in the galaxy. But no amount of intelligence can prevent you from making mistakes. The sixth novel in the Culture series by Iain M. Banks, Look to Windward was first published in 2000. It deals with effects of mistakes made by the Minds. As part of Banks' extended examination of the topic of intervention, it particularly focuses on an attempt to mould the future of a race of cat-like al...

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24:04

#150 The First Classic SF with Andy Johnson Q&A

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2025/03/27

Answering listener questions about all things classic SF. Can you believe it, it's episode 150! To mark this milestone, this episode is a special Q&A. Questions and answers take a tour of Ursula K. Le Guin, J. G. Ballard, Dune (1965), book collecting, getting started with Philip K. Dick, the "cosy catastrophes" of John Wyndham, and more. Get in touch with a text message! For more classic SF reviews and discussion, visit andyjohnson.xyz. To get free weekly classic SF update...

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9:15

#149 Celebration of wounds: Crash (1973) by J. G....

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2025/03/20

A shocking collision of warped sexuality and twisted metal "I wanted to rub the human face in its own vomit - and force it to look in the mirror." With these words, J.G. Ballard described the aim of his 1973 novel Crash. A harrowing descent into a bizarre subculture of damaged outcasts whose sexual fetishes centre on the car crash, the novel is Ballard's disturbing diagnosis of the 20th century. The writer described it as a "deranging book to write", which made him hate himself because he fel...

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9:11

#148 Out of the darkness: Flowers for Algernon (1966)...

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2025/03/13

Flowers for Algernon is a science fiction classic which crossed over into the mainstream. Originally published in novel form in 1966, Daniel Keyes' only fully-fledged SF book not only won a Nebula, but was adapted to film, and frequently appeared on school curricula. It has even been called "arguably the most popular SF novel ever published". Welcome to a landmark story of intelligence, compassion, and what it means to be a good person. Get in touch with a text message! For more classic...

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8:16

#147 Armed to the teeth: The Jagged Orbit (1969) by...

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2025/03/06

A plea for human connection in a computerised world The reputation of John Brunner rests largely on his four "tract novels" published between 1968 and 1975. Complex and imposing, they are fictional explorations of issues and crises facing society in the latter part of the 20th century. Originally published in 1969, The Jagged Orbit is the second of these novels and Brunner's follow-up to Stand on Zanzibar - the first British novel to win the Hugo Award. In a declining United States in 2014, ...

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12:35

#146 Digging up the future: Icehenge (1984) by Kim...

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2025/02/27

A moving meditation on revolution, knowledge, and human longevity Kim Stanley Robinson has been a major fixture of American SF for 30 years. Best known for his Mars trilogy from the 1990s, each of his recent novels has been a major event, and he is a particularly important figure in climate fiction. This episode takes a look at an early and lesser known book by KSR. Icehenge was first published in 1984, and consists of a wide-ranging tour of the future of our solar system. Over the course of...

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