Episode #90 1930s Sci-Fi Series Rule - 18 by Clifford Simak w/ Alec Nevala- Lee & Seth Heasley.

In July 1938 Astounding magazine under the editorship of John W.
Campbell published a story for the first by future Grand master
Clifford D. Simak. This story Rule-18 was not a classic, nor was
it considered one of the great SF writer's better stories. OK, so
why the hell are we covering it on this series devoted to classic
SF stories classics of the 30s? The impact of this story is an
interesting case. When the issue ran the story was dismissed in
the letter column by a young fan from Brooklyn named Issac
Asimov. Wanting to understand his issues with the story the elder
Simak wrote Asimov and thus began a friendship. Re-reading the
story to answer the letter, Asimov found the story worked; this
experience is one he considered crucial to his development as a
 writer.


So I invited Alec Nevala-Lee the author of Astounding (A history
of the golden age SF) and Seth Heasley host of The Hugos There
podcast to join me for this episode. None of us had read the
story before.  Rule-18 is about a 24th-century football game
between Mars and Earth.  In this discussion we talk about
the story, the issue of Astounding it appeared in, John W.
Campbell's relationship to the writers, the influence on Asimov,
and we debate if this story should be canon.


 Read the story for free here:


https://archive.org/details/Astounding_v21n05_1938-07/page/n3/mode/2up


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