The Eyes Have It by Philip K. Dick and Pariah by Milton Lesser

04/05/22 • 41 min

3 Listeners

The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast - Vintage Sci-Fi Short Stories

He was sure he had discovered an incredible invasion of Earth by lifeforms from another planet. He didn’t know what to do! He tried to warn the government before things got out of hand. And, Harry spent three years in space waitingto get home to Earth—and his family. They were waiting for him too—that is, for his corpse...

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Two science fiction short stories next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.

Hi, I’m your host, Scott Miller, sci-fi fanatic and audiobook narrator and I want to thank you for listening to The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast with at least one lost sci-fi short story in every episode.

We welcome your comments, thoughts, and suggestions. Send an email to [email protected].

Chris Williams sent us this email recently, “Hey Scott, I love the Lost Sci-Fi Podcast but you said Planet of the Apes was your favorite sci-fi franchise by far. What about Star Wars? That’s my favorite. Keep up the good work, I listen to your podcast every week!” Thanks, Chris.

I do love the Star Wars movie franchise and you got me thinking. I think the reason I put Planet of the Apes as my all-time favorite sci-fi franchise is because it began when I was a little kid and I’d seen all 5 of the apes movies before Star Wars was released in 1977. I saw Star Wars just days after I graduated high school in Denison, Iowa in what is now known as the Donna Reed Theater, named after the iconic actress who was born and raised in Denison. Reed, born Donna Mullenger, starred in the 1946 Christmas classic “It’s a Wonderful Life” alongside Jimmy Stewart.

Which begs the question is “It’s a Wonderful Life” a science fiction movie? Before you say no, think about it. George Bailey played by Stewart is suicidal when he’s visited by an angel when George says, “I wish I’d never been born.” The angel grants his wish and now the movie switches to an alternate timeline where George Bailey was never born! Sound like sci-fi to me. What do you think? Is “It’s a Wonderful Life” a science fiction movie? We’d love to hear your thoughts, [email protected].

Seven years after “It’s a Wonderful Life” was released a new science fiction magazine debuted in June 1953. Science Fiction Stories Magazine would publish once in 53 and once in 54 before releasing multiple issues over the next 6 years.

The inaugural issue was 132 pages and sold for 35 cents. I found a good to very good copy on sale for only $25, which sounds like a bargain to me considering it contains a remarkable short story from the amazing Philip K. Dick.

Turn with me to page 127,

A little whimsy, now and then, makes for good balance. Theoretically, you could find this type of humor anywhere. But only a topflight science-fictionist, we thought, could have written this story, in just this way....

From Science Fiction Stories Magazine in June 1953 The Eyes Have It by Philip K. Dick

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Two science fiction short stories next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.

Hi, I’m your host, Scott Miller, sci-fi fanatic and audiobook narrator and I want to thank you for listening to The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast with at least one lost sci-fi short story in every episode.

We welcome your comments, thoughts, and suggestions. Send an email to [email protected].

Turn with me to page 127,

From Science Fiction Stories Magazine in June 1953 The Eyes Have It by Philip K. Dick

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Previous Episode

Zurk by Richard O. Lewis - Richard O. Lewis Short Stories

A thousand colonists were headed for Mars but they didn't make it. They crash landed on this moon of Jupiter’s. They were trying to contact the earth, trying to survive. Evil creatures from the land of darkness on the other side of the moon are coming for his daughter. Will he save her from a fate worse than death with his huge part-human war-machine? That’s next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.

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I’m your host, Scott Miller, sci-fi fanatic and audiobook narrator and I want to thank you for your support. Every story you hear, and many more, are available on our website, lostscifi.com. Lost Sci-Fi Books 1 through 40, that’s 40 lost Sci-Fi short stories, more than 20 and a half hours, only available on our website and for only $14.97. But as a Lost Sci-Fi podcast listener you get it for a limited time for only $9.88. Go to lostscifi.com, enter promo code “podcast” to get this special price exclusively for Lost Sci-Fi listeners.

The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast has been around for a little more than a month and we are blown away by the response from you and others around the world. We’re already in the top 50 science fiction podcasts in Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia and France and we’re in the top 150 in The UK and The US. Thank you for making that happen.

Today on the podcast our first story from the 1940s. More than eight decades ago Richard O. Lewis wrote Zurk. As is often the case we know very little about Lewis other than the fact that he wrote the story you’ll hear today and 20 others from 1939 to 1967.

If you bought the 132 page Winter 1941 edition of Planet Stories Magazine, released about a month before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, when it first came out you would have paid only 20 cents. You can buy it now on eBay for $150.

Gentle Marene was next when the black space cruiser called for its youth-levy. If only Zurk would spark to life—Zurk, this huge, part-human war-machine of tubular steel muscles and blank, mechanical mind.

From Planet Stories Magazine in November, 1941, Zurk by Richard O. Lewis

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Next Episode

Export Commodity By Irving Cox Jr. - Irving Cox Jr Short Stories

Very often we find it hard to learn much about the authors on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast. In many cases they had a short career and disappeared as quickly as they appeared as if they were abducted by aliens never to be seen again.

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The author of today’s story wrote 54 short sci-fi stories from 1951 to 1965, starting with Hell’s Pavement in Astounding Science Fiction and ending with Way Station in If Worlds of Science Fiction.

We know he was born in Pennsylvania on the 24th of May 1917 and died on the 13th of February 2001 at the age of 83. He was born Irving England Cox, Jr. and used several slight variations of his given name, Irving B. Cox Jr., Irving Cox and the one he used for today’s short sci-fi story Irving Cox Jr. That’s pretty much all we know about him except for a reference to an Irving E. Cox Jr in the 1940 Census. He lived in Sacramento California at the time with his father Irving, mother Adelle and a younger sister and brother.

The story you are about to hear was in the middle of his career and is his first offering of 1955. From Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy in July 1955, Export Commodity by Irving Cox Jr...

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