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<\/p>\nThe deaths just keep on coming in this worst of all possible years.<\/p>\n
I was very saddened to read of the death of Ben Bova, another victim of Covid-19 (and Donald J. Trump).<\/p>\n
Bova was a major science fiction writer, a hard science guy, talented and prolific.\u00a0\u00a0 I could not begin to name all his novels; the list is longer than my arm.\u00a0\u00a0 He wrote some good short fiction as well, including his collaboration with Harlan Ellison, “Brillo,” which became the basis (uncredited) of a short-lived TV series and one of Harlan’s famous lawsuits.<\/p>\n
For all his accomplishments as an author, however, it was as an editor that Ben Bova had the most profound impact on the field… and on my own life and career.\u00a0\u00a0 When the legendary John W. Campbell Junior died in 1971, the Conde Nast Publications, publishers of ANALOG, chose Bova to succeed him.\u00a0 For all his accomplishments, JWC had become increasingly idiosyncratic in his last couple of decades, and ANALOG had become moribund and out of touch.\u00a0\u00a0 Ben Bova came in and revitalized the magazine, welcoming a whole new generation of writers who Campbell most likely would never have touched (myself among them).\u00a0\u00a0 The changes were not without controversy.\u00a0\u00a0 During the first couple of years of his editorship, ANALOG’s lettercol was full of angry “cancel my subscription” letters from readers who insisted that JWC would never have published this or that story.\u00a0\u00a0 My own stories were the subjects of some of those complaints, along with work by Joe Haldeman and many others.\u00a0\u00a0 The complainers were not wrong; odds were, Campbell would never have bought the stories Bova did.<\/p>\n
Back in the 70s, I was selling to all the magazines and most of the original anthologies, but ANALOG became my major market, and Ben Bova was the editor who had the biggest influence on my work.\u00a0\u00a0 Previous generations of SF writers were writing for JWC or H.L Gold or Boucher & McComas.\u00a0\u00a0 If I was writing for anyone, I was writing for Ben… at least some of the time.<\/p>\n
My first sale to ANALOG was actually a piece I did for a journalism class at Northwestern, about computer chess: “The Computer Was A Fish.”\u00a0\u00a0 But fiction soon followed, lots of fiction… thanks in large part to Ben Bova.<\/p>\n
I got my first cover on ANALOG with “The Second Kind of Loneliness.”\u00a0\u00a0 Ben bought that.\u00a0\u00a0 The cover was by Frank Kelly Freas.<\/p>\n
My first Hugo- and -Nebula nominee (lost both) was “With Morning Comes Mistfall.”\u00a0\u00a0 Also published in ANALOG, by Ben.<\/p>\n
The second Nebula loser, and first Hugo WINNER, was “A Song for Lya,” a novella from ANALOG. \u00a0 Bought and published by Ben. \u00a0 That year, worldcon went to Australia for the first time. \u00a0 I was still directing chess tournaments to supplement my meagre (growing, but meagre) income from writing, and there was no way I could afford a trip down under, so I asked Ben Bova to accept for me if I won. \u00a0 I did!\u00a0 And he did!<\/p>\n
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Ben also bought “The Storms of Windhaven,” the first my Windhaven collaborations with Lisa Tuttle.\u00a0\u00a0 Got a cover for that too.<\/p>\n
Oh, and “Seven Times Never Kill Man.”\u00a0\u00a0 That one got a Schoenherr cover (one that alledgedly inspired George Lucas to create the Wookiees).\u00a0 And lost a Hugo, the same year as “Storms.”<\/p>\n
Ben serialized my first novel, DYING OF THE LIGHT, in an abridged version called “Mockman.”\u00a0\u00a0 With a cover by Vincent di Fate.<\/p>\n
And along about 1978, when Ben left ANALOG to take on the editorship of a new slick science fiction\/ fact magazine called OMNI, he took me with him.\u00a0 I published several stories there as well, most notably a novelette called “Sandkings” that some of you may recall.\u00a0\u00a0 It won the Hugo and Nebula both, and was the most successful thing I ever wrote until I began A GAME OF THRONES.<\/p>\n
Looking back, it is amazing to realize how many of the stories that made my name were edited and published by Ben Bova.\u00a0\u00a0 Without him, I cannot say for certain that I would have had a career at all\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He won four Hugo awards in a row as Best Editor, as I recall, and deserved every one.\u00a0\u00a0 If he had continued to edit, I have no doubt he would have won more… but writing was his first love, and in the 80s he returned to his own work.<\/p>\n
His family and friends have my condolences.\u00a0\u00a0 I know he will be missed.<\/p>\n
These are dark times… for science fiction, as well as the world at large.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I am still reeling from Kay McCauley’s death last month… from Gardner Dozois’s death in 2018… and now this.\u00a0\u00a0 The lights are going out.\u00a0\u00a0 Giants are passing.\u00a0\u00a0 We shall not see their like again.<\/p>\n
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