Collecting vintage science fiction paperbacks is more than just my need for seeing well-muscled-men & busty-babes on the covers (tho I'll admit I like that too). I honestly can say I enjoy them for the pages in between the covers.

I admit it, I am a lover of the ‘old days’ of science fiction. The days when the fascination, the thrill of the read, was the adventure, the characters - the imagination. I wanted to be drawn into the time, place & people... I had no interest in the ‘how & why’ it was all possible.

Stories like those from Edgar Rice Burroughs that swept you away to the center of the earth. deep into the jungle or to mars, yet never took 5 pages of how the engines worked, why the evolutionary process was different, those were the that entranced...

I am, admittedly, of the same opinion today.

I wondered if other fans of sci-fi felt that way... so I called Don Blyly of Uncle Hugo’s. Since Don has been in the book biz, specializing in the genre for 30 years, I figured he’d know.

After correcting my faux pas regarding the use of the term ’sci-fi,’ we got down to my question:

Do other reader’s of science fiction complain of ’too much science?’

Don’s reply: No, he hears more complaints of ‘not enough science.

Drat.

Ok, so aside from the fact that I am usually on the ‘wrong side’ of these arguments, and therefore may feel the need to justify myself, can it be that Don is wrong?

No, Don likely isn’t wrong. I bet he does hear more complaints from the cerebral amongst us. No, not because the smarter you are, the more you complain, but rather that it is more embarrassing to say you dislike science. It implies a certain, well, stupidity. Or at least you fear it does...

(Begin nervous rationalization of intelligence here)

It’s not that my capacity to understand or indeed love science is low. It’s just that when I reach for an entertaining novel, that's what I want, not some cerebral challenge. (The converse is also true when I grab a science book - please, no fabrications, tales from your dream-states, or flights of fancy. Just the facts, findings, details of processes, please; leave the fiction out of it.)

No need to explain the workings of the hydraulic hovercraft which runs on an energy source made possible by the physics of this ‘new’ planet. No need to genetically explain creatures, the evolutionary ‘nature’ of this foreign place, thank you. I didn’t pick up a fiction title to be courted with so much ‘intellectual expansion.’ I want a story I can fall into, not a thesis dissertation to be convinced of.

So aside from Don not hearing from those like myself who may fear the you-my-friend-are-an-idiot reaction, is there any other way I can defend the stance that I am not alone in my preference for sci-fi (said with love!) that is heavy on the fiction, with the science added like paprika?

Maybe I could show you lists of groups that read & collect them. But that's what Google is for.

You can think I am stupid & juvenile, and I may be a bit too intimidated by booksellers to ask for what I want. But then with classic covers like this I don't need to.