# Zelazny's "...And Call Me Conrad" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 11, 2007, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zelaznys-and-call-me-conrad/403673 "2007-05-11T12:49:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Terrorcotta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dbc845/32.png) [@Terrorcotta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrorcotta)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2007, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zelaznys-and-call-me-conrad/403673/21 "2007-05-12T13:19:12Z")
The 60s was such a great time for the science fiction magazines, you really had something to look forward to. The Masters were all still writing, the up-and-comers had some real juice and the covers were things of beauty. I keep an eye on the book section at yard sales and Goodwill hoping to add another bleak and woggle 50s color scheme cover to the collection. Thanks for the flashback **Expano!** ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2007, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zelaznys-and-call-me-conrad/403673/22 "2007-05-12T16:21:54Z")
[QUOTE=Just Some Guy] I don’t suppose you can you explain how _They’d Rather Be Right_ managed to win in 1955? 🙂 [/QUOTE] Nobody has ever explained that! 🙂 There was no official final ballot. Just the winner was announced. However, other novels published in 1953 include: The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement Shadows in the Sun, Chad Oliver A Mirror for Observers, Edgar Pangborn A couple of classics there. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2007, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zelaznys-and-call-me-conrad/403673/23 "2007-05-12T20:32:11Z")
I picked up a couple hundred SF Mags from the used book store in the early 90’s for 10 cents a piece over about one year. Any they got I went home with, so long as it wasn’t a duplicate. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2007, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zelaznys-and-call-me-conrad/403673/24 "2007-05-12T21:18:23Z")
[QUOTE=Exapno Mapcase] Nobody has ever explained that! 🙂 There was no official final ballot. Just the winner was announced. However, other novels published in 1953 include: The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement Shadows in the Sun, Chad Oliver A Mirror for Observers, Edgar Pangborn A couple of classics there. [/QUOTE] I read (and really liked) Caves of Steel as a kid. Which of the others in that list is worth reading? (You said there are a couple of classics. I assume CoS is one of them. Which is (or which ones are) the others?) -FrL- ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2007, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zelaznys-and-call-me-conrad/403673/25 "2007-05-12T21:32:34Z")
Just to jump in on this, Mission of Gravity is considered one of the key Hard SF novels. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2007, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zelaznys-and-call-me-conrad/403673/26 "2007-05-12T21:47:23Z")
_Mission of Gravity_ is one of the all-time classics of hard sf. It’s set on an extreme high gravity planet and extrapolates what life what be like there. _A Mirror for Observers_ is much more literary, about Martians seeking to influence earth culture. Oddly, it won the International Fantasy Award for the year over _Mission of Gravity_. I’m not familiar with the Oliver novel offhand, but he was an anthropologist by training which gives his work a very different slant. The Amazon reviews says “This work is one of the earliest attempts to approach an SF story from the viewpoint of complex social interaction rather than purely mechanical or ideological forces.” Asimov’s book is more famous than good, but I have a lower opinion of Asimov’s fiction than most do. It’s still surprising that it was overlooked. Any of the four would be accepted today without comment as a worthy winner. “They’d Rather Be Right” didn’t even come out in book form until the Gnome Press edition in 1957 and in paperback under the title of _The Forever Machine_ until 1958. So it doesn’t even have that as an excuse. The only thing I can say is that it’s one of the first “computer becomes intelligent” novels. And as the blurb on the hardback says: > [@](#): > > Most people, as Mark Clifton and Frank Riley demonstrate, would “rather be right” – and firmly believe that they _are_ right. Only a small handful are mature enough to realize that they don’t know all the answers. Man, if that isn’t completely apropos today, then nothing is. Maybe it did deserve to win! ---
**Author:** ![eulalia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eulalia/32/457_2.png) [@eulalia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eulalia)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2007, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zelaznys-and-call-me-conrad/403673/27 "2007-05-13T01:34:51Z")
[QUOTE=silenus] Me, too. I’d like to buy him a beer or three. _Dune_ stinks. [/QUOTE] I didn’t hate Dune, but it wasn’t the best thing Herbert wrote. I much preferred the Jorj X. McKie stories, but maybe that’s because I think our government could use a Bureau of Sabotage, and the ideas behind Gowachin law appeal to me. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2007, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zelaznys-and-call-me-conrad/403673/28 "2007-05-13T04:21:57Z")
[QUOTE=Exapno Mapcase] Any of the four would be accepted today without comment as a worthy winner. “They’d Rather Be Right” didn’t even come out in book form until the Gnome Press edition in 1957 and in paperback under the title of _The Forever Machine_ until 1958. So it doesn’t even have that as an excuse. The only thing I can say is that it’s one of the first “computer becomes intelligent” novels. And as the blurb on the hardback says: Man, if that isn’t completely apropos today, then nothing is. Maybe it did deserve to win! [/QUOTE] Of course what they’d rather be right about is that they don’t think scientology and Ayn Rand will make them into gods, so I’d rather be right too. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zelaznys-and-call-me-conrad/403673.md?page=1)