[net.sf-lovers] My first science fiction

lew (12/20/82)

Some of my earliest reading memories include:

Galactic Derelict: I was too young for this when I read it. I didn't
even know what a derelict was, and I didn't care. I couldn't follow
the plot but reading at that age (fifth or sixth grade) was a real mind
trip and I loved it.

Venus Boy: An incredibly maudlin story of a boy on a jungle-type Venus
who could telepathize with the local fauna. I lapped it up.

Rusty's Space Ship: This is what you might call infantile, rather than
juvenile, science fiction about a boy who builds an orange crate space
ship. His sheet metal nose cone turns out to be a saucer from the imperial
table of some tempestuous space tyrant. A cartoon dragon shows up to
retrieve it and off they go. His sister goes along too. Illustrated.

Tom Swift, Jr.: I once read three in one day. I also read one of the
originals - Tom Swift in the Caves of Ice. My dad found it in my
grandparents' attic. The archaic technology made no difference at all.

Lew Mammel, Jr. ihuxr!lew