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

Ernie Combs spends his life hiding a secret that turns every friendship into a risk and every crowded street into dangerous territory. When he finally meets someone who seems to understand him completely, one terrible discovery forces him to decide whether he truly wanted acceptance—or only the chance to feel normal. Cast The First Shadow by Marc Brandel. That’s next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.

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Marc Brandel is making his debut on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast and it will probably be his only appearance. He was born Marcus James Beresford in London, England in 1919.

Today’s story is his only published science fiction short story, although he wrote five science fiction novels. He was also the son of author J. D. Beresford, making this the first time I can remember that we’ve narrated stories by both a father and son on the podcast.

We’ll feature a story by J. D. Beresford as a bonus episode for Lost Sci-Fi Premium subscribers in the next few days.

Although our story was published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in April 1955 it first appeared in a magazine with Marilyn Monroe on the cover. Not many science fiction authors can say that!

From the May 1953 issue of Cosmopolitan on page 92, Cast The First Shadow by Marc Brandel…

Next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, In a future where every craving can be simulated and every discomfort erased, one aging man risks humiliation to remind people what genuine joy once felt like. What begins as a desperate act inside a sterile circus quickly forces an audience to rediscover something they didn’t realize they had lost. The Human Element by Leo P. Kelley.

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A dead man chooses what looks like the safest punishment in hell, convinced he understands the trap better than everyone before him. But as endless time passes in silence and fog, one terrible question begins to grow: what if the suffering only ends for those willing to keep going? What A Man Believes by Robert Sheckley. That’s next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.

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Robert Sheckley wrote a lot of stories, more than most vintage sci-fi authors and we get a lot of requests for his work.

Today’s unusual story was first published in the November-December 1953 issue of Fantastic on page 46, What A Man Believes by Robert Sheckley…

Next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, Ernie Combs spends his life hiding a secret that turns every friendship into a risk and every crowded street into dangerous territory. When he finally meets someone who seems to understand him completely, one terrible discovery forces him to decide whether he truly wanted acceptance—or only the chance to feel normal. Cast The First Shadow by Marc Brandel.

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A taxi driver becomes the most feared man in the city when passengers keep vanishing from his cab, leaving behind only watches, coins, and scattered pieces of metal. While police hunt a murderer and reporters invent a monster, the real danger sits quietly in a retired tinkerer’s workshop. The Middle Of The Week After Next by Murray Leinster. That’s next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.

You might call today’s story offbeat, absurdist, chaotic, inventive and downright hysterical.

First published in Thrilling Wonder Stories in August 1952 on page 71, The Middle Of The Week After Next by Murray Leinster…

Next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, A dead man chooses what looks like the safest punishment in hell, convinced he understands the trap better than everyone before him. But as endless time passes in silence and fog, one terrible question begins to grow: what if the suffering only ends for those willing to keep going? What A Man Believes by Robert Sheckley.

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The patrolmen on Titan expected another brutal week guarding the chroidex mines, but a sudden disaster leaves them trapped outside their own fortress with a thousand enemies behind its walls. As ammunition runs low and escape disappears, Captain Staley gambles everything on a plan so bizarre his own men think he has finally cracked under the pressure. Crisis on Titan by James R. Adams. That’s next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.

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The Spring 1946 issue of Planet Stories sold for just 20 cents and packed in a full novelette along with seven short stories. Turn to page 79 and you would find a desperate battle for survival on Saturn’s largest moon, Crisis on Titan by James R. Adams…

Next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, A taxi driver becomes the most feared man in the city when passengers keep vanishing from his cab, leaving behind only watches, coins, and scattered pieces of metal. While police hunt a murderer and reporters invent a monster, the real danger sits quietly in a retired tinkerer’s workshop. The Middle Of The Week After Next by Murray Leinster.

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A drifting relic from the earliest days of interstellar travel crashes onto a lonely world, carrying the echo of a doomed voyage nobody fully understands. When a second ghost ship appears above Straba, one greedy visitor pushes too far into something that may still remember the people it lost. Strangers to Straba by Carl Jacobi. That’s next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.

Carl Jacobi has been on the podcast twice. The Street That Wasn’t There, a story he cowrote with Clifford D. Simak and a personal favorite of mine The Last Drive.

In today’s tale we travel to the lonely frontier world of Straba, where an old recluse and an ambitious young surveyor uncover one of the greatest lost legends of early space travel.

Turn to page 90 in the October 1954 issue of Fantastic Universe, Strangers to Straba by Carl Jacobi…

Next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, The patrolmen on Titan expected another brutal week guarding the chroidex mines, but a sudden disaster leaves them trapped outside their own fortress with a thousand enemies behind its walls. As ammunition runs low and escape disappears, Captain Staley gambles everything on a plan so bizarre his own men think he has finally cracked under the pressure. Crisis on Titan by James R. Adams.

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