About This Site

As the name of the site implies, here at Retro Science Fiction Reviews, we review vintage science fiction and fantasy and also link to other people's reviews.

Specifically, Retro Science Fiction reviews focusses on SFF works which first appeared in 1944 and therefore are eligible for the 1945 Retro Hugo Awards. For more information about the Hugo and Retro HugoAwards, please visit the official site. 

Disclaimer: This blog is an unofficial fansite and not associated with or endorsed by the WSFS, the Hugo Awards or CoNZealand, the 2020 WorldCon.   

As for why I started this site, we have excellent crowdsourced recommendation systems for the current year Hugos such as Renay's Hugo Spreadsheet of Doom or the Hugo Award Nominee Wiki, but there is nothing of that sort for the Retro Hugos. And so I decided to start an open recommendation spreadsheet for the Retro Hugos. 

You can find the recommendation spreadsheet for the 1945 Retro Hugos here. It is also linked on the front page. If there is a 1944 work of science fiction, fantasy or horror you feel is missing, please feel free to add it to the spreadsheet. The more of us contribute, the better.

Another problem with the Retro Hugos is that while there are plenty of reviews for current works out there, which help us find works we enjoy and may want to nominate, reviews of older SFF are much thinner on the ground. Of course, there are many fine sites which focus on vintage SFF and several are linked in the sidebar. However, there isn't any site that specifically focusses on works eligible for the Retro Hugos.

So I decided to reviews some works eligible for the 1945 Retro Hugos at my personal blog. And if I could persuade others to do the same, we might manage to offer a good overview of eligible works to potential Retro Hugo nominators. 

Then I thought, "Why not have a dedicated site for reviews of Retro Hugo eligible works? I could crosspost my own reviews there and link to those of other people." And this is how Retro Science Fiction Reviews was born.

Of course, I am only one person. Obviously, I cannot review everything that came out in 1944, just a small fraction thereof. Not to mention that there are many works and whole fields I don't know about or cannot access. Finally, like everybody I have my own biases. There are authors and works I just don't care for.

Therefore, I need your help. Have you reviewed an SFF work that came out in 1944 and is eligible for the 1945 Retro Hugos? Then mail me a link to your review. Would you like to review a 1944 work and don't have a place to post your review? You can also mail me the whole review and I will post it here, giving you credit, of course. You can contact me at cora(at)corabuhlert.com.

Are you uncertain what is eligible for the 1945 Retro Hugos? Paul Fraser of SF Magazines has a handy list of all 1945 Retro Hugo eligible fiction with links here. 

After the 1945 Retro Hugos are over, I will keep this site open for future years of Retro Hugos.