We once claimedTintin: Destination Moon was science fiction, because an animated white dog accompanied an animated human to the moon on a rocketship. Now we outrageously extend the concept as we explore the sci-fi worlds of another animated dog/human partnership: Wallace & Gromit!

If you've been living in another solar system these past thirty-six years, you may not be aware of these plasticine pals, but it's our job to bring you up to date as we examine the SF chops of every one of the Wallace and Gromit movies, coming bang up to date with the Oscar-nominated recent releaseVengeance Most Fowl.

For more information on everything covered in this episode, head to the shownotes on our blog:https://101sf.blogspot.com/2025/02/cracking-sci-fi-episode-51-of-podcast.html

It's another one of our (made-up) time-honored traditions: reviewing a current science fiction magazine. We usually do this once a year, to keep on top of current SF trends - and also to compare & contrast current magazines with the SF magazines of the past.

Last time, we went back 50 years to review ANALOG.

This time, we're bang up-to-date (almost) with a very recent issue of the same magazine. Analog is the longest-continuously-running SF magazine, having been around under various titles since the 1930s!

What will make of Analog's longstanding reputation for "hard SF" ? How does the magazine stack up against its wholly online competitors such as Clarkesworld and Uncanny? How does it stack up against its former self?

No quiz this time, but we finish off with our usual round-up of recommendations of past/present/future science fiction.

For full shownotes, check out our blog at: 101sf.blogspot.com

In time-honored tradition, for our December episode we go hurtling back in time to review a science fiction magazine from the past. Get your flares, platform shoes and ghettoblasters ready as we head back to...November 1974.

We're picking on Analog magazine, just because we've never reviewed it before. And it's only the longest-continuously-running SF magazine in existence. It started in 1930 as Astounding Stories, was renamed Analog in the 1960s, and continues under that name to this day. As we join it in 1974, it's in the early years of the editorship of Ben Bova, and is beginning to modernise.

If you'd like to browse through the issue with us, you can download it as a PDF from this link.

And don't forget the shownotes, which you can find at 101sf.blogspot.com