Editing L. Sprague de Camp (section)

===Science fiction===
De Camp's science fiction is marked by his interests in linguistics, ancient history, and the history and philosophy of science.<ref name="Power"/><ref>Laughlin, Charlotte, and Levack, Daniel J. H. ''De Camp: An L. Sprague de Camp Bibliography''. San Francisco, Underwood/Miller, 1983, p. 192.</ref><ref>Knight, David, ed. ''First Flight: Maiden Voyages in Space and Time'', New York, Lancer Books, 1963, p. 9.</ref> His first published story was "[[The Isolinguals]]", in the September 1937 issue of ''[[Astounding Science Fiction]]''<ref name=Moskowitz />—the last issue edited by [[F. Orlin Tremaine]], prior to the long tenure of [[John W. Campbell]].<ref name=isfdb/> Most of his early science fiction stories were unrelated to each other, the exceptions being his "Johnny Black" tales about a black bear [[Uplift (science fiction)|uplifted]] to human-level intelligence, and his "Drinkwhiskey Institute" stories, a series of tall tales involving time travel. Campbell's fantasy magazine, [[Unknown (magazine)|''Unknown'']], was suited to de Camp's idiosyncratic imagination, logic, and sense of humor.<ref name="Pringle, D.">{{cite book|editor-last1=Pringle|editor-first1=David|title=St. James Guide to Fantasy Writers|date=1996|publisher=St. James Press|location=New York|isbn=9781558622050|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781558622050}}</ref> He contributed ten novels (five as collaborations), much of it characterized by humor and dry wit.<ref name=Bleiler /> De Camp eschewed the intention of being a satirist, insisting, instead, that the stories he wrote were meant less for instruction or improvement, as satire requires, and more for the amusement of his readers.<ref name=Moskowitz /><ref name=Bleiler />

De Camp's treatment of [[time travel]] and [[alternate history (fiction)|alternate history]] in stories such as ''[[Lest Darkness Fall]]'' (1939), "[[The Wheels of If]]" (1940), "[[A Gun for Dinosaur]]" (1956), "[[Aristotle and the Gun]]" (1958), and ''[[The Glory That Was]]'' (1960) challenged the popular notion of his time that history consisted of an arbitrary series of accidents. Instead, de Camp, through sound background knowledge and logical thought, systematically demonstrated how technological advances could determine the pattern of an eventful history. His display of technological determinism in historical recreation is considered a ''tour de force.''<ref name=Bleiler /><ref name="Remington, T.">{{cite journal|last1=Remington|first1=Thomas|title=SF as Structural Fabulation|journal=The North American Review|date=Winter 1975|volume=260|issue=4|pages=53–55|jstor=25117723}}</ref> ''Lest Darkness Fall'', "The Wheels of If" and "Aristotle and the Gun" have been recognized as seminal works in the field of alternate history.<ref name="SWfAH">[http://www.uchronia.net/sidewise/complete.html#achieve "Past Winners and Finalists"]. Sidewise Awards for Alternate History (''uchronia.net''). Retrieved April 23, 2013. This was a Special Achievement award "for seminal works in the field" among the first annual Sidewise Awards in 1996 (generally recognizing 1995 publications).</ref>

His most extended work was his "''[[Viagens Interplanetarias]]''" series, set in a future where Brazil is the dominant power, particularly a sub-series of [[sword and planet]] novels set on the planet Krishna, beginning with ''[[The Queen of Zamba]]''.<ref name="Power">Power, Colleen. "DeCamp, L. (Lyon) Sprague." ''Reader's Guide to Twentieth-Century Science Fiction'' (Chicago, American Library Association, 1989), pp. 170-74.</ref> His most influential ''Viagens'' novel was the non-Krishna work ''[[Rogue Queen]]'', a tale of a hive society undermined by interstellar contact, which was one of the earliest science fiction novels to deal with sexual themes.<ref name=Bleiler />