Fanlore:Featured Article Archives/2024: Week 46

sample page with illo, the artist is possibly Theis, but no credit is given

The Eye of Argon is a 1970 original sword-and-sorcery story by Jim Theis, a science fiction fan who was sixteen years old at the time of its publication. It was printed in the fanzine OSFAn #10 (Ozark SF Society), it was distributed widely from fan-to-fan, and was later circulated on USENET. The story became infamous in fan and literary circles, and is sometimes referred to as the "worst story/fantasy novel ever written". It has been the common subject of turkey readings and games at conventions. Although, often the target of mockery, it has its defenders, and in recent years there has been a great deal more sympathy for the author, who was a teenager at the time it was written.