[August 15, 1964] What are you thinking? (The Whole Man aka Telepathist by John Brunner; The Universe Against Her, by James H. Schmitz)

August 15, 2019 Victoria Silverwolf 2 Comments

[This month's Galactoscope features a pair of books with a common subject — but you already know what it is, if you possess the powers associated with that subject…]

by Victoria Silverwolf

Out of Many, One

Baby USA and the National Bird fighting over a ribbon.

It may seem highly eccentric to write a piece about a novel by a British writer with a title borrowed from a traditional motto of the United States. However, there is some method to my madness, as I have a few reasons for selecting the familiar phrase.

For one thing, the author prefaces his creation with a Latin quotation, and I thought I would return the favor. For another, the book is an example of the phenomenon, common in the science fiction world, known as the fix-up novel. That is to say, it incorporates previously published stories into a single work. Last but not least, the phrase fits not only the theme of telepathy, with multiple minds merging, but also the main character's transformation from a shattered personality into a complete human being.

I'll discuss each of these things at the proper time, but first let's take a look at mind-reading in science fiction, and at the career of the fellow who offers us the latest example.

Penny For Your Thoughts

Telepathy is a very common concept in SF; some might say, given John W. Campbell's promotion of ESP in his magazine, too common. There are far too many examples to discuss, so I'll just mention a couple of my favorites.

The first appearance of Bester's novel; cover art by Don Sibley.

Alfred Bester's novel The Demolished Man, the first book to win a Hugo, featured a man trying to get away with murder in a future full of telepathic police. This pyrotechnic work made use of typographic tricks to convey the sensation of reading another's thoughts.

The first appearance of Anderson's story; cover art by Emsh.

Poul Anderson's short story "Journeys End" dealt with the theme on a more intimate level, as two lonely telepaths find each other, only to have their meeting end in a bitterly ironic way.

These two works are, to my way of thinking, the finest examples of telepathy in fiction. Can anyone hope to match them? Meet a man who's willing to give it a try.

Precocious, Prolific, and Professional

From left to right, John Brunner and editor Ted Carnell at the 1957 Worldcon in London.

Born in the delightfully named English village of Preston Crowmarsh, John Kilian Houston Brunner began publishing science fiction at the tender age of seventeen. He hasn't stopped since, with nearly twenty books and well over fifty stories appearing under his name during the last dozen years. Many of his longer works appear in the famous Ace Double series. In general, he has a reputation as a producer of skillfully written, unambitious space operas.

Once in a while, he aims for something higher. The Traveler gave a glowing review to his novella Listen! The Stars! (Analog, July 1962) and I greatly enjoyed his novelette The Totally Rich (Worlds of Tomorrow, June 1963.) Will his latest novel reach the same level as these fine stories?

Don't Judge a Book By Its Cover

The American paperback.

Looking at the anonymous cover art, and the equally anonymous blurb that accompanies it, you might think this has something to do with a telepath and his beautiful companion, as they do something or other with some people in spacesuits. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The British hardcover.

My sources in the publishing industry gave me a peek at the version that will appear in the United Kingdom next year. The cover, which seems to combine photography with a simple drawing, is still anonymous, but less misleading. It's purely symbolic, of course, but at least it doesn't promise things it can't deliver.

When in Rome . . .

The novel begins with these lines from Virgil's Aeneid.

Spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus
Mens agitat molem et magno se corpore miscet.

My knowledge of Latin is limited to the Pig variety, so I did some research and found this translation.

The spirit within nourishes, and the mind that is diffused throughout the living parts of nature activates the whole mass and mingles with the vast body of the universe.

Apparently, the most important phrase in the quote is mens agitat molem (mind moves matter), because Brunner uses each of those three words as the title of a section of the novel. (By the way, mens agitat molem is also the motto of several institutes of higher learning, including the University of Oregon. Go Ducks!)

Born to Lose

First up is molem, or matter.

The plot begins with the birth of the protagonist, Gerald Howson, to an unmarried woman. The setting, judging by the names of the characters, is an English-speaking nation torn apart by a failed revolution. Armed United Nations peacekeepers restore order, with the help of telepaths. (In this future, the UN is much more powerful than it is today, and acts as a sort of world government.)

Gerald comes into the world with every disadvantage you can imagine. Not only is his mother without a husband, his father is a dead terrorist. He is also born severely disabled, with mismatched limbs and other deformities. Even as an adult, he is barely over four feet tall.

Gerald manages to survive a painful and impoverished childhood in a nation that is slowly returning to normalcy. By chance, he overhears a conversation between two criminals, and informs a rival crime boss. This earns him some money, but soon the police are after him. With nowhere else to go, he collapses in an empty lot.

A young woman, deaf and dumb since birth, cares for him. To his amazement, he can communicate with her telepathically. (It's implied that he actually read the minds of the criminals but thought he heard them speak.) His telepathy is so powerful, in fact, than even a telepath in a spaceship bound for Mars is able to detect his ability. UN forces soon arrive to take him to a place where he can make the best use of his powers.

Finding a Calling

The second section of the book carries the title agitat, or moves.

Gerald and the woman arrive in Ulan Bator. This city, the capital of Mongolia, is now an ultra-modern metropolis, and contains the headquarters of the World Health Organization. The woman's speech and hearing are restored, and she returns to her native land to lead a normal life. Unfortunately, the part of Gerald's brain that controls his body image prevents surgeons from correcting his deformities. He remains in Ulan Bator, under observation by UN officials.

Meanwhile, a crisis threatens the organization. It seems that some UN telepaths, under the strain of their responsibilities, suffer from a form of mental breakdown during which they escape into fantasy worlds. To make things much worse, they are able to take the minds of others into these imaginary realms as well. If not rescued, the people trapped in the illusion remain in a comatose state, to the point of death.

Gerald witnesses a formerly powerful mindreader, now weakened by a brain tumor, attempt to bring an important telepath out of a fantastic version of ancient Greece. When she fails, and cannot exit the dream world, he uses his own strength to save them both. This success inspires him to become a professional healer of damaged minds.

Physician, Heal Thyself

The third and last part of the novel, taking up half the book, is titled mens, or mind.

Unlike the first two sections, which are, as far as I can tell, completely new, this one makes use of two previously published novellas.

The first, City of the Tiger, appeared in the British magazine Science Fantasy in 1958. It was reprinted in the American publication Fantastic Universe the next year.

Cover art by Brian Lewis, illustrating Brunner's story.

Anonymous cover art, not illustrating Brunner's story

The original version takes place almost entirely within an imaginary, magical version of the Orient. The reader doesn't find out that the whole thing is only a telepath's fantasy until the end. In the book, we know right away that Gerald enters the false reality in order to draw out a telepath who has deliberately entered it, and taken several people into it with him.

The second novella was published under the title The Whole Man in Science Fantasy in 1959. The same year, it appeared in Fantastic Universe as Curative Telepath.

Cover art by Brian Lewis, but not for Brunner's story.

More anonymous cover art, still not for Brunner's story.

As its original title suggests, this novella forms the heart of the novel. Gerald returns to his native land, in search of his roots. He meets the woman who used to be deaf and dumb, now married with children. The reunion is an awkward one. She envies his fame and glamorous life as an celebrated UN telepath. He envies her normal life and healthy body.

Gerald meets a group of university students at a tavern and goes to a party with them. They accept him as a peer, despite his deformity. While at the party, he meets an artist who is trying to combine music with visual media. He realizes that his abilities would be an enormous help to this project. He also saves a man's life in a particularly dramatic way, further convincing himself that he is a worthy member of society. At the end, Gerald is, at last, psychologically healthy. As the novel says, he is a whole man.

The Sum of its Parts

I believe this novel marks a turning point in Brunner's career. Although it contains melodramatic incidents, it is primarily concerned with the way in which the protagonist grows and changes. Some elements seem implausible, such as the notion that a certain part of the brain controls body image, and that this prevents surgical intervention. Overall, however, it is a realistic account of what telepathy might be like, a cautiously optimistic vision of a future world recovering from many challenges, and an acute psychological portrait of its main character. Expect it to be on the Hugo list next year.

Four stars.

A recent book on theology and psychology which nicely symbolizes Gerald's state of mind at the end of the novel. And the author's name is strikingly similar to the writer we've been discussing! Coincidence, or ESP?

[Continuing the skein of telepathy, we come to another "new" novel — unique in perspective, if lacking in execution…]

The virtues and vices of recycling

by Erica Frank

The Universe Against Her, by James H. Schmitz

James H. Schmitz writes, in two parts, the story of Telzey Amberdon, a 15-year-old genius in her second year of law school, with a Federation Councilwoman for a mother and a father who's an executive officer at an interplanetary bank. She also happens to be a powerful xenotelepath, able to communicate mentally with alien species as well as humans.

I was disappointed to discover this "novel" is very obviously two separate stories now just called "Part One" and "Part Two." In fact, you've seen them before: This "novel" has two parts that were previously published in Analog; "Novice" was from the June 1962 issue, and "Undercurrents" was in two parts, May and June 1964. No hint of the events from Part One spill into Part Two. Even the way Telzey thinks about her psionic powers changes between the two stories – in the first, she is trying to puzzle out "symbols" and how to interpret them; by the second, she's more familiar with her abilities.

In the first story, she discovers that her pet sabertooth tiger (not what it's called, but obviously what's intended) is part of a sentient species that's been hunted to near-extinction. In the second, the guardians of a friend from school are planning to murder the friend before she can inherit. The stories have several similarities: In both, her ability to read and persuade animals is a key part of the plot. In both, Telzey's parent gets involved and provides administrative and legal support. In both, Telzey shapes the emotions and mental focus of the people around her.

That last point is more interesting than most of the plot, especially of the second story, which rambled. It involved complex legal and government hassles that required several minor characters whose sole purpose was to expound on aspects of galactic law. (Does that sound needlessly elaborate and dull? It was!) That was boring; Telzey's discomfort with her mind- and personality-warping abilities was interesting. Unfortunately, after having brought up the topic, Telzey quickly rationalized that this was "the only way" to make her friend safe. Then she returned to trying to manipulate both the court and government agencies, because apparently in her galaxy, clear evidence that "This person is trying to kill someone" is not enough to lock them up.

I loved some of the ideas, but the execution was weak; the second story was especially convoluted. I agree with the Traveler's assessments of the stories, which you should see as I've no need to restate them here. As a whole for the book: Three stars if you love teen-focused stories; two stars otherwise.

[Thus ends our presentation of telepathic twins. Next time… well, you already know what's coming, don't you?]

[Come join us at Portal 55, Galactic Journey's real-time lounge! Talk about your favorite SFF, chat with the Traveler and co., relax, sit a spell…]

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Fashion, music, politics, sports, Magazine

[August 13, 1964] Plus ça change (September 1964 Amazing)

August 13, 2019 John Boston 6 Comments

by John Boston

Still Long, Still Hot

Big surprise: Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner, the three civil rights workers who disappeared in June in Mississippi after being pulled over for speeding in Neshoba County and then released, have been found dead, buried under an earthen dam, two of them shot in the heart, the third shot multiple times and mutilated. The sheriff of Neshoba County had said, “They're just hiding and trying to cause a lot of bad publicity for this part of the state.” During the six weeks that law enforcement was failing to find their bodies, they did find the bodies of eight other Negroes, five of them yet unidentified—business as usual, apparently, in that part of the country.

The Issue at Hand

by Robert Adragna

The September Amazing has a different look from the usual hard-edged Popular Mechanics-ish style of Emsh and especially of Alex Schomburg. Robert Adragna’s cover features surreal-looking buildings and machinery against a bright yellow background (land and sky), a little reminiscent of the familiar style of Richard Powers, but probably closer to that of the UK artist Brian Lewis, who brought the mildly non-literal look in bright colors (as opposed to Powers’s often more morose palette) to New Worlds and Science Fantasy for several years.

The contents? Within normal limits. Business as usual here, too, though less grisly.

The Kingdoms of the Stars, by Edmond Hamilton

The issue leads off with The Kingdoms of the Stars, by Edmond Hamilton, a sequel to his novel The Star Kings, which originated in Amazing in 1947, and is to the subgenre of space opera what the International Prototype of the Kilogram is to the realm of weights and measures. In The Star Kings, regular guy John Gordon of Earth finds his mind swapped with that of Zarth Arn, a prince of the far-future Mid-Galactic Empire, and ends up having to lead the Empire’s space fleets against the forces of the League of Dark Worlds (successfully of course, despite a rather thin resume for the job). He also hits it off with Princess Lianna of the Fomalhaut Kingdom before he is returned to his own Twentieth Century body and surroundings.

The new story opens in a psychiatrist’s office, with John Gordon much perturbed by his memories of chasing around the galaxy and wooing a star-princess. He wants to find out if he is delusional. This may be a case of Art imitating Life, or at least imitating somebody else’s account of Life with the serial numbers filed off. Hamilton surely knows of (and I think is sardonically guying) The Fifty-Minute Hour (1955), a volume of six case histories by the psychiatrist Dr. Robert Lindner, one of which, The Jet-Propelled Couch, involves a similar story of a patient with detailed memories or fantasies of living in a spacefaring far future, which he ultimately abandoned and admitted were delusions.

But shrink notwithstanding, Gordon is brought back into the future, corporeally this time, by the benevolent machinations of Zarth An. Princess Lianna is anxiously awaiting him, but this time he’s in his own body and not Zarth An’s, and she’s going to have to get used to it. Meanwhile, they trundle off to the Fomalhaut Kingdom to attend to the affairs the Princess has been neglecting. En route, to avoid ambush, they head for the primitive planet Marral, ostensibly to confer with the Princess’s cousin Narath Teyn (who is in fact one of the schemers against her). Various intrigues and diversions occur there, followed by a narrow escape that sets the scene for the next in what obviously will be a series.

One can’t quarrel with the execution. Hamilton lays it on thick in the accustomed manner:

“Across the broad loom and splendor of the galaxy, the nations of the Star-Kings were marked in many-colored fire, crimson and gold and emerald green, blue and violet and diamond-white . . . the kingdoms of Lyra, Cygnus, Cassiopeia, Polaris, and the capital of the great Mid-Galactic Empire of Canopus. The Hercules Cluster blazed with its Baronies of swarming suns. To the south, as the cruiser beat westward toward Fomalhaut, the Orion Nebula sprawled its coiling radiance across the firmament. Far northward lay the black blot of the Cloud, where drowned Thallarna lay now in peace.”

Oh, and don’t forget the “vast wilderness of the Marches of Outer Space” (in space, can anyone hear you march?), presided over by the Counts of the Marches, who are allied to the Empire. And so on. Along the way there is plenty more colorful decoration, not least the telepathic struggle between a sinister gray-cowled alien and the deeply loyal Korkhann, Fomalhaut’s Minister of Non-Human Affairs, five feet tall and resplendent in gray feathers. At the end, Gordon concludes that this world beats hell out of the “sordid dream” of Twentieth Century life to which the psychiatrist wanted to confine him. Fiddle-de-dee, Dr. Lindner!

But—kings? It’s ultimately pretty depressing to be told that after two hundred thousand years, humanity hasn’t come up with something better than monarchy and all its cheesy pageantry. Bah! What this galaxy needs is a few good tumbrils and guillotines.

Three stars—a compromise between capable execution and shameless cliche.

Clean Slate, by James H. Schmitz

by George Schelling

There’s no monarchy in the issue’s other novelet, James H. Schmitz’s Clean Slate, but exactly what there is remains murky. It’s fifteen years since the Takeover, when several “men of action” . . . well, took over, though there’s no more explanation than that. There seem to be elections, or at least the risk of them, and public opinion has to be attended to if not necessarily followed.

The viewpoint character is George Hair, a Takeover functionary in charge of the Department of Education, and nominally supervisor of ACCED—a post-Takeover research program designed to develop “accelerated education” to produce enough adequately trained people to keep this complex modern civilization humming. Problem is the high-pressure regime of experimental ACCED, very successful in the short run, causes severe psychological problems as the kids get a little older. It seems having a personality gets in the way of this educational force-feeding for the greater good.

So they go to younger kids—less personality to get in the way–and when that doesn’t work, they get some newborns, who should have even less. Still doesn’t work. So they apply techniques of SELAM—selective amnesia—to get some of people’s inconvenient memories out of the way.

Maybe you’ve noticed that this is completely crazy. It gets more so: hey, why not just get rid of all the memories, to create the clean slate of the title? The guy running the ACCED program is the first subject of this total memory elimination, which, followed by intensive ACCED, will make him a superman!

But there’s a snag. A big one, with huge implications for the program, and the government, and the story ends on the brink of a denouement that is hair-raising, not to mention Hair-razing.

The story is a meandering mix of scenes with actual dialogue and action and long stretches of Hair’s ruminations and recollections about the history of ACCED and the politics of the post-Takeover government and his place in it. Like many of Schmitz’s stories, it really shouldn’t work at all, and does so only because he is such a smooth writer one is lulled into keeping on reading. That smoothness also distracts one from the fact that what he is writing about—the subjection of children first to an educational program that destroys them psychologically, and then to the eradication of part or all of their memories—is utterly monstrous, worthy of the Nazis’ Dr. Mengele (also something not unknown in Schmitz). Three stars and a shudder. This one is hard to put out of one’s mind.

The Dowry of Angyar, by Ursula K. Le Guin

by George Schelling

Fomalhaut rears its head again in Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dowry of Angyar, which takes place on a human-and-other-sentients-inhabited planet in that system, one with enough contact with humans to be taxed for wars by them, but not much more. Semley, a princess of the Angyar, covets an elaborately jeweled necklace which has somehow vanished from her family’s treasury, goes on a quest for it among the planet’s other sentient species, and gets badly burned by her greed and by not understanding enough about what is going on. It’s very well written and visualized, as always with Le Guin, but its ostentatiously folk-taley and homiletic quality is a bit tedious to my taste, and it’s too long by about half—an off day for a class act. Nonetheless, three stars for capable writing.

The Sheeted Dead, by Robert Rohrer

by Virgil Finlay

Robert Rohrer is back with The Sheeted Dead, blurbed as “A tale of horror . . . a story not for weaklings,” illustrated by Virgil Finlay in a style reminiscent of the old horror comics that were driven out of existence by public outcry and congressional hearings. The story is written in the same spirit. In the future, humans have fought wars all over space, and as a result, “great clouds of radioactive dust blew through the galaxy.” To avoid extinction, Earth has Withdrawn—that is, surrounded itself with some sort of electronic barrier so no radiation can get in, meanwhile leaving its armies stranded around the galaxy to die.

A mutated virus brings the local deceased and decayed veterans to life, or at least to animation, in their mausoleums on Earth, and they set off for the illuminated cities searching for revenge for their abandoned comrades, and for the field generator, so they can turn it off, allowing them to see the Sun again, and also killing off everyone left alive. William Blake said, “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.” We’re waiting. Meanwhile, this is at least (over)written with a modicum of skill and conviction. Two stars and a suppressed groan.

The Alien Worlds, by Ben Bova

Ben Bova’s The Alien Worlds continues his series on how humans could live on the planets of the Solar System, this time focusing on Mercury, Jupiter and the planets further out, and the planetoid belt (as he calls it, ignoring the more common usage “asteroid belt”). The material is mostly familiar and rendered a bit dully, as is frequent with Bova. Two stars.

Summing Up

Overall, not bad; most of the issue’s contents are at least perfectly readable, reaching the median through different combinations of fault and virtue. As always, one would prefer something a little bit above the ordinary; as all too frequently, one does not get it. In print and elsewhere.

[Come join us at Portal 55, Galactic Journey's real-time lounge! Talk about your favorite SFF, chat with the Traveler and co., relax, sit a spell…]

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Book, Science Fiction/Fantasy

[August 11, 1964] Leigh Brackett Times Two: The Secret of Sinharat and People of the Talisman (Ace Double M-101)

August 11, 2019 Cora Buhlert 8 Comments

by Cora Buhlert

So far, this summer has been cold and rainy. Even the cheery tunes of "Liebeskummer lohnt sich nicht" (Heartache does not pay) by Swedish singer Siw Malmkvist, which has been number 1 in Germany for almost as long as it has been raining, can't dispel the summer gloom.

However, rain outside means it's the perfect time to read. And so I was lucky to spot Leigh Brackett's latest in the spinner rack at the local import bookstore. Now a new novel by the queen of space opera, is always a reason to rejoice. And the latest Ace Double offers not one but two new novels by Leigh Brackett.

Though upon closer examination The Secret of Sinharat and People of the Talisman are not so new after all, but expansions of two novellas first published as "Queen of the Martian Catacombs" and "Black Amazon of Mars" in Planet Stories in 1949 and 1951 respectively.

The two novels are more closely connected than Ace Doubles usually are, because not only are both by the same author, but they also feature the same character, Eric John Stark, intergalactic mercenary and outlaw and hero of several stories by Leigh Brackett.

The Wild Man from Mercury

Eric John Stark is a fascinating character. An Earthman born in a mining colony on Mercury, Stark was orphaned as a young child and adopted by natives who named him N'Chaka, the Man Without a Tribe. A few years later, Stark was orphaned a second time, when the tribe that adopted him was exterminated by miners from Earth who wanted the natives' resources for themselves. The miners put Stark in a cage and would have killed him, too, if Stark hadn't been rescued by Simon Ashton, a police officer from Earth. Ashton took the young Stark in and raised him to adulthood.

Though outwardly a civilised man, inside Stark is still N'Chaka, the wild boy from Mercury. There are parallels between Eric John Stark and Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan, who was one of the inspirations for the character according to the foreword by Edmond Hamilton, Leigh Brackett's husband. Eric John Stark is also a black man, something which is sadly still much too rare in our genre. Though you wouldn't know it from the covers, as both Planet Stories cover artist Allan Anderson as well as Ed Emshwiller, covers artist for the Ace Double edition, portray Stark as white.

Stark has little time for human civilisation, but a lot of sympathy for the plight of downtrodden natives throughout the solar system. He involves himself in an endless chain of uprisings and guerrilla campaigns, which are reminiscent both of the Indian wars, which were still within living memory when Brackett was born, as well as the various anticolonial movements currently sweeping through Africa and Asia. Stark's activities as a mercenary and weapons smuggler naturally bring him into conflict with the Terran authorities.

This conflict comes to a head in the opening pages of The Secret of Sinharat, which finds Stark on the run with Terran police officers led by Stark's mentor and surrogate father Simon Ashton in hot pursuit. Stark is facing twenty years in prison due to his role in a failed native uprising on Venus, but Ashton offers him a deal. Kynon, a Martian warlord, is planning to lead the desert tribes into a holy war with the help of off-world mercenaries. If Stark joins Kynon's army as an agent for Ashton, the Terran authorities will forget about Stark's crimes.

I really enjoyed the relationship between Stark and Ashton. Both men clearly have a lot of respect for each other and Ashton is probably the only person in the solar system Stark truly cares about. Ashton also clearly cares about Stark, but is not above using their relationship and Stark's sympathies for barbarian tribes, who – as Ashton reminds him – will suffer most from Kynon's holy war, to get Stark to agree to the deal. I would have loved to see more of Simon Ashton and his past with Stark. Alas, he only appears in the opening chapter, then Stark is on his own.

Martian noir

Stark meets with Kynon and steps into a nest of snakes. For starters, Kynon is a fraud who claims to have rediscovered the titular secret, a device which can transfer a person's consciousness into a new body and therefore guarantees eternal life. Kynon is also surrounded by a cast of shady characters who wouldn't seem out of place in the one of the noir movies for which Leigh Brackett wrote the screenplay. There is Delgaun, a Martian gangster, Luhar, a Venusian mercenary and old enemy of Stark's, the Martian femme fatale Berild, who is both Kynon's and Delgaun's lover and seduces Stark as well, and Fianna, Berild's sweet and innocent maid who also takes a shine to Stark. None of these characters are what they seem and all but one will be dead by the end of the novel, either at each other's hands or at Stark's.

The Secret of Sinharat is chockfull of exciting action scenes and atmospheric descriptions of the dying Mars. Stark takes us on a tour of a Martian opium den, survives a deadly sandstorm and a gruelling trek through the blistering desert and explores the ancient city of Sinharat and the mysteries that lurk in its catacombs.

A Strangely Familiar Story

The Secret of Sinharat is a highly entertaining novel, which also seemed oddly familiar, though I knew that I couldn't have read the earlier magazine version. However, I realised that The Secret of Sinharat bore several parallels to a novel I reviewed two months ago for Galactic Journey: The Valley of Creation by Leigh Brackett's husband Edmond Hamilton, the expanded version of a story first published in 1948. The protagonist of both novels is a mercenary recruited to fight someone else's holy war, who realises that he is fighting on the wrong side. Both novels feature ancient technology which can transfer human consciousness into other bodies and both protagonists find themselves subjected to said technology. Both protagonists even share the same first name, Eric.

Of course, there are also differences. The Valley of Creation is set on Earth, in a hidden valley in the Himalaya, while The Secret of Sinharat is set on Mars. And Eric John Stark is a much more developed and interesting character than the rather bland Eric Nelson. Nonetheless, the parallels are striking. Edmond Hamilton and Leigh Brackett are not known to collaborate like C.L. Moore and her late husband Henry Kuttner did. But given the similarities of both stories and the fact that they were written around the same time, I wonder whether Brackett and Hamilton did not both write their own version of the same basic idea.

Into the Gates of Death

People of the Talisman, the other novel in this Ace Double, opens with Eric John Stark once again in a fistful of trouble. A dying friend entrusts Stark with the story's plot device, the talisman of Ban Cruach, an ancient king who founded the city of Kushat to guard a mountain pass known as the Gates of Death in the polar regions of Mars. Stark's friend stole the talisman, but now wants to return it, because without the talisman, Kushat and all of Mars are in grave danger.

Stark wants to honour his friend's dying wish. But before he can fulfil his mission, he is captured by raiders who take him to their leader, Lord Ciaran, yet another Martian warlord who wants to unite the tribes and lead them to victory over the decadent cities. Though Lord Ciaran is a much more interesting and memorable character than Kynon from The Secret of Sinharat. Ciaran is the illegitimate child of a Martian king who never acknowledged him. Hungry for revenge and power, Ciaran dresses in black armour, wields a battle axe and always wears a steel mask.

Ciaran wants Stark to join his army, but Stark is wary, probably due to his previous bad experiences with Martian warlords. Of course, Ciaran also wants the talisman and since Stark refuses to hand it over or say where it is, Ciaran has him brutally whipped.

Stark escapes. Half dead, he makes it to Kushat to warn the city of Ciaran's attack, but has a hard time convincing the city guard of the danger. Nor can Stark reveal that he has the talisman, for the rulers of Kushat have kept its disappearance a secret and would kill Stark to preserve it.

Ciaran Unmasked

Ciaran's forces attack after all and in the pitched battle that follows, Stark faces off against Ciaran himself. Before striking the killing blow, Stark rips off the warlord's mask and gets a surprise that has already been spoiled both by Ed Emshwiller as well as by Allan Anderson on the original Planet Stories cover. For underneath the black mask, the warlord is a striking woman. The unmasking scene is reminiscent of a similar scene in "Black God's Kiss" by C.L. Moore, the story that introduced the swordswoman Jirel of Joiry to the world.

Ciaran is a fabulous character, a strong warrior woman, which is still all too rare in our genre even thirty years after Jirel of Joiry first took off her helmet. Though fascinated by Stark, Ciaran immediately decks him after he has unmasked her. Later, Ciaran tells Stark, "I did not ask for my sex. I will not be bound by it." I suspect Leigh Brackett agrees with her.

Every woman Stark meets in the two novels falls for him and Stark is only too happy to dispense "kisses brutal as blows" (apparently, Simon Ashton's education did not include how to properly treat the other sex). And so Stark falls in lust with Ciaran, even though she had him whipped half to death only days before.

Stark escapes with the talisman and a caravan of refugees through the Gates of Death to seek Ban Cruach's secret with Ciaran and her forces in hot pursuit. A battle ensues in which Ciaran is taken prisoner.

Now the novel takes a sharp turn into Lovecraftian territory. For beyond the Gates of Death lies an ancient city inhabited by alien beings (unlike the humanoid Martians Stark normally deals with). Initially, the aliens claim that they just want to be left in peace. But they quickly show their true colours and attack the humans.

Stark and Ciaran wind up fighting back to back. They escape and Ciaran agrees to leave Kushat alone and conquer the city of her deadbeat father instead. Stark goes with her in what may well be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Fiction versus Reality

I thoroughly enjoyed both novels, though they are clearly relics of an earlier age. Leigh Brackett's Mars with its deserts, ancient cities and even older ruins most likely does not exist, just as Mariner 2 revealed that the fog-shrouded Venus with its swamps and oceans that is a staple of pulp science fiction does not exist either. In fact, I suspect that the reason why Ace has not reprinted the third Eric John Stark adventure "Enchantress of Venus" (which I read in German translation a few years ago) is that the red gas ocean of Venus which Brackett described so evocatively is no longer plausible in our brave new age of space exploration.

Of course, it is the fate of most science fiction that it will eventually become outdated as science and knowledge march on. But even though we know that the solar system Leigh Brackett described is not plausible, the Eric John Stark stories still remain glorious adventure tales with a protagonist who is a lot more complex than the standard square-jawed heroes of pulp science fiction.

Something everyone can enjoy, rain or shine!

Bremen City Parliament building topping out — It stopped raining long enough to celebrate the topping out of Bremen's new city parliament building, sitting right next to the 13th century St. Petri cathedral

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Comics

[August 9, 1964] Heroic Considerations (Fall 1964 Alter Ego, July 1964 Batmania)

August 9, 2019 Erica Frank Leave a comment

by Erica Frank

This month brings us two amazing fanzines: Alter Ego 7 discusses several superheroes and villains of the past, and a new fanzine, Batmania, has just begun. We also have a few notes about advances in metaphysical news.

Alter Ego 7

Alter Ego's had a rocky time; I covered issue 3 almost 3 years ago, which is a long stretch for what's supposedly a quarterly zine. The editor's note at the beginning notes that management has recently changed hands; Ron Foss is handing the reins to Roy Thomas, who believes he's more able to keep up with a quarterly schedule.

And That Was the End of Solomon Grundy? by Richard Kyle

Solomon Grundy is an undead villain named after a children's rhyme. His initial appearance and defeat by the Green Lantern was 20 years ago, in the October 1944 issue of All-American Comics, and he appeared a few more times in the 40s. He is appearing in the new Showcase #55, facing off against Doctor Fate and Hour-man. The article shows that Grundy is not just a mindless nearly-unkillable thug, and I look forward to seeing him battle other heroes in the future.

Alter & Captain Ego, written and illustrated by Biljo White

Captain Ego, a spaceman from planet Zircon, crash-lands on Earth. Alter Albright rescues him with the help of the Captain's alien technology. The teen can enhance Ego's abilities with a "telepathicontrol" helmet that uses a Z-Beam to tap into the boy's brain and connect to a particle that Ego also has… at this point my eyes glazed over. I understand that spacemen and rocket ships are supposed to be "science" but at some point, you might as well call it a "magic crown." The villain is a cliché of a man who looks exactly like Ming the Merciless from the classic Flash Gordon serials.

Side-by-side pictures of Ming the Merciless and Tigris — I don't know whether I'm impressed by his artistic skills or disappointed by his lack of imagination.

White's art is excellent; he could be drawing for any of the professional comics. However, his storytelling skills are mediocre. The plot is a semi-coherent mix of hackneyed storylines, and neither Ego nor Alter seems to have a personality beyond "be noble; fight evil." The core ideas are interesting (if you can swallow the "science") but the execution is weak.

A Hot Idea by Rick Strong, with art by White

This is a history of the Human Torch before the Fantastic Four: He began as a "synthetic man" in Marvel Comics #1, 1939. Originally, he could not control his flame powers; he had to be kept in an airtight glass cage for the safety of those around him. Once he learned some control, he dedicated himself to a life of heroism. I had not known the details of his pre-Fantastic Four history; he's been through some big changes!

One Man's Family: The Saga of the Mighty Marvels, by Roy Thomas, with art by White

This article is almost a quarter of the zine, obviously the spotlight feature. It covers the origin story of Billy Batson who becomes Captain Marvel when he calls out "Shazam!" and the origins of his friend Freddie Freeman (Captain Marvel Jr.) and his long-lost twin sister Mary Batson (Mary Marvel).

Fawcett Comics had found a successful superhero-generating origin in "someone says Shazam while wishing for super powers," so they kept using it. Three alternate versions of Billy Batson became the Squadron of Justice, or the "Lieutenants Marvel." Hoppy the Marvel Bunny was planned for the Funny Animals comic line. Uncle Marvel didn't actually have superpowers, but he believed he did, and the others humored him. Black Adam, the first of the wizard Shazam's protégés, was a hero who turned evil.

The Marvel family appeared in their own series and several other comics in the 40s. They had a few recurring villains, including the Sivana family of mad scientists and King Kull, a beastman who wanted to destroy all humans. The Marvels were also patriotic, fighting Nazis and later appearing in the Korean War. As Fawcett published more horror stories, the Marvels appeared there as well. Eventually, the stories and villains grew too hokey for even the tongue-in-cheek style of the "Big Red Cheese"—the nickname fans adopted from one of Dr. Sivana's insults—and readership dropped off.

Panel from Captain Marvel #17, in which Dr Sivana calls Captan Marvel a "big red cheese cake." — Was this a common insult in the 40s?

Sadly, Captain Marvel and his family have been out of print for over ten years. National Comics accused them of copyright infringement, claiming that Captain Marvel was too similar to Superman. The lawyers argued for years, and in 1953, Fawcett ceased publishing. The Marvels may never appear again. Children of the future may never know the joy of shouting "Shazam!" in the hope that a lightning bolt will grant them magical powers.

The Gilded Age of Comics, by Shel Silverfish

Three-page humorous illustrated history of the comics industry, complete with political cartoon. Charming and informative.

Cartoon of Barry Goldwater in a superhero outfit, with a woman telling him that they're not taking new superheroes until after November 4th. — It's an eagle! It's a rocket! It's… *Super Goldwater!*

The Tragic Monster, written and illustrated by E. Nelson Bridwell

This article draws on religious history and mythology to discuss various monsters who were the "superheroes" of their eras. It mentions Enkidu from the Epic of Gilgamesh, Pan, Hephaestus, and Polyphemus from Greek mythology, and Frankenstein's monster and Quasimodo. It mentions The Thing from the Fantastic Four but no other current comic-book superheroes. Still, it's a nice look into the concept that a hero doesn't need to be handsome, healthy, and friendly to do good.

Readers Write, by Otto (Eando) Binder, plus other letters

Normally, the Journey doesn't review or even mention letters columns, but this one includes a four-page letter from Otto Binder, the creator of the Marvel Family characters and author of many of their stories. He insists none of his characters or stories were "lifted" from Superman, and that quite the reverse occurred: several elements of CM stories appeared in later Superman comics. He's not making any accusations, just pointing out that, in an industry with very similar types of characters and stories, sometimes they'll accidentally match.

Batmania 1

This new fanzine, devoted entirely to the interests of Batman fans, is edited (and mostly written) by Biljo White, the main artist for Alter Ego. It is almost certainly not timed to release alongside Andy Warhol's new Batman/Dracula last month. (I only managed to watch part of it, but that was enough to realize that if there was a plot, I couldn't find it. This film is too avant garde for me. The music was nice, though.)

Editor's Notes

Batmania began because Biljo, a firefighter, drew some superheroes for the paperboy visiting the station, and the young boy didn't know who Batman was. He identified more well-known characters like Superman, the Lone Ranger, Tarzan, and Dick Tracy, but not the long out-of-print Captain Marvel, and not Biljo's favorite, Batman. Batmania, with its name used by permission of National Comics, is the result of that encounter.

The New Look, Biljo White and the Batmanians

The artists and the art style in Detective Comics have recently changed. The new artists are Carmine Infantino on pencils and Joe Giaella on ink, with John Broome as the author. Bob Kane and Bill Finger are not entirely gone, but are no longer doing the main stories. The Batmania article gives several fans' opinions of the new art, mostly arguing for or against Kane's pencil work compared to Infantino's. They mostly agree that the stories have improved.

Scene from Detective Comics 327 — How many escapes does a penthouse apartment normally have?

Profiles on Collectors: John Wright

This South African author of The Komix fanzine is long-time comic collector who loves Daredevil, Captain America, and The Black Hood. His story "The Black Panther" won Alter Ego's "Alley Award" for best fanzine fiction last year. He recently published his first mystery novel, Suddenly You're Dead, under the pseudonym Wade Wright. I like the spotlight-on-fans feature; it helps make a scattered community feel more connected.

Comic Oddities

Discrepancies and did-you-know details about comics: Alfred Pennyworth used to be portly; Whiz Comics never had a Vol. 1 No. 1. Some details are just random facts, but some are useful. Knowing that Robin makes an appearance in Lois Lane #6 can help a Batmanian track down all the issues about their favorite characters.

Pro Spot: Model T to T-Bird, by Russ Manning

This article is about a comic artist's career, which would be easier to follow if it MENTIONED HIS NAME. It's hard to read a long article that keeps referring to its topic indirectly. ("For those fans who haven't already guessed… a very dissolute-looking character is inscribing this artist's name on a tombstone in panel 1, page 9, of Johnny Mack Brown #3 (Jan-Mar 1951).") I had to track that down: the artist is Jesse Marsh. The comics are all westerns, a genre that does not interest me. It does discuss in great detail the changes in his art style and assignments.

The New-New Look, by Bill Ryan

A brief consideration of other art styles that mightv'e been chosen for the new Batman comics.

Three pictures of Batman in very different art styles — "He's best at crime fightin' 'cause he eats his vit'mins…"

Who Are the Batmanians?

The Batmanians are a fan club of people who want "a greater, more popular Batman." Joining is as simple as sending a letter explaining why you're interested; Batmania zines are free for Batman fans who pay for postage. It's 10 cents for a folded issue or 20 cents in a large envelope.

Metaphysical Miscellany

Superheroes aren't the only people interested in strange mental abilities and saving the planet from evil. However, the psychiatric and spiritual fields are working with smaller, less flashy evils: they fight imbalances of the mind and heart.

Psychedelic Review: Vol 1, No. 3, 1964

Unsurprisingly, Dr. Timothy Leary's journal about the effects of psychoactive drugs also hasn't kept to a strict quarterly schedule. It's keeping up with the calendar better than Alter Ego, but we can assume that Dr. Leary has better funding than the average comic-book fan. I reviewed the first issue, Summer of 1963, last October. The newest issue is a tribute to Aldous Huxley, who died last year on the same day as President Kennedy and C. S. Lewis. Huxley was a philosopher and prolific author who created the disturbing Brave New World.

Nature Retreat Therapy

The Esalen Institute in Big Sur, a foundation for expanded consciousness, has welcomed Fritz Perls, a noted German psychologist. Perls will be teaching his "gestalt therapy" methodology. People will be attending the Institute for its innovative approaches to the mental sciences and not just the famous hot springs.

Esalen Lodge in Big Sur — Esalen Institute

The Scholarly Druids

A short followup note about the Druids of Carleton College: the college has removed the chapel attendance requirement, but the Reformed Druids of North America continue to hold services. Two young men have recently been ordained into the Third Order; this allows them to lead services and initiate new members.

Druids meet on a hillside — A lovely way to hold religious services.

It seems that "weird news" is happening more often and in more places. There's a growing movement to explore not just outer space and the hidden areas of our world, but also our own connections to the world and to each other. Heinlein may have tapped into that in Stranger in a Strange Land; the realms of science and spirit are not as separate as we used to think. I love the evolving fusion of mental and physical sciences.

…I'll still be reading Batman and fanzines about him, though.

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Movies

[Aug. 7, 1964] Rematch! (Mothra vs. Godzilla)

August 7, 2019 Lorelei Marcus 2 Comments

by Lorelei Marcus

In June this year, 1964, my family and I took a three week vacation to the island nation of Japan. Though I have been many times before, this was the first time I felt changed as a person after coming home. Perhaps it was the fact that I was finally old enough to appreciate the world around me; or perhaps it was because we’d chosen to stay in a new place: Hiroshima was still under construction, but I could tell it was going to become a beautiful city, despite the air of tragedy. Regardless, I saw Japan in a new light, and it has brought me to see the world in a new light as well.

I also got to see Mothra vs Godzilla, and it was incredible.

"The Young Traveler at the Movies"

If you’re intrigued about our other experiences in Japan, you can check out my dad’s articles. Alright, now that all the travel gurus and those interested in philosophical debate about the effects of war and nuclear weapons are gone, let’s talk about giant monsters!

"Yess! Yeeeeessss!"

Mothra vs Godzilla is by far my favorite giant monster movie to date. It starts us on a scene of a great typhoon overtaking the Japanese coastline. The waves are crashing, the storm is raging, it is an epic way to open this movie.

"Actually, this is typical June weather in Japan."

In the next scene we meet our protagonists: The jaded, kind of a jerk male reporter, and his (gasp!) competent female journalist trainee that is there to be a character rather than a romantic interest?? Times are changing!

The reporters are at a small island to record the destruction from the typhoon, but surprise: A giant monster egg has washed onto shore due to the typhoon, and some money-grubber wants to buy it and turn it into a theme park attraction… Because that worked out so well with Mothra’s maidens three years prior (and Gorgo, too) [Ed.]).

But wait, Mothra does not attack Japan in retaliation for stealing her egg, because Godzilla beats her to it! Also washed up by the typhoon, Godzilla breaks free from the ground and starts destroying Japan, because why not?

"Phew, what did I have to drink last night?"

At this point my father pointed out that Godzilla doesn’t need to eat, he just destroys Japan because he feels like being a total jerk all the time. True to character, after knocking over Nagoya Tower and a lovely ancient castle, Godzilla decides to go after Mothra’s egg!

"I hope there’s candy inside…"

Will Mothra agree to help save Japan for the sake of its egg? Or will Godzilla get to the egg first and destroy the legacy of Mothra? I urge you to discover yourself, as I hear this film will be hitting American theaters soon! (Though for some reason they’ve changed the title to Godzilla vs The Thing even though American audiences are already familiar with Mothra. I will never understand marketers.)

"Wait, when did Mothra get tentacles??"

I’m not sure if Mothra being kept a secret is good or bad, because Mothra was by far the best part of the movie. Everytime she was on screen I was simultaneously enamored with her adorableness and awed by her formidable power. Immediately after watching the movie I began a search for a Mothra stuffed toy, which has sadly failed to bear fruit for the moment.

The special effects were particularly good this time. Some clever tricks with camera angles and filters conveyed the massive size of the monsters, not to mention the tiny size of the Mothra Maidens (shades of The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad).

"Don’t mind me, just here to destroy things."

"Mosura ya! Mosura…"

There were also pyrotechnics. The destruction was fun and exactly what I’d paid to see, but there was also a nice extra layer to the movie. This film had a nuance that no other giant monster has: the fights had strategy.

My father and I went into this movie wondering how Mothra would stand a chance against the seemingly invincible and range-weapon-equipped godzilla. Needless to say we were pleasantly surprised with how thought out the fight scenes were. Long gone were the days of Godzilla vs King Kong’s extreme rubber suit flailing. This was calculated, powerful, and epic monster warfare. The writing was so effective in fact, that after the movie my father and I proceeded to have a deep discussion about the monsters and their fighting tactics.

"You’re in timeout, mister!"

But of course, the monsters were only half the movie. The other half had to be carried by human actors furthering the plot. This end of the movie did not disappoint either. The cheesy overacting of Japan is something I’ve become familiar with over the years. It was refreshing to see the acting toned down a bit for this movie, though a little cheese never hurt a giant monster flick. Well, we probably could’ve done without the "natives" again, but other than that, it was perfect.

"You look exactly like the natives from Kong Island!"

All in all, Mothra vs Godzilla is the giant monster genre done right. A classic plot twisted just enough to make it feel reminiscent rather than overdone; a great cast with several strong female characters (especially if you include Mothra herself); equally interesting and memorable monster fights; stunning visuals with beautiful pops of color; and amazing special effects add up to the best monster movie I’ve ever seen. Mothra vs Godzilla does everything it came here to do and executes it beautifully. For that, I give it a legendary 5 out of 5 stars! Now, off to find a Mothra toy so it can fight my Godzilla figure.

This is the Young traveler, signing off.

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Science Fiction/Fantasy, TV

[August 5, 1964] A Bit Of A Flub (Doctor Who: The Sensorites [Part 2])

August 5, 2019 Jessica Holmes 3 Comments

By Jessica Holmes

So, where did we leave off last time we watched Doctor Who together? Let me check my notes. I can’t tell aliens apart, psychic powers are a bit rubbish, and Ian’s come down with a nasty case of Dramatic Cough of Doom Syndrome (or DCDS for short. It’s pronounced like the sound your typewriter makes when it gets jammed).

A RACE AGAINST DEATH

I hope Ian’s got his affairs in order.

With his life hanging in the balance, the Doctor and Susan go over everything they've done since arriving on the Sensesphere, and realise the only thing Ian did differently to them was drinking the local tap-water. Tsk, tsk. They do tell you in all the travel brochures not to do that.

Meanwhile, John’s having his brain fixed, and the city Administrator comes in to whine about it. He was the one who wanted to disintegrate everybody last episode, if you recall. He doesn’t seem to like anything about the humans. Not their names, which he reckons are absurd (cheek!), not their culture of egalitarianism (though I could dispute that), and not their stupid, ugly faces (pot, kettle!)

The conversation turns to Ian’s troubles with the water, and of course the Administrator doesn't believe that there's anything wrong with the water supply. No, Ian must be a great big faker.

John perks up a bit at this talk of the water, and goes off on his Goodness detector powers, yelling 'EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVIL' at the Administrator. Shockingly, nobody pays him any mind.

And then he conks out. Well, at least he tried.

Carol comes along and asks how John is. The Admin gets his knickers in a twist over this. How dare she assume he's a mere doctor when his collar of office CLEARLY marks him as the city Administrator! She apologises and says that without the collars and badges, the humans would be unable to tell the Sensorites apart.

Gee, I wonder what’s going to happen with that.

We rejoin the Doctor attempting to convince the First Elder to let him back onto the TARDIS so that he can make use of the facilities aboard to cure Ian. It’s not going terribly well. The First Elder tells the Doctor he can use the lab on the planet, or no lab at all, prompting the Doctor to decry him as a fool in such a way I think he started to turn into an owl mid-phrase.

His hoot of indignation doesn’t go down well with the Sensorites, who interpret it as an acoustic attack. Susan apologises and gently explains that they didn't mean to use sound as a weapon. She's doing a really good job as a mediator, what with her gentle nature and her psychic abilities.

So of course the Doctor just leaves her behind to nurse Ian and leaves to check out the lab.

The Sensorites say they've tested the water and found nothing, but the fact remains that the current death rate is three in every ten citizens. Last year it was two in ten. Well, sounds like it's on the rise, whatever's going on.

Eventually, the Doctor finds atropine poison in the water in certain districts. Why only some districts, and why is the poison not always present when tested for? That’s not clear right now.

With the poison identified, it’s a simple job working out the antidote. The Doctor orders that the first batch of the antidote be sent to the First Elder's quarters and given to Susan, who can then administer it to Ian.

Well, that was easy. All’s done and dusted, right?

Wrong.

The antidote never makes it to Ian. Instead, on their way to deliver the antidote, the courier is waylaid by the Second Elder…or so they think. The real Second Elder is actually tied up in the disintegrator room, missing his sash of office. Who’s parading it about? Who do you think?

While that’s going on, the Doctor travels to the entrance of the aqueduct. It gets even more mysterious when it turns out that for some reason, the Sensorites can't seem to light it up, so it's kept in perpetual darkness. Hence, they instinctively avoid it. This seems fishy.

The Doctor insists on going in, but the Sensorite scientist tries to dissuade him. There are monsters in there. They've heard them.

Monsters in the dark, you say? That’s only going to encourage him.

The scientist reports back, and Ian, though literally dying right now, insists that the Doctor needs help, and he tries to get up and go himself. See, this is why I love Ian. Poor bloke is at death's door, feeling like absolute rubbish, but he still steps up when he thinks a friend's in danger.

Ian and Susan arrive safely at the aqueduct, which is pretty impressive considering Ian’s been drifting in and out of consciousness for most of the episode.

Inside the aqueduct, however, things are amiss. There’s deadly nightshade growing all around!

Belladonna? On another planet?

Hold that thought. Something just roared off-camera.

KIDNAP

Ian and company find the Doctor unconscious, with his jacket torn to shreds. What on Earth (or rather, the Sensesphere) happened to him?

Oh, and apparently Susan went all the way back to the laboratory and got more antidote. That explains why Ian seems to be so much better. I was beginning to worry my grandpa might actually be right about the health benefits of a brisk walk in the fresh air.

John tries to warn Carol of the plotters threatening them. The doctor (no, not that one) treating him thinks it's impossible. It's just not in the Sensorites' nature. On the bright side, they’re getting closer to fixing his mind.

The Sensorite doctor explains that, in essence, the bit of John’s brain that controls fear is broken, leaving him afraid all the time. Poor John. I get how he feels.

The Administrator continues with his plotting, forcing the Second Elder to summon the Senior Warrior and tell him to bring the firing key for the disintegrator. Before the Administrator can put it in, however, the Second Elder snatches it. He's killed in the struggle, but not before breaking the key.

Will that stop the Administrator? Of course not. He turns the situation to his advantage immediately, and toddles off to tell the First Elder that his second is dead, and what’s more, his associate saw the whole thing, and has proof of what happened.

Who murdered the Second Elder? The Doctor, of course!

They produce the broken firing key as evidence. His minion claims that the Second Elder was carrying the firing key through the courtyard, where he was set upon by the Doctor, who took something from his jacket and struck the Second Elder dead with it.

To be clear, they’re talking about the jacket that was torn to shreds at the start of the episode.

So the charge immediately falls apart, the mook is arrested for bearing false witness, and most importantly we don't have to sit through some utterly tedious plot of proving the obvious. Thank heavens.

Now the Admin starts up a story accusing the poor dead Second Elder of everything he himself is guilty of, which everyone buys hook, line and sinker. For his loyal service, the First Elder rewards the Administrator with a promotion to Second Elder, for real this time. I’m still going to keep calling him the Admin, however, to avoid confusion. It’d be much more helpful if he was just called Kevin.

John, meanwhile, seems to be on the mend. Gosh, he's actually smiling. Wouldn’t it be nice if mental illness was so easily treated in real life? On the downside (because there has to be one, hasn’t there?), his memory of his time with a frazzled brain is quite fuzzy.

But on the upside, while examining the items left behind by the humans who came to the planet years ago, someone brings up the city Administrator, giving Susan a bright idea. She asks John what it was about the one particular Sensorite he tried to warn everyone about. Something different about his clothes? His…collar?

And the penny drops.

The Admin, meanwhile, has released his minion from prison, and has him tamper with some devices.

The Doctor and Ian report their findings, and announce their intentions to make another expedition into the aqueduct. The Doctor also asks that Barbara be brought down to the planet's surface. I don't know why she didn't come with them in the first place. I can only assume that her actress was unavailable for filming.

They're given weapons, but it's the ones that the Admin had his minion fiddle with. He also manages to get his hands on the plan of the aqueduct that the Doctor is going to be using, and has it altered. Not only will Ian and the Doctor get hopelessly lost, they won’t even be able to defend themselves from whatever they encounter down there.

The First Elder laments over the death of his original second, and realises that if the humans didn't kill him, it must have been a Sensorite. But who? And why?

Carol and John begin to wonder where the Doctor and Ian are. Carol decides to go and see where they're at. Now that John’s better, we can see how smitten he is with Carol. It’s written all over his face.

That’s a pity. He’s going to be so upset when Carol doesn’t come back from her investigation.

A DESPERATE VENTURE

Carol falls into the clutches of the Administrator, who forces her to write to John and tell him that she’s gone back to the ship.

Cut to John reading the letter and not being at all convinced. More importantly, however, Barbara’s back! I’m sure she’ll sort this all out. It can’t be a coincidence that this is the final episode of the serial.

The First Elder agrees the letter is dodgy, but still clings to his belief that no Sensorite would have nefarious intentions, prompting John to very nearly lose his temper with him. It doesn’t really matter what the First Elder believes or doesn’t believe. Carol’s in danger, but they have all the clues they need to find her. The ink on the letter is still wet, so they realise it was written very recently, so it must have been written inside the palace, and according to the First Elder, only one room of the palace would make a suitable hiding spot: the disintegrator room.

Back with Carol, the Admin’s accomplice is being a nasty little git and gloating at her, but who should pop up over his shoulder other than John!

Bear in mind, however, where they are. The accomplice has but to touch Carol with the disintegrator device and she’ll turn to dust. However, while the accomplice’s attention is focussed on John, Carol yanks out the power lead to the disintegrator.

I suppose the Administrator couldn’t find himself a more competent accomplice.

Along comes the First Elder to arrest the minion, and thankfully he’s not so naive as to think this traitor acted alone, as he discusses with our friend the Administrator in a delicious little bit of dramatic irony.

Luckily for the Administrator, his accomplice is a loyal servant who refuses to confess who he’s working with. Unluckily for the minion, the Administrator is perfectly happy to throw him under the bus.

With all this sordid business wrapped up (or so they think) Barbara asks for a map to the aqueduct, so that she can lead a rescue mission for the hapless blokes.

Barbara had better hurry, because Ian and the Doctor aren’t alone in the dark. However, this labyrinth of tunnels has no minotaur– it has a man! Perhaps not all of the first humans to come to the Sensesphere perished, after all.

Back at the palace, Barbara asks to use one of the mind transmitters so that she can communicate with Susan as she travels through the aqueduct. The First Elder is impressed that Susan can psychically communicate without the transmitter. She says she's always been able to read the Sensorites' minds, but only when they allowed her to.

I wonder if, now that we're comfortable with the main cast, the writers of Doctor Who are going to continue building the mystique of the Doctor and Susan. After all, this whole adventure started because they were mysterious, and because Ian and Barbara were nosy. Who knows what sort of things might start coming out about them, and what new questions might come up?

In a quiet moment as Barbara prepares to leave, Susan and the First Elder get time to talk about more personal matters. The First Elder can sense that Susan is torn between wanting to go home, and an insatiable wanderlust. Susan hasn’t seen her home planet in ages. The sky is a burnt orange at night, and the leaves on the trees are silver. It’s definitely an alien world. And a beautiful one, by the sounds of it. I hope we get to see it.

Ian and the Doctor continue blundering around the aqueduct, and soon run into more company, although the Doctor doesn't immediately realise it, because he's too busy enjoying the sound of his own voice.

Barbara arrives at the entrance to the aqueduct, and takes the opportunity to test out her long-distance communication with Susan. It works, but Susan asks that she say her words aloud as she thinks them. It makes it clearer for her, she says. Cheers, Susan. It’s a lot clearer for me, too. I don’t understand the language of slide-whistles, or whatever they’re using to make the psychic sound effect.

Oh, we've got yet another human living in the aqueduct. It would appear that Ian and the Doctor have stumbled upon the three humans who were presumed to have perished in the spaceship explosion. This last human is known as the Commander, but he doesn’t look like one. He’s certainly not any cleaner than the others, to say nothing of his posture.

It seems these chaps are the culprits in the whole matter of the poisoned water supply, poisoning the supply to random sections of the city at random times using a logic only they can follow. For some reason, they think they're at war with the Sensorites.

Hold on a moment. They’re performing chemical warfare on a civilian population with the intent of destroying said population. I suppose we don’t have the Geneva Convention in the future?

The Doctor and Ian lie that the war is won and the planet is theirs. Unfortunately, the Commander gets quite defensive when Ian mentions the richness of the planet’s resources, fearing that he might get cheated out of his spoils. It looks like things might get quite nasty, and then to add the cherry on top, Barbara turns up with John. It takes some quick talking and faster thinking from the Doctor to get them all out of this mire and out of the aqueduct, where the Sensorites are waiting to take the ragged humans into custody.

With everyone safely back at the palace, the First Elder sadly laments that their minds must have been broken from all the exposure to the Sensorites’ psychic signals, so they were left playing their little game of war, and the innocent Sensorites of the city ended up paying the price.

And what of the Administrator? The discovery of the tampered map has revealed the Admin's treachery, so he's been banished.

Sadly we don't actually get to see the scene of all his schemes coming crashing down, some satisfying confrontation where everyone reveals themselves to be alive and produces evidence of his duplicity, and he's left with nothing to say before being booted out in disgrace.

I’d give bonus points if he got zapped with the disintegrator weapon which appears to be little more than a jammed Chekhov’s Gun.

Back in the TARDIS, Susan laments that because of the high-frequency signals on the Sensesphere (whatever that's supposed to mean), her latent psychic abilities won't really work anywhere else. Still, she clearly has potential in that area, so the Doctor promises her that they'll see if they can refine her abilities back at home.

Home? Could we perhaps get to see the Doctor and Susan’s homeworld?

It’ll be a wonder if he ever manages to find it with his navigational skills, but I wouldn’t say that to his face.

Not going by his reaction when Ian makes a good-natured quip that at least the human astronauts know where they’re going. He declares he’s going to put Ian off the TARDIS. I’ll believe it when I see it.

Touched a nerve, eh, Doc?

Final Thoughts

Here we are, at the end of another serial. I think the first half of this serial was the stronger, as the exploration of the mental effects of telepathy was more interesting there, but in the second half, the Sensorites just stick John in a machine to fix his brain and that’s that.

Also, I know the earlier humans had been mentioned before the reveal, and that the Sensorites weren’t sure what had happened to them, but I liked my own personal theory on what was happening with the poison better than the actual explanation.

A bunch of humans running around in the aqueduct like Gollum, fighting an imaginary war against the tricksy Sensoriteses? It’s not that it doesn’t make sense. It does, it makes perfect sense. It’s also just not terribly interesting.

Now, consider this: what if this had turned out to be the Administrator’s doing?

Nothing seemed to really be made of the fact that there’s a caste system in this society. Sure, we have the word of the elders that everyone’s happy in their place, but I’m sure that’s been the majority opinion of the ruling class in every heavily stratified society ever. It would not have surprised me one bit if it had turned out that the Administrator was targeting certain sections of the city in order to keep the hierarchy in place. Dark, yes, but thematically fitting.

Frankly, the ending was a bit naff. The humans in the aqueduct are introduced and dealt with too quickly for it to feel at all satisfying. There was justice for the Administrator, but I like to actually see events happen on-screen rather than just be told about them.

One more comment before I start saying nice things:

There are quite a few obvious line flubs in this serial. Did they genuinely run out of budget to reshoot, or at least over-dub?

Okay, now I’ll be nice.

As I said before, I liked the first half better than the second, but that was a really solid first half. I also got quite attached to the minor characters, which I don’t often. Especially John.

Though some opportunities were missed, there was some intelligent writing in this serial, with real consideration being given to the negative effects of mind-reading. It could be a public service announcement from the future against the perils of careless telepathy. And, as I believe I mentioned in my last review, I liked the bit of (intentional or not) societal commentary in how the astronauts treated John before he got treatment for his affliction.

It was also exciting to learn a little bit about where the Doctor and Susan come from, and I’m eager to learn more, hopefully sooner rather than later. Not too soon, though. That’d take all the fun out of speculation. Maybe they’re from a future Mars colony? They do look human, after all, and are from, as Susan put it: “…Another time, another world.”

This was an enjoyable enough serial, but I don’t think I'd have any particular urge to watch it again (if it is ever rerun). Still, I’ll be happy to watch more offerings from Peter R. Newman in future.

Until next time, then!

3 out of 5 stars

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Book, Magazine

[August 3, 1964] Running hot and cold (August 1964 Analog)

August 3, 2019 Gideon Marcus 3 Comments

by Gideon Marcus

Summertime, but the livin' ain't easy

Summer is supposed to be the slow season, a time for relaxing away from school, hitting the beach, and soaking up the Sun. Or sitting in the shade:

But as temperatures have risen, so have tempers. On the heels of a landmark de jure victory in racial progress with the passing of the Civil Rights Act, the de facto conditions of segregation and discrimination still obtain across the nation.

And so, sparked by decades of frustration and the still-distant prospect of true equality, riots have broken out in several of America's premier cities. Some started as peaceful demonstrations, like the recent turmoil in New York City, sparked by the police shooting of 15-year-old student, James Powell.

Others needed just the tiniest of sparks, like the aimless violence that inflamed Rochester, New York last week.

These outbreaks began soon after Barry Goldwater, arch-conservative Senator from Arizona, was nominated as the GOP candidate for President at the Cow Palace convention in San Francisco. Goldwater's position on civil rights compares starkly to the President Johnson's record, and there is justifiable fear that, should the Senator win the election, all recent progress could halt or even reverse.

To that end, the heads of the six major Black American organizations agreed last week that they would deprioritize civil rights demonstrations in favor of efforts to defeat Goldwater in November. Whether this will damp the wave of rioting is an open question.

Interestingly, Johnson and Goldwater made a related pledge: neither will make civil rights a major talking point of the election.

A Tepid Analog

But where the news is hot, Analog, the old warhorse of science fiction magazines, remains stubbornly lukewarm. The United States struggles to make its way to the future; Analog is content to stick with the styles of the past. This month's issue is no exception.

by John Schoenherr

How to Make a Robot Speak, by Dwight Wayne Batteau

The opening non-fiction piece is on engineering efforts to mechanically reproduce human speech. Or perhaps to control robots through voice commands. Or dolphins. I really couldn't tell you — this article is more impenetrable than last year's matzah.

One star.

Genus Traitor, by Mack Reynolds

by John Schoenherr

A hundred years from now, Benjamin Fullbright, member of the first expedition to the Red Planet, stands trial before a world court. His crime: giving the Martians the secret of interplanetary travel and laying the Earth bare to invasion. But is the sole other survivor of the trip, Commodore Raul Murillo, telling the whole story of their trip? And are the Martians really the bug-eyed aliens everyone thinks they are?

The latest from Mack Reynolds is reasonably engaging and often exciting, but definitely not at the high end of what the author can produce.

Three stars.

Satisfaction, by Damon Knight

I was surprised to see Knight's by-line here; his work tends to be more on the thoughtful,"softer" side of SF (though his awful The Tree of Time was straight pulp…and it appeared in F&SF of all places!) Satisfaction shows the lack of ambition that could become endemic should humanity get a hold of Artificial Reality technology, allowing them to live out their fantasies within a computerized simulation.

Knight does a decent job of conveying the lassitude of an addict, but his story doesn't go anywhere beyond that.

Three stars.

Inter-Disciplinary Conference, by Philip R. Geffe

by John Schoenherr

If the name of Philip R. Geffe is familiar to you, you're either an engineer with an interest in electric filters (he literally wrote the book on the subject last year) or an amateur chess player. Geffe's first science fiction story likely covers ground that is familiar to the author — an interdisciplinary conference at which scientists from several different fields fail to put the pieces of their research together to reach an externally obvious conclusion.

It's cute. Three stars.

Sleeping Planet (Part 2 of 3), by William R. Burkett, Jr.

by Kelly Freas

When last we left this serial, the Llralan Empire had captured the Solar System of the 25th Century without a shot, its inhabitants having been rendered unconscious with a genetically tailored sleeping dust. Now the "Larries" are holding half of the human race hostage as leverage in surrender negotiations with the Terran Federation.

The only fly in the ointment is James Rierson, an attorney and weekend hunter who is one of the nine souls who proved immune to the dust. He has embarked on a one-man insurgency, which has been aided by the belief (spurred on by similarly immune truck driver Bradford Donovan) that Rierson is actually an avenging ancestor spirit with supernatural powers. The added wrinkle in this installment is the army of sentient but subservient robots, also unaffected by the dust, who offer their services to Rierson. It's a development that was not telegraphed earlier, and it comes out of nowhere.

The problem with Burkett's story is he can't decide if he's writing a farce or a serious SF book. It comes off as too gritty for the former and too silly for the latter. Still, it is readable.

Three stars.

Thermal Gradients

"It's readable" summarizes this latest issue of Analog, which is better than can be said for many of the mags this month. Celle Lalli's (née Goldsmith) Fantastic and Amazing fared the worst, garnering abysmal 1.8 and 2.1 star ratings. The once-proud F&SF got a lousy 2.3, and I hear it through the grapevine that its editor, Avram Davidson, is looking to leave his job. On the positive side are Fred Pohl's digests, IF and Galaxy, both of which scored a solid 3.4, and which had the best individual stories, too.

For those keeping count, there were five women authors out of 34. 15% is actually a good month for that measurement.

So that's that for last month. Next month, there's a new Lord D'arcy story. God help me, I'm actually looking forward to Randall Garrett.,

And that's a hot one!

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Science / Space Race

[August 1, 1964] On Target (The Successful Flight of Ranger 7)

August 1, 2019 Gideon Marcus 4 Comments

With the recent American lunar triumph, it is appropriate to take a look back at the long road that winds from Sputnik and ends in Oceanus Procellarum…

by Gideon Marcus

Shooting the Moon

It all began with a dream.

The Moon has captured our imaginations since we were first definably human. Some two thousand years ago, the Greeks learned that the Moon was our closest celestial companion; it took another 1800 years for Galileo to determine that it was a spherical body, not unlike the Earth.

It is no surprise that this discovery spawned some of our earliest science fiction stories: Godwins's The Man in the Moone, Verne's From the Earth to the Moon, Wells' recently cinemized The First Men in the Moon.

With the launch of Sputnik, the heavens were broken open, and science fiction could be made fact. Indeed, just after the Soviets launched their first satellite, the engineers at Ramo-Wooldrige's (now TRW) Space Technology Laboratories, made plans to build their own Moon rocket out of boosters already in existence, mating the Thor missile they had developed with the Vanguard rocket's second and third stages. With luck, they would have probe around the Moon less than a year after the inauguration of the Space Age.

It was an ambitious plan. Too ambitious. The first of the so-called Pioneers blew up on the launch pad. The next, Pioneer 1, made it halfway to the Moon before, like Icarus, falling back to Earth. Pioneer 2 barely limped out of the Earth's atmosphere before burning up.

So ended the first American Moon program. Enter Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

Situated across the San Fernando Valley from its rival, JPL was working with Von Braun's Jupiter rocket, the same one that had launched America's first satellite, Explorer 1. Unfortunately, JPL's first attempt, Pioneer 3, also faltered on the way.

And then came the Soviets' turn.

Red Moon

1959 began with a Dream, a Russian Dream. On January 3, Mechta ("dream") sailed off toward and past the Moon, the first human-made object to become a satellite of the Sun. The American success of Pioneer 4, two months later, was subsequently eclipsed when the second Mechta impacted the Moon in September, depositing Soviet medals upon Earth's companion — the first interplanetary delivery.

Capping off this lunar tour de force was the Soviet follow-up, called Luna 3, Lunik 3, and Mechta 3. Not only did this probe sail around the Moon, but it took pictures. These missions were not just engineering and prestige shots, they were returning valuable information about the Moon. It had no magnetic field, for instance. The never-before seen Far Side was curiously devoid of the "seas" that mottle its Earth-facing surface.

We had to know more.

Local Space Race

With JPL batting .500 with its Pioneers, STL decided it needed to do better than its .000 average (though, to be fair, the flight of Pioneer 1 was a triumph for its time). Mating the Vanguard stages of its prior Pioneer rocket to the beefy Atlas ICBM, the boys from Redondo Beach were sure they could launch the first bonafide lunar observatory into orbit around the Moon.

It didn't work. 1959-60 saw four failed attempts, all botched because the bleeding-edge Atlas wasn't yet up to the task (and how reassuring that must have been to the Mercury astronauts who had to ride the thing in a couple of years!)

One team's failure is another's opportunity. While the second STL lunar endeavor was ending in tears, JPL was already hard at work on its own second-generation Moon project: Ranger.

Ranger was actually two programs in one. This reflected the tension between the engineers, who wanted a craft that could make it the Moon and return information about its surface (of immediate use to a crewed lunar program), and the scientists, who wanted not only to learn about the Moon, but the space between it and the Earth.

The first two Rangers weren't even built to go to the Moon. Planned to be launched into high orbits on a combination of the Atlas and a powerful second stage called the Vega (this civilian stage later substituted with the military's Agena), Rangers 1 and 2 would measure magnetic fields and the solar wind.

Would, but never did. Ranger 1 and Ranger 2 both were stranded in useless low orbits due to booster malfunctions (plus ça change). On the other hand, the satellites themselves were sound, and a modified Block 1 Ranger became the highly successful Venus probe, Mariner 2, in 1962.

Never mind them. Rangers 3-5 were the real lunar probes, even including giant balsawood pimples on the end, which housed seismometers that could survive impact with the Moon. It was more important than ever that we know what the lunar surface was like now that President Kennedy had announced that we would, as a nation, put a man on the Moon and bring him safely back to Earth before the decade was out.

Easier said than done. Ranger 3, launched in January 1962, missed the Moon. Moreover, it sailed past while facing the wrong way. The probe took no useful pictures, and a failure of the onboard computer prevented the acquisition of sky science data.

The identical Ranger 4 was both more and less successful. From a launch and trajectory perspective, it was perfect: On April 26, 1962, Ranger 4 became the first American probe to hit the Moon. Unfortunately, it was an inert frame of metal by that time; NASA might as well have shot a cannonball. In fact, the probe never worked, the first Ranger not to function at all in space.

Still, the mission was heralded (rightfully) as a partial success. Surely Ranger 5, last in the Block 2 series, would be a win.

No dice. Ranger 5, launched in October 1962, lost internal power shortly after take-off and sailed silently past the Moon two days later.

Sharper Focus

For those keeping count, the Americans were now 1 for 14 in the Moon Race, a record even worse than that of last year's San Francisco 49ers. As 1962 drew to a close, JPL undertook an internal audit and came to the following conclusions:

JPL's management structure was unsuited to big, complicated projects like Ranger
Ranger was too complicated, too dependent on every system working perfectly
The general scientific objectives conflicted with the specific, Apollo-supporting objectives

The result was a beefed up management staff that would focus primarily on Ranger until the probe worked. And a newer, leaner Ranger.

Ranger, Block 3, had one job. It would crash into the Moon, taking TV pictures all the way down. No other science experiments. Up came the hue and cry from scientists, but the decision was made. As it was, it would take at least another year to develop and launch Ranger 6. It had to work.

It didn't.

Ranger 6 had a textbook launch on January 30, 1964. Shortly after the probe reached space, its TV system inexplicably turned itself on and off, but otherwise, all was well. Indeed, Ranger 6 cruised through its mid-flight course correction burn like a dream, pointed straight and true for the Moon's Sea of Tranquility. JPL Director William Pickering felt confident enough to declare, "I am cautiously optimistic."

But when it came time for Ranger 6 to do its job, to take TV pictures of the Moon, it stubbornly refused. The probe impacted the lunar surface without returning a single shot.

Uproar. Six failures in a row. There was serious Congressional talk of shutting down the Ranger program altogether. On the other hand, the mission had been almost entirely successful. There was every reason to believe (or at least hope) that improved check-out procedures on the next, already built, Ranger 7, would lead to a completely successful mission. After a NASA investigation and a Congressional inquiry, JPL was given one more chance.

Dream into Reality

Opportunities for lunar missions come once a month, when the Moon is situated such that the least energy is required for a rocket from Earth to reach it. The latest such apparition started on July 27, the opening of the lunar "window." Ranger 7's powerful Atlas-Agena rocket, now the most reliable part of the mission infrastructure, stood ready on the launchpad. The countdown was steady, until, just 51 minutes before the scheduled launch, a faulty telemetry battery had to be replaced. It was, and the countdown resumed…but the a fatal flaw in a ground guidance component meant that the launch had to be scrubbed.

But only for a day. On July 28, the countdown proceeded smoothly, and at 9:50am PDT, Ranger 7 was sent into orbit. The onboard TV system appeared to be working normally, and half an hour later, the Agena engine fired once more, propelling the spacecraft toward the Moon.

So accurate was this burn that Ranger 7 didn't need a mid-course correction to hit the Moon. However, the path it was to take would carry it to the lunar Far Side, which would make the transmission of TV pictures impossible. A day after launch, a short engine burn aimed the probe directly for its destination: The Sea of Clouds.

In the early morning on July 31, 1964, reporters and cameramen once again filed into JPL's von Karman Auditorium for Ranger 7's final descent. Just six months ago, Ranger 6 had been so disappointing that Walter Downhower, the Chief of the System Design Section who had been the voice over the auditorium speakers that day, refused to ever do that job again.

This time, JPL's George Nichols was the voice of Ranger as it zoomed toward the Moon at 5000 miles per hour. At 3:07am PDT (yes, I stayed up, too), Nichols was able to announce that Ranger's television system and its six cameras were working properly. Three minutes later, the first images taken from the vicinity of the Moon began to pour in as a stream of ones and zeroes on a telemetry stream. Five minutes went by. Still going. Ten minutes. Then, at 6:25 PDT, the hum of Ranger's telemetry abruptly cut off.

But this was a planned cessation — Ranger had hit the Moon!

Where we Stand

In all, some 4,316 pictures were taken of the Moon, all of higher resolution than is possible from Earthbound telescopes. JPL identified dozens of new craters, never before seen. One cluster was probably made by rocks thrown into the sky when the giant impact crater, Copernicus, was formed ages ago, two hundred miles away from where Ranger 7 crashed. More importantly, NASA has gotten its first close-up look of the lunar surface; JPL scientists have identified favorable and treacherous landscapes for the upcoming Apollo missions to land on.

There will be at least two more Block III Ranger flights aimed at other parts of the Moon. Plans to continue the series through to #14 are in doubt given that the upcoming Lunar Orbiter project (managed by Langley Research Center in Virginia) may already be flying by the time the later Rangers are ready.

And what about the Soviets? What happened to the madcap competitive days of 1958-9?

As it turns, out, the USSR has had just one lunar probe since then: Luna 4. Launched during the gloomiest days of Ranger, on April 2, 1963, it was highly touted by Soviet news services. Three days later, as the craft approached the Moon, TASS and Izvestia reported that a bonanza of science would be forthcoming.

Then…nothing. The probe sailed past the Moon with hardly any coverage. A couple of conferences scheduled for the discussion of Luna 4's results were quietly canceled. Per the British astronomer, Sir Bernard Lovell, the craft actually failed in its mission to enter lunar orbit.

This brings up the interesting possibility that the Soviets have launched other Moon missions and that none of them have been successful enough to be publicly announced. That would explain some of the Kosmos flights about which the Russians have been so terse in their reporting. It may well be that the Soviet Union is finding the Moon as tough a target as the Americans were.

The bottom line, then, is this: After five years of diligent effort (presumably by both of the planet's Superpowers), the Americans have emerged the victors in this second stage of the Moon race.

Who will win the third?

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Book, Science Fiction/Fantasy

[July 30, 1964] Are You For Real? (Simulacron-3 AKA Counterfeit World by Daniel F. Galouye)

July 30, 2019 Victoria Silverwolf 6 Comments

by Victoria Silverwolf

Life is But a Dream

I dreamed I was a butterfly, flitting around in the sky; then I awoke. Now I wonder: Am I a man who dreamt of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming that I am a man?

— Zhuangzi, Chinese philosopher, 4th century BC

Science fiction writers have often pondered the nature of reality, and speculated about the ways in which appearances can be deceiving. Among the many stories making use of this theme, a few stand out as particularly thoughtful explorations of the real and the illusory.

Phillips didn't make the cover.

First published in Astounding half a dozen years ago, The Yellow Pill by Rog Phillips presents two characters with contradictory views of reality. Each believes the other to be hallucinating. The drug mentioned in the title changes their view of things, and it's up to the reader to decide who is right, if either. The story obviously had a strong impact on readers, as it has already been reprinted in anthologies in the USA and the UK, as well as being adapted into an episode of the British television series Out of This World.

Pohl did.

A few years earlier, Frederik Pohl tackled a similar idea in his story The Tunnel Under the World. The inhabitants of a small town live the same nightmarish day over and over again. It turns out that neither the community nor its inhabitants are what they seem to be. This powerful tale of deception and manipulation of reality must have struck a chord, as it was quickly adapted into an episode of the radio series X Minus 1.

Note that this was published not as science fiction, but as a novel of menace.

Philip K. Dick's novel Time Out of Joint explores related concepts in a surrealistic way. The protagonist thinks he lives in a typical American suburb in 1959, the year the book was published. The reader soon discovers that something is odd about this version of our mundane world, such as the fact that nobody has ever heard of Marilyn Monroe. Things get really bizarre when a soft-drink stand disappears, replaced with a small slip of paper bearing the words SOFT-DRINK STAND. Further weird breakdowns of a simulated reality lead the hero to discover the truth about the world and himself.

Bits and pieces of all three of these works came to mind as I read the latest novel from an author whose previous books won a great deal of praise from the Galactic Journeyers.

The Visionary From the Big Easy

The author at the time he started publishing science fiction.

Born in New Orleans, Daniel Francis Galouye served in the US Navy during World War Two, returning to work as a journalist. Fortunately for SF fans, he doesn't limit his writing to reportage. Ever since 1952, he's appeared frequently in the genre magazines. It took him a while to make the leap into novels, but when he took the jump he did so with a splash.

Galouye's first book-length work, Dark Universe, made a big hit with our host, as well as with Hugo voters. It nearly took the prize, bested only by the unstoppable juggernaut of Robert A. Heinlein's controversial novel Stranger in a Strange Land, which was not so popular around here.

Although it was not nominated for a Hugo, Galouye's second novel, Lords of the Psychon, won plaudits from a Galactic Journeyer. Will he continue this lucky streak with his newest effort? Let's take a look and find out.

Planet of the Pollsters

The American edition, with anonymous cover art.

The British edition, with no cover art.

Simulacron-3, known in the United Kingdom as Counterfeit World, takes place in the middle of the 21st century. It's a technologically advanced place, with flying cars, moving pedestrian sidewalks, and many other wonders familiar to readers of futuristic fiction. The most noticeable change in society is that opinion polls dominate commercial and political life. One-quarter of all employees are engaged in this line of work, and answering their questions is mandatory. So far we have a satiric portrait of the business world, similar to the sort of thing Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth offered in their novel The Space Merchants, but Galouye has something else in mind.

Leaving the Party Too Soon

The narrator, Douglas Hall, works for business tycoon Horace P. Siskin, as a computer expert for Reactions, Incorporated (REIN). Like so many other companies in this future, REIN studies consumer reactions in order to determine which products will sell. The book begins with Douglas attending a party at Horace's fabulous mansion. He is about to take control of the Simulacron-3 project from the recently deceased Hannon Fuller, killed in what seems to be a freak accident.

Simulacron-3 is a computer-simulated community, inhabited by artificial people who interact with each other and their environment as if they were real. By studying their reactions to various situations, it is possible to determine how living persons would behave under the same circumstances. This threatens to eliminate the need for pollsters, putting them all out of work.

Morton Lynch, the security chief for REIN, shows up in an agitated state. He claims that Hannon discovered something of critical importance that led to his demise. Not much later, he simply vanishes into thin air. Douglas reports the disappearance, but nobody else even remembers that Morton ever existed. Because Douglas suffers from occasional blackouts, he begins to doubt his own sanity.

It Takes All the Running You Can Do to Stay in the Same Place

With the help of Hannon's adult daughter Jinx, Douglas searches through her father's papers. They find a drawing of an ancient Greek warrior and a tortoise. This is, of course, a reference to the famous Zeno paradox, in which Achilles can never catch up to the slow-moving animal. The relevance of the sketch is obscure, but it seems to be a vital clue to Hannon's secret. Whatever it may mean, it disappears quickly, and Jinx denies that she ever saw such a thing.

Tensions mount between REIN and the powerful pollsters organization, leading to mass demonstrations and the possibility of a violent attack on the company. As if Douglas didn't have enough problems, Siskin plans to use Simulacron-3 to predict voting behavior, in order to make himself the leader of a one-party state. Add to this the fact that Douglas narrowly escapes being killed, by a flying car and then a bomb, and our hero is in plenty of hot water. Complicating matters is the presence of Dorothy Ford, Siskin's personal secretary/mistress, who uses her seductive wiles to keep a close eye on Douglas in order to make sure he doesn't spill the beans about her employer's political ambitions. There's also the possibility that the police suspect Douglas murdered Hannon. The guy just can't catch a break!

I've mentioned a lot of characters, but I've also left out quite a few. The story involves a lot of plots and counterplots, with the narrator never quite sure who's working for him and who's working against him. Up to now we have a science fiction suspense story, with a whodunit aspect, but things are about to get a lot different.

Stop! Read No Further If You Don't Want to Learn the Big Secret!

Almost exactly halfway through the book, Galouye throws in a major plot twist. Astute readers may anticipate the revelation that follows, but others may not.

Are you sure you want to find out? Last chance to turn back. OK, here we go.

Douglas finds out that his entire world is a computer simulation, and that he himself is no more than an artificial human being living inside it. The rest of the novel deals with his effort to escape into the real world, while avoiding the efforts of the unseen, unknown, god-like person running the simulation to eliminate him.

It's Safe to Read Again

Simulacron-3 (or, if you prefer, Counterfeit World) is a fascinating, cleverly plotted novel, full of intriguing concepts and plenty of fast-paced action. If some parts are melodramatic, and if other aspects seem implausible, those are minor flaws compared to the intriguing theme. I suspect it will earn more praise for the author, and I wouldn't be too surprised if somebody adapts it into a movie someday; maybe even more than once!

Four stars.

Until next time, try to keep a grip on what's real!

An advertisement for a drug invented a few years ago.

6 Comments Leave A Comment

Fashion, music, politics, sports

[July 28, 1964] Beatlemania Arrives Down Under!

July 28, 2019 Kaye Dee 1 Comment

by Kaye Dee

I was so excited last month to talk about the first Blue Streak test launch that I completely forgot to mention another huge event occurring in Australia in June — the first tour Down Under by The Beatles! Yes, the Fab Four made a whirlwind visit to Australia and New Zealand last month and Beatlemania took the country by storm. Mr. Kenn Brodziak, the local promoter, made a lucky investment when he booked The Beatles last July to tour here, because they weren’t anywhere near as famous then as they are now. The newspapers are even saying that this tour has been the most successful event in Australian show business history.

The Beatles, arriving in Adelaide

The band arrived in Australia from Hong Kong on 11 June. An unscheduled touchdown in Darwin in the early hours of the morning was a taste of things to come, with 400 fans and journalists turning out to greet them. Unfortunately, when their plane arrived in Sydney it was bitterly cold and pouring rain (remember, it’s winter right now in this part of the world): in fact, the rain was so heavy that I could not even get out the door to go to the university — I’d have been soaked to the skin before I got to the bus stop! Oddly enough, there hasn’t been a drop of rain since and the long-range weather forecaster Mr. Lennox Walker is now predicting a drought over the next year.

To tell the truth, I didn’t mind being stuck at home because of the downpour, since it meant that Faye and I could watch the live broadcast of The Beatles arrival at Kingsford Smith Airport. There is no morning television in Australia, but both Channel 9 and Channel 7, our two commercial stations, had outside broadcast vans at the airport to provide a direct telecast. The pictures were even relayed live to Melbourne via the new co-axial cable. It shows how much everyone wants to see this amazing pop group that has taken the world by storm! There were thousands of fans at Sydney airport, braving the awful weather to catch a glimpse of the Fab Four as they struggled with umbrellas in the driving wind and rain.

The Fab Three and Jimmie Nichols braving the rain in Sydney

I say the Fab Four, but when the band arrived in Sydney, it was actually the Fab Three and a ring-in. Ringo Starr had been hospitalised with tonsillitis and pharyngitis before the start of the tour and his place was being taken by British drummer Jimmie Nicol. Ringo wasn’t able to join the tour until their first concert in Melbourne on 16 June.

The Beatles with Jimmie Nichols

The Beatles travelled to Adelaide on a chartered plane for their first concert and when they arrived, more than 250,000 people lined the route between Adelaide Airport and the city. According to my WRE friends, this huge turnout was a ‘thank you’ to recognise that the promoter had added Adelaide to the tour schedule in response to a petition signed by 80,000 fans. I’ve read that this is the largest crowd to turn out for the Beatles so far, anywhere in the world! There’s certainly been nothing like it in Australia before: I even heard a commentator on the radio say that the eruption of Beatlemania in Australia has been more intense than anywhere else in the world so far! Mind you, not everyone has welcomed the Beatles so enthusiastically. In Brisbane, where their plane arrived at midnight to be greeted by 8,000 fans, a handful of anti-Beatles protesters threw eggs at the boys, which I think was a pretty stupid gesture.

There's Jimmie Nichol again

The Beatles played 20 shows in Australia — in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane and everywhere they were greeted by enormous crowds of screaming fans. There were a lot of reports in the press about ‘hundreds’ of fans in Adelaide and Melbourne being injured in the crowds, although Mr. Brian Epstein, The Beatles’ manager said in response to a question at the Canberra Press Club that he believes these reports to be greatly exaggerated. The police took them seriously in Sydney, though, and more than 600 officers of the Special B Squad were on duty around their concerts and other appearances in the city, to prevent major disturbances.

Faye and I managed to get tickets to one of the Sydney concerts (yes, I admit we’re fans, even if we might be a little bit older and less-inclined to scream than most of the audience). The tickets cost us 37 shillings ($3.70) each, which certainly wasn’t cheap, but it was well worth it to see the Fab Four performing live. It was just as well that we could see them, because I’ve got to say that we could hardly hear them over the screaming of the young fans. It was even more hysterical than at the Frank Sinatra concert I went to in Sydney in 1961!

Screaming fans in Sydney

The concert itself was really entertaining. The first half of the show consisted of four Australian support acts, including Johnny Devlin (something of a favourite of mine) and Johnny Chester, who are well-known Australian singers. The local acts performed for about 45 minutes, then, after the interval, The Beatles came on for the second half of the concert. In half an hour, they gave us 10 songs from their first two albums, as well as Can’t Buy Me Love from their ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ album, which has just been released in Australia this month. Of course, I would have loved them to perform more songs, but, as they did two shows every night (one at 6pm and the second at 8:30pm), there wasn’t time for any more. I’m told that the concerts had the same format in each city and it must have been incredibly exhausting for all the performers.

On stage at Sydney

On 18 June, while The Beatles were in Sydney, Paul McCartney celebrated his 22nd birthday, with a party thrown by the Daily Mirror newspaper. After the Sydney concerts, the Beatles made an eight-day tour of New Zealand, where they performed 12 concerts in four cities. 10,000 fans saw them off from the airport in Sydney. There was an article in the newspaper saying that Johnny Devlin actually helped to solve major sound problems at the concerts in Wellington, which had annoyed John Lennon so much that he threatened to cancel the remainder of the tour. Fortunately that didn’t happen and the Fab Four were back in Australia at the end of June for their final concerts in Brisbane.

The Beatles, off to New Zealand

The Beatles tour has been a major event in Australia, with more media coverage than just about anything apart from a Royal Tour! I suspect that it’s going to have a big impact on music and teenage culture in this country. I also suspect that these talented young men from Britain are destined to go on to achieve great things in the world of music and entertainment.

[Come join us at Portal 55, Galactic Journey's real-time lounge! Talk about your favorite SFF, chat with the Traveler and co., relax, sit a spell…]

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Yearly Archives: 2019

[August 15, 1964] What are you thinking? (The Whole Man aka Telepathist by John Brunner; The Universe Against Her, by James H. Schmitz)

The Universe Against Her, by James H. Schmitz

[August 13, 1964] Plus ça change (September 1964 Amazing)

[August 11, 1964] Leigh Brackett Times Two: The Secret of Sinharat and People of the Talisman (Ace Double M-101)

[August 9, 1964] Heroic Considerations (Fall 1964 Alter Ego, July 1964 Batmania)

Alter Ego 7

And That Was the End of Solomon Grundy? by Richard Kyle

Alter & Captain Ego, written and illustrated by Biljo White

A Hot Idea by Rick Strong, with art by White

One Man's Family: The Saga of the Mighty Marvels, by Roy Thomas, with art by White

The Gilded Age of Comics, by Shel Silverfish

The Tragic Monster, written and illustrated by E. Nelson Bridwell

Readers Write, by Otto (Eando) Binder, plus other letters

Batmania 1

Editor's Notes

The New Look, Biljo White and the Batmanians

Profiles on Collectors: John Wright

Comic Oddities

Pro Spot: Model T to T-Bird, by Russ Manning

The New-New Look, by Bill Ryan

Who Are the Batmanians?

Metaphysical Miscellany

Psychedelic Review: Vol 1, No. 3, 1964

Nature Retreat Therapy

The Scholarly Druids

[Aug. 7, 1964] Rematch! (Mothra vs. Godzilla)

[August 5, 1964] A Bit Of A Flub (Doctor Who: The Sensorites [Part 2])

[August 3, 1964] Running hot and cold (August 1964 Analog)

[August 1, 1964] On Target (The Successful Flight of Ranger 7)

[July 30, 1964] Are You For Real? (Simulacron-3 AKA Counterfeit World by Daniel F. Galouye)

[July 28, 1964] Beatlemania Arrives Down Under!

55 years ago: Science Fact and Fiction