by Gideon Marcus
[Time is running out to get your Worldcon membership! Register here to be able to vote for the Hugos.]
Goodness, is it the end of the year already? 1963 may go down in the history books as the most eventful year of the 1960s. The Mercury program wrapped up, the Soviets launched the first woman in space, we lost our President to a sniper's gun, we made progress in the march toward civil equality, Harvard Business School is finally letting women into its MBA program…
What could possibly top the last twelve months?
In any event, it's now December, a time for reflection. Specifically, reflection on which book, stories, artists, creators, films and TV shows stood out from all the rest. Yes, folks — it's time for the 1963 edition of The Galactic Stars!
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Best Poetry
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Lullaby: 1990,by Sheri S. Eberhart (Galaxy)
Eberhart's song for a post-atomic baby is beautiful and chilling.
Ib Melchior's twist on The Bard is greater than the sum of its parts.
If a man can bleed into a saxophone, Richard Matheson's caught the scent.
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Best Vignette (1-9 pages):
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The Putnam Tradition, by S. Dorman (Amazing)
Hybrid vigor revitalizes a family of witches.
The Time of Cold, by Mary Carlson (IF)
Heatstroked astronaut and freezing alien need each other to survive.
The Last of the Romany, by Norman Spinrad (Analog)
If the Romany didn't exist, it would be necessary to invent them.
Honorable Mention:
Black Cat Weather, by David R. Bunch (Fantastic)
The Voyage of the "Deborah Pratt", by Miriam Allen DeFord (F&SF)
Countdown, by Julian T. Grow (IF)
Of significance is that three of the six winners in this category are women. For some reason, when women are published, it tends to be shorter length stuff.
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Best Short Story (10-19 pages):
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Castaway, by Charles E. Fritch (Gamma)
An immortal soul outlasts the mortal form.
To See the Invisible Man, by Robert Silverberg (Worlds of Tomorrow)
The worst punishment is to be rendered invisible to society.
On the Fourth Planet, by J. F. Bone (Galaxy)
Mariner 15 almost destroys Martian civilization, but all's well that ends well.
Honorable Mention:
Cornie on the Walls, by Sydney van Scyoc (Fantastic)
Green Magic, by Jack Vance (F&SF)
Fortress Ship and Goodlife, two "Beserker" series stories by Fred Saberhagen (IF and Worlds of Tomorrow)
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Best Novelette (20-45 pages)
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Counter Security, by James White (F&SF)
The late-night department store terror isn't what it seems…
Hunter, Come Home, by Richard McKenna (F&SF)
Confounding a human-borne ecological catastrophe on a sentient planet.
The Totally Rich, by John Brunner (Worlds of Tomorrow)
Absolute power breeds…
Honorable Mention:
The Encounter, by J.G. Ballard (Amazing)
Down to the Worlds of Men, by Alexei Panshin (IF)
Bazaar of the Bizarre, by Fritz Leiber (Fantastic)
End Game, by J.G. Ballard (New Worlds)
Unlike last year, which had several seminal stories, this year's winners feel less outstanding. Not a bad crop, but nothing that will be remembered in a few decades.
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Best Novella (46+ pages)
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No Truce with Kings, by Poul Anderson (F&SF)
Integrity and cunning preserve a post-apocalyptic Californian republic.
No Great Magic, by Fritz Leiber (Galaxy)
A shellshocked young woman takes refuge in a Manhattan acting troupe that just happens to be making The Big Time.
Let the Spacemen Beware, by Poul Anderson (Ace Books)
I didn't finish this short novel until last week (on the plane to Washington D.C., no less) so this is the first time you're seeing it. Nevertheless, this is a love triangle set thousands of years from now. Divergent evolution has fundamentally changed humanity, culturally and physically, on the various fragments of a shattered interstellar empire. A fascinating and sensitive read. Five stars.
Honorable Mention:
Night of the Trolls, by Keith Laumer (Worlds of Tomorrow)
The Visitor at the Zoo, by Damon Knight (Galaxy)
Chocky!, by John Wyndham (Amazing)
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Best Novel/Serial
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Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (Holt, Rinehart, and Winston)
A tangle of doomsday, off-beat religion, and satire from an SF writer who composes for the masses.
All the Colors of Darkness, by Lloyd Biggle Jr.
This one slipped under the radar, only getting completed in the last few days. Thus, I didn't have time to give it a proper review (I'll be better in 1964, I promise). In brief, the first transcontinental teleporter service is opened up in New York in 1986, sending Americans to big cities on both sides of the Atlantic. Soon after Universal Transmitting Company's inauguration, passengers start disappearing mid-transit. Enter Jan Darzek, detective extraordinaire, who is hired by the Board of Directors to find out what or who is causing the vanishings.
Suffice it to say, this story doesn't go where you'd expect it to, and a good half of the book is devoted to some of the best First Contact and alien biology/ethics exploration I've seen in science fiction. Sure, the human dialogue seems right out of Burke's Law (though that kind of slick banter has its charm, too), but the other stuff is beautiful.
Four and a half stars, and probably sleeper of the year.
All we Marsmen, by Philip K. Dick (Worlds of Tomorrow)
Dysfunction and altered perception in a masterfully written soap opera on the Red Planet.
Honorable Mention:
Here Gather the Stars, by Cliff Simak (Galaxy)
People of the Sea, by Arthur C. Clarke (Worlds of Tomorrow)
Sign of the Labrys, by Margaret St. Clair (Bantam)
The Game-Players of Titan, by Philip K, Dick (Ace)
(no review; recommended by Gwyn Conaway)
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Science Fact
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Just Mooning Around, by Isaac Asimov (F&SF)
Welcome Stranger, by Isaac Asimov (F&SF)
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Dr. A. now stands pretty much alone. Willy Ley is phoning them in at Galaxy, Ted Sturgeon's column in (IF) is trivial, and Analog's round robin of bad writers is a joke. Only Ben Bova at Amazing shows much promise. Maybe next year.
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Best Magazine
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Galaxy (3.12 stars; best story of the month, twice)
Worlds of Tomorrow (3.04 stars; best story of the month, zero (not counting serials))
New Worlds (3.02 stars; best story of the month, zero)
IF (2.9 stars; best story of the month, twice)
Fantastic (2.82 stars; best story of the month, twice)
Fantasy and Science Fiction (2.78 stars; best story of the month, thrice)
Analog (2.78 stars; best story of the month, once (not counting serials))
Amazing (2.68 stars; best story of the month, twice)
and Gamma, with only two issues (3.35, once)
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Goodness! Nine magazines, and that doesn't count Science-Fantasy, which yet eludes our coverage. Fine stuff in all of them at one point or another, though Gamma stands out when it has an issue. F&SF still tends to feature the most women (even if that's just a pitiful one per month sometimes), but Pohl's and Goldsmith's magazines also do, on occasion. And Gamma. But never Analog, which is almost entirely a stag operation these days.
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Best author(s)
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Dick came back in a big way last year, and his output, while a bit variable in quality, is generally welcome.
Another variable star, but his good work is excellent.
Honorable Mention:
A pair of British authors.
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Best Artist
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Ed Emshwiller
Virgil Finlay
George Schelling
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These three are household names, though this is the first time Schelling has made our list. EMSH is best known for his covers, Finlay for his interiors. Schelling goes both ways.
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Best Dramatic Presentation
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Horror and radiation in an underground community of unusual children.
Hitchcock's avian horror.
As it says on the tin, but a couple of steps up from your typical Drive-In shocker.
Turning into a fine new anthology show.
Astro Boy (in its Japanese form, Tetsuwan Atomu)
Honorable Mention:
La Jetée
Jason and the Argonauts (review coming soon!)
Scotland Yard jagt Dr. Mabuse (Scotland Yard vs. Dr. Mabuse)
Der kleine dicke Ritter (The little fat knight)
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I've heard complaints that this year's batch of SF movies was no great shakes. I'm looking forward to the cinema version of Failsafe next year.
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Best Fanzine
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A chatty little rag, but it comes out often and usually entertains.
Still the gold standard and invaluable for its published books listings.
Galactic Journey
Well, we can't actually nominate ourselves for a star, but Galactic Journey was a finalist for the Hugo! Please help put us over the top next year!
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And that's that! Do let us know if we missed any of your favorites. Even with a dozen writers interpolating their tastes, decisions still must be based on subjective sensibilities.
Until next year…
It's worth noting, if only because pedantry is always in season, that LET THE SPACEMEN BEWARE was first published in FANTASTIC UNIVERSE in 1960 as "A Twelvemonth and a Day." No idea whether there were significant revisions.
Hello, John. Pedantry is always appreciated (and expected from you)!
Yes, the original story was a novelette. This one is a full novella. I haven't read the original, but I thought the length of the novella was perfect.
I would put The Birds a good bit ahead of Man with the X Ray Eyes .
The Daphne du Maurier story is just about the most creepy short I have every read.
I can't say Hitch captured it but it sure was a good try.
X Ray Eyes is an odd Corman film, and not as bad as his Z-clunkers from the 1950s …still doggedly cheep looking and sounding even with Ray Milland.
Corman does better with the Poe .
Re: Birds, you're probably right. I think I meant to put it on the award side of Honorable Mention. I'll change it.
I think of the du Maurier story as science fiction , that the birds could go psycho for some reason associated with the physical universe is intriguing. Not a fantasy story to me. The way all the strangeness plays on a domesticated landscape is about as odd and spooky story as I have ever read.
I think the biggest omission is a story you didn't much like, but everyone else did. I don't know if it was a novelette or novella: "A Rose for Ecclesiastes". I fully expect to see it on the Hugo ballot next year. I understand. My own list certainly wouldn't have included "All We Marsmen". De gustibus non est disputandum and all that.
I'd second the Zelazny, and also add "The Haunting" to the list of dramatic presentations of outstanding quality.
Yeah! “The Haunting” , a Robert Wise film , a Shirley Jackson story , anything with Julie Harris in it will be good.
By Al Jackson
> Willy Ley is phoning them in at Galaxy
Yeah, but judging from the lack of commentary, nobody is reading them anyway. Willy has been asking for suggestions for years, and apparently getting no responses to that, either.
Even so, he ranges more broadly and more deeply than Asimov, and manages to make his articles more interesting.
For that matter, I'm not all that sure that many subscribers reas Asimov's columns, either. For this to be the Age of Science, nobody seems to be curious about much of it. Back in the '40s and '50s some of the SF magazines dropped their science articles entirely. Maybe they were on to something…
The science articles are the first thing I read.
If there's anything running a publication has taught me, it's that the ratio of readers to corresponders is around 100:1.
The Birds and The Haunting get thumbs up from me too.
Perhaps worth noting that if one could look into the future one might discover that Sheri S. Eberhart, the author of “Lullaby 1990” will achieve much greater fame as Sheri S. Tepper.