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by Gideon Marcus
Wandering
Setting: The Sinai, after the Exodus
Aaron: Hey, Moses! We've been walking a long time!
Moses: Nu?
Aaron: Haven't we seen that rock before? Are you sure you know the way to the Holy Land?
Moses: Who's the Moses here? I know the way to go. The Sinai is only 150 miles across. It'll only take us…
Narrator: FORTY YEARS!
I cite this absolutely accurate historical vignette for two reasons. One, my daughter has decided to give the Torah a deep dive and analysis over Winter (I believe the gentiles call it "Christmas") Break. The other is, well, the next installment of Frank Herbert's Dune World saga has been staring me in the face for weeks, ever since I bought the January 1965 issue of Analog. I found I really didn't want to read more of it, having found the first installment dreary, though who am I to argue with all the Hugo voters?
And yet, as the days rolled on, I came up with every excuse not to read the magazine. I cleaned the house, stem to stern. I lost myself in this year's Galactic Stars article. I did some deep research on 1964's space probes.
But the bleak desert sands of Arrakis were unavoidable. So this week, I plunged headfirst into Campbell's slick, hoping to make the trek to the end in fewer than two score years. Or at least before 1965. Join me; let's see if we can make it.
The Issue at Hand
by John Schoenherr
It's Done with Mirrors, by Ben Bova and William F. Dawson
Our first step into the desert is deceptively mild. Amazing's science guy and his friend offer up the suggestion that the universe really isn't so big — all the billions of galaxies we see are really the light from a few thousand going round and round a small universe.
It doesn't sound very plausible to me, but I enjoyed the cosmological review, and the picture included was drafted by my nephew's astronomy professor at UCLA!
Three stars.
The Prophet of Dune (Part 1 of 5), by Frank Herbert
And now we sink waist deep.
The Prophet of Dune is not just the sequel to Dune World; it picks up right at the cliffhanger where the other left off. Unlike most serials, but similar to how it was done with Cordwainer Smith's The Boy Who Bought Old Earth, the story begins without explanation. You simply have to have Dune World fresh in your mind.
Otherwise, you won't know why Paul Atreides and his mother, Lady Jessica, are refugees from Baron Harkonen in the deserts of Arrakis. You won't know who the Padisha Emperor is or why his Sardaukar elite forces are dressed in Harkonen House garb. You won't know who Duke Leto Atreides was, or why he's dead; who Yueh was and why he defected from House Atreides to the Harkonens; the significance of Hawat the mentat…or even what a mentat is. The significance of the melange spice, which is the desert planet's sole export.
I'm not sure why (editor) Campbell didn't include a summary at the beginning, but unless you've read Dune World, you will be lost.
If you have, you'll be bored.
by John Schoenherr
I won't go into great detail since this serial will cover a ridiculous five installments before it is done, but suffice it to say that includes all the features I came to dread in the first serial. That is to say:
- Characters declaiming in exposition.
- Endless fawning over wunderkind Paul Atreides, who has the gravitas of his father, the ability to see all futures, and no weaknesses (or character) that I can discern.
- Every other line is an internal thought monologue, usually unnecessary, flitting from viewpoint to viewpoint according to author Herbert's fancy.
- Lots of sand.
Dune presents an interesting, well-developed world populated by uninteresting plots and skeletal characters. And it looks like I'm suck in its deserts for at least another half year.
Two stars.
A Nice Day for Screaming, by James H. Schmitz
by Kelly Freas
A momentary respite as we trudge out of sand and onto more solid ground…
Schmitz shows us the maiden voyage of a new space vessel, jumping not into overspace but to the quantum beyond — Space Three! But upon its arrival, a terrifying entity appears and invades the ship, wreaking havoc with its systems.
The nature of the encounter is not what it seems. I like a story that turns a horror cliche on its head.
Three stars.
A Matter of Timing, by Hank Dempsey
by Robert Swanson
A tingling in our mind distract us, and suddenly we are again ankle deep in the dunes.
Until I read the byline (I've never heard of Dempsey), I thought A Matter of Timing was an inferior entry in Walter Bupp's psi series, in which a secret organization keeps a cadre of esper talents on hand to deal with weird events. While Dempsey's introduces a lot of potentially interesting characters (all apparently quacks; the organization that handles them is the Committee for Welfare, Administration, and Consumer Control — CWACC), the story doesn't do anything with them.
Droll setup and no resolution. Two stars.
Final Report, by Richard Grey Sipes
From out of nowhere, there is a blast of hot wind, and we are inundated with a spray of stinging sand and…paper?
Told in military report style, complete with typewriter font and army-esque jargon, Final Report pretends to be the results of the test of a psionic radio system. In the end, despite the set's fantastic capabilities, it is rejected as a prank, especially as it's too cheap to even be government pork.
Heavy handed, highly Campbellian, and utterly pointless. One star.
The New Boccaccio, by Christopher Anvil
As we reel from the last blow, the clackety clack of machinery assails our ears, but at least we're walking on stable rocks again.
In The New Boccaccio, Anvil covers the same ground as Harry Harrison did a couple of months ago in Portrait of the Artist — an automatic creator is brought into a publishing house to replace a human artist.
The prior story was serious and involved a comic maker. Anvil's is comedically satirical and involves a device that writes literate smut. It's a bit smarter, I think, but not worth more than the three stars I gave the other story.
Finnegan's Knack, by John T. Phillifent
by Kelly Freas
Look! Off in the distance…is that a line of trees? Or is it just a mirage? Our pace quickens, but our boots keep sinking in the shifting sands.
John Phillifent's Finnegan's Knack involves the arrival of an alien ambassador. His race is so far in advance of ours that there's nothing we can do to impress him. A demoralized Colonel joins his rather lackadaisical Major friend on a fishing expedition to relate his woes. Along with them is a certain Private Finnegan with a knack for accomplishing the darndest things (landing fish with a boat hook; making a hover car pop a wheelie; make a call to a private number). Maybe he can impress the aliens with his illogical prowess?
Maybe. Certainly nothing in the story made any particular impression on me, and as with so many of the other stories in the issue, the lack of a solid ending killed whatever competent writing came before.
Two stars. Oasis lost.
Does not Compute
"Rhoda" the robot…signed by Julie Newmar, herself!
How can it be that the one-proud magazine that Campbell built can pour forth little but a torrent of desert dust? All told, the magazine earns an dismally low 2.1 stars, This is significantly below the 2.5 star mags (Amazing) and (Fantasy and Science Fiction) and far below IF (2.9), Fantastic (3.3), and New Worlds (3.5).
Maybe SF is suffering in general, if this month's distribution is any indication. Certainly, it was a sad month for female representation (2 stories out of 37). On the other hand, it's not all bad news: you could fill three magazines with the superior stuff this month.
Every desert has an end, even if it's just the desert of the sea. Perhaps, if we keep trekking, we'll find out way back to verdant lands.
You know — after four more months of this fershlugginer Dune installment…
Happy New Year anyway! Thank you for following the Journey!
Sorry to hear you're having so much trouble slogging through "The Prophet of Dune." Great universe-building, but plot-wise, only so-so.
"A Nice Day for Screaming" was OK, but sure had a lot of build-up for a one-line ending.
"A Matter of Timing" was way too long for a simple point. Lots of "action" and too little content.
"Final Report" was as dull and obvious as a real report.
"The New Boccaccio" didn't really go anywhere, after the concept was clear.
"Finnegan's Knack" seemed like just another variation on the old thing about Earth folks being special in some way or another.
So, yeah, a pretty poor issue. If "The Prophet of Dune" is an intimidating, thick mountain of sand, the other stories are little hills of dust. Not much to 'em at all.
It's true that "Prophet" really needs the reader to be familiar with the events of the first story. And this first installment seems to be largely moving the various characters into place. With any luck, we'll get more action in the next couple of installments. But I did really notice the point of view skipping through the heads of everyone in a scene, particularly when it's just Paul and his mother. I remain hopeful, and Schoenherr's art is terrific.
But five installments is ridiculous. I think it's a consequence of the slick format. Take away the ads, the editorial and the letters, and there's only about 80 pages for fact and fiction. A slick page carries more words than a digest page, but nowhere near enough to compensate for the 120+ pages a digest has for the same material. There's no room for a proper serial. On the other hand, five monthly issues is the same time period as three bi-monthlies, and we never thought it a problem when Galaxy or IF did a three-parter. Of course, Pohl also declared that Galaxy will only do two part serials from now on, because he thought spreading a novel over that length of time doesn't work.
I remember almost nothing from the Schmitz story. I have a vague recollection of liking it, but that's about all.
"A Matter of Timing" was simply not good. Far too long for the story it told and not terribly interesting.
"Final Report" demonstrates that authors other than the Richmonds have figured out how to push all of Campbell's buttons to make him buy a story. We all complained about Davidson over at F&SF, but Campbell may be worse.
The Anvil was pretty good, and definitely better than the similar Harrison story.
"Finnegan's Knack" was just silly.
So all in all, not a great issue. It helped that I'm enjoying the Herbert more than you are, but otherwise even the decent stuff was forgettable.
Lots of sand…..
and PSI powers … JWC smiles.
Schoenherr’s art is terrific.
I started reading Analog in November 1964, so this issue was the third I had read. I knew nothing about Dune World, except that it had preceded The Prophet of Dune, but I was enthralled by the sequel, and gradually worked out the essentials I needed to know. It probably helped that I had just turned 15, and had a huge appetite for all sf and a lot of mental flexibility. Schoenherr’s illustrations were a key part of the whole experience.
Schoenherr is great — he was my pick for the Galactic Star, illustrator category.