[Today is the last day you can sign up for next year's Worldcon if you want to be able to nominate Hugo candidates! Sign up now!]
by Gideon Marcus
An argument for free trade?
Yesterday, Europe got a bit freer. The nations of Austria, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom–along with associate member, Finland, the constituents of the Europen Free Trade Association–removed all tarrifs on industrial goods sold between them. These countries comprise Europe's "Outer Seven", in contrast to the "Inner Six" of the European Economic Community. With this move, EFTA's economies may get a competitive boost against the traditional European powerhouses (France, West Germany, Benelux, and Italy).
The SF mag Analog is better suited to the EEC than EFTA. With editor John Campbell at the helm, who personally reads and approves every item chosen from the slush pile, and who has a distinctive style (to the say the least), the magazine has really gotten itself into a rut. Sometimes it manages to be good, but more often, as with this month, it's deadly dully. Read on, and you'll see what I mean.
The issue at hand
by Chesley Bonestell
Supernova, by Poul Anderson
by Kelly Freas
David Falkayn, protegé of Nicholas van Rijn, returns in yet another astronomically interesting but utterly dull adventure. This time, callow human Falkayn, and his trader team comprising the pacifist buddhist saurian, Adzel, the foul-mouthed racoon, Chee Lan, and the computer, Muddlehead, have visited a world about to be blasted by a nearby supernova. The planet, at about a Year 2000 level of technology, is riven into several regional powers, and a system-wide crime syndicate has nation-like power.
Falkayn is struggling with determining who their team should work with to build a planetary shield when the decision is taken out of his hands: Chee Lan is abducted by the system's equivalent of the mob. Falkayn's solution to his dilemma is supposed to be clever, but it feels obvious and uninspired.
Two stars.
A Criminal Act, by Harry Harrison
by Kelly Freas
Here's a piece inspired by the same Malthusian nightmare as the author's hit, Make Room, Make room. A fellow and his wife have had three kids, one more than the law allows. As a result, a kill-happy citizen is legally allowed to try to bump the dad off. It's a duel to the death, either result of which will keep the population stable.
Bob Sheckley could have made this work. Maybe. In another magazine.
Two stars.
Bring 'Em Back Alive!, by Lyle R. Hamilton
The nonfiction article this month is about wind tunnels, heat shields, and retrorockets. Not a bad topic, but Hamilton's overly breezy style doesn't quite work.
Three stars.
Amazon Planet (Part 2 of 3), by Mack Reynolds
by Kelly Freas
Last time around, author Reynolds took us back to the world of the United Planets, a loose galactic confederation of humans in which each planet is allowed whatever government, culture, demographics it likes. This time, the planet is Amazonia, ruled by women and with the cultural iconography of the famed Greek warrior women.
Guy Thomas was a mild-mannered trade entrepreneur hoping to stoke an iridium/columbum trade between Amazonia and Avalon. But at the end of the last installment, we discovered he was actually a secret agent. In Part 2, we find out he's a UP spy, sent when a man from Amazonia made an unprecedented escape from the planet and pleaded for refugee status. It seems there's a widespread masculine revolutionary movement.
Unfortunately for Thomas, he is quickly captured by the technologically superior Amazons and made to reveal his true identity: he is none other than Ronny Bronston, part of the mysterious Section G, whose explicit purpose is to topple regressive governments–in flagrant violation of the Federation's constitution. Under truth drugs, Bronston spills the beans. But before he can give further info, he is rescued by a member of his original escort party, a female soldier who has taken a shine to him.
Out of the frying pan and into the fire!
My nephew continues to rave about this series, whereas I find it mostly an excuse to discuss political theory interspersed with some boilerplate action sequences (which, to be fair, Reynolds has made a good career of).
Barely three stars and sinking.
The Old Shill Game, by H. B. Fyfe
by Kelly Freas
A robovendor is programmed to have an edge on his daily rounds at the concourse. With the aid of a team of robotic shills, it attracts the attentions of human commuters and makes a killing. Thus ensues a war between the robovendor's programming team and that of their competitors, each iteration making the android vending machine a bit smarter.
The road to Mike from The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is paved with capitalism.
There's a good idea here, but the execution is a bit muddled and the whole thing just not very satisfying. Two stars.
The Last Command, by Keith Laumer
by Kelly Freas
From one sapient robot to another: Keith Laumer returns with his answer to Saberhagen's Berserker series, only Laumer's Bolos are tanks rather than ships, and they apparently used to work for people rather than against them.
In this installment, a long-dead machine comes to life deep underground, nearly a century after its last conflict. Certain that it has been imprisoned by the enemy, it roars to life, slowly making its way toward a city that has sprouted since its deactivation. An old veteran of the old battle thinks he has the key to stopping this indestructible weapon of war.
It's a bit less polished than previous entries in the series, but I found the end touching.
Three stars.
Doing the math
Running the Star-o-vac, I find Analog scored just 2.5 stars–the worst of the month! But this has been kind of a lousy month in general, so it's not certain that open trade is the answer. After all, the British mags, New Worlds (3.3), and Science Fantasy (2.9), are rumored to be on the edge of extinction. Fantastic (2.6) wasn't good this month, even with decades of reprints available. IF (2.8) was thoroughly mediocre. And while I liked Fantasy and Science Fiction (3.2), no one else seems to be enjoying the new serial.
On the other hand, there was exactly one story by a woman this month, and it was one of the best ones. Maybe, instead of free trade between the current magazine contributors, we need a campaign to tap the as yet fallow resource: women writers.
Crazy, I know, but it's a thought.
[Today is the last day you can sign up for next year's Worldcon if you want to be able to nominate Hugo candidates! Sign up now!]
A decent editor could have turned most of these stories by these same authors into something good. Unfortunately, John Campbell is at the helm.
I get the feeling that Anderson is just going through the motions with these Falkayn stories. It's not helped by the fact that Falkayn is the least interesting member of his team.
The Harrison mostly just took up space. Another editor probably could have gotten more out of Harry, although there isn't that much here.
The fact article was all right for Analog. That doesn't make it good over all. Palatable, but not much more.
I like the concept of the Ronny Bronston stories, but Reynolds doesn't quite seem able to get where he wants to go. It's the editor problem again.
As you say, the Fyfe has a good idea at its core, but poor execution. It's not helped by the fact that the economic model the story centers on hasn't been current for years. I can't see us going back to hawkers and wandering notions salesmen just because robots are doing the work.
But I liked the last command better than you did. Probably not enough for a fourth star. In a lot of ways, this is just "Combat Unit" again from a slightly different perspective.
Well, maybe Campbell will do better next year.
Of course he won't. I'm not sure I could drink enough New Year's Eve booze to even start to think that's plausible.
I prize your reviews of the sf magazines, but aren't you a trifle hard on John W Campbell? He has to publish from what writers submit, and with all the duds he's had some great successes, including recently Dune.
Sure he is a curmudgeon with his idiosyncrasies and obsessions, and has many views I don't agree with, but he still is a formidable editor. The fact he was the first to publish James Tiptree, Jr – not to mention all the golden age writers including Heinlein, Asimov and Van Vogt – shows he is still prepared to run good stories, provided he gets them submitted to him. Maybe some of the newer more interesting writers, knowing his prejudices, don't submit to him, preferring F&SF or Galaxy.
When his magazine is good, I praise his magazine. When his magazine is bad, people say I'm picking on Campbell.
The whole "hey, don't blame me — I can only print what I get" argument is silly on its face. If your crop of writers is giving you garbage, you need a better crop and/or you need to manage your crop better. As someone who's edited an outlet for more than eight years now, I know whereof I speak!
No problem with your assessment of the stories. Keep up your excellent work.
_If your crop of writers is giving you garbage, you need a better crop and/or you need to manage your crop better._
Indeed. And also you might try to stop actively driving away the great crop of writers you once had — which included the likes of Heinlein and Asimov — alongside the likes of newcomers like Samuel R. Delany — with your arrogant, doltish, racist demands.
I mean, do we want a metric for how toxic the good SF writers now find Campbell? They won't write for him even though he can pay the best word-rate of all the magazines.
The short precis you give of "Starfog" actually makes it sound like a very promising premise, Gideon, which I can't recall having been done before.
But having unfortunately read the thing, I know Anderson has turned in a particularly dreary by-the-numbers episode of his already yawn-making (and scientifically dubious) Polesotechnic League saga. This, too, is on Campbell: a real editor would tell a writer, 'you've got a potentially good thing here, here's how to fix problem A, problem B, problem C; now go away and rewrite the thing."
Once upon a time Campbell knew how to do this. Once upon a time ….
Oh, Happy New Year!
Actually, Asimov's first story was published in AMAZING, then edited by Ray Palmer ("Marooned Off Vesta," March 1939 issue) and while Campbell did publish van Vogt's first sf story, van Vogt had previously published several romance/"true confession" stories elsewhere (I believe mostly in Canadian magazines and newspapers).
I stand corrected!