by Gideon Marcus
In Your Heart, You Knew He Was Wrong
It's been a month for dramatic political change. In the Soviet Union, Khruschev was deposed after eight years in power, and the British Labor party came to the fore after thirteen years in the wilderness. And in the United States, the reactionary politics of Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater have been loudly repudiated: Lyndon Johnson has been elected President in the biggest landslide in recent memory.
On his coattails, Democrats have ascended to high offices around the country. In the Senate, Robert Kennedy beat incumbent Ken Keating for the open New York seat, Joseph D. Tydings trounced incumbent James Glenn Beall in Maryland, and Joseph M. Montoya smashed appointed incumbent Edwin L. Mechem in New Mexico. Only in California did former hoofer George Murphy win against the Democrat, Pierre Salinger, in something of an upset. What's next for the Golden State? Ronald Reagan as Governor?!
And in the House, Democrats picked up a whopping 37 seats. This means that the party of Jackson and Roosevelt (#2) has not only the White House, but veto-proof control of both houses of Congress. It's likely that The Great Society will continue unabated through the next two years.
Even in the science fiction world, revolutions are happening. Avram Davidson is leaving his post at F&SF (thank goodness), and Cele Goldsmith, at the helm of Fantastic and Amazing, has gotten married.
But with this month's IF, editor Fred Pohl's neglected third daughter, things are not only business as usual, they're a little worse…
The Enemy is Us
by Gray Morrow
When Time Was New, by Robert F. Young
We begin with a tale of time travel. Howard Carpenter, a native of 2156 A.D. Earth, has gone back to the late Cretaceous in his "Triceratank", designed to fit in with the Mesozoic fauna. His mission is to find out why there is a modern human skeleton lying in 80 million year old strata.
But once there, he finds two children, Marcy and Skip, who are on the run from kidnappers. But these kids aren't time travelers — they're actually space travelers from a contemporary (to the far past) Martian civilization!
by Gray Morrow
Thus ensues an adventure whose style and subject matter would make for a fine kiddy comic or Danny Dunn adventure, but which is somewhat jarring for a grown-up mag. Also, I find it highly improbable that a race of humans identical to those on Earth (specifically, the blonde, blue-eyed kind) would arise on Mars, and 80 million years ago, no less. A slightly lesser quibble is the appearance of Brontosaurs; they were long extinct by the Cretaceous period.
And then there's the relationship between the 32 year old Carpenter and the 11 year old, however precocious, Marcy. It's all very innocent and largely on Marcy's part. I can't say more without spoiling the story, but in the end, we get a situation not unlike the reveal in The Twilight Zone episode, The Fugitive. I didn't mind it all that much, but some may find it off-putting.
Anyway, I'm sure John Boston would give the story one star, two at best. But Robert Young, even at his worst, is still a pretty good author, and despite the story's flaws, I did want to know what was coming next.
So, a low three.
The Coldest Place, by Larry Niven
Niven, a brand new author, takes us to the coldest place in the universe, home to a most unique kind of lifeform. The kicker, revealing the setting, is interesting, as are the various concepts Niven introduces in the piece. On the other hand, there's really a bit too many ideas here for the short space allotted, so the story doesn't really go anywhere.
I have a suspicion that, given proper time to develop, this author may be one to watch.
Three stars.
At the Top of the World, by J. T. McIntosh
by Nodel
Two hundred years after the last war, Gallery 71, deep underground, prepares for Ascension Day. What awaits them on the surface? Is there even a sky? Or all the legends just mythical doubletalk?
It's a good setting for a story, not dissimilar to the author's previous 200 Years to Christmas, but the ending is both a fizzle and a letdown. Also, I could done with less of the author's unconscious sexism. No father admirers his daughter's "exquisite curves" and I would have expected a greater role for women in the piece than two teenagers of little consequence.
Another low three.
Pig in a Pokey, by R. A. Lafferty
Lafferty, whose middle name would be whimsy if it didn't start with an A., offers up a duel of wits between a porcine head-collector and the human who would claim the former's asteroid.
Neither foul nor fine (which makes it "fair", I guess), it's over before you know it.
Three stars.
The Hounds of Hell (Part 2 of 2), by Keith Laumer
by Ed Emshwiller
The bulk of the issue is taken up with the conclusion to Keith Laumer's latest novel. Last time, John Brandeis was on the run from a horde of demonic dog things who assumed human guise and filched human brains. Brandeis went so far as to have his body highly cyberneticized so that he could fight the hell hounds on an even footing. With the help of the feeble-minded sailor, Joel, he managed to give them the slip.
But not for long. Upon arriving in America, Brandeis' worst fears are realized: the aliens have taken over key positions of authority, probably throughout the world. Worse, when he lures one of them to a remote spot in Colorado, in the hopes of ambushing and interrogating one of the invaders, Brandeis is, in turn, ambushed and killed.
And when he wakes up, it's in the body of a 70 foot tank, waging a war against other brain-run tanks on the Moon!
by Ed Emshwiller
Hounds of Hell has a lot of promising threads. It could have been an exploration of what it is to be human in an increasingly inhuman body. The robot tank angle, brilliantly explored in prior stories, could have been developed as a sort of prequel to those pieces.
The problem is, we never learn a damned thing about Brandeis, nor do we really care about the world that the Hell Hounds have taken over. The only character with any substance is Joel, and he plays a minor role. In the end, Hounds is a series of action scenes that aren't even up to the author's normally decent standard.
Two stars; two and a half for the book.
The Results
IF used to be Galaxy's experimental twin. It was a magazine with rawer authors and more outré stories. Now that Pohl has to spread his material three ways, IF seems to be the dumping ground for the least worthy stuff.
This month, at least, it wasn't worth the 50 cent cover price. A poor issue to accompany the Christmas subscription renewal drive!
[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…]
"When Time Was New" was pretty bad, showing off most of Young's flaws. It did read fairly well, though, and the slightly off-putting bit was less off-putting than the way Heinlein handled it "The Door into Summer". I'd still call it more of a high two.
The Niven story shows promise (though it isn't the new author promised us in Fred's editorial). There actually isn't a lot of story there, more of an Arthur C. Clarke travelogue. Pity that recent scientific findings have probably invalidated the ending, but that's something every science fiction writer needs to learn to deal with.
The McIntosh was fairly trivial. I'm more inclined to agree with the low three than I was with Young, though.
Lafferty continues to be Lafferty. The ending was telegraphed pretty strongly, but the story is rescued by being short.
Alas, Laumer's novel did not finish as strongly as it started. Once the hero woke up in the tank, it went downhill pretty quickly. All the stuff with him somehow taking over the maintenance robots was terribly unclear and didn't make much sense. Too bad.
Definitely not a great or even good issue. It's not a good sign when the best thing in the mag is from a brand-new author, especially one who, for all the promise he shows, seems fairly solid and workmanlike, not the flair of a Zelazny.
Open seats don't have incumbents. And I think you might've missed the best joke scored off the Goldwater slogan: "In your heart, you know he's right." "Yes…much too far right."
The way I heard it is "In your guts you know he's nuts."
"When Time Was New" was very childish. There's a new movie about to be released, according to the trade papers. It's called "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians." It sounds about as immature as Young's story.
"The Coldest Place" wasn't bad. Looks like this new guy is trying to be the next Hal Clement.
"At the Top of the World" was also OK. Some nice irony in the ending.
"Pif in a Pokey" was that odd mixture of comic and serious I expect from Lafferty. Readable, if not memorable.
The magazine has gotten sloppy in some ways. Pohl mentions the story "The Heat Racers" by L. D. Ogle, but it appears nowhere in the issue. The blurb for the next issue calls Jack Vance "Jack Lance." Both are embarrassing errors.