Venus has gotten a lot of attention from Earth's superpowers. Part of it is its tremendous similarity to our home in some ways: similar mass, similar composition, similar distance from the Sun (as such things go). But the biggest reason why so many probes have been dispatched to the Solar System's second world (to wit: Mariner 2, Mariner 5, Venera 1, Veneras 2 and 3, and Venera 4) is because it's the closest planet to Earth. Every 19 months, Earth and Venus are aligned such that a minimum of rocket is required to send a maximum of scientific payload toward the Planet of Love. Since 1961, every opportunity has seen missions launched from at least one side of the Pole.
This year's was no exception: on January 5 and 10, the USSR launched Venera (Venus) 5 and 6 toward the second planet, and this month (the 16th and the 18th), they arrived.
Our conception of Venus has changed radically since spaceships started probing the world. Just read our article on the planet, written back in 1959, before the world had been analyzed with radar and close-up instruments. Now we know that the planet's surface is the hottest place in the Solar System outside the Sun: perhaps 980 degrees Fahrenheit! The largely carbon dioxide and nitrogen atmosphere crushes the ground at up to 100 atmospheres of pressure. The planet rotates very slowly backward, but there is virtually no difference between temperatures on the day and night sides due to the thick atmosphere. There is no appreciable magnetic field (probably because the planet spins so slowly) so no equivalent to our Van Allen Belts or aurorae.
This is all information returned from outside the Venusian atmosphere. Inference. To get the full dope, one has to plunge through the air. Venera 4 did that, returning lower temperatures and air pressures. This was curious, but it makes sense if you don't believe the Soviet claim that the probe's instruments worked all the way to the ground—a dubious assertion given the incredibly hostile environment. No, Venera 4 probably stopped working long before it touched down.
The same may be true of Veneras 5 and 6. TASS has not released data yet, but while the two probes were successfully delivered onto Venus' surface, we have no way of knowing that they returned telemetry all the way down. Indeed, the Soviet reports are rather terse and highlight the delivery of medals and a portrait of Lenin to Venus, eschewing any mention of soft landing. The news does spend a lot of time talking about solar wind measurements on the way to Venus—useful information, to be sure, but beside the point.
The Venera spacecraft and lander capsule
Anyway, at the very least, we can probably hope to get some clarity on what goes on in the Venusian air. It may have to wait until next time before we learn just what's happening on the ground, however.
To Hell
I bitched last month about the lousy issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Well, I am happy to say that the May issue is more than redeemed by this June 1969 issue, which, if not stellar throughout, has sufficient high points to impress and delight.
Silverbob has a knack for poetic, evocative writing as well as rich settings. He has successfully made the transition from '50s hack SF author to New Wave vanguard. Which is why this rather forgettable tale is all the more disappointing.
It's about a Sioux spaceman named Tom Two Ribbons who is part of a terraforming contingent on a virgin planet. Except what his compatriots call terraforming, he calls genocide, for the millions of indigenous Eaters that they are clearing out to make room for farms are, he claims, intelligent. To prove his point, he goes out among the aliens, dancing their way and his way, hoping to avert catastrophe.
But is any of it real? Or is it all a figment of his traumatized mind?
I just found it all a bit hollow and affected, and also confusing. Not bad, but nowhere near Silverbob's best.
Three stars.
Pull Devil, Pull Baker!, Michael Harrison
A Jewish dentist finds himself implacably hostile to an Aryan patient, and, to his dismay, finds himself wanting to cause him pain in the examination chair. Turns out the two have a history that goes back centuries to another life, when the drill was in the other hand, so to speak.
So unfolds an age-crossing riddle, at the end of which lies a treasure of untold riches, if only it can be deciphered.
I dug this one. Maybe I'm biased. Four stars.
The Landlocked Indian Ocean, L. Sprague de Camp
De Camp offers himself up as a sort of half-rate Willy Ley, explaining why, for so long, the Indian Ocean was conceived of as a big lake rather than part of the world sea. There's a lot of good information here, but it's not quite as compellingly presented as it could be.
Three stars.
A Short and Happy Life, Joanna Russ
Here's a great little prose-poem on ingenuity involving a barometer. Good stuff. Four stars.
A Run of Deuces, Jack Wodhams
Aboard a superluminary cruise ship, the bored passengers come up with a betting pool to relieve their ennui: the winner of the pot is whomever guesses at what distance from their destination the ship will pop out of hyperspace.
A lot of sex. A lot of languour. A predictable ending. A low three (or a high two, if you're not in a good mood).
Last month, we were (re-)introduced to the Matuchek family: Steve the werewolf, Virginia the combat wizard, Valeria the moppet, and Svartalf the familiar. When Valeria was kidnapped by the agents of Hell, it was only a matter of time before her parents (and their cat!) would have to penetrate the perverse underworld to retrieve her.
Enlisting the aid of a pair of dead mathematical geniuses, in this installment, the trio warps into the infernal dimension, where they must face off against hordes of demons, baffling spatial topography, and the most evil of beings humanity has ever known.
There is good Anderson, there is boring Anderson, and there is middlin' Anderson. This story is firmly in the "good" camp, with vivid descriptions, engaging (and often funny) characters, and the sort of light, fantastic adventure we haven't seen from Anderson since Three Hearts and Three Lions. Poul does somber, dour, very well, so I think it's more work for him to keep things light—even as our heroes are arrayed against the forces of darkness! It's never frivolous, but there's a fey quality that keeps things on the right side of horrific.
And that episode in Hell! I've never read the like. My only regret is that it's not longer, with a little more time for the Matuchek squad to come up with their novel solutions so that the reader can better follow along. Perhaps it'll get expanded into a full length book at some point. I hope so!
Four stars for this installment and the book as a whole.
The Fateful Lightning, Isaac Asimov
A boffo piece on the discovery of electricity. It's good, although I found the explanation of how lightning rods actually work somewhat incomplete.
Four stars.
Repeat Business, Jon Lucas
A mom-and-pop boat charter take on a quartet of "travel agents" who are obviously (to the reader, at least) a bunch of aliens. The E-Ts are sussing out the charterers and their sailing vessel to see if they might be a hit back home on Sirius or Spica or wherever they're from.
It's not a badly written tale, but it's so obvious, and the protagonists so clueless, that it feels sub-par. Maybe this would have passed muster a couple of decades ago. Now it's old hat.
Two stars.
Back to Earth
And there you have it: big news in the skies and in the SFnal pages of F&SF. There's really no unpleasant reading at all in this month's mag, even if it isn't all novel or cutting edge, and the Anderson really ends with a bang—or a flash of brimstone, perhaps. Combined with the exciting space news, and the recent launch of Apollo 10 (article to come!) I am really feeling over the Moon.
Few things excite the imagination more than adventures in space. In particular, we love to hear about doings in the cosmos that can't be done on Earth. And one of the main things we can't do on Earth is see the sky.
Oh sure, when you look out at the starry night, you think you're witnessing infinity. In fact, your eyes barely apprehend a tiny fraction of the electro-magnetic spectrum. We are blind to radio waves, to ultra violet, to X-rays, to infrared. Our sophisticated telescopes are similarly handicapped. Even the mighty 200 inch telescope on Mount Palomar can't see in most of light's wavelengths, for they are blocked by the Earth's atmosphere. In the X-ray, ultraviolet, infrared, and cosmic ray bands, the glass seeing-eye tubes are as sightless as we are.
Which is why the launch of the Orbiting Astronomy Observatory (OAO) on December 7, 1968, was such an exciting event. Dubbed "Stargazer", it is the very first space telescope.
Well, technically, it's the second. The first one went up on April 8, 1966, but its power supply short circuited shortly after launch, and it never returned any data. This is a shame, as there were some nifty experiments on board, including a gamma ray experiment similar to the one carried on Explorer 11, another gamma ray counter supplied by NASA's Goddard center, and a Lockheed-made X-ray counter. But, the main experiment, a set of seven telescopes designed to look in the ultraviolet spectrum, provided by the University of Wisconsin, was duplicated for OAO-2.
This telescope cluster will be used for long-term observation of individual stars, something that only recently became possible with the perfection of star tracking technology. In addition, the Smithsonian has provided an additional package of four telescopes for the investigation of large masses of stars, up to 700 per day, to get an overall UV map of the sky.
Think of how revolutionary it was when the first radio observatories began mapping the heavens. We learned about the existence of quasars and weird storms on Jupiter and also a lot more about the stars we had been observing visually for centuries. Stargazer is about to give us a whole new view of the universe.
That's exciting—truly science fiction made fact!
Jeepers Creepers
While we wait to see what excitement OAO 2 returns from the heavens, let's turn to the latest F&SF to see what terrestrial treasures await us this month.
We return to the world of "The Lady in the Tower", one of my favorite McCaffrey stories, for the lead story this issue.
Damia, the daughter of that first story's protagonist, is 20 and humanity's strongest telepath. As tempestuous as she is beautiful and brilliant, she has refused the attentions of men, holding out for something…better.
That's when she meets Sodan, an alien inexorably approaching the Terran sphere from far, intragalactic space. Thus ensues a completely mental courtship, and Damia becomes infatuated with the foreign entity. But Afra, an experienced mentalist, who has been secretly in love with Damia for ages, is suspicious. What if the being is simply manipulating Damia so that Earth's greatest defense will be neutralized?
The stage is set for a cosmic battle, and a realignment of Damia's priorities.
I really wanted to like this story. I was anticipating an "Is There in Truth no Beauty?" romance where two beings find love despite fundamental physical differences. Instead, the viewpoint shifts from Damia's to Afra's early on, and all we get is his certainty that Sodan is up to no good, which is vindicated. Then, after the battle, Damia realizes the worthy that's been under her nose this entire time and, of course, gives him her love.
Of late, there has been a shallowness to the emotion displayed in McCaffrey's writing that just puts me off. Also, a sort of petty volatility. All of her characters snipe at each other constantly. But the real nadir of the story comes at the end:
Shyly, her fingers plucking nervously at her blanket, Damia was unable to look away from an Afra who had altered disturbingly. Damia tried to contemplate the startling change. Unable to resort to a mental touch, she saw Afra for the first time with only physical sight. And he was suddenly a very different man. A man! That was it. He was so excessively masculine.
How could she have blundered around so, looking for a mind that was superior to hers, completely overlooking the fact that a woman's primary function in life begins with physical submission?
I feel like if Piers Anthony had written that, we'd have given him the Queen Bee. Two stars.
A Brook in Vermont, by L. Sprague de Camp
De Camp muses poetically on the Carboniferous, and what future beings, millions of years hence, will burn the coal being formed today.
I think the author missed a real opportunity to imply that we would be the anthracite mined in the far future, suggesting that we run the very real risk of leaving nothing to the ages but our combustibility.
Three stars as is.
by Gahan Wilson
Black Snowstorm, by D. F. Jones
This is nothing more, nothing less, than an extremely well-told story of a plague of locusts. There's no satire, no metaphor, no literary experiments. Both shoes drop simultaneously, though slowly, gradually, rivetingly.
Five stars.
Unidentified Fallen Object, by Sydney Van Scyoc
One day, a small UFO falls with the snow, and a precocious teen boy picks it up to examine. As he handles the small craft, flakes of it come off, perhaps sliding into his very pores. Soon, he begins to radiate a frightful miasma, inciting hatred in all approach him.
Including his teacher, who has also touched the fell ship…
"Object" is a chilling, effectively written little horror. It's not particularly to my taste, and it's a bit one-note, so it's just a three-star story for me. Others may find more to like (for those who enjoy a sense of dread).
How I Take Their Measure , by K. M. O'Donnell
In the future, everybody's on relief…or administering it. This is a little slice-of-life story about a sadistic relief worker, who gets off on the tenterhooks he hangs his relief applicants on. No Brock, George C. Scott's kindhearted social worker from East-Side, West-Side; this guy is a real bastard.
This is my favorite story about terminal unemployment that I've read since one in IF a decade ago (the one about the guy who gets a job tightening all the screws on the buildings in the cities—which have been systematically unscrewed by some other schnook the night before…).
Here's St. Nick like you've never seen him before. In the style of Ian Fleming's James Bond series (though not Edward S. Aaron's Sam Durrell, Harlan offers up Agent Kris Kringle, a hard-stomached, oversexed, lean killer whose red suit is filled with every lethal device known to Elfkind. His nemesis is S.P.I.D.E.R., an international organization devoted to evil. This time, their nefarious scheme involves mind control: they have brainwashed LBJ, HHH, Nixon, Daley, Reagan, and Wallace into doing the most horrid deeds, and only the jolly agent from the North Pole can defeat them.
Okay, it's a bunch of silly fluff, probably written between bonafide adventure yarns Ellison probably writes under another name like "Rod Richards" or "Length Peters". I did appreciate how every cruddy thing in the world is ultimately attributable to S.P.I.D.E.R.—humanity is basically good and cuddly. Only the nefarious "them" subvert our goodness.
I've often noted that comic books and spy novels offer an easy way out for readers. It's tough to deal with everyday problems, with economic malaise, with systemic issues that cause crime and misery. How much easier to topple the goon of the week to get our cathartic kicks. Ellison lets us know he understands the flavor of his own cheek with the subtlety within the broadness.
That said, it's a one-note joke, and once you've gotten the punchline, I don't think the story bears much rereading, especially since it is so very much of a very specific moment in our history (as Judith Merril notes in her book column, August 1968 already feels like an age ago).
Three stars.
The Dance of the Satellites, by Isaac Asimov
The Good Doctor continues his examination (see last month's piece) of what the Galilean moons of Jupiter might look like from the innermost moon, Amalthea. This time, he focuses on eclipses, the appearance of the moons in Jupiter-shine, and more.
Interesting cosmic data, of use to writers and laymen alike. Four stars.
The Legend and the Chemistry, by Arthur Sellings
The 3607th (or was it 3608th) interstellar exploration mission from Earth seems like it will be yet another humdrum operation. In all the expeditions, though many aliens have been found (most humanoid), all have been planetbound, none of them having reached our space traveling level of technology.
This latest planet is no exception, its humaniform denizens possessing a primitive tribal culture. But they have no less pride than any other race. What happens when the very existence of far superior beings constitutes an unpardonable affront? And who is responsible for the catastrophe that ensues?
A decent, moralistic yarn from the late, great Arthur Sellers. This may well be his last work published (unless he has a posthumous career like Richard McKenna) as he died recently. While Legend is not the best thing he's ever written, it has its own kind of power.
Three stars.
Wild ride
There are a lot of vicissitudes in this first F&SF of the year. The strong points cancel the weak points, and the magazine ends in positive territory, but because the lack of consistency makes things a bit sloggish.
Well, that's why I do this, right? To be your guide to ensure you only get the highlights!
Arthur Sellings Double Feature
I was sad to read in last month’s Science Fiction Times of the death of Arthur Sellings at only 47. His is a name not well known enough outside of the UK.
Just some of the markets from the early-mid 50s publishing Sellings
His story follows the standard pattern of many of the current crop of great SF writers. He began at the start of the 50s magazine boom, being published first in the British magazine Authentic in 1953. He then became a regular contributor to H. L. Gold’s Galaxy, going on to appear in many of the major US publications.
He continued to be published in the 3 major UK magazines as well as starting on his own novels
As the magazine market contracted, he was concentrated largely in the British publications of Carnell and Moorcock, but also branched out into paperback novels.
In spite of getting well reviewed works coming out of Ballantine and occasional appearances in Pohl’s various periodicals, most SF fans across the pond would probably have no recollection of the fellow. His death marks a double shame as he was as prolific as ever and British writers, finally, seem to be getting more acceptance in America.
Yet it should not be thought he was a Moorcockian New Waver. Seven months before Ballard published his famous Which Way to Inner Space? in New Worlds, Sellings used the same editorial column to suggest his own vision to save SF, entitled Where Now?. Here is an extract:
The Next Revolution…is a return to roots…I am certainly not advocating a return to the rudimentary kind of s-f in which a professor holds up everything for two or three pages, while he explains it all to his idiot daughter…But a story should be intelligible – in itself – without reference to any other…Science fiction has become too glib. That sense of wonder is the prime thing which s-f can offer to the new-comer. If it doesn’t that is one more reason for him to turn away.
….Earth Abides, a ‘simple’ story on a theme as old as Noah. Yet it was new – and just as compelling for the fan as for the general reader…All the basic themes can similarly and profitably be investigated.
So, what has that meant in practice? Well, his best works have often dealt with familiar ideas but trying to consider *how* this might play out to an ordinary person. Silent Speakers looks at how having some limited telepathy could affect an individual, much in the manner of Wells’ Invisible Man, whilst The Last Time Around, uses the time dilation effect to look at how the traveller into the future would struggle to adjust to social changes and maintain relationships.
This year he released two of his best works, a short story collection and a novel. So, let's pour one out for Arthur and dive into his books:
The Power of X by Arthur Sellings
Cover by Richard Weaver
In 2014 “Plying” was developed, the ability to duplicate an object exactly by taking it out of the fourth dimension. Although it could not be done infinitely, this created a large secondary market for Plied paintings, where someone may pay higher amounts for an original in order to make their money back via Plying twelve copies. Of course, the process is expensive and highly regulated.
Four years later, Max Afford, the new owner of Gallery O, discovers he has the unusual ability to detect whether or not a painting is Plied by touch. This would have turned out to be little more than a curiosity if it wasn’t for him being invited to meet the President of Europe…only to discover he is just a Plied copy of the original.
Everyone tells Max that it is not scientifically possible, yet he can sense it has been done. Who could do such a thing? And why?
Around 30 years ago Walter Benjamin wrote The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Last year, Andy Warhol created 10 portraits of Marilyn Monroe through mechanical printing. So, whilst “Plying” may not be quite available today, the questions being grappled with are contemporary ones.
This work touches on the nature of reality, what is lost when something is duplicated and the aura that we have around certain objects. These are heady subjects, but Sellings displays his usual skill to make them understandable and fit them into a science fictional framework without it descending into a word salad of gobbledygook.
At the same time, it is a well-paced conspiracy thriller that does a wonderful job creating the world of a 21st century united European republic. As you are quickly going on with the plot, someone will give away they are from London by using the metric system in East Anglia, where the locals generally do not. The feel is closer to The Great Escape than 2001: A Space Odyssey.
It should also not go unnoticed that Sellings has a wonderful turn of phrase, and some parts are deliciously funny such as:
The ‘package’ must be something special, or she would have simply brought it in to me. What was it? A three-ton hunk of concrete by Harold Bleckstein? He was in the middle of a three-ton concrete period just then and had an artist’s fine disregard for such small details as phoning to let you know the latest was on the way.
Or
‘Not a patch on that brewery, was it, Ada?’ I don’t know what they had expected. Free samples?
Add into this multiple fleshed-out women characters and some very progressive attitudes on display and I am more than happy to give this a full five stars.
The Long Eureka by Arthur Sellings
Cover by Richard Weaver
His second short story collection covers from where the last one left off, in 1956, going up to 1964, along with a couple of originals.
Blank Form
Illustration by Martinez, from Galaxy
Originally published in July 1958 Galaxy, Sellings tells of Fletcher, a psychologist who believes he has run down a man with his car. It turns out that the victim is not only uninjured, but is actually an amnesiac shape-shifter. Being a psychologist, Fletcher does not wish to hurt or profit by this fellow, but to help him.
This is a perfect example of what Sellings does so well. Take a standard SFnal concept and bring it into a much more ordinary mode, looking at how different people might react in an uncliched manner. The ending feels a bit incomplete but still a strong tale.
Four Stars
The Scene Shifter
Cover Artist Unknown
Possibly the high point of his American career. This story was published in Star Science Fiction #5, between Daniel F. Galouye & Rosel George Brown.
When actor Boyd Corry goes to see one of his films, he finds it has been changed from a drama to a broad comedy. Soon it happens again, where an ordinary romantic comedy is changed to pornography. These shots were not filmed and the reels themselves have not been tampered with. What could be causing this?
At first this seems like a slight tale about the movie industry, something of a piece with The Time-Machined Saga, but it evolves into something deeper. It looks at the relationship between the audience and the picture, asking who really has control of a story.
Four Stars
One Across
Illustration by Cal, from Galaxy
Jumping back to earlier in Selling’s career, One Across was originally published in May 1956’s Galaxy.
Norman is addicted to crosswords, doing more and more challenging puzzles. In the most fiendish puzzle yet, he discovers it can only be solved by utilizing four dimensions. This realization causes him to be transported to another dimension, a desert plain inhabited by people who have solved complex problems. They are building a utopia and need him for one purpose, breeding.
This does feel like it is from a writer’s earlier career, more what you might see turn up in an If First. It has a good style and some interesting ideas but none of them are properly explored.
Two Stars
The Well-Trained Heroes
Illustration by Jack Gaughan, from Galaxy
Now for a more recent piece, covered by the Journey in the review of Galaxy June 1964. Our esteemed editor synopsized it well , so I am not going to be repetitious.
We are also in agreement in our thoughts on the story. The central concept, a kind of reverse The Space Merchants, is a good one, but the story is too long and rambling, with the decision to make it told predominantly through dialogue making it all far too expository.
A low Three Stars
Homecoming
In this previously unpublished work, Sellings once again makes use of an amnesiac. Sam Bishop wakes up after a car smash with only the vaguest memories of his life. Having lost his legs in the accident, Sam finds himself growing restless without a job. And, in spite of how nice everyone in Greenville seems, he can’t help but feel something is wrong.
Whilst using what would seem to be a Twilight Zone style of setup, we get a much deeper exploration of a host of ideas such as, how we treat the disabled, what the difference is between reality and illusion, what really is a home?
A high Four Stars
The Long Eureka
Cover Art by Brian Lewis
Back to reprints, where the titular piece comes from August 1959’s Science Fantasy.
In 1820, Issac Reeves believes he has discovered the Elixir of Life. Unfortunately, no one believes him, in spite of the fact that he doesn’t seem to age. Convincing anyone else is going to take a very, very, very long time.
I have a soft spot for longitudinal tales of immortals, so this fitted right into my wheelhouse. Also, it manages to be both funny and tragic as Isaac struggles in vain to get anyone to believe him, with each successive generation having a new explanation for his claims.
Four Stars
Verbal Agreement
Illustration by Dick Francis, from Galaxy
Returning to Galaxy once more, with this story from September 1956.
Humphrey Spink is a poet in the 22nd Century, struggling to come up with something new to say. Seeking to broaden his horizons, he accepts a very curious job offer from Cosmic Developments Inc.: to try to find out how to purchase from the Vernans, a telepathic species that only have disdain for Earth’s technological progress.
This one of the many tales of the time trying to demonstrate an alien race totally different from our own, but it is a good example of the theme. Not a classic but enjoyable.
Four Stars
Trade-In
The other original tale in this collection is Sellings taking on robotics. When a newer robot model comes along to replace them, each robot has twenty-one days to find a new owner. The problem is, who wants an outdated creation?
This is a very affecting story giving real humanity to our creations. These armies of unemployed robots remind me of the great depression, where so many people needed work but could never find any. It brings the metaphor right back to its earliest roots and gives us a fascinating solution for Davie by the end.
Four Stars
Birthright
Illustration by Eddie Jones, from New Worlds
And finally, one of his first stories for New Worlds, from November 1956.
Farr finds himself in a white room tended by gods of metal. At first, he is hostile towards them but, eventually, he agrees to learn from them. Following his educational journey, we learn of his people’s origin and the purpose the gods have for him.
This is definitely a more experimental and controversial piece, with lines such as:
I anger again. God is evil god I hate god. I smash god face again.
At the same time, it touches on a number of thorny issues and delicious concepts. By the end I am not sure where I stood on any of the character’s choices, and it is all the better for it.
Five Stars
Hic jacet Arthurus, auctor quondam et auctor futurus*
So, there you have it. I hope I have shown he was a brilliant writer who has yet to have the full appreciation he deserves. Hopefully, like his legendary namesake, his reputation will rise in SF’s hour of need.
Awakened from his sleep by a nightmare, Jahalazar of the purple hair yet hears the cry of his kind:
Help us, Jahalazar, your people are dying.
So, Jahalazar, a warrior without peer, armed with Chernak, the Throwing Sword, and Lil Chernak, the Slitting Knife, he bids farewell to his adoptive home. The crude realm of Clan Chevy in the bowl of Bomb Valley is like a paradise compared to the the lands Jahalazar must travel—first to Sea City, where the fish-headed people fight off the rubber-suited Zharks and their fearsome weapons that project flesh-devouring Diss. Thence over mountains. Further over higher mountains on the back of friendly, giant spiders. Across the endless plains on which two mechanized armies are locked in eternal conflict.
And on and on, past volcanic and mutated horrors, into domains ruled by sadists, to others dominated by distorted but good souls, and always with the ever-evolving Diss, now sentient and bent on world conquest, nipping at his heels.
Ever in the background: what caused the Age of Ruin, and can humanity rebound from it?
Sounds pretty cool, doesn't it? This is yet another "after the apocalypse" novels, of which Spawn of the Death machine and Omha Abides are fine examples from just this year. Unfortunately, The Age of Ruin is not up to their caliber.
Oh, the writing's not bad, in a sort of derivative, pulpy style. The monsters, scenery, and scenes are pretty interesting. The problem is there's nothing holding them all together. Each chapter is a self-contained story, and ultimately, Jahalazar is a sort of sight-seer. It's almost like Danté's Inferno.
The other issue is that Faucette, the author, throws out all of these monstrosities and weird human nations without any thought of logistics. Here we have the equivalent of Harry Harrison's Deathworld in terms of lethal environment, yet somehow humans are growing food and supporting realms. Given that Jahalazar rarely has the opportunity to sleep, I'm not sure how people manage to do the mundane things that running a civilization requires.
This is Faucette's second book, his first being another Ace Double half, Crown of Infinity, released earlier this year. I haven't read that one so I can't compare, but now I'm mildly tempted.
If you wanted to see more of Helen, the 26-year old acrobatic agent who goes undercover as an 8-year old (first seen in" Fiesta Brava"), then this is your chance. Code Duello is the latest in Mack Reynolds' saga of the United Planets, a future setting in which humanity has spread to the stars, and each planet has the freedom to pursue whichever socioeconomic path it chooses. Usually, it's something modeled on Earth history, and it's often pretty extreme. Mostly, it's a chance for Reynolds to show off his knowledge of history and politics and take real-life societies to absurd extremes.
It's also an opportunity for spy high jinks. There is a race of aliens who inhabit the "Dawnworlds". They don't communicate with humans, but they possess far more power than humanity, and they have been known to destroy perceived competitors if they get too threatening. This is why Earth has set up Section G, a supersecret spy organization whose job is to subtly ensure that all of the planets, despite ostensibly being free from interference, are never allowed to backslide technologically or productively. The idea is that, if we are to have a chance against the Dawnworlders, we must always be progressing rather than sitting on our laurels.
The planet of the week is Firenze, a world based on Florence (of course). Its salient features are that everyone likes to resolve conflicts by dueling (and everyone is quick to want to duel) and the supposedly democratic world is actually a rigidly controlled dictatorship. There is supposedly an "Engelist" underground, always on the verge of taking over, yet no one, not even the government officials, know who the Engelists are, what they stand for, or if any have even been seen in the wild.
The agents who have been sent to Firenze to investigate the situation (actually, explicitly to help the current government against the rebels…which seems like jumping the gun since obviously little was known about the Florentine government or its supposed insurgency) are as follows: Helen, as mentioned above; Dorn, a brilliant algae biologist who also happens to be the strongest man in the galaxy; Zorro, who is a demon with a whip; and Jerry, whose signature feature is his unbeatable luck. Once again, we have the setup for a Retief-style zany adventure, and it is mildly amusing…for a little while. Additional mystery is added when Zorro finds that the Florentines seem to have knowledge of the Dawnworlds, which was supposed to be a carefully controlled United Planets state secret.
But eventually, I got tired of Helen snorting/sneering/smirking through every line, the historical screeds that would flow incongruously from the mouths of various characters (always with relevance to, say, someone who had traveled the world circa 1960), and the slapstick nature of the book. I finished, because I wanted to know how the mysteries ended, but it was definitely a story written on autopilot.
Two and a half stars.
by Victoria Silverwolf
Young and Old
Two new novels deal with the elderly and the young. Other than that, they could not be more different.
The first novel from this comic writer is a greatly expanded version of a story that appeared in the November 1967 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.
Cover art by Gray Morrow.
The Noble Editor didn't care for the novelette when it first appeared. Will the long version be any better or worse?
Cover art by Seymour Chwast.
Ben Jolson is an interplanetary secret agent. As a member of the Chameleon Corps, he has the ability to change his appearance at will. He can look like anybody or anything. He's had a couple of other misadventures prior to this one.
Military officers have vanished. It seems that so-called pacifists are trying to prevent the Barnum system of planets from conquering Earth. Ben's job is to find out who's responsible and stop them.
(I guess this explains the otherwise obscure title. Making a sword disappear is kind of like making a soldier disappear, I suppose.)
At this point, I expected a satire of militarism, given the fact that the bad guys are pacifists and the good guys are attacking Earth with deadly force. It didn't quite work out that way.
Ben disguises himself as a very old man and sets out for a rejuvenation center on a planet that also serves as a gigantic cemetery. He gets mixed up with a female secret agent who is on his side, but who isn't part of the Chameleon Corps.
Following the clue he finds there, he changes into a young person and infiltrates a group of beatnik/hippie/folk singer types. From there, he goes to the huge cemetery to confront the guy behind the disappearances. Along the way he has to rescue the female agent.
That's the plot of the novelette, as well as the beginning and end of the novel. What's been added to increase the word length is Ben's involvement with a computer that acts as a crime boss. There's some other stuff, too.
The book didn't amuse me. If you think it's funny that Ben beats the computer at Monopoly, you may get a kick out of it.
It doesn't work as action/adventure/suspense, because Ben immediately gets out of trouble every time the bad guys get the upper hand, either by changing his shape or just by using his fists.
It fails as satire for a couple of reasons. The supposed pacifists turn out to be intent on arming Earth against the invaders. That undermines any Orwellian War is Peace theme. The portraits of the elderly and the young are just silly rather than biting.
The best I can say about the novel is that it's a very fast, easy read. The breakneck pace is similar to one of Keith Laumer's yarns.
As far as I can tell, the only other work of fiction by this author is a novel that came out twenty years ago. (There may be some short stories of which I am not aware.) She's much better known for nonfiction, and has a reputation for being an acerbic social critic.
Cover art by Robert Hallock.
Her first novel was a ghost story, in which a dead woman looks back on her life. Maybe she'll publish another one in 1988. For now, we've got a dark vision of the near future.
Photograph of the author by Alex Gotfryd.
The fact that the cover depicts the author is our first hint that this isn't a typical science fiction novel. That seems more appropriate for a book of essays or some such. Her warm smile doesn't fit with the mood of the book either.
Not many years from now, people who are fifty years old are forced to retire and live in segregated communities, cut off from contact of any kind with younger folks. At the age of sixty, they have to pass a physical exam or else be forced to choose between suicide or execution by the government. At sixty-five, not even a clean bill of health can save them from mandatory death.
(Shades of Wild in the Streets, with its concentration camps for people over thirty-five years of age! Despite similar themes, that movie and this novel are quite different experiences.)
The narrator is one of five people living in a house by the sea. (As a special privilege, the government allows these creative types to dwell there instead of the usual ghetto for old folks. The house used to belong to the narrator and her husband, who killed himself when the youth movement seized power.)
Besides the narrator, who was a journalist, we have a painter, his model, a composer of classical music, and a writer of popular songs. The latter is also the narrator's current lover. The composer had a much younger wife who lived with the others for a while, but soon left to be with folks in her own age group.
I should also mention the narrator's dog, the composer's cat, and the bird that belongs to the painter and the model, because they are important characters as well.
Besides providing the reader with exposition, the narrator records the philosophical discussions and arguments among the five, often quoting them at length.
(The author does a fine job of making their voices distinct. The painter is angry and bitter, his speech full of profanity. The model speaks simply and emotionally. The composer is elegant and intellectual. The songwriter is witty and satiric.)
As you might be able to tell, much of the book consists of talk. The characters discuss what went wrong with society, and how it might be cured. Don't expect a lot of action.
An odd plot twist occurs late in the book. A beautiful, dark-skinned young man shows up, apparently washed up by the ocean. He doesn't speak, and his origin remains a mystery. The novel ends with a group decision by the five elders.
Besides dealing with the youth movement and attacking the way it disregards the past, the book also raises a lot of other issues. Art, music, politics, and education are discussed at length.
In addition to this rather dry material, there's some beautiful writing about the seashore, which the author obviously loves.
Not for all tastes, to be sure! I suspect a lot of readers will be bored to tears by all the talk, and find the unexplained arrival of the young man baffling.
Young Heintje followed up the success of "Mama" with a Christmas album entitled Weihnachten mit Heintje (Christmas with Heintje) where he sings traditional German Christmas carols. He also has a new single out called "Heidschi Bumbeidschi", which is even more painfully saccharine than "Mama", if that's possible. It is not a Christmas song, but a traditional Bohemian lullaby, which unfortunately does not stop West German radio stations from playing "Heidschi Bumbeidschi" in continuous rotation in the run-up to the holidays.
Hein Simons is clearly a very talented young man. I just hope that he eventually gets to sing songs that are more appropriate to a modern teenager.
Off With His Head
During the latest visit to my trusty import bookstore, I spotted a familiar name in the paperback spinner rack, namely L. Sprague De Camp, who has been editing and tinkering with the Conan reprints for Lancer Books. However, this time around, it wasn't another Conan book, but an original fantasy novel by L. Sprague De Camp called The Goblin Tower. The striking cover by J. Jones, probably the most talented new artist to emerge in recent times, drew me in and the blurb on the back sounded intriguing as well, so I picked the book up as a St. Nicholas Day present to myself. So let's see how L. Sprague De Camp does when he is not messing with Conan…
After a dedication to De Camp's fellow swashbuckler Lin Carter and a map of Novaria, the setting of the tale, The Goblin Tower certainly starts off with a bang or rather a chop, since Jorian, the current king of the city of Xylar, is about to be executed in front of the city gates. For in Xylar, it is custom to publicly behead the king every five years. Whoever catches the severed head shall become the new king, until it is his turn to mount the scaffold.
As methods of selecting a government go, this one is rather bloody and not particularly efficient, though it does prevent the establishment of tyranny, because every ruler comes with a built-in expiration date, as well as bloody wars of succession. Also kudos to L. Sprague De Camp for remembering that a monarchy is not necessarily hereditary; for example the Holy Roman Empire initially was not.
Jorian seems resigned to his fate and sanguine enough, even though he never desired to be king in the first place. Nor has he any intention to lose his head and so Jorian tricks the executioner and assembled populace of Xylar and escapes his own beheading with the aid of the wizard Karadur and his magical rope trick, which allows Jorian to climb away from the scaffold into what his people view as the afterlife.
This Never Happened to Conan
The "afterlife" in which Jorian briefly finds himself turns out to be our modern world. Worse, poor Jorian materialises in the grassy median strip of a highway and almost gets run over by a car – not that Jorian knows what a car is; he initially thinks it's a monster before realising that it is a vehicle. Jorian also meets a police officer in his brief sojourn in the modern world, though he mistakes the man for a carpenter, since Jorian has never seen a gun before, but finds that it looks like a carpenter's tool.
L. Sprague De Camp is a more humorous and satirical writer than Robert E. Howard was (though Howard could be very funny as well, e.g. in his Sailor Steve Costigan stories), which means that their styles don't always mesh well in the posthumous Conan collaborations. However, the brief interlude of our modern world seen through the eyes of a Barbarian king from a fantasy world plays to De Camp's strengths. The scene is hilarious, though De Camp can't resist adding some of his own opinions about the shortcomings of our world. It's also impossible to imagine anything like this ever happening to Conan.
L. Sprague De Camp
A Quest and a Roadtrip
Alas, Jorian's sojourn in the modern world is short-lived, before he returns to his own world to meet up with Karadur. He also learns that the wizard didn't just save Jorian's life out of the goodness of his heart. No, there is a price. Karadur wants Jorian to help him retrieve a chest full of magical manuscripts called the Kist of Arvlen and bring it to a conclave of wizards at the titular Goblin Tower.
So Jorian and Karadur set off on their quest and now we learn the reason for the map at the beginning of the book, 'cause the pair will visit every single location marked thereon, have adventures and get entangled with beautiful women, vile wizards, and treacherous nobles, all the while pursued by Xylarian soldiers who want to recapture their errant king for his beheading. Along the way, Jorian rescues twelve slave girls from a brotherhood of retired executioners, once he realises that the executioners want to use them for practice to keep their skills sharp, and steals the Kist of Arvlen from the bedchamber of a shape-shifting serpent princess. He narrowly escapes being sacrificed to a jungle god and takes part in a heist to steal the statue of a frog god, replacing it with a real frog, much to the confusion of the worshippers.
Finally, Jorian and Karadur and the Kist of Arvlen make it to the conclave of wizards at the Goblin Tower, which turns out to be an edifice constructed from real goblins, who have been turned to stone by magic. What could possibly go wrong with holding a wizard symposium in such a place?
A Meandering Tale
Jorian and Karadur's adventures are a lot of fun, but they are also meandering and episodic to the point that every chapter seems more like a standalone short story than part of a greater whole. The fact that Jorian, who is more Sheherazade than Conan, frequently regales the people he meets by telling stories reinforces that episodic and picaresque feel of the novel.
However, this fault is not unique to The Goblin Tower, but appears to be a structural issue with the entire genre that Fritz Leiber dubbed "sword and sorcery". Born in the pages of Weird Tales almost forty years ago, sword and sorcery is a genre of short, fast adventures. Whether it's Robert E. Howard's tales of Conan the Cimmerian or Kull of Atlantis, Fritz Leiber's stories about Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser or the dreamlike adventures of C.L. Moore's Jirel of Joiry, all of these characters initially appeared in short stories and novellas, and modern heroes in the same mode such as Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melniboné, Roger Zelazny's Dilvish the Damned or John Jakes' Brak the Barbarian follow suit.
However, the genre landscape has changed since the heyday of the pulps and the dominant form – particularly for fantasy – is now the novel. Of course, there are sword and sorcery novels, from Robert E. Howard's The Hour of the Dragon a.k.a. Conan the Conqueror via Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword, Björn Nyberg's The Return of Conan a.k.a. Conan the Avenger, Michael Moorcock's Stormbringerand Lin Carter's A Wizard of Lemuria all the way to Fritz Leiber's Swords of Lankhmar, Joanna Russ' Picnic on Paradise and De Camp and Carter's Conan of the Isles. Having read and enjoyed several of these novels, it's notable that many of them tend to be very episodic and feel like fix-ups, even if they aren't. This makes sense in the case of The Hour of the Dragon, which was after all serialised in Weird Tales, or Swords of Lankhmar, the first part of which appeared as a standalone novella in Fantastic. But The Goblin Tower is a paperback original that was never serialised anywhere, so why is it structured like a serial?
Nonetheless, The Goblin Tower is a highly enjoyable novel, which allows De Camp to show off his humorous side, something he rarely has the opportunity to do with the Conan stories. Furthermore, the open ending is very much begging for a sequel and I for one will certainly pick it up.
Four stars
This year's collectible Christmas plate by the china manufacturer Rosenthal depicts Bremen's market place in the snow – a rare sight indeed.
Ateempted arsonists Thorwald Proll, Hans Söhnlein, Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin in court.
The four arsonists – Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, Thorwald Proll and Hans Söhnlein – just had their day in court and decided to make a spectacle out of it. And so the four refused to stand up when the judge addressed them, they wore sunglasses and smoked cigarettes in court and answered even basic questions with nonsense. Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin, who are lovers even though they both have children with other people, even made out in court. As a result, Andreas Baader and Hans Söhnlein found themselves jailed for contempt of court on the first day of the trial.
Lovers Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin make out in court.
Nor were the four in any way remorseful, but claimed that the attempted arson was a revolutionary act against capitalist consumption which is designed to destroy wealth by persuading people to buy things they don't need. Unsurprisingly, that defence did not stand up in court.
The trial ended as was to be expected, with the four young arsonists sentenced to three years in prison each, which prompted Thorwald Proll to threaten to burn down the courthouse, once again demonstrating his utter lack of remorse.
A Hail of Cobblestones
Only four days after the end of the arson trial, one of the lawyers involved, 32-year-old Horst Mahler, found himself on trial in West Berlin, about to have his licence revoked for taking part in the violent protests after the shooting of student activist Rudi Dutschke.
Lawyer Horst Mahler on his way to court with his clients, Kommune 1 members Fritz Teufel and Rainer Langhans.
Horst Mahler has represented many leftwing activists in court and so about one thousand young people gathered outside the courthouse in the Charlottenburg neighbourhood of West Berlin to protest Mahler's treatment by the legal system. Sadly, as has happened with so many protests in recent times, the situation quickly escalated into violence.
But while in most cases, the violence was instigated by the police, this time around the police were the victims. For a truck transporting cobblestones happened to end up directly in the middle of the protest – ironically after the police refused to let him take an alternate route according to truck driver Egon H. The protesters quickly availed themselves of the truck's cargo and began pelting the police officers with cobblestones. As a result, 130 police officers were injured, ten of them were hospitalised.
Cobblestones litter the streets of the West Berlin neighbourhood of Charlottenburg in the aftermath of what has become known as the battle of the Tegeler Weg.
A Satisfying Slap
One of Horst Mahler's clients is Beate Klarsfeld, a 29-year-old French-German journalist and political activist. In 1960, Beate Klarsfeld spent a year as an au-pair in Paris, where she met Holocaust survivor Serge Klarsfeld, fell in love and eventually got married.
Horst Mahler and his client Beate Klarsfeld.
Her marriage to a Holocaust survivor turned Beate Klarsfeld into an activist against former Nazis holding political offices in West Germany. Sadly, there are many of those, including the current chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger.
When Kiesinger visited Paris in January 1967, Beate Klarsfeld wrote several articles for the French magazine Combat, detailing Kiesinger's actions during the Third Reich. Those articles cost Beate Klarsfeld her job, so she started agitating even more against Kiesinger.
Beate Klarsfeld yells "Resign, Nazi" from the public gallery of the West German parliament building in Bonn and is restrained by a security guard.Beate Klarsfeld is removed from parliament after yelling "Resign, Nazi" at Kiesinger.
In April, Beate Klarsfeld yelled "Resign, Nazi" at Kiesinger from the public gallery of the West German parliament and was promptly arrested. Then, five days ago, Beate Klarsfeld stormed the stage during a party convention in West Berlin, yelled "Nazi, Nazi" and slapped Kiesinger. Kurt Georg Kiesinger suffered a black eye, while Beate Klarsfeld was arrested and sentenced to one year in prison on the very same day. However, because Mrs. Klarsfeld is a French citizen ever since her marriage, she is currently free.
Current West German chancellor and former Nazi Kurt Georg Kiesinger is treated for his black eye after being slapped by Beate Klarsfeld.
As someone who intensely dislikes Kurt Georg Kiesinger and considers him unfit for one of the highest offices in the land, because he is not just very stupid, but a former Nazi besides, I have to admit that I was inwardly cheering when I heard about the slap. Normally, I am not in favour political violence, but the many articles Beate Klarsfeld wrote about Kiesinger's Nazi past failed to have an impact, so she resorted to a more physical form of protest and I for one cannot fault her.
The Barbarian King
Besides, Kiesinger got off lightly with only a black eye, compared to Numidides, the tyrannical ruler of the prehistoric kingdom of Aquilonia, who was slain by his former general Conan the Cimmerian, whereupon Conan crowned himself king.
Lancer is truly doing Crom's work in reprinting Robert E. Howard's classic tales of Conan the Cimmerian, which were previously only available in the yellowing pages of more than thirty year old issues of Weird Tales or in the equally hard to find Gnome Press editions of the 1950s, in paperback form with striking covers by Frank Frazetta and John Duillo.
The Lancer Conan series also includes four complete stories that were never published in Howard's lifetime. Furthermore, series editor L. Sprague De Camp and the indefatigable Lin Carter have taken it upon themselves to complete several fragmentary Conan stories in a process they call "posthumous collaboration".
The results are a mixed bag. Even the weaker of the original Robert E. Howard tales from Weird Tales are highly entertaining, while the best are absolutely stellar. Of the Conan stories that were never published in Howard's lifetime, three are good – my favourite is "The God in the Bowl", a traditional locked room murder mystery featuring Conan as one of the suspects – but one story, "The Vale of Lost Women" is weak and shows that sometimes, stories remain unpublished for a reason. Similarly, the posthumous collaborations based on unfinished fragments once again includes some very good stories – "The Things in the Crypt", in which Conan hides in an ancient tomb and finds himself battling its mummified occupant, stands out – and some which remind us that sometimes, stories remain unfinished for a reason.
Last year, I reviewed the first two Conan volumes published by Lancer. Since then, seven more volumes have come out, assembling Howard's stories into chronological order, following Conan's life from teenaged thief to middle-aged King of Aquilonia. Howard himself wrote the stories out of order, as if recounting stories told in a bar by an old adventurer of dubious veracity. And so "The Phoenix of the Sword", the first Conan story to be published in the December 1932 issue of Weird Tales, is actually set fairly late in Conan's career, when he has just become King of Aquilonia.
The correct chronological order of the Conan stories has been debated for more than thirty years now. Even Howard himself weighed in towards the end of his too short life, in response to a fan letter by P. Schuyler Miller and John D. Clark, which was reprinted in the first of Lancer's Conan collections. But while fans might debate the correct order of the stories, it is generally agreed that the only novel-length Conan tale, The Hour of the Dragon, republished as Conan the Conqueror, is chronologically the last of the original Howard stories. And what a story it is.
A Ravaged Land
The Hour of the Dragon opens with four conspirators resurrecting the ancient sorcerer Xaltotun to enlist his aid in overthrowing Conan, King of Aquilonia. Not long thereafter, the armies of Aquilonia and its eastern neighbour Nemedia meet on the battlefield. Conan is planning to lead the charge, but just before the battle, he is struck down by Xaltotun's sorcery and taken prisoner, while his forces are vanquished. If the opening feels a little familiar, maybe that's because it is, for something very similar happened to Conan in "The Scarlet Citadel", which was reprinted in the previous volume Conan the Usurper.
Conan is thrown into a monster-infested dungeon in Nemedia, but manages to escape with the help of a slave girl named Zenobia. He is forced to leave Zenobia behind, but promises to come back for her. It's a promise he will keep.
Margaret Brundage's cover art for the December 1935 issue of Weird Tales depicts Zenobia freeing Conan from the dungeon.
But first Conan returns to Aquilonia, only to find that Nemedian soldiers are ransacking the land and that Valerius, a descendant of Numidides, has taken the throne and is abusing the populace.
The scenes of Conan racing through the ravaged Aquilonia to return to his capital and his people are some of the best in the novel. The visceral descriptions of burned fields and pillaged villages will feel eerily familiar to anybody who has seen the devastation of World War II in Europe, even though The Hour of the Dragon predates the beginning of the war by almost four years. The sense of doom and despair and also sheer anger Conan feels at seeing the people he considers 'his' hurt are palpable.
It would be wise for Conan to keep a low profile, but standing by as his people are abused is not Conan's style. And so he saves an elderly witch from being lynched by Nemedian soldiers and later rescues the Countess Albiona, an Aquilonian noblewoman about to be executed for her continued loyalty to Conan, from the headsman's block… while disguised as the executioner.
Ed Emshwiller's cover for the Ace Double edition of Conan the Conqueror shows Conan rescuing the Countess Albiona from execution.
Conan the Anti-Imperialist
Conan and Albiona make it to Poitain, the one Aquilonian province that is still free and resisting the onslaught of Valerius and the Nemedian soldiers. Count Trocero, ruler of Poitain and Conan's friend, suggests that Conan forget about the rest of Aquilonia, proclaim himself King of Poitain and carve out a new kingdom for himself from the neighbouring lands. However, this is a moment where Conan says something remarkable.
"Let others dream imperial dreams. I but wish to hold what is mine. I have no desire to rule an empire welded together by blood and fire. It's one thing to seize a throne with the aid of its subjects and rule them with their consent. It's another to subjugate a foreign realm and rule it by fear. I don't wish to be another Valerius. No, Trocero, I'll rule all Aquilonia and no more, or I'll rule nothing."
This clear repudiation of any imperialist ambitions also means that Conan the Conqueror, the title De Camp and Lancer bestowed on the novel, is a misnomer, because Conan is clearly not interested in conquering anything, he just wants his kingdom back.
Conan's Greatest Hits
However, in order to regain his kingdom, Conan first needs to find a magical gem called the Heart of Ahriman that was stolen by his enemies. So Conan sets off in pursuit and revisits the stations of his previous career as thief, mercenary soldier and pirate. While highly entertaining, these sections also feel very episodic, probably because The Hour of the Dragon was originally serialised over five issues of Weird Tales.
However, in the end Conan regains both the jewel and his throne. As for the slave girl Zenobia who helped him escape from the Nemedian dungeon, Conan has not forgotten about her, but vows to make her his queen.
All of Robert E. Howard's original Conan stories are good, but The Hour of the Dragon a.k.a. Conan the Conqueror stands a cut above the rest, probably because it revisits and combines elements and ideas from many of the previous stories.
Five stars.
The Further Adventures of Conan
Stirring as The Hour of the Dragon might be, fans have nonetheless wondered for more thirty years now what happened afterwards. Did Conan and his Queen Zenobia enjoy a long and peaceful reign, only to finally die of old age in bed? Cause that doesn't sound like the Cimmerian Barbarian we all know and love at all.
The first person who attempted to answer that question was a Swedish fan named Björn Nyberg who wrote a novel called The Return of Conan in 1957. It was republished as part of the Lancer line as Conan the Avenger.
The Return of Conan begins shortly after the events of The Hour of the Dragon. As promised, Conan returns the captured King Tarascus to Nemedia and fetches the slave girl Zenobia to make her his queen. The royal couple enjoy a few months of love and peace, until disaster strikes in the form of a winged demon who snatches Zenobia from the royal palace.
Of course, Conan sets off in pursuit which leads him to Khitai, the Hyborian age equivalent of China, whence the evil sorcerer Yah Chieng has abducted Zenobia. Along the way, Conan has many adventures, meets old and new friends and also reconnects (in the most physical sense of the word) with his old flame Yasmina, Queen of Vendya, from "People of the Black Circle". However, Conan is no longer a free Barbarian but a married man now. And so he travels onwards to Khitai and rescues Zenobia in the nick of time, just as she is about to be sacrificed to some Lovecraftian horror, a scene Frank Frazetta illustrates on the cover in his inimitable way.
The Return of Conan is a perfectly serviceable sword and sorcery adventure, but it is only a pale imitation of the real thing. Particularly grating is that the Cimmerian deity Crom, who has previously been portrayed as an absent god who does not respond to prayers, directly aids Conan in the finale via some divine intervention.
Three stars.
Conan Goes West
For eleven years, it seemed as if The Return of Conan would be the final adventure of the Cimmerian Barbarian. This year, however, L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter decided to give Conan one last adventure in Conan of the Isles.
Conan of the Isles is set roughly twenty years after the events of The Hour of the Dragon and The Return of Conan. Conan is in his mid sixties by now and feeling his age. He is still King of Aquilonia, but these days there are not many challenges for a man like Conan, since he has long since dealt with any would-be usurper or aggressive neighbour. Peace reigns in Aquilonia, but while this is good for the realm, it's not good for one as restless as Conan.
What is more, Conan's Queen Zenobia died, while giving birth to his daughter. I understand why De Camp and Carter chose to write out Zenobia – death in childbirth was depressingly common even fifty years ago and Conan would never have abandoned his wife for further adventures – but killing her off-page nonetheless grates. Furthermore, there is Conan's daughter, who must still be quite young at this point. And I cannot imagine Conan abandoning his children either.
For this unnamed daughter (and couldn't Carter and De Camp at least come up with a name?) is not Conan's only child. He and Zenobia also had a son, Prince Conn, who is about twenty at the beginning of Conan of the Isles and clearly old enough to take over.
Things come to a head, when ghostly beings called the Red Shadows begin abducting Aquilonian citizens and even snatch Conan's old friend Count Trocero of Poitain directly from the royal palace in front of Conan's eyes.
Once again, it takes the abduction of one of Conan's close associates to propel him into action and leave Aquilonia. And so Conan abdicates the throne in favour of his son Conn, hires a pirate crew and sails westwards across the great uncharted ocean that we know as the Atlantic in pursuit of the red shadows and their master, the evil wizard Xotli, a descendant of the people of sunken Atlantis.
On the way, Conan has many adventures, fights off sharks and giant octopuses and goes scuba-diving in a suit made of seashells (yes, really). He finally lands on an island archipelago which might be the Azores or also the Caribbean islands and defeats Xotli, though he fails to find Trocero and the other missing Aquilonians.
In theory, Conan could now return to Aquilonia and spend the rest of his years with his children. Alas, the old adventurer's blood is still stirring and so Conan and his crew set out on their ship The Winged Serpent to the land of Mayapan even further to the west, where Conan and his ship will be known as "quetzalcoatl".
Yes, De Camp and Carter end the Conan saga by having Conan "discover" America. This would seem very preposterous, if Robert E. Howard himself hadn't mentioned in that letter to P. Schuyler Miller and John D. Clark that he envisioned Conan travelling to the American continent.
Though some scenes come close to defying my suspension of disbelief (scuba-diving, really?), Conan of the Isles is a thoroughly entertaining adventure. L. Sprague De Camp and Lin Carter are not as good as Howard, but then who is?
Three and a half stars.
Whither Conan?
Is Conan of the Isles truly the end of Conan's saga? According to L. Sprague De Camp, the answer is yes.
That said, there still are many blank spaces in the saga of Conan's adventures. For example, we have never seen the Battle of Venarium, where Conan first proved his mettle at the age of only fifteen. Nor have we seen how Conan actually took the throne of Aquilonia. And of course we have not seen much of Conan as a king and particularly as a husband and father either. As a matter of fact, my desire to see more of King Conan is what inspired my Kurval sword and sorcery series, while wondering what Conan would be like as a father inspired my short story "A Cry on the Battlefield".
All of these blank spaces are just begging to be filled, if not by De Camp and Carter, then by someone else. And I for one am looking forward to it.
Yesterday, in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, a huge celebration took place. International dignitaries attended, US Marines fired cannons, Local Choirs sang specially composed songs.
What was all this in aid of? The beginning of one of the strangest architectural projects of our time. The reconstruction of London Bridge.
An Abridged History
Old London Bridge, in the 18th Century
Whilst there has been a bridge across the Thames for at least as long ago as The Romans, the longest lasting and one that has been immortalized in song is the medieval “Old London Bridge”, which was completed in 1205. As you are probably aware it was constantly beset with problems. After endless changes, removal of properties and attempts to shore it up, a committee in 1821 was formed to build the New London Bridge.
The ”New” London Bridge, at a less busy time
This new version was opened to the public in 1831 and has fared reasonably well for over a century. However, the increased volume of traffic has caused it to slowly sink. This was not as much of an issue in the era of the horse and cart, but with hundreds of tonnes of steel sitting on it every rush hour, and not prepared for the passage of millions of Londoners, a change had to be made.
Not made for this kind of weight
In order to recoup some of the costs for the destruction of the old bridge and construction of a new one, Ivan Luckin of the Common Council of the City of London, put it up for auction. After a promotional campaign, two dozen serious bids came in. In April, the winner was announced to be Robert P. McCullough of McCullough Motors, planning to rebuild it in Arizona.
“In The Modern House They Throw In A Few Antiques”
What does a motor company want with 100,000 tons of granite? To understand that you have to know a little more about where it is going.
Not your typical holiday destination
In 1938, the Parker Dam was built on the Colorado River, providing water and power to Southern California. Behind it sits the reservoir of Lake Havasu. In 1942 the US government built an auxiliary airfield and support base there. What they were apparently unaware of was the land was not theirs to take but was actually owned by Victor and Corinne Spratt. After the war, the couple were able to get the land back and turn it into a holiday resort.
In 1958 McCullough enters our story. He was looking for a site to test onboard motors and convinced the Spratts to sell most of their land to him. He turned it from a resort into a city and set up a chainsaw factory there in 1964.
However, this is not exactly prime real estate. Lake Havasu City sits in the middle of the Mojave desert, around 40 miles from the Colorado River Reservation, a hundred miles from the Hoover Dam and almost equidistant between Las Vegas, Palm Springs and Phoenix. There is little else of interest, unless you like a lot of rocks. What could attract people? Maybe a piece of history…
Anglophilia
McCullough, now the proud owner of the world’s largest antique
Whilst this may be the strangest and, at over $2.4m, possibly the most expensive purchase of a piece of British design, it is not unique. The Queen Mary currently sits at Long Beach, California and the Church of St. Mary Aldermanbury was recently relocated to Missouri.
Will this grand venture pay off? It will take at least three years to complete the project, so we will see if in the mid-'70s people are coming from all over to see London Bridge, or if Lake Havasu City becomes another ghost town.
Ghosts of the Past
Talking of this kind of reconstruction project, this month, across two publications, I read 21 short stories, all of which are attempting to revive something of the past.
The Farthest Reaches
Joseph Elder is not a name I was familiar with before. He appears to be a fan of the old school, endorsing the “sense of wonder” over literary pretensions. As such he has asked his contributors to only include stories set in distant galaxies containing Clarke’s ideals of “wonder, beauty, romance, novelty”. Let’s see how they have done:
The Worm That Flies by Brian W. Aldiss
As these are sorted alphabetically, we of course start with Mr. Aldiss (at least until Alan Aardvark gets more prolific). And, just as obviously, it is one of the strangest in this volume.
Argustal crosses the world of Yzazys collecting stones to build his parapattener. When he is then able to communicate with Nothing, he hopes to answer the strange questions emerging about phantoms called “childs” and the dimension of time.
The ideas of this story are not particularly new and the mystery is reasonably obvious. However, what Aldiss manages to do well is create such a strange unnerving atmosphere, such that it carries the reader along and raises it up above standard fare of this type.
A low four stars
Kyrie by Poul Anderson
The spaceship Raven is sent to investigate a supernova, a crew consisting of fifty humans and one Auregian, a being of pure energy. This being, Lucifer, has its orders communicated telepathically by technician Eloise Waggoner.
I am not usually as much a fan of Anderson’s science fiction compared to his fantasy, but this one impressed me. It has an interesting mix of hard-science with psi-powers but a strong character focus. A compelling read.
Four Stars
Tomorrow Is a Million Years by J. G. Ballard
I am not quite sure why the cover claims these tales are never before published, as this one has been printed a number of times, including in New Worlds two years ago.
I don’t have much to add to Mark’s review, I will just say it is a strange, but wonderful piece.
Four Stars
Pond Water by John Brunner
Men attempt to create their ultimate defender, Alexander. The creation, indestructible and with all the knowledge of humanity, proceeds to invade and take control of more and more worlds. But what is Alexander to do when there are no more worlds to conquer?
This progresses well and Brunner shows us the scale of conquest vividly in such a short space. Unfortunately, the ending is so pat it wouldn’t even appear in the worst Twilight Zone episode.
Three Stars
The Dance of the Changer and the Three by Terry Carr
Forty-two men died on a mining expedition on the gas giant Loarra. According to a PR man who was there, the answer to what happened lies in an ancient myth of the native energy forms, The Dance of the Changer and the Three.
This is a very challenging story and you may need to read through a couple of times to fully understand it. However, it is definitely worth your patience. Carr really makes an effort to show the Loarra as truly alien, but not in an unknowably menacing way as Lovecraft does. Rather they have a completely different understanding of what life and reality is.
Five Stars
Crusade by Arthur C. Clarke
On an extra-galactic planet, a crystalline computerized creature sets out to search for extra-terrestrial intelligence.
What Clarke gives us here is a kind of fable about the dangers of biases and science for its own sake. A more cynical take than is usual for him; perhaps Kubrick's influence is rubbing off?
Four Stars
Ranging by John Jakes
Jakes’ tale is set centuries in the future, where generations range the universe, in order to map it and send back data. Whilst Delors wants to carefully explore as instructed, Jaim wishes to rebel and jump trillions of light years at a time.
This could have been an interesting take on exploration but it mostly descends into the two leads yelling at each other “you cannot understand because you’re just a man\girl”.
Two Stars
Mind Out of Time by Keith Laumer
Performing an experimental jump to Andromeda, the crew of the Extrasolar Exploratory Module find themselves at the end of space, where they start to experience reality outside of time.
I feel like Laumer was going for something analogous to the final section of 2001. However, he lacks the skill of Kubrick and Clarke, making what could be mysterious and profound merely serviceable.
A low Three Stars
The Inspector by James McKimmey
Steve Terry, hero of the planet of Tnp, went into orbit, walked out of his spaceship and suffocated. Forest and his team are sent to investigate why this happened, and why no one has attempted to retrieve the body.
This is the one story that does not conform to the brief—there is no particular reason this could not be set on Earth. In fact, there isn’t much need for it to be SFnal at all. With half a dozen small changes you could have it contemporaneously on a newly independent Caribbean Island.
Putting that aside, it is not a bad story, just rather pedestrian, where I had deduced the themes and mystery by the second page.
A low Three Stars
To the Dark Star by Robert Silverberg
Three scientists, a human man, a human woman altered to suit alien environments and a microcephalon, are sent to observe a star. One problem: they all hate each other.
Your feelings for this story will likely depend on how you feel about unpleasant protagonists. The narrator in this piece is incredibly so and the whole thing left me cold.
Two Stars
A Night in Elf Hill by Norman Spinrad
After 18 years of service, Spence is depressed that his travels in space will be over and he must choose a single planet to settle on. He writes to his psychologist brother Frank begging him to talk him out of going back to the mysterious city of The Race With No Name.
This is quite an impressive short story. Spinrad manages to seamlessly move from science fiction to fantasy to horror, creating a real emotional thrill. He also does it through a letter that has a unique tone of voice and gives a whole new sense to Spence’s descriptions.
It does sound like it might resemble what I have read of the Star Trek episode The Menagerie but I think Spinrad spins this yarn well enough that it doesn’t bother me.
Four Stars
Sulwen's Planet by Jack Vance
On Sulwen’s Planet, sit the wreckage of millennia old ships of two different species. Tall blue creatures, nicknamed The Wasps, and small white creatures, nicknamed the Sea Cows. A team of ambitious scientists departs from Earth, all determined to be the first to unravel these aliens' secrets.
Like Silverberg’s piece, this is also a tale of squabbling scientists, here primarily focused on the two linguists. Competent, enjoyable but forgettable.
After a 15-year hiatus Lester Del Rey returns to editing. He opens the magazine with a rambling editorial taking us from ancient firesides, through folktales, modern uptick in astrology, Tolkien, and theories of displacement, before concluding it doesn’t really matter as long as the stories are fun.
As Brak is fleeing from Lord Magnus he rescues a woman from rock demons. She reveals herself to be Nari, also fleeing but from Lord Garr of Gilgamarch and his wizard Valonicus, who can send forth shadow creatures after them with his magic mirror. Nari’s back is tattooed with a map to a treasure, one that could win or destroy a kingdom. Together the two attempt to flee across the Mountains of Smoke, but can they outrun such power?
This is a pretty standard story, full of the usual cliches of these kinds of tales. It probably would have managed a low three stars, except that it treats a rape victim very poorly. Brak does not seem to understand why a woman running scared would be wary of getting naked in front of a stranger who angrily badgers her for information about torture and sexual assault. And the ending is just disturbing in the wrong way.
A low two stars
Death is a Lonely Place by Bill Warren
Miklos Sokolos is a 68-year-old vampire who leaves his crypt in Parkline Cemetery to feed. But when he meets his latest potential victim, he is not sure if he can kill her.
I was originally surprised to see this here as it seemed like it would be more suited to Lowdnes’ Magazine of Horror, but, as it went on, I realized it was less a Lord Ruthven style tale, and more a meditation on how much of a curse the situation might be.
More thoughtful than expected.
Four Stars
As Is by Robert Silverberg
Sam Norton is transferred from New York to Los Angeles, but his company will not pay moving costs. To save money he rents a U-Haul and buys an unusual secondhand car that was left for repairs a year ago but never returned to. Not long after Sam sets out, the prior owner returns and wants his vehicle back. How will he catch up with Sam before he reaches LA? By renting a flying horse, of course!
Eminently silly short.
Two stars for me, although car owners might give it three.
What the Vintners Buy by Mack Reynolds
Matt Williams is a hedonist who has tried everything twice but has grown bored. As such he approaches Old Nick to make a deal for the ultimate pleasure.
Yes, another “deal with the devil” story, a dull and talky example. I can’t help but wonder if this was a reject from The Devil His Due.
One Star
Conan and the Cenotaph by Lin Carter and L. Sprague de Camp
A young Conan “untampered by the dark deceits of the East” is working for the King of Turan, transporting back a treaty from the King of Kusan. Enroute their guide, Duke Feng, tells Conan of an ancient treasure hidden in a haunted valley and suggests together they can retrieve it.
This is another new tale of Conan from his biggest fans, however Carter and de Camp lack even a quarter of Howard’s skill. Over described, dull and the plot feels stretched even over these 10 pages. This would be bad enough but it, as you can probably tell from the quoted phrase above, invokes some horrible racism.
This can be seen most prominently in the villain of the piece. Duke Feng encapsulates every negative Asian stereotype, managing to somehow be both Fu Manchu and a sniveling traitorous coward. Whilst there are problems in Howard’s original work (the finer points of which my colleague Cora and I have expended much paper debating) this takes it many steps further.
One star
After Armageddon by Paris Flammonde
At the start of the “Final War”, Tom accidentally stumbles on the fountain of youth. Centuries later, after everyone else has died, Tom continues to wander the Earth.
This is another last man tale, the melancholic philosophical kind that used to fill the pages of New Worlds a few years back. This is not a great example and doesn’t add anything new to the already overused subgenre.
Two Stars
A Report on J. R. R. Tolkien by Lester Del Rey
The editor gives a look at the publishing history of The Lord of the Rings, the status of its planned sequels and the effect it is having on the industry.
Fine for what it is but, at only two pages, it does not delve into the why or give any information not already reported in multiple places.
Three Stars
The Man Who Liked by Robert Hoskins
A small man appears in the city dispensing joy to the residents. Who is he? And why is he being so generous?
A pleasant vignette, but one where you are continually waiting for the penny to drop. When it does, it is not where I would have predicted it going, but it works well.
Three Stars
Delenda Est by Robert E. Howard
The first printing of one of the many unpublished manuscripts that were left by the late author. This one is primarily a historical tale, set in the Vandal Kingdom of the Fifth Century. As King Genseric ponders his position, a mysterious stranger comes to convince him to sack Rome.
Howard clearly did his research and manages to explain the history of this much neglected period in an entertaining fashion. It also only contains a mild piece of speculative content (the rather obvious identity of the stranger), which is probably why it remained unsold.
Three Stars
However by Robert Lory
After having accidentally caused his boatman to be eaten, Hamper finds himself stuck in Grath. There, people are committed to only doing their profession, no matter how useless or obsolete it is. As such, getting across the water is to prove incredibly tricky.
Robert Lory has been writing for the main magazines for over 5 years, with some modern feeling pieces under his belt. This, however, feels like a reprint from the 19th century, one that might have been intended as a satire of mechanization but now reads as a tall tale.
Serviceable but silly and rambling.
Two Stars
A Delicate Balance
What the New-New London Bridge may look like
As can be seen, trying to do stories in an old style can be difficult work. Some, like Anderson and Warren, are able to use the ideas in a new way to make something profound. Others, such as de Camp and Carter, create an object of significantly less value. Whether constructing prose or pontoons it takes both skill and imagination few possess. However, those that do make the journey rewarding.
Overlooked by many, my favourite comic book right now is Lady Penelope, TV21’s magazine for girls. Between the great stories of Spectrum’s Angels, Bewitched and (surprisingly) Crossroads, they have delightful pop culture articles.
Three recent psychedelic albums whose art evokes the past
In a recent piece they pointed out how current culture seems to be drawing from pre-war sources, whether that be in fashion, where people are seemingly emulating the flappers of Thoroughly Modern Millie and the military outfits of Khartoum, music, with music hall and ragtime mixing with psychedelia, or television, with the success of The Forsyte Saga and The World of Wooster.
As such, the line between current and past styles is becoming more blurred, something reflected in this article’s selection of fiction:
In his foreword, Carnell muses on how changes in SF style seem to follow the sunspot cycle and happen differently on both sides of the Atlantic. He states that Harrison here represents the Ballardian inner-space type of story, Kapp representing the Vancian “medieval futurism”, Rome and Sellings could only be told in the current style, whilst White and Rankine are more traditional.
Vertigo by James White
We start with a return to White’s “Sector General”, where the crew of Descartes conduct an exploratory mission to a soupy planet nicknamed “Meatball”, where they discover a tool that psychically responds to the user's needs. Soon the native species makes a first attempt at spaceflight and Descartes’ crew attempts a rescue.
This is the kind of high quality I have come to expect from these tales. Strong character work, fascinating depiction of alien life and well-paced action. White knows what he does and does it well.
Four Stars
Visions of Monad by M. John Harrison
Bailey is a poet who became disillusioned with life. He consented to spend two weeks in a sensory deprivation tank and now spends his time with Monad, his beatnik artist lover, in a hedonistic haze, struggling to connect with reality.
This is more Moorcock New Worlds than Carnell’s, very hip and New Wavey. One with marginal SF content (SD experiments featuring in thrillers such as The Mind Benders) but very well told and evocative.
Four Stars
Worm in the Bud by John Rankine
Commander Dag Fletcher is sent to retrieve Peter Quinn, an IGO diplomat who has tried to ensure peace is maintained with the insectoid Chrysaorties. However, the planet is inhospitable, the takeoff is delayed, and Fletcher senses the aliens cannot be trusted…
As you may recall, I am not a fan of these stories, and I continued to dislike both the content and the style of this piece.
This one is Twilight Zone-esque, where Adam and Eve and their two children move into the Rich Valley Development, a seemingly utopian farming community where no effort is needed to make the crops grow. But is it all too good to be true?
These kind of sinister conformist community tales are fairly common but this is an effective example.
Three Stars
The Last Time Around by Arthur Sellings
In the future a few specialist pilots are needed to fly D.C.P. (Direct Continuum Propulsion) ships to explore new planets, but the time dilation effect means the crew comes back many years later. This follows Grant’s attempts to adjust to Earth after these trips away.
This is a very slow story but a clever one to explore changes in society and how love could work for a time traveler, with a morally ambiguous ending.
This novella tells of a future where gas balloons are the main form of transport. Guild Journeyman Jacobi comes to Catenor to help with the construction of hydrogen ships, whilst dealing with Cloud Pirate raids.
I have not much liked Kapp’s “Unorthodox Engineer” tales but this is an improvement in both style and content. The main issue is it is too long because Kapp over describes everything. It makes what could have been a marvellous short, a touch flabby.
Three stars
So a good selection in New Writings, but how will Famous fare? One positive point to start with is that I don’t believe any of these stories have been reprinted since first publication. As to the quality? Read on:
Famous #4 Illustration by Virgil Finlay, unknown source
Standards in Science Fiction – Science Fiction as Delight
Lowdnes uses his editorials across all three issues to look in depth at what makes good science fiction enjoyable. Well worth a glance.
The Man Who Awoke: 2. Master of the Brain by Laurence Manning Illustration by Frank R. Paul
Continuing the 1933 serial, Norman Winters now awakes in 10,000 AD. Here he finds a society governed by a computer called the Brain. People live in cities under its direction, doing a small amount of work according to their rank and then spend the rest of their time in leisure facilities. However, the brain may no longer need humans at all, and Winters agrees to aid rebels in freeing themselves from its control.
This very much feels like a product of the time, combining together elements of The Machine Stops and Brave New World into an adventure tale. What it lacks in originality though, it makes up for in style and characterization.
Four Stars
… Do Not Fold or Mutilate … by William M. Danner
A new piece by a writer I am unfamiliar with. Danner tells of a man in an overcrowded society trying to deal with a change to his assistance card.
Whilst the atmosphere conjures up Make Room! Make Room!the actual tale is a standard one of failing bureaucracy like we have read many times before.
A low three stars
The Last Shrine by Chester D. Cuthbert
In Mexico lies the mysterious Valley of Peace, our narrator goes in to discover the truth behind the legends and meets a mysterious native tribe.
Originally from the same issue as Voice of Atlantis, these kind of “lost race” stories were already old fashioned in the 30s and the addition of strange science and dreams doesn’t do much to aid it.
The other new fiction is from a long-time horror writer and regular contributor to Lowdnes’ other magazines. In a change to Hoch’s usual style, this involves Turkmen’s return to his family after a year on the moon and recounting his life there.
A lovely slice of life piece with a great twist in the tail.
Four Stars
Master of the Octopus by Edward Olin Weeks
Going back to the 19th Century, Weeks’ story comes from Pearson’s Magazine in 1899. This reprint has an introduction by Sam Moskowitz on how it fits into the history of lighting.
The Consolidated Lighting Company of America has become so powerful and successful it has been nicknamed The Octopus and its president seen as possibly the smartest man on the planet. However, when an inventor brings him a perpetual light with no need of external energy, he may have met his match.
This seems to me to be a satire of Thomas Edison and General Electric. And, even though it starts bright, it ends dimly.
This final novelette comes from the early days of Weird Tales, in 1926. Our narrator relates the tale of Jabez Pentreat, an etymologist who travels into the jungles of Venezuela, finding a stone city overrun with spiders and ruled over by a giant telepathic Spider King.
Whilst Munn does a good job of showing an alien kind of intelligence (the influence of Lovecraft is clear) I found myself more in mind of giant insect B-Movies, and the treatment of the South American natives left a bad taste in my mouth.
Two Stars
For issues 2 and 3, it seems the older the story, the more well liked it is.
Famous #5
Illustration by Frank R. Paul, originally from Wonder Stories – May 1933 illustrating Gulliver 3000 AD by Leslie F Stone The Pygmy Planet by Jack Williamson
Illustration by H. W. Wesso
Dr. Whiting, to test evolution, creates a miniature planet in his laboratory using x-rays. The planet (as smaller objects experience time at high speed) has advanced to such a stage the creatures on it have been able to kidnap Whiting and bring him down. His lab assistant Agnes summons her friend Larry for help. When a machine-monster from the planet also grabs Agnes, Larry must shrink himself down and rescue them both.
Illustration by Frank R. Paul
Reprinted from 1932’s Astounding, I cannot help thinking readers at the time would have found the entire tale just as silly as I did. And whilst it is better told than Cummings' similar story a few issues ago, it is very oddly paced with the adventure section feeling far too short and the ending being a poor one.
Not just new fiction but a new writer to the scene, which is always good to see. In the future he describes, some people are licensed to be “destroyers” if they have a reason for their hatred. A writer interviews several contradictory destroyers to ascertain their motives.
A very silly satire but Bear’s style shows promise.
A higher two stars
The Man Who Awoke: 3. The City of Sleep by Laurence Manning Illustration by Frank R. Paul
We continue Norman Winters' journeys into the future. In this millennium the world has seen a big increase in temperature and the population of America are all black. More and more people are entering into a computer-generated fantasy world where all their wishes can be fulfilled. However, this is creating a crisis, as soon there will be too few people left outside to maintain the machines or to reproduce.
Of all the societies Manning has shown us, I find this one the most fascinating so far. Whereas the prior installment felt distinctly of the period, this could easily have been produced today by Philip K. Dick. It continues to ask great questions about our future, balancing the good and bad of possibilities.
Five Stars
Echo by William F. Temple
We come now to a new tale by an old hand. This is an unusual spy story, where the Saurian Venusians have taken over the body of Richard Gaunt by use of a temporary echo of the personality of Narvel. They intend to steal the secrets of Organic Materials Inc., however, it turns out that being a human is harder than it seems.
Whilst it is a more original take on the genre, I found it confusing and unpleasant.
A low two stars
Plane People by Wallace West
Illustration by Paul Orban
Finally, we have the return of Wallace West with this piece from Astounding November 1933. Whilst studying a two dimensional comet, astronomer Adolph Strauss, his son Frank, Frank’s girlfriend Marie and clerk Bert Wheeler, find themselves transported on to it. There they discover an entire civilization of flat people.
Illustration by Paul Orban
This is a combination of Off on a Comet, Flatland and A Princess of Mars without managing to be anywhere near as interesting as any of them. I found the whole experience silly and dull. Add to that the unpleasant writing of Marie throughout, it is incredibly weak.
One Star
Once more showing my opinions are at odds with the average Famous reader.
Famous #6
Illustration by Frank R. Paul, illustrating The Individualists for the original 1933 Wonder Stories publication
The crew of the Adventure travel to the (much hypothesized at the time, 1932) planet Vulcan, close to the sun. They are in search of Cosmicite, a rare metal which can act as a near perfect insulator. However, Vulcan is dangerous to human life and the Vulcanites may not be keen to part with it.
Stone does a great deal of work to make the Vulcanites another civilization and not merely generic tribespeople. And although the work does contain some cliches of the period, it ends up being smarter than I expected.
Four Stars
The Dragon-Kings by L. Sprague de Camp
The first poem for Famous, from the current laureate of F&SF, apparently being an ode to dinosaurs. I can’t help think it may have been rejected by his usual venue for being very poor fare.
One Star
The Individualists by Laurence Manning
Full version of cover illustration
In the fourth installment of The Man Who Awoke series, Winters now awakes in 20,000 AD where he finds a world full of cities that move around like Wells’ Martian Tripods and battle each other, but inside they have only a single inhabitant.
This portion feels different to the prior installment in a few ways. Firstly, whilst the others are more complexly thought-out societies, this feels more Swiftian in its approach, absurdism to make a point. Secondly, he ends being unable to make any changes to this era, the individual tendency being overwhelming. Thirdly, another person decides to copy his methods of suspension. How the last part will play out we will have to see in the final installment.
Not my favourite piece but still fascinatingly told and makes great points.
Four stars
More Than One Way by Burt K. Filer
The final new piece is from one of Pohl’s recent discoveries. Humans of 2071 are trying to deal with Denobleans (flying snake creatures). Scotty and Mel develop the EDM (ensephalodigital manipulator) which allows them to pursue alternative paths of evolution of creatures including man.
Ridiculous science, psi-powers, dull engineering details, human ingenuity beating aliens. I would bet my hind teeth this was an Analog reject.
One Star
The Invulnerable Scourge by John Scott Campbell
The final story comes from November 1930’s Wonder Stories. Following a debate between Dr. Riis and Prof. Pfeffler over the superiority of man or insect, the former develops an insect that is completely immune to natural predators. Unsurprisingly it escapes.
With the first-place result for City of Spiders, I guess a lot of readers like these bug-based horror tales. This one is more apocalyptic and good at times, but I was mostly rolling my eyes at it and the ending is a big disappointment.
Two Stars
Well, one person disliked the West novelette at least…
Past or Future? Is Paco Rabane's design meant to be futuristic or historical?
Once again, it seems that sometimes new is better, at others the old has something to teach us. In the 1990s or 2000s, will people be trying to imitate the styles of the 1960s? Only time will tell.
Reliving the Middle Ages "as they ought to have been" is all the rage now, from Renaissance Pleasure Faires to The Society for Creative Anachronism to The Byrd's song, "Renaissance Faire". Not to be left out, our corner of San Diego has decided to put on its own Viking Fest, featuring axe-throwing, mead-drinking, and general revelry.
Of course, the seasoned time-traveling Journey crowd attended!
Something to cheer about
It's been a while since I've been able to report on a issue that's good from bow to stern (recognizing that such things are rare, of course–Sturgeon's Law ensures much of what anyone reads must not be the best). I'm happy to report that this month's issue of Fantasy of Science Fiction was quite enjoyable.
by Chesley Bonestell; as usual, it doesn't illustrate any of the stories inside
Home the Hard Way, by Richard McKenna
Chief Biotech Skinner Webb of the Galactic Patrol Ship Carlyle is determined to jump ship. The why: planet Conover is the loveliest world Webb has ever espied, and its richest denizens have offered him the moon…and a chance at love with a plump and gorgeous scion.
Sadly for Skinner, he's got a seven year hitch. And so, he does his damndest to get out of it, going AWOL, starting fights, even consorting with a criminal element. All it does it lose him stripes and put him under Vry Chalmers, his former adjutant and long-suffering friend. Will Webb ever get to paradise?
Author Richard McKenna seems to write more now that he's dead than he did when he was alive. I quite enjoyed this space-based yarn, and I particularly appreciated the frequent appearance of women in the navy–as high rated enlisted men, no less. I don't think I've ever seen that particular touch in a story. We've had women officers (q.v. Star Trek and Starship Troopers), but no women grunts. Certainly, it's a rare thing.
Of course, as my wife notes, why anyone would fall for Skinner Webb, when he's something of a lummox, is a bit of a mystery. But perhaps we just have an unsympathetic narrator. In any event, this story gets an unreserved four stars.
The artful Leiber offers up this tale of a family that seems to create its own reality. The father molds ebony companions out of shadow, with whom he converses over watered-down martinis. The mother sketches fanciful worlds and imagines that the machines of the house talk to her. And the son is an interstellar rocket jockey, aided by just a few toys as visual aids.
Notable for including the second use of the word "shit" in as many months in F&SF (will the mails stop carrying this trashy publication?) and for a surprising but welcome happy ending, this is another good piece. Leiber, a veteran stage actor, has mastered the art of rendering the theatrical in his prose. Four stars.
Speaking of Leiber…
Camels and Dromedaries, Clem, by R. A. Lafferty
Cleminger is a big man, one of the hottest traveling salesmen in the country. In fact, he's a little too big: one day, he falls asleep in a hotel and splits into two beings–externally identical, but somehow each half a man. The two go on to live separate lives, until their desirable and desiring wife, Veronica, demands an end to the intolerable situation.
Lafferty is always whimsical, but this piece feels a bit more grounded than most–more Ellison than Lafferty. Once again, it's enjoyable from beginning to end. That's three four-star stories in a row!
The Power of Every Root, by Avram Davidson
Now off to sunny Mexico, where Carlos Rodriguez Nunez, police officer of the municipality of Santo Tomas, finds himself increasingly afflicted with physical maladies, as well as furtively derided by his townsfolk. Is it a disease? A hex? The doctor cannot help, and the witch doctor's advice seems spurious. Surely his luscious wife, Lupe, is above suspicion…
Davidson, once editor of F&SF, fled to Mexico for a while after abandoning the helm of this magazine. He clearly absorbed enough of the local color to vividly paint this tale. While ably told and a beautiful travelogue, the plot itself is rather slight, so I'm afraid three stars is my limit for this one.
I've often complained that everybody else gets to review Chip Delany's work but me. Well, I got what's coming to me. This story involves a troublemaking hulk of a blue collar man named Buddy, who forms a rapport with "the prettiest little colored girl" named Lee, afflicted with uncontrollable telepathy. Said nine-year old has seen too much to want to live any longer. But her love for the popular music of Bryan Faust, particularly sharing it with Buddy, may give her a new lease on life.
If it weren't for the sentimentality, I'd say this is more Analog than F&SF. That said, despite the obvious attempts to be moving, I found myself curiously unmoved by this tale.
Three stars.
Music to My Ears, by Isaac Asimov
Speaking of music, Dr. A manages to take a potentially interesting topic–namely, the mathematical relationships between wave frequencies that underlie the fundamental scales of music–and make it not only dull as dishwater, but also virtually impenetrable.
And I have both a math and a music degree!
Two stars.
Alas, Poor Yorick! I Knew Him Well Enuff, by Joan Patricia Basch
Equity's a great gig. It's virtually impossible to get canned from a show when you're equity, even if you're dead! But what if you really need that not-dead skull who's a member of the guild to shut up so you can finish the damned play?
Basch has written a cute story, and it's likely to wring a grin or two from you, if nothing else.
Three stars.
Time, by L. Sprague de Camp
Poetry by a regular contributor of same, this time lamenting over the greats he'll never meet, and the fans he'll never know.
We return to the crystalline seas of Vermillion Sands. A yachter by the name of Melville is stranded when his sand boat blows a tire. A wraith-like vision of a woman named Hope offers succor, but her obsession with an old flame (whom she may or may not have killed) belies the pleasant qualities of her namesake.
I tend to prefer Vermillion Sands stories to the more kaleidoscopic stuff Ballard has been turning in of late. There's more of a through-line. I also like the idea of photographic paints that depict ever-changing portraits of their subjects.
I don't think I'd give it four stars, but it's definitely interesting.
Praise be to Odin!
With no bad fiction and some solid hits in the first half of the mag, this issue of F&SF is definitely something to foray from home for (it's not as if the Vikings got home delivery of their sf mags.) That's something to toast to!
Here's looking forward to more of the same in the issues to come.
by Gahan Wilson
If you're here, you're obviously a big fan of classic fantasy and science fiction. As you know, I founded Journey Press to revive lost classics and to bring into bring new works that evoke that same timeless quality.
I think you'll very much enjoy our newest release. You've probably heard of Marie Vibbert, one of the biggest names in SFF magazines these days. Her book, The Gods Awoke, is what I've been calling "a new New Wave masterpiece":
Do check it out. You'll not only be getting a great book, but you'll be supporting the Journey!
It’s rarely discussed, but a major condition of the decolonization of Africa has been that the newly independent nations are expected to retain their old colonial boundaries. The stated reason is to prevent squabbling and even armed conflict over redrawing those boundaries, such as we’ve seen between Pakistan and India. It sounds good on paper; unfortunately, paper is where those boundaries were drawn, often with little regard for people living there and leaving major tribes and ethnic groups split by lines on a map. Add in the tendency of colonial administrations to favor one tribe over others and you have the basis for a lot of unrest.
Nigeria is proving to be a case in point. Economic problems, tensions between the Muslim north and Christian south, government corruption, and an election widely seen as fraudulent all came to a head in an attempted military coup at the beginning of last year. Although the coup failed, the military was left in charge, and military governors were placed in the four states. An attempt to create a more centralized government led to a counter-coup and the near dissolution of Nigeria. Under Western pressure, the new head of the government, Colonel Yakubu Gowon, restored the federal system.
Then pogroms in the north against the Igbo (a largely Christian tribe from Eastern Nigeria) and other eastern groups left as many as 30,000 dead and over a million refugees fled to the east. The strain on the east led to negotiations between Colonel Gowon and Eastern military governor Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu seemed promising, but have fallen apart. On May 27th, Gowon declared that Nigeria would be divided into 12 states (cutting the Igbo off from oil money). The same day Colonel Ojukwu declared the independence of Eastern Nigeria. As we go to press, it has been announced that the new country will be called the Republic of Biafra. Nigeria is unlikely to accept this assertion of independence.
l.: Colonel Yakubu Gowon of Nigeria. r.: Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu of Biafra.
Mediocrity strikes again
Similarly unstable is this month’s IF, full of shaky partnerships, from famous authors and vikings to complicated family politics. Some expect betrayal, others will find themselves surprised.
Joe Miller is the most fearsome warrior these vikings have ever seen. Art by Gaughan
Twenty years ago, everyone who ever lived and reached the age of five or so awoke on the Riverworld, brought back to life by someone for mysterious purposes. Samuel Clemens (better known to the world as Mark Twain) is traveling with a band of vikings led by Eric Bloodaxe. Also along is Sam’s best friend, Joe Miller, a “titanthrop” or ape-man with a nose like a proboscis monkey. They’re seeking a source of iron, which is almost non-existent. Bloodaxe carries an iron axe, most likely from meteoric iron, but he wants more for the power it will bring. Sam wants to build a steamboat (and find his beloved wife Livy). They also hope to reach the headwaters of the River, which Joe once visited and saw a mist-shrouded tower and flying boats.
The group is attacked by a settlement of 19th century Germans, equipped with gliders and bombs. The fall of a huge meteor several valleys away smashes everything with a massive wave, but the viking boat manages to ride out the destruction. They fish Lothar von Richthofen (the younger brother of the Red Baron) out of the wreckage, and he gladly joins their quest.
Curse you, Red Baron’s little brother! Art by Gaughan
This brief installment is largely set-up. Mostly, we get everyone’s motivations and witness a possible source of a lot of iron. The most interesting bit here is Joe Miller. His tale of the tower is very well done. The implication that this distant relative of Homo sapiens counts as human for whoever is behind the great resurrection also raises some fascinating questions. We’ll see what Farmer manages to do with all this.
Three stars.
Pelandra’s Husbands, by E. A. Walton
Pelandra is destined to become an immortal and marry the immortal leader of an expedition to a planet circling another star. Along the way, she is expected to marry a series of men selected for their compatibility as spare parts for the immortals. Unfortunately, she has fallen in love with husband Number Three, and he is scheduled for recycling very soon.
Walton is a British fan, making her first professional sale. Very little makes any sense. The whole situation is contrived just to create the problem and obvious ending.
The oldest people are dropping dead for no apparent reason, and what constitutes oldest is getting younger every day. It turns out that the death rate now corresponds exactly with the birth rate. International efforts try to reduce the birth rate, but somebody’s cheating.
Bob Hope and (presumably) Bing Crosby starring in The Road to Armageddon. Art by Vaughn Bodé
Another story that makes no sense and has more holes than all the cheese in Switzerland. It’s an interesting “what if?”, but Offutt doesn’t do anything with it.
Two stars.
A Ticket to Zenner, by C. C. MacApp
Tom Larrow has worked on the planet Merob for several years, but a revolution means that all non-Merobans must leave. He was attacked and had his passport and ticket for Earth stolen. Lucky for him, since the ship blew up just as it entered space. His assailant also kindly left behind another passport and a ticket to Zenner. With the help of his employer, Tom gets away with a ring of little value and the name of a contact, but someone is still hunting for him.
Tom tries to smuggle himself off the starship. Art by Virgil Finlay
When he’s not writing about Gree or trying to be funny, MacApp is a decent writer. Somebody like Keith Laumer might have made this story (which owes more than a little to North by Northwest) a bit more exciting and tied things up a bit better, but MacApp’s rendition is serviceable.
Three stars.
The Tusk, by L. Sprague de Camp
A very short poem musing on a mammoth tusk in a museum.
Art by Gaughan
I have a poor sense of meter, but the rhythm here feels jarring and inconsistent. The punchline is also facile at best. Not Sprague’s best work.
Two stars.
The Purpose of Fandom, by Lin Carter
It doesn’t have a purpose, says Carter. But here he looks at how science fiction fandom differs from others. Notably, the large number of fans who become pros. This month, it’s those who became publishers and editors, next month will be writers.
Three stars.
Adam’s Eva, by Alan Dirkson
A minor mishap during his activation leaves Adam Pilot more ambitious and more prone to ask questions than most robots. His first day on the job, he meets Eva Hostess, who goes to great lengths to make everything perfect in the hopes that today there will be Passengers. But Passengers never come, and flights are often canceled due to fuel shortages. When Eva disappears, Adam does everything he can to find her, even going down to the Slag Heap, where he makes a big difference to the lives of the unfortunates there and eventually learns why there are never any Passengers.
Adam on the Slag Heap. Art by Virgil Finlay
Here is our second first-time author this month. Line by line, the writing is serviceable, though nothing special. But the whole thing is painfully obvious, and the title really gives away the ending. It’s also a bit long.
A very low three stars, though that might be generous.
Spaceman! (Part 3 of 3), by Keith Laumer
Billy Danger accidentally found himself aboard a spaceship where he committed himself to seeing to the safety of the beautiful Lady Raire. He lost her, found her and lost her again. Now he’s a slave. He befriends a fellow slave, the insect-like Fsha-Fsha, and they plan an escape. Before they can pull it off, Billy is sent to a punishment assignment. He’s rescued by Fsha-Fsha and Srat, whom he thought had betrayed him. Srat is killed, but Billy and Fsha-Fsha gradually work their way toward Raire’s home planet, having several adventures along the way. Eventually, he’ll have to rescue Raire one final time.
Billy became an expert swordsman by… sorting fruit. Laumer almost makes it believable. Art by Castellon
All in all, it’s a decent space adventure, but that’s all it is. Laumer is capable of much better. This also feels like it’s based on his notes for Earthblood and ideas he pitched to Rosel Brown that they didn’t use. It’s a fine novel, but if you have to choose between reading this or Earthblood, choose the latter. However, reading them together will give you a greater appreciation of Brown as an author.
Three stars for this installment and the novel as a whole.
Summing up
A pretty weak issue overall. Some stuff that’s okay and some that fails to reach that level. The Farmer has potential, but we all know he has problems with endings. There’s also a letter from James Blish, talking about his Star Trek book. Apparently, it’s done very well, and both he and the publisher have been deluged with fan mail. There’s a second volume due out towards the end of the year.
An aerial view of the Bremen Bürgerpark with the luxurious Park Hotel and the Holler Lake.
It's cold a wet February here in my hometown of Bremen, but the first signs of spring are already visible and audible in the form of the red and white pavilions and the shouts of the barkers of the Bürgerpark tombola.
The modernist coffee house at the Emma Lake in Bremen's Bürgerpark opened only three years ago, replacing a building which was destroyed in WWII.
The Bürgerpark (citizen's park) is a roughly 200 hectare big park in the heart of Bremen, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. The park contains several lakes, a luxury hotel, a restaurant, a coffee house, a theatre, a small zoo as well fountains, bridges, benches, statues and lots of beautiful scenery. Beloved by the people of Bremen, the upkeep of the park is financed almost entirely by donations as well as the Bürgerpark tombola, a charity raffle that has been going on every year since 1953 in the late winter and early spring.
The dromedary Bobby is one of the most popular inhabitants of the zoo in the Bremen Bürgerpark.The llama Chacca and her baby Roland, who was born en route from South America to Bremerhaven, are the newest inhabitants of the Bürgerpark zoo. A longtime inhabitant, the Zebra Timmy, looks on.
Whenever I chance to find myself in the city center at Bürgerpark tombola time, I inevitably buy a few tickets. After all, it's for a good cause and you can win some great prizes such as cars, holiday trips, sports tickets or cruises. Though so far, all I won was a packet of rice.
The red and white pavillions of the Bürgerpark tombola on the Our Lady church yard in Bremen. The grand prize is the snazzy car, but all I got was a packet of rice.
More from the Cimmerian Barbarian
But even though I only won an underwhelming prize from the Bürgerpark tombola, I did hit the reading jackpot this month with yet another great collection of Robert E. Howard's Conan stories from the 1930s courtesy of Lancer Books.
After Conan the Adventurer, which I reviewed last month for the Journey, I cracked open the purple edged pages of the follow-up collection Conan the Warrior with a mix of excitement and apprehension. For while I was happy to spend more time with the Cimmerian, I was also worried that this collection would be a let-down, compared to the high quality of the previous installment.
However, I need not have worried, because Conan the Warrior is even better than Conan the Adventurer, collecting one good and two excellent stories.
Red Nails
Margaret Brundage's striking cover illustrates a pivotal scene in "Red Nails"
The novella "Red Nails" was serialised in Weird Tales from July to October 1936 and has the distinction of being the last Conan adventure that Robert E. Howard completed before his untimely death in 1936. And what an adventure it is.
Once again, the story opens not with Conan, but with another character, Valeria of the Red Brotherhood, a female pirate and mercenary, who had to go on the run when she killed an officer of the army in which she had enlisted, after he tried to rape her. Now Valeria makes her way through the uncharted jungles of the Hyborian Age equivalent of Africa. Unbeknownst to Valeria, Conan, who served in the same mercenary army, has fallen for Valeria and followed her into the jungle, quietly dispatching any other pursuers.
Not Conan or Valeria, but an illustration for Edmond Hamilton's "The Door Into Infinity"
Valeria is a marvellous character, a warrior woman who is Conan's equal in many ways. "Why won't men let me live a man's life?" Valeria laments at one point. "That's obvious," Conan replies with an appreciative look at Valeria's body. Robert E. Howard is usually considered a writer of masculine fiction and Conan is clearly a man's man, but I was pleasantly surprised by the variety and competence of the female characters in these stories. Not every women in these stories is as impressive as Valeria or Yasmina from "The People of the Black Circle", but they are all characters with personalities and lives of their own and every one of them is given a chance to shine.
This hellish scene by J. Allen St. John illustrates not "Red Nails", but "Isle of the Undead" by Lloyd Arthur Eshbach
At first, Valeria is not too pleased to see Conan, but this quickly changes when Valeria and Conan find themselves pursued by what they call a dragon, but which twentieth century readers will quickly recognise as a dinosaur who has survived the extinction of its brethren. Now I was not expecting to see Conan and Valeria fighting a dinosaur, but my inner ten-year-old who loved dinosaurs was delighted.
Conan and Valerie fight the "dragon", as imagined by Harold S. DeLay
Together, Conan and Valeria manage to kill the dinosaur, but fearing there might be more in the jungle, they flee into the desert, where they spot yet another mysterious and seemingly abandoned city on the horizon. However, Xuchotl, which is not so much a city but a giant enclosed maze, is far from abandoned. Instead, it is home to two rivalling factions who are engaged in a generations long blood feud to the exclusion of all else. The title refers not, as I had initially assumed, to women's fingernails, but to copper nails which are hammered into a column to keep a tally of enemies killed.
Conan and Valeria meet the people of Xuchotl, as imagined by Harold S. DeLay
In spite of their best efforts, Conan and Valeria cannot avoid getting dragged into that feud. But other dangers lurk in Xuchotl as well, including a treacherous king, a vampiric queen with an unsavoury interest in Valeria and a mad sorcerer.
Robert E. Howard clearly enjoyed writing stories about mysterious cities in the desert inhabited by drugged out or otherwise insane inhabitants and monsters both human and supernatural, since no less than five of the seven stories in these collections include a variation on this theme. "Red Nails" is the best of these and it almost seems as if the previous stories were practice runs for this one.
More "Red Nails" interior art, courtesy of Harold S. DeLay
Howard also contrasts the madness and inhumanity of Xuchotl's inhabitants and their endless feud with the warmth and humanity of both Conan and Valeria. There is a wonderful moment where Conan's interrupts the pompous King Olmec's victory speech with a gruff "You'd best see to your wounded." We also see Conan and Valeria taking care of each other and treating each other's injuries. Fantasy fiction rarely pays attention to the physical cost of battle, but the Conan stories repeatedly show that characters, including Conan, can and will be wounded. Robert E. Howard's father was a Texas country doctor, so Howard knew a thing or two about injuries.
Another amazing (and very bloody) adventure with a heroine who's Conan's match in every way. Five stars.
The Jewels of Gwahlur
This novelette appeared in the March 1935 issue of Weird Tales and finds Conan still (or once again) in Africa, climbing the sheer walls of a cliff surrounding the ruined city of Alkmeenon. Inside this city, there rests a legendary treasure of priceless jewels known as the Teeth of Gwahlur.
Margaret Brundage's evocative cover for the March 1935 issue of Weird Tales illustrates not "The Jewels of Gwalhur", but "Clutching Hands of Death" by Harold Ward
Conan is eager to get his hands on this treasure and has ingratiated himself with the King of Keshan in order to steal the jewels, which happen to be sacred to the people of Keshan.
However, Conan isn't the only one who's after the jewels. There's also his rival Thutmekri and his accomplice, the fake oracle Muriela. Furthermore, the city of Alkmeenon once again is not nearly as deserted as everybody believes, but is still being stalked by the monstrous servants of its former masters.
Muriela is assaulted by an offensive racial stereotype, while an uncharacteristically blonde Conan intervenes.
So far in this collection, we've seen Conan the mercenary, Conan the warlord and Conan the pirate. This story adds a new dimension to the Cimmerian and gives us Conan the con man, who is literally running a long con to get his hands on the jewels. The city of Alkmeenon, located in the center of what a modern reader will recognise as an extinct volcano, is a very evocative setting. Though unfortunately, the descriptions of the black characters who appear in the story are once again dated and no longer appropriate to the civil rights era. The heroine Muriela is no Valeria either, but closer to the stereotype of the clinging and whimpering damsel.
A fun heist story starring Conan. Four stars.
Beyond the Black River
This rather dull Margaret Brundage cover for the May 1935 issue of Weird Tales illustrates "The Death Cry", an adventure of scientific detective Craig Kennedy by Arthur B. Reeve
This novella was originally serialised in the May and June 1935 of Weird Tales and is set on the northern edge of Aquilonia, the Hyborian age equivalent of France and also the kingdom Conan will eventually come to rule. Aquilonia has recently expanded its borders northwards into the wilderness inhabited by the barbarian Picts. The Picts are understandably not happy about this.
A giant snake wreaks havoc on a Pictish village that is seemingly inhabited solely by naked women in the interior art by Hugh Rankin for Part I of "Beyond the Black River"
The historical Picts were a people who lived in what is now Scotland during the late Roman era and the early Middle Ages. Little is known about them and so Howard uses a lot of poetic licence to turn his version of the Picts into analogues for American Indians, setting up a frontier conflict. The Picts are very much depicted as offensive stereotypes here, though Howard also wrote several stories chronicling the struggles of a Pictish chieftain named Bran Mak Morn with the Roman Empire, where the Picts are portrayed in far more sympathetic light.
Once again, the novella opens not with Conan, but with a young man named Balthus who has come to Aquilonia's newly opened frontier, lured by promises of cheap and abundant land. However, Balthus quickly encounters the Picts and is saved by none other than Conan, who has come to Fort Tuscelan to serve as a mercenary. Since Conan's homeland Cimmeria borders on Pictish territory (though the Cimmerians and the Picts are ancestral enemies), the Fort's commander puts Conan's wilderness skills and knowledge of the enemy to good use by sending him on scouting missions.
Margaret Brundage is back on form with this striking cover for the June 1935 issue of Weird Tales, which illustrates "The Horror in the Studio" by the unjustly forgotten Dorothy Quick.
Conan is convinced that Aquilonia's expansion plans will eventually fail, when the various Pictish tribes rally together to kick out the invaders. After all, that was what the Cimmerians did when Aquilonia attempted to annex their territory. Balthus has heard stories of that legendary battle for the Aquilonian Fort Venarium and asks Conan if he was there. "Yes," Conan says and calmly tells Balthus that he fought on the Cimmerian side as a fifteen-year-old. So Conan fought the very people at the age of fifteen that he will come to rule as a king some twenty-five years later and sees absolutely no contradiction in this.
Conan's prediction proves to be accurate, for the Pictish wizard Zogar Sag has rallied the tribes and is gearing up for an assault on Fort Tuscelan. Conan and a party of scouts, including Balthus, sneak into Pictish territory to take out Zogar Sag. But they are ambushed and only Conan and Balthus survive. However, the attack on Fort Tuscelan has already begun and all Conan and Balthus can do is to warn the Aquilonian settlers, so they can flee before they are slaughtered.
Conan fights a demonic creature in Hugh Rankin's interior art for part 2 of "Beyond the Black River"
Of all the Conan stories I've read so far, this one is the bleakest, since it literally ends with everybody except for Conan dead. This includes Balthus who makes a heroic last stand together with a feral dog named Slasher to allow the settlers to escape to safety.
Now I'm very much not a dog person and Slasher, who went feral after the Picts murdered his owner and now takes revenge on the slayers in his own fashion, is very reminiscent of the slobbering and barking menaces that chased after me behind much too low fences when I rode my bicycle to school as a kid. That said, Slasher is a marvellous character in his own right and the mix of total savagery towards the Picts and affection towards Balthus rings so true that I wonder if Howard owned a dog. I'm not someone who cries at movies or books and managed to sit through all of Doctor Zhivago without shedding a single tear. However, the heroic sacrifice of Slasher and Balthus made even me misty-eyed.
"Beyond the Black River" also showcases Howard's versatility, since he plops Conan into what is basically a western. And considering Howard grew up in Texas at a time when the so-called Old West was still within living memory, it seems only natural that he would draw on the frontier era in his fiction.
To someone from West Germany, the Old West is just as exotic as the Hyborian Age. Nonetheless, I connected to this story, because I noticed many parallels between the Cimmerians and later the Picts kicking the Aquilonians out of their respective homelands and my own ancestors, led by the Cherusci chieftain Arminius, kicking the Romans out of Northern Germany in the battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD.
"Beyond the Black River" also ends with what is probably one of Howard's most famous lines: "Barbarism is the natural state of mankind. Civilization is unnatural; it is a whim of circumstance… And barbarism must always ultimately triumph!"
A bleak and grim story that will stick in your mind for a long time. Five stars.
A Multi-faceted Barbarian
So far, I have read a few of the Conan stories in scattered reprints in magazines and collections as well as two of Lancer's new paperback collections and I'm struck by the variety of settings and themes in the stories that Robert E. Howard wrote about this character. But even though the various stories reveal different aspects of the Cimmerian, Conan always remains recognisably the same character.
Those who have heard of Conan, but have not read the actual stories featuring him, inevitably cite Conan's violence, his physical strength and his womanising as his most notable characteristics. Nor are they wrong, because Conan is clearly a violent man. Those at the receiving end of his sword or his fists usually deserve their fate, but it's also difficult to overlook that Conan outright murders the pirate captain Zaparavo in "Pool of the Black One" to take over his ship and also murders a rival in "Drums of Tombalku" to usurp his position.
A lot of people also think that Conan is stupid, an illiterate Barbarian, big of muscle and small of brain. They could not be more wrong, because the Conan depicted by Robert E. Howard is actually a very intelligent man. He speaks, reads and writes multiple languages. He is a also a brilliant military strategist and tactician and – at least in "The Jewels of Gwalhur" – a clever con man.
As for the womanising, like many men, Conan does think with the dangly bit on occasion. In "Red Nails", Conan literally walks across half a continent in order to go after and protect the woman he has fallen for.
In the seven stories collected in Conan the Adventurer and Conan the Warrior, Conan is without female companionship in two of the stories and with a different woman in the each of the remaining five. And even though most Conan stories end with Conan walking off into the sunset with his current lover, the woman in question is usually nowhere to be seen in the following story. This is a pity, for while some of the female characters in these stories are insipid non-entities like the woman clinging to Conan's leg on Frank Frazetta's cover for Conan the Adventurer, Conan is also paired with some remarkably strong women like Valeria from "Red Nails" or Yasmina from "People of the Black Circle".
But then, Conan is extremely charismatic. He may be a loner and wandering outlaw for much of his career, but Conan never has problems persuading people to follow him. In "Drums of Tombalku", Conan goes from prisoner marked for death to leader of the warriors who have captured him within the space of a few days. And in "Pool of the Black One", Conan steals the crew of the pirate captain Zaparavo from under his nose by gaining their loyalty. Even though those stories haven't been reprinted yet, it's easy to see how Conan will wind up becoming King of Aquilonia, the very country whose warriors he helped to kick out of his native Cimmeria at the age of fifteen.
Though for Conan, loyalty is not a one way street. In fact, the most notable of Conan's traits that appears in story after story is his deep loyalty towards friends, lovers, comrades in arms and people he feels responsible for. In "People of the Black Circle", Conan's main goal throughout the story is freeing the seven of his men who have been captured by the authorities of Vendya. Nor will Conan abandon the people he has adopted, even after they try to kill him. And when one of his friends is killed, as happens in "Drums of Tombalku" and "Beyond the Black River", Conan swears bloody vengeance on the killers.
Closely linked to Conan's deep loyalty towards people he feels responsible for is a trait that is not often brought up in connection with a violent Barbarian warrior, namely his compassion. For these stories demonstrate again and again that Conan deeply cares about people, whether it is his budding friendship with Balthus and Slasher in "Beyond the Black River", his protectiveness towards Valeria in "Red Nails" or Conan freely foregoing the great treasure he has been chasing after for the entire story in order to save a life at the end of "The Jewels of Gwalhur". Indeed, it is when pitted against a merciless and utterly inhuman opponent, whether it's the wizards of Mount Yimsha in "People of the Black Circle", the blood-mad inhabitants of Xuchotl in "Red Nails", the apathetic pleasure seekers of Xuthal in "The Slithering Shadows" or the murderous Pictish warriors and wizards in "Beyond the Black River", that Conan's humanity shines most brightly.
Now that Lancer is reprinting all the stories, you owe it to yourself to get to know the real Conan, this fascinating and multi-faceted character that Robert E. Howard created more than thirty years ago.
Three fabulous tales of the Cimmerian Barbarian. Five stars for the collection.
In the 13th century, a new style of poetry emerged in Tuscany. Developing from the troubadour tradition, it turned the idea of courtly love into one of divine love, in which an idealized woman guided a man’s soul to God. More importantly, it was written not in Latin, but in the Tuscan vernacular, which formed the basis of modern Italian. Its most famous practitioner, Dante Alighieri, referred to it as dolce stil novo (sweet new style) in his most famous work, and the phrase was eventually applied to the poetic school in the 19th century.
Science fiction also has a new style, though many readers disdain it and I doubt even its proponents would be inclined to call it “sweet”. Whether you call it the New Wave or the New Thing, the move is away from adventure and scientists solving problems and toward a more literary style, difficult topics like sex, drugs and politics, and generally kicking against the traces of modern constraints. Whether it’s just a passing fad or will change the language of science fiction forever remains to be seen.
Inferno
I’ve written before about the so-called Cultural Revolution in communist China, including the growing power of the young people calling themselves the Red Guards. Egged on by Chairman Mao, the Red Guards have run amok. High-ranking public officials have been publicly humiliated, beaten (sometimes to death), or have committed suicide. The number four man in the party, T’ao Chu was publicly purged, which led to violent riots in Nanking between his supporters and the Red Guards; at least 50 are dead and hundreds are injured. In Shanghai, the local government has been toppled and replaced by a revolutionary committee. Both President Liu Shao-ch’i and Party Secretary-General Teng Hsiao-p’ing have been condemned as “capitalist roaders”. Mao has also signaled a coming purge of the army.
A Red Guard hands out papers proclaiming the end of the Shanghai government.
Meanwhile, in spite of the internal chaos, China is also flexing her muscles on the border, particularly in Portuguese Macao. Late last year, a dispute over building permits led to a riot in which 8 Chinese were killed and 212 were injured. On January 22nd, six Chinese gunboats pulled into the inner harbor of Macao, but left again after an hour. One week later, the Governor General of Macao, under a portrait of Mao, signed an admission of guilt for the deaths, promising never again to use force against the Chinese community, to pay a large sum of reparations to the Macao Chinese, and to give a greater voice to the Chinese community in the person of Ho Yin, a man with close ties to Mao.
Near miss
Last year at Tricon, IF won the Hugo for Best Professional Magazine. Editor Fred Pohl came up with the idea of putting out an issue with all of last year’s winners: Isaac Asimov (Best All-Time Series), Harlan Ellison (Best Short Fiction), Frank Herbert and Roger Zelazny (tied for Best Novel) with a cover by Frank Frazetta (Best Professional Artist). He’s been touting it for a few months, but the best laid plans and all that. Herbert was unable to finish his story due to a hospital stay, and Frazetta was swamped with priority work. So, how did this month’s IF turn out?
Putting the most interesting element of the picture on the back is an odd choice. Art by McKenna
James Priss and Edward Bloom have known each other since university. Priss went on to earn two Nobels and become the most famous scientist of his day. Bloom dropped out to go into business and became fabulously wealthy – mostly by turning Priss’s theories into practical devices. The two men don’t like each other much, but they get together to play billiards once or twice a week, and they play at a very high level. Is Bloom’s death the accident it appears to be?
Bloom’s had a rough day in the lab. Art by Vaughn Bodé
This is a solid Asimov story, with more character than is usual for him (not really a high hurdle). A good story in the old style; the Good Doctor doesn’t seem to be at all rusty at fiction.
There were three Allied Mastercomputers – Chinese, Russian and American – which gained sentience and merged. Dubbing himself AM, he then killed every human being on the planet, except for four men and one woman. For 109 years, AM has tortured them physically and psychologically. The youngest of them, Ted, has found a way to free the others, but the price is high.
AM’s revenge. Art by Smith
Harlan Ellison has never shied away from dark or difficult themes. Here he sends five people to Hell, but does so without wallowing in the ugliness he shows us. This is a powerful piece, but not an easy read. I’ve penalized authors in the past for their handling of themes like this, but Ellison transcends it all.
A high four stars, but not for the faint of heart.
Jack Summers is the best mountaineer in the galaxy. He is famous for climbing Kasla, the highest known mountain in the universe. Now an even bigger mountain has been found on the planet Diesel, the Gray Sister, which stands 40 miles high, rising out of the planet’s atmosphere. Summers assembles a team and makes an attempt on the mountain. Along with the usual problems, they encounter hallucinations that may be real, and the mountain seems to be actively fighting them. This mountain holds a secret.
An angel bars the way. Art by Castellon
Zelazny is clearly taking inspiration from Dante’s Purgatory. Indeed, I could probably write several thousand words on the subject. In any case, he’s written an absolutely wonderful piece. Two things keep it from five stars: he explicitly draws attention to the Dantean parallel, and he stumbles at the finish line, turning a thing of mystic, mythic beauty into something more prosaic.
A high four stars.
Moonshine, by Joseph Wesley
The Cold War has moved to the Moon and turned warm. Admiral Jones has come to the moon to negotiate with the Russians. His orderly, Sven Christensen, is very good at his job and a man on the make. He set up a still shortly after arrival, but when moonwort (the only life found on the Moon) overruns his still, he smashes it up and throws it into the mash in a fit of pique. Before he can cut the final product with water, the Russians come to the table, and when they offer a toast with vodka (expecting the Americans to be unable to respond in kind), the Admiral signals Christensen to find something. What’s a guy to do?
This isn’t a bad story, though it pales in comparison to those before it. Implausible, but fun.
Flush with cash and depressed at his role in the departure of the puppeteers from the galaxy, Beowulf Schaeffer decides to visit Earth. On the way, he meets Elephant, an Earthman who’s sick of being called a Flatlander, no matter how much time he spends in space. After getting his pocket picked, Bay (as his friends call him) quickly realizes he’s in over his head and takes Elephant up on his offer to show him around. Elephant turns out to be Gregory Pelton, one of the richest human beings alive. They come up with the idea to ask the Outsiders for the location of a truly unique planet, regardless of the risk, so that Elephant can make a name for himself as a spacer. He will learn why he is and always will be a Flatlander.
The complete failure of a General Products hull is supposed to be impossible. Art by Gaughan
Niven is on a roll. He’s cranking out long pieces and they’ve all been good. This one is full of little details that make his universe feel like a real place. It took me a while to realize it, but the whirlwind tour of Earth isn’t just flavor; it helps show the differences between Elephant’s and Bay’s outlooks. I’ll even forgive the absolute groaner of a joke.
Four stars.
The Hugo and the Nebula, by Lin Carter
This time, Our Man in Fandom takes a look at some of the winners of the Hugo and the new Nebula, as well as some who, surprisingly, haven’t.
Three stars.
The Sepia Springs Affair, by Rosco Wright
A series of letters from the unusual members of the Sepia Springs Science Fiction Club to Fred Pohl, describing the club’s turbulent summer of 1970.
A couple of Fred’s correspondents. Art by Wright
It’s cute. Something of a satire on the sort of petty politics that often afflict small clubs. This is as close as we come to a new author this month, though Wright is probably the same as the Roscoe E. Wright who wrote a Probability Zero short-short for Astounding many years ago.
Three stars.
Where Are the Worlds of Yesteryear?, by L. Sprague de Camp
A short poem by the Tricon Guest of Honor on the effect the growth of scientific knowledge has on our stories.
Having made his way inside the Thorn Thing just ahead of the spears of the Amsirs, Jackson finds himself talking to the Self-Sustaining Interplanetary Expeditionary Module or Susiem. In quick succession, he is given command, healing, food and the education a spaceship captain should have. Unable to get the deformed Amsir Ahmuls off the ship, Jackson subdues him and then orders Susiem to take them to Earth. Arriving in Columbus, Ohio, they are met by a group of naked people as the ship is taken apart by a swarm of bugs. To be concluded.
Jackson subdues Ahmuls. Art by Gray Morrow
This story continues to move at a breakneck pace. I find myself wondering how much has been cut for magazine publication, but I can’t see any seams. I have no idea how Budrys is going to wrap this all up, but it remains interesting despite the frenetic storytelling.
Three stars.
Latter-Day Daniel, by Betsy Curtis
Bob Beale works for the Brooklyn Zoo, getting his arm torn off by the lion Nero every other day. After a show, he is approached by Delia Whipple, who works for the Animal Protective League. She warns him of a plot by another zoo to kidnap Nero, the last African lion in the United States. Time is short, and it’s going to be up to Beale (and Nero) to prevent the kidnapping.
Betsy Curtis put out a handful of stories in the early 50s…and this feels like it could have been written then. The nicest thing I can say is that it’s better than Answering Service, which it reminded me of a little.
Two stars.
Summing up
What an issue! Two of our Hugo winners have already put themselves in contention for next year, and both are representative of the new style. Add in another excellent story and more ranging from good to very good. There’s really only one clunker in the bunch. This is going to be a hard act to follow.
Can Niven keep his streak going? He easily tops the rest of this list.
![[May 20, 1969] Ad Astra et Infernum (June 1969 <i>Fantasy and Science Fiction</i>)](https://i0.wp.com/galacticjourney.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/690520coverfsf.jpg?resize=652%2C372)
![[December 22, 1968] What wonders await? (January 1969 <i>Fantasy and Science Fiction</i>)](https://i0.wp.com/galacticjourney.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/681222cover.jpg?resize=672%2C372)
![[December 16, 1968] Adventure and eulogies (December Galactoscope)](https://i0.wp.com/galacticjourney.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/681216scope.jpg?resize=672%2C372)
![[November 12, 1968] The Further Adventures of the Cimmerian: <i>Conan of the Isles</i> by Lin Carter and L. Sprague De Camp and the <i>Lancer Conan</i> Series in General](https://i0.wp.com/galacticjourney.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/CNNFTHSLSB1968.jpg?resize=388%2C372)
![[September 24, 1968] Reconstructing The Past (<i>The Farthest Reaches</i> & <i>Worlds of Fantasy</i> #1)](https://i0.wp.com/galacticjourney.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Featured.png?resize=672%2C372)
![[March 4, 1968] Everything Old is New Again (<i>New Writings in SF-12</i> & <i>Famous Science Fiction</i> Issues #4-6)](https://i0.wp.com/galacticjourney.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Cover.png?resize=396%2C372)
![[September 18, 1967] Skål! (October 1967 <i>Fantasy and Science Fiction</i>)](https://i0.wp.com/galacticjourney.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/670918cover.jpg?resize=672%2C372)
![[June 2, 1967] Uneasy Alliances (July 1967 <i>IF</i>)](https://i0.wp.com/galacticjourney.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/IF-Cover-1967-07.jpg?resize=672%2C372)
l.: Colonel Yakubu Gowon of Nigeria. r.: Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu of Biafra. 
Joe Miller is the most fearsome warrior these vikings have ever seen. Art by Gaughan
Curse you, Red Baron’s little brother! Art by Gaughan
Bob Hope and (presumably) Bing Crosby starring in The Road to Armageddon. Art by Vaughn Bodé
Tom tries to smuggle himself off the starship. Art by Virgil Finlay
Art by Gaughan
Adam on the Slag Heap. Art by Virgil Finlay
Billy became an expert swordsman by… sorting fruit. Laumer almost makes it believable. Art by Castellon
Speaking of Blish…![[February 14, 1967] Three Facets of Conan: <i>Conan the Warrior</i> by Robert E. Howard](https://i0.wp.com/galacticjourney.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/02conan_the_warrior.webp?resize=672%2C372)
![[February 4, 1967] The Sweet (?) New Style (March 1967 <i>IF</i>)](https://i0.wp.com/galacticjourney.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/IF-Cover-1967-02-full.jpg?resize=672%2C372)
