[if you’re new to the Journey, read this to see what we’re all about!]
by Gideon Marcus
"I don't like science fiction."
How often have you heard this? Loved ones, co-workers, indignant acquaintances with noses reared up to the sky will happily give you their opinion of our degenerate genre. And it's a dumb opinion.
Why? Because science fiction isn't a magazine or a story or an author. It's a wide genre. Saying "I don't like science fiction" is like saying "I don't like red books" or "I don't like movies that have dogs in them." Sure, there's plenty of bad science fiction, in print and (especially) in film, but there's also, per Ted Sturgeon, about 10% gold – as in any genre.
Science fiction runs in quality from the humdrum, technical gotcha stories of the last two decades to the absolute peaks of sublimity (q.v. Cordwainer Smith, Zenna Henderson, etc.) Moreover, such ranges can generally be found even in individual sources; i.e. you can find both excellent and lousy stories in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Galaxy, or any other digest.
Of course, if anyone is going to be turned off of sf as a genre, it probably will be the humdrum, workmanlike stories that do it. Not bad enough to be noteworthy, not good enough to be recommended — just dull, mediocre stuff.
And that's what we have a lot of in the August 1962 Analog, a magazine that will only contribute to the notion that science fiction just ain't that good.
The Toughest Opponent, by Christopher Anvil
The Terran "Special Effects" corps is back with their herd of psychically controlled animals: gorillas, lions, yellow-jackets, even a giant (artificial) snake. Last time, they quelled a civil war. This time around, they are helping a beleaguered base defeat a Malthusian nightmare of humanoid bezerkers on an uncivilized, overpopulated planet.
There is some nice characterization in this one, or at least, the characters are recognizable through their characteristics. But it drags somehow, and the payoff isn't worth it. The first of several stories in this book I'd give 2.5 stars to if I allowed half-stars in story reviews. Instead, I'll be uncharitable and say "two stars."
The Bramble Bush, by Randall Garrett
A moonbase nuclear reactor goes critical, and it's up to one plucky fellow to keep its twin from exploding until help can arrive. Garrett goes through a lot of trouble to set up the chemistry of the reactor technology (which does not conform to current theory) such that the solution seems less clever than arbitrary. I did appreciate the portrayal of the hero's indecisive crewmate — not everyone is a man-of-action. Less appreciated is Garrett's need to pun at every opportunity. Another 2.5 downgraded to two stars story.
Watch the Sky, by James H. Schmitz
German cum Californian James Schmitz is an interesting writer, never quite hitting it out of the park, but rarely turning in junk, either. Watch the Sky, about a backwoods colony that tries to manufacture an alien threat to secure funding for a bigger military base, starts promisingly but ends weak. Forgettable, but not offensive. Two stars.
The Big Job of Moving Little Things and The Color of Space, by John W. Campbell, Jr.
Amazingly, perhaps my favorite part of the issue includes Campbell's "slick" nonfiction sections. The first is a photo parade illustrating a new synchrotron that accelerates and smashes particles; scientists can then sift through the debris for exotic subatomic particles. Not much substance to the piece, but the pictures are pretty.
The second, shorter piece references the cover and notes how we can get color photographs of deep space objects. Mind you, these are not colors that any human observer would ever see — the light levels are too dim for us to discern anything but black and white. Nevertheless, the colors do exist, and they can be extracted using clever techniques.
Three stars in amalgam.
Border, Breed Nor Birth (Part 2 of 2) , by Mack Reynolds
Last up is Part 2 of Reynolds' continuing saga of North Africa. El Hassan (formerly Homer Crawford of the Unites States of the Americas) becomes increasingly aloof and dictatorial has his band of idealists attempts to unify the Mahgreb. It's readable, and the attention to cultural detail is excellent. Also, a story that features naught but Black characters is refreshing. However, the piece feels passionless, as if Reynolds was rushing through its production for the paycheck. I liked it, but I didn't love it. Three stars.
Where does that leave us for the month? F&SF is at the bottom of the pack with a dismal 2.4 stars. Analog is just above at 2.5 (and a different kind of bad — where the former was wildly inconsistent, the latter was unremarkable). Amazing does slightly better at 2.6, with similar issues as Analog. Galaxy had the highly entertaining The Dragonmasters, which means it has the best story, even though it only garnered 2.9 stars. And Fantastic was the surprise winner with 3.1 stars — it was good enough that I took the time to read through the choicer bits.
Disappointingly, there was just one woman author this month, Rosel George Brown, making appearances in two magazines.
Next month, we have a pleasant surprise: in addition to the five American digests, we have a guest correspondent covering the September 1962 issue of New Worlds! Be sure to budget a good amount of time for reading…
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