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Magazine, Serial

[August 2, 1966] Mirages (September 1966 IF)

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by David Levinson

The popular image of a mirage is a shining oasis in a desert replete with shady palm trees and sometimes dancing girls. That’s not how mirages work. We’re all familiar with heat shimmer, say on a hot, empty asphalt road, casting the image of the sky onto the ground and resembling water. Less common is the Fata Morgana, which makes it look as though cities or islands are floating in the sky. But the popular idea of the mirage remains: something beautiful and desirable, yet insubstantial.

Heat Wave

July was a real scorcher in the United States as a heat wave settled in over much of the Midwest. A heat wave might make a fun metaphor for passion if you’re Irving Berlin or Martha and the Vandellas, but as the latest hit from the Lovin’ Spoonful suggests, it can be a pretty unpleasant experience. As the mercury rises, people get pretty hot under the collar.

On July 12th, the Black neighborhoods on Chicago’s West Side exploded. The sight of children playing in the spray of a fire hydrant is a familiar one, but the city’s fire commissioner ordered the hydrants closed. The spark was lit when, while shutting off the hydrants, the police attempted to arrest a man, either because there was a warrant for his arrest (according to them) or because he reopened a hydrant right in front of them (according to the locals). As things escalated, stores were looted and burned, rocks were thrown at police and firemen and shots were fired. There were also peaceful protests led by Dr. Martin Luther King. Mayor Daley called in the National Guard with orders to shoot. Ultimately, the mayor relented. Police protection was granted to Blacks visiting public pools (all in white neighborhoods), portable pools were brought in and permission was given to open the hydrants.


Children in Chicago playing in water from a reopened hydrant

As things wound down in Chicago, they flared up in Cleveland. On the 18th in the predominantly Black neighborhood of Hough, the owners of the white-owned bar the Seventy-Niner’s Café refused ice water to Black patrons, possibly posting a sign using a word I won’t repeat here. Once again, there was looting and burning and the National Guard was called in. Things calmed after a couple of days, but heated up again when police fired on a car being driven by a Black woman with four children as passengers. It appears to be over now and the Guard has been gradually withdrawn over the last week. City officials are blaming “outside agitators” for the whole thing.

These riots are a stark reminder that the passage of the Civil Rights Act two years ago didn’t magically make everything better, and that problems also exist outside of the South. We have a long way to go before racial equality is more than just wishful thinking.


National Guardsmen outside the Seventy-Niner’s Café

Pretty, but insubstantial

Some of the stories in this month’s IF are gorgeously written, but lacking in plot. Sometimes that’s enough, sometimes it isn’t.


This fellow’s having a very bad day, but he’s not in The Edge of Night. Art by Morrow

The Edge of Night (Part 1 of 2), by A. Bertram Chandler

Commodore John Grimes has resigned both as Superintendent of Rim Runners and from the Rim Worlds Naval Reserve, effective as soon as his replacement arrives. The monotony of the situation breaks when a mysterious ship appears out of nowhere, refusing to answer any hails. Although there’s no hurry, he quickly assembles a crew, including his new wife, late of Terran Federation Naval Intelligence, and his usual psionics officer, whose living dog brain in a jar, which is used as an amplifier, is clearly nearing the end of its life.

The strange ship proves to be highly radioactive. It bears the name Freedom, painted over the older name Distriyir. Everyone aboard is dead, all humans dressed in rags. The only logical conclusion is that the ship is from an alternate universe (the walls between universes are thin at the rim of the galaxy) and the crew escaped slaves. Taking the ship back to its original universe, Grimes and his people learn that intelligent rats have enslaved humans out in the Rim Worlds in this universe. They resolve to correct the situation. To be continued.


The enemy fights like cornered rats. Art by Gaughan

Chandler has written several stories about John Grimes, though his only appearances so far at the Journey have been cameos in other stories set in the Rim. This story seems to be a direct sequel to Into the Alternate Universe, which was half of a 1964 Ace Double.

The story is wonderfully written, pulling the reader along in a way that can only be compared to Heinlein. The characters are strong and distinct, including a woman who is smart, tough, active and above all believable. There’s also a wealth of detail, such as the placement of instruments, clearly stemming from the author’s years serving in the merchant marine of the United Kingdom and Australia, which give verisimilitude to the ships and their crews.

While reading it, this absolutely felt like a four star story to me, but after letting it sit for a while, I’ve cooled slightly. A very, very high three stars.

The Face of the Deep, by Fred Saberhagen

In Masque of the Red Shift, Johann Karlson, the hero of the Battle of Stone Place, led a Berserker, an alien killing machine out to destroy all life, into an orbit around a collapsed star. In the story In the Temple of Mars, we learned of a plan to rescue Karlson. Here, we follow Karlson as he gazes in awe at the collapsed star and its effects on space. The Berserker pursuing him is unable to shoot his ship, but are the people who appear to rescue him the real thing or a ruse?

There isn’t much story here, but the prose is beautiful, pure sense of wonder. Saberhagen is clearly building up to something, probably a confrontation between Karlson and his half-brother, all no doubt to eventually wind up in a fix-up novel. This is only a brief scene in that larger tale, but the sheer poetry of the thing is enough.

Four stars.

The Empty Man, by Gardner Dozois

Jhon Charlton is a weapon created by the Terran Empire. Nearly invulnerable, incredibly strong and fast, he can even summon tremendous energies. Unfortunately for him, for the last three years, he has shared his mind with a sarcastic entity called Moros, which has appointed itself as his conscience. Now, Jhon has been sent to the planet Apollon to help the local rebels overthrow the dictatorial government.


Jhon Charlton deals with an ambush. Art by Burns

Gardner Dozois is this month’s new author, and this is quite a debut. It’s a long piece for a novice, but he seems up to it. There’s room for some cuts, but not much. The mix of science fiction and almost fantasy elements is interesting and works. The only place I’d say a lack of experience and polish shows it at the very end. The point is a bit facile and could have been delivered a touch more smoothly, but it’s a fine start to a new career. Mr. Dozois has entered the Army, though, so it may be a while before we see anything else from him.

A high three stars.

Arena, by Mack Reynolds

Ken Ackerman and his partner Billy are Space Scouts for a galactic confederation. They’ve been captured by the centauroid inhabitants of Xenopeven, who refuse to communicate with them. After several days of captivity, they’re separated, and Ken next sees Billy’s corpse being dragged from the sands of an arena. Vowing revenge, he finds himself the next participant in something like a Spanish bullfight, with Ken as the bull.


Ken after his encounter with the picadores. Art by Virgil Finlay

This is far from Reynolds’ best work. The action is decent, but the parallels with bullfighting are pointed out too explicitly (though maybe it’s necessary for readers who aren’t familiar with the so-called “sport”). However, there is a bit of a twist at the end – one that made me go back and double-check the text – that lifts the story out of complete mediocrity. So-so Reynolds is still pretty readable.

Three stars.

How to Live Like a Slan, by Lin Carter

This month, Our Man in Fandom takes a look at the fannish tendency to give names to inanimate objects. He starts off with the residences of fans sharing apartments and expenses, going back to the Slan Shack in Battle Creek, Michigan right after the War. Alas, the whole thing is largely just a list of in-jokes and things that were funny at the time. And I’ve known plenty of people with no interest in SF who have named their cars. It’s hardly restricted to fans.

Two stars.

The Ghost Galaxies, by Piers Anthony

In an effort to test the steady state theory and perhaps find out what happened to the first expedition, Captain Shetland leads the crew of the Meg II on a voyage to or beyond the theoretical boundary of the steady state universe. The ship’s logarithmic FTL drive increases speed by an order of magnitude every hour. As the ship passes one megaparsec per hour, the crew grows increasingly worried, and their mental state can affect the drive and the ship’s ability to return home.


Somnanda maintains the beacon which keeps the ship in contact with real space. Art by Adkins

This was a difficult story to summarize, or even understand. The writing is very pretty, with a dreamlike quality that mirrors the captain’s mental state and thought processes, but often left me unsure just what was going on. I came away with the feeling that there’s something here, but I have no idea what.

A low three stars.

Enemies of Gree, by C. C. MacApp

Steve Duke is deep behind enemy lines, this time with the B’lant Fazool and Ralph Perry from earlier Gree stories. They’re spying on a Gree excavation not far from the place where Gree first entered the galaxy. Strangely, there are animals here not native to the planet. There may also be an intelligent species nearby, watching both Steve and the Gree slaves.


The ull-ull aren’t native to this planet. Art by Morrow

I’m tired of these Gree stories. Even those that aren’t terrible have a sameness to them. In each of the last few stories, MacApp has made us think that those fighting Gree finally have what they need for victory. It’s time to wrap this series up. This one isn’t helped by the fact that every time Fazool gets mentioned I think of Van and Schenck or Bugs Bunny.

A low three stars.

The Hour Before Earthrise (Part 3 of 3), by James Blish

Dolph Haertel and Nanette Ford have been stranded on Mars, thanks to Dolph’s invention of anti-gravity. They’ve managed to survive, and last time Dolph discovered a radio beacon and set up an interruptor to attract attention. As the installment concluded, they encountered a feline-like predator. This proves to be an intelligent being. They manage to establish contact with Dohmn (the closest they can come to pronouncing its name) and make friends. Eventually, Dohmn leads them to the last surviving member of the original Martian race.


Dohmn introduces Dolph and Nanette to the last Martian. Art by Morrow

And so we reach the end, with everything wrapped up nice and neat. For humans anyway. I’m bothered by the last Martian bequeathing Mars to humanity rather than Dohmn’s people. It’s all a bit too facile, and I find myself returning to my original conception of this as a parody of SF juveniles, from Tom Swift to Heinlein to more recent examples as the story progresses. This certainly wouldn’t be my first pick to give a young reader.

A low three stars for this part and the novel as a whole.

Summing Up

There you have it. An issue that starts off hot and gradually grows tepid. Parts of it sure are pretty, though, even if they’re just hot air.


Dickson, Niven and the rest of the Chandler look promising. A new McIntosh novel less so.




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Serial

[July 2, 1966] The Big Thud (August 1966 IF)

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by David Levinson

This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper
– T. S. Eliot, The Hollow Men

Starting with a Bang

This month, we note with regret the passing of Monsignor Georges Lemaître on June 20th, at the age of 71. You are likely wondering who that was and what a Catholic priest has to do with the sort of things we usually discuss here at the Journey. Though not well known in America, Msgr. Lemaître was one of the most important theoretical astronomers of this century. After earning his PhD. in mathematics in his native Belgium, he spent a year at Cambridge under Arthur Eddington, who introduced him to modern cosmology, followed by a year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under Harlow Shapley. In 1927, he published a paper in a minor Belgian journal in which he proposed that the red shift of other galaxies could be explained by an expanding universe. That was two years before Edwin Hubble published his theory of a relationship between velocity and distance for extragalactic bodies. Lemaître also made a first estimation of the constant now called the Hubble constant.

Then in 1931, he suggested that the vectors of all the objects could be tracked backwards to a single point. He dubbed this the “primeval atom”. This is the beginning of the theory which Fred Hoyle called the “big bang” in contrast to his favored steady-state theory. The evidence in favor of Lemaître’s theory has mounted over the years, and it now looks to be the best explanation for the beginning of the universe. The Monsignor was also a mathematician and one of the first people to use computers for cosmological calculations. He was elected to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in 1946 and served as its president since 1960. Although a devout Catholic, he firmly believed that science and religion were not in conflict, but nevertheless should not be mixed.


Lemaître with Robert Millikan and Albert Einstein following a lecture at the California Institute of Technology in 1933.

Ending with a Whimper

They say an author should try to come up with a good opening line, or hook, to grab the reader’s attention. Things like “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen,” “It was a pleasure to burn,” or (one of my favorites) “If I had cared to live, I would have died.” It’s important to start with a bang, but all too often writers forget about a satisfying ending. Stories taper off into nothing, plot threads are never tied up, or ridiculous bits of action are introduced out of nowhere to get the author out of a corner they painted themselves into. Quite a few of the stories in this month’s IF start off promisingly, if not with a bang, and end not with a whimper, but a resounding thud.


No matter what the Table of Contents says, this outer space construction site has nothing to do with The Foundling Stars. Art by McKenna

The Foundling Stars, by Hal Clement

Astronomer Elvin Toner doesn’t accept the standard theory of star formation which says that random fluctuations in the density of nebulae initiate a snowball effect that allows the gas to become dense enough to trigger stellar ignition. So he has come to the Orion Spur along with his assistant Dick Ledermann and pilots Hoey and Luisi to perform an experiment. He intends to run an interferometer with a baseline of several light-hours on the gas and dust of the nebula. That means the pilots will have to hold their ships completely motionless with respect to each other. Because a change in the center of gravity of either ship by as much as a micron will ruin the experiment, the two men will have to remain as motionless as possible for several hours. The first run hiccups for some unknown reason, and on the second Hoey sneezes.


Toner and Ledermann await the results. Art by McClane

This starts off like a typical Hal Clement story. Unfortunately, once Hoey sneezes, the story becomes more like something from the ‘40s written by one of those lesser authors who are forgotten today. The secret to stellar formation is the most un-Clement-like answer I can think of. Well-written, and I might have liked it better under a different name.

A disappointing three stars.

Slot Machine, by H. B. Michel

Two aliens (or maybe demons) are playing the slots in a casino, using humans as currency. They act just like a married human couple.

Michel is this month’s first time author. The story is awful. I have a vague sense of what the writer was aiming for, but it’s a complete miss. Maybe if I knew what slot machine symbols mean, I’d have understood it a little better.

One star.

Peace Corps, by Robert Moore Williams

Jim Jiro is a member of the Peace Corps. Not the youth volunteer organization called into being by President Kennedy, but an intelligence organization of the world government, much like the CIA or MI-6. He’s on his way back from the Moon, where miners have been disappearing. Pursued by invisible aliens, he falls into the hands of their human criminal allies. How high a price will he have to pay in order to save humanity?


Jim checks the mirror for invisible enemies. Art by Virgil Finlay

The story is as bad as that precis makes it sound, but it actually gets off to a promising start. Unfortunately, it soon stumbles and eventually comes to a crashing thud. Williams has been around since the late ‘30s and the plot is entirely out of those days, although the writing itself is more modern. I’ve never understood why criminal organizations always aid invading aliens in these sorts of stories. It’s as if they have no sense of self-preservation. Anyway, the descent into the worst of the pulp era is all the more disappointing after a good start.

Two stars.

Conventions Galore, by Lin Carter

After looking at Worldcon last month, this time around Our Man in Fandom takes a look at other conventions around the United States. From relaxed conventionettes to fully programmed conventions, there are lots of get-togethers all over. Alas, due to the demands of publishing many of them have already happened, but it’s worth a look to see if something might be happening in your area.

Three stars.

The Hour Before Earthrise (Part 2 of 3), by James Blish

In the first installment, teenager Dolph Haertl invented anti-gravity and flew to Mars in a packing crate, followed soon after by his almost girlfriend Nanette. We open this month with the kids’ parents gradually coming to believe the truth and the story getting picked up by the press, first as a silly season piece and then a “baby in the well” story. Eventually, everyone but the parents decide there’s no way the kids could still be alive. However, one or two mathematicians have started working on Dolph’s theory.

Meanwhile on Mars, Dolph and Nanette manage to survive. They’re able to expand their shelter somewhat and resort to eating the residue of the lichen they process for oxygen and water. Amazingly, after eating the stuff, they are able to survive for a time outside without oxygen or warm clothing. They discover a sort of lobster-scorpion they can use to supplement their diet, and then Dolph finds a weak radio signal, apparently a beacon. Hoping to attract the attention of whoever is behind the beacon, he comes up with a way to interrupt the signal. As the installment ends, they encounter a large cat-like predator. To be concluded.


Dolph contemplates lunch. Art by Morrow.

I was pretty hard on this novel last month. Things have improved somewhat. Blish has dropped the alternation of story and science lecture that made me compare this to Danny Dunn. This is closer to a Heinlein juvenile, with a focus on survival through technology and engineering. I’m tempted to give Blish points for acknowledging the basic facts of human female biology, but he loses them for literally connecting menstruation to the Moon. Toss in the still silly premise and a Mars that is somewhere between that of the old planetary romances and what we know of Mars today and the improvements don’t add up to much.

Just barely three stars.

He Looked Back, by Carl Jacobi

After running out of money on her Caribbean vacation, narrator Jennie has wound up in the country of San Carlo. She landed a job running a hotel switchboard and taking shorthand occasionally on the side. Captain Juan La Cola of the Confidential Police is staying at the hotel and seems to have foreknowledge of accidents befalling high-ranking members of the government and has expressed unhappiness with the dictator running his country. With a bit of snooping, Jennie discovers that he also has some odd allies.

Now, that’s a name I’ve not heard in a long time. Jacobi was a pretty big deal in the Pulp Era. He was best known for his weird fiction and adventure tales, almost single-handedly turning adventures set in Borneo and Baluchistan into genres of their own. His science fiction was less successful, mostly space opera of the lesser sort. Although the pulpy bones of this story are clear, it still manages to be relatively modern. The prose isn’t purple, the plot doesn’t rely overmuch on coincidence, and Jennie’s voice is very authentic. It could have been shorter, and the ending is very much from thirty years ago, but it’s not a bad read.

Three stars.

The Junk Man Cometh, by Robin Scott

Perce Sansoni, now an ex-congressman from West Virginia thanks to bucking the party machine and contemplating an independent run for Senator, has returned to the family junk business. They pick up some Army surplus generators for a song, but the crew bringing them to junkyard is hijacked, killing two employees and sending brother Buzz to the hospital. Eventually, the hijackers are proven to be aliens and Perce is captured for a time. Everything heads to a final confrontation in the family junkyard.


One of the hijackers. Art by Gaughan

Not a great story, but probably the best in a fairly weak issue. It’s certainly the only one that doesn’t trip over its own feet and has a reasonably satisfying ending. Perce is an engaging narrator and his family is well drawn. At the very least, it’s the one story this month where I could say, “I enjoyed that.”

A solid, but not quite high, three stars.

Summing Up

What have we learned this month? Endings are hard. Sometimes even old pros can’t quite figure out how to wrap things up. No matter how good your hook is, if you leave the reader unhappy at the end, it’s going to be harder to set the hook next time. If you can’t go out with a bang, at least hope for a whimper, because a thud is the least satisfying thing of all. As Walter Cronkite says, “That’s the way it is.”


Chandler playing with alternate universes again. Hope this one’s better than the last.




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Magazine, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Serial

[June 2, 1966] Bad Decisions (July 1966 IF)

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by David Levinson

Trouble at the Cactus Curtain

It may surprise many of you to learn that there is a United States military presence in Cuba. Since 1903, the U. S. has maintained a naval base at Guantanamo Bay, near the south-eastern end of the island. Originally, it was a coaling station and then served as a shipping center during the War. Now it’s largely the base for American operations in the Caribbean.

Naturally, the Castro regime is none too happy about the situation, even though the base employs a large number of Cubans, pumping money into the local economy. Along with the perimeter fence, patrols and watch towers, the U. S. began emplacing mines “as a precaution” following the 1959 revolution, and the Cubans soon followed suit. At least 10 people have been killed, either by blundering into the minefields or through engineering accidents. In 1961, the Cubans also began planting a cordon of prickly pear cactus, quickly dubbed the Cactus Curtain.

On May 21st, a Cuban sentry by the name of Luis Ramirez Lopez was shot and killed by a Marine guard. According to the Department of Defense, Lopez was inside the fence and ignored a warning shot. The Marine then fired again, wounding the Cuban, who was able to climb back over the fence and leave. Two days later, six Cuban soldiers may or may not (depending on which side you believe) have crossed the fence and definitely exchanged fire with several Marines. No one on either side was injured.

Secretary of State Dean Rusk announced his intention to send a diplomatic note via the Swiss, insisting that Cuba cease these provocations and respect the boundary. Castro reportedly said not to bother, and then gave a fiery speech declaring that Rusk had practically threatened war and warned the Cuban people to be ready for an invasion. Tens of thousands of Cuban reservists have apparently been recalled to active duty. Now, Castro’s been pounding the drums lately, probably trying to bolster his support among his people in the face of the struggling economy, but daring the United States to attack seems more foolish than bold. Maybe he feels that with the U. S. tied up in Viet Nam, there’s no chance of them taking up his dare.


A Marine patrols the perimeter at Guantanamo Bay.

Doing the wrong thing

Nobody always does the right thing. Authors often derive interesting situations from their characters acting on bad ideas. Sometimes, though, they go too far and rely on those characters acting like absolute idiots. Boy, is that the case in this month’s IF. From super-genius teenagers to drunken conmen to high-ranking politicians, it seems like everybody left their brain at home.


This supposedly illustrates The Hour Before Earthrise. Maybe a later installment. Art by Morrow

The Hour Before Earthrise (Part 1 of 3), by James Blish

Sometime in the 1980s, the Apollo program has yet to have a manned flight and no human has been beyond Earth orbit, though automated probes have been to Mars and returned with samples. Teenager Dolph Haertel has invented anti-gravity. Rather than sensibly applying for a patent and demonstrating his invention to someone other than his almost girlfriend Nanette, he decides to go to Mars and bring back proof he’s been there. So he space-proofs a packing crate as best he can, kits it out for a round-trip and sets off. Arriving at Mars, he lands in a deep crater and finds some plant life. Unfortunately, he is unable to leave, because a vacuum tube, the one thing he didn’t bring a replacement for, has burned out. He’s stranded on Mars and is going to have a hard time staying alive.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, Nanette has figured out what Dolph is up to. She gets her hands on all of his plans, cobbles together her own ship and sets out after Dolph, taking all the plans with her. At least she leaves a note explaining what’s going on. All of this, mostly Dolph’s sections, are interspersed with lots of science. As the installment ends, Dolph is surprised to see another packing crate crash not far from his own. To be continued.


Dolph demonstrates his invention to Nanette. Art by Morrow

I admit that this story and I got off on the wrong foot, with all that stuff about the space program being a boondoggle. But with all of the science interspersed through the action, I finally came to the conclusion that the only way this thing makes sense is as a parody of juvenile SF in the Danny Dunn or Tom Swift vein. It takes itself too seriously to be parody, though. There’s undoubtedly a good story to be told about someone stranded on Mars having to do tons of science to stay alive. This ain’t it.

Two stars.

Feodar’s Box, by Robert E. Lory

When a non-descript man carrying a black box suddenly appears in the secret office of chief secret agent Chlebnik, the number three man in the Soviet Union orders the stranger seized and rushes off to the even more secret office of Palakov, the number two man. To his great consternation, the odd man and his box are already there. The little man proves to be Feodar Rodumetoff, who has been living in isolation, working on a project assigned him by Stalin. Official records state he was executed during the purges following Stalin’s death. His box allows its bearer to become invisible and insubstantial. Palakov sees opportunities in the box. There will be consequences.

Robert Lory has turned out a handful of mostly decent little tales, usually with a bit of a sting in the tail. Here, he does much the same, though striking one line from the antepenultimate paragraph might improve it slightly.

Three stars.

Bircher, by A. A. Walde

In a society tightly controlled by computers, the police tend to solve murders in a matter of minutes. When the naked body of a male in his late teens is found dead in an alley, it should be no problem for our unnamed narrator. But when the boy appears nowhere in any records, our protagonist must do lots of old-fashioned legwork while facing tremendous pressure from the press and a reporter who hates him.


Victim and detective prove to be bound by more than just the case. Art by Gaughan

Walde is this month’s first time author, and this is an ambitious undertaking, both in length and content. The author makes a strong showing – this is probably my favorite story this month – but there are a few neophyte flaws that deny the story a fourth star. Most importantly, the resolution of the mystery could have used a lot more foreshadowing. Also, the title doesn’t refer to that group of extreme conservatives who called Eisenhower a communist and voted for Goldwater despite his left-wing tendencies, but to a gang that took its name from them. So the story isn’t what you’d expect going in. Finally, the noir-ish wordplay, while often good (I heard Bogart’s voice in my head about half the time), is also a bit overdone. Still, a good story and I hope to see more from this author.

A very high three stars.

The Man from When, by Dannie Plachta

Mr. Smith is mixing a martini when there is a tremendous explosion. Investigating, he finds a time traveler, who made his journey in spite of a certain risk. Was it worth it?

Another vignette from Plachta with an attempt at an ironic ending. Possibly one of his better efforts. It’s short and not a joke this time.

A low three stars.

Cybernia, by H. H. Hollis

Gallegher is back. This time, he finds himself stranded on Mars. He falls in with a carnival mind-reading outfit and gets back to Earth with them. There, they all set up an elaborate money-making scheme that borders on a con. Eventually, Galeg’s past catches up with him.


Not sure this has anything to do with the story. Maybe some files were mislabeled. Art by Lutjens

It’s rambling. It’s tedious. Gallegher is an unpleasant character. At best, this story is marginally less offensive than Gallegher's first outing. Hollis appears to be creating a series. That’s unfortunate.

Two stars.

Science Fiction’s Holiday, by Lin Carter

This month, Our Man in Fandom looks at the Annual World Science Fiction Convention. He talks about the history of the con and what goes on at one, and then explains how the locations are chosen. Finally, he tells us about what to expect at this year’s convention in Cleveland. The best part of the article is his description of this year’s Guest of Honor, L. Sprague de Camp.

Three stars.

Earthblood (Part 4 of 4), by Keith Laumer and Rosel G. Brown

Having escaped arrest at Imperial Terran Navy headquarters, Roan sets out with his men to prevent the assassination of Admiral Starbird. Alas, a stray shot kills the admiral and one of Roan’s men is killed. Briefly arrested, they escape again, and Roan stays behind to cover his men’s retreat. Eventually, they return and rescue him. Then it’s on to Earth.

The Niss fleet proves to be as dead as the Niss ship at the beginning of the last installment. Down on the planet, Roan finds Earth ruled by the decadent Uppers, served by their intelligent dogs (less anthropomorphic than Cordwainer Smith’s Underpeople, more so than Cliff Simak’s dogs in City), while the Lowers live in squalor. After learning the final truth about his origins, Roan falls out with the Uppers. In the end, he must once again rely on his men to come to his aid.


The Lady of Shallot… no, wait. That’s Roan’s new love interest, Desiranne. The art is so bad. Art by Adkins

And so it all comes to a satisfactory conclusion, much different from what I expected after all that human superiority stuff in the first installment. I noted last month that Roan had matured and become more thoughtful and introspective, which led to me giving that piece four stars. Unfortunately, it all goes out the window this month. Roan is as rash and impetuous as he was as a teen. The redeeming factor is that he’s less selfish and has learned to rely on others. But it weakens the story as a whole for me.

A high three stars for this installment and the novel as a whole

Summing Up

There we have it. About the only people who do anything smart in the whole magazine are Feodar and the unnamed detective. Roan manages to do a couple of smart things, but only after doing something spectacularly stupid that far outweighs the smart thing. In his editorial, Fred Pohl calls on science fiction authors to stop writing about doomsday and the day after and start turning out more optimistic stuff. I fully support this, but to do that, Fred, they’re going to have to stop giving us characters who do dumb things just to make the plot more interesting.


Hal Clement. That’s a good start.

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