All posts by GalacticJourney

[December 25, 1964] Stars of Bethlehem and Galactic Journey (Galactic Stars 1964)


by Gideon Marcus

[Time is running out to get your Worldcon membership!  Register here to be able to vote for the Hugos.]

Ho Ho Ho!

Merry Christmas, everyone!  Santa Traveler has got a lovely bunch of presents for you.

When I started this little project, it was a lot easier to keep track of all the science fiction that was coming out — I simply didn't try!  It was just me and three magazines a month.  (Keeping track of space shots was easier, too…there warn't that many!)

But these days, it is the Journey's mission to review as much science fiction and fantasy output as possible so as to give the Hugo Awards a run for their money.  Luckily, I've found a dozen other writers to join me on this mission, so coverage hasn't been too much of a problem.

Compiling the Galactic Stars at the end of the year, though… Whew!  Talk about making a list and checking it twice!

So, submitted for your approval are what we think are the best science fiction and fantasy 1964 had to offer the fans.  If you stick to this list, you will have a vast array of presents with which to while away Christmas morning…and beyond!


The 1964 Galactic Stars


——
Best Poetry
——

The End of the Wine, by C.S. Lewis

A poignant tale of lost Atlanteans; the last published piece by the recently deceased great.

——
Best Vignette (1-9 pages):
——

The Deepest Blue in the World, by S. Dorman

The logical and horrifying conclusion when women are valued for motherhood and nothing else.

Touchstone, by Terry Carr

You can carry luck in your pocket, literally.

The Life Hater, by Fred Saberhagen

The sentient robot battleships can be outwitted, but it's not easy!

Honorable Mention:

The Transcendent Tigers, by R. A. Lafferty

Beware of the Dog, by Gahan Wilson

Olsen and the Gull, by Eric St. Clair

A Crown of Rank Fumiter, by Vance Aandahl

Lucifer, by Roger Zelazny

F&SF dominated this category, in part because vignettes are their stock in trade.

——
Best Short Story (10-19 pages):
——

Final Encounter, by Harry Harrison

An amazing, sensitive tale of first contact with a familiar face.

The Boundary Beyond, by Florence Engel Randall

Love triangle meets a dryad.  Tragedy ensues.

Descending, by Thomas Disch

Credit overreach leads to a real and metaphysical descent — perhaps Tom Disch's best (and there's many to choose from!)

Honorable Mention:

Minnesota Gothic, by Thomas Disch

Pacifist, by Mack Reynolds

The Time Dweller, by Michael Moorcock

The Lost Leonardo, by J. G. Ballard

The Rule of Names, by Ursula K. LeGuin

The Word of Unbinding, by Ursula K. LeGuin

Cynosure, by Kit Reed

Paingod, by Harlan Ellison

A as in Android, by Frances T. Hall

Chameleon, by Ron Goulart

Beyond the Line, by William F. Temple

I remember, Anita, by Langdon Jones

Midnight in the Mirror World, by Fritz Leiber

Assassin and Son, by Thomas Disch

Your name shall be…darkness, by Norman Spinrad

Rescue Mission, by Harry Harrison

A Red Heart and Blue Roses, by Miriam Allen DeFord

Forgive me for the avalanche!  But with so many stories coming out and so many fellow travelers making recommendations, it was hard to prune the list.

This is a category with highly disproportionate representation by women, considering that only about ten percent of the stories published in the magazines we cover are penned by women.  You can bet one or more of these will be in the next volume of Rediscovery!

——
Best Novelette (20-45 pages)
——

The Eyes Have It, by Randall Garrett

In a magical 20th Century, an hermetic detective investigates a murder.

The Fall of Frenchy Steiner, by Hilary Bailey

Spies and psionics in Nazi-occupied England.

The Delegate from Guapanga, by Wyman Guin

A battle for the throne in a beautifully realized alien setting.

Honorable Mention:

Novelty Act, by Philip K. Dick

The Terminal Beach, by J. G. Ballard

Jungle Substitute, by Brian Aldiss

The Master Key, by Poul Anderson

The Black Gondolier, by Fritz Leiber

A lot of tough choices here.  And I'm as surprised as you to see Garrett at the top of the list, but there he is!

——
Best Novella (46+ pages)
——

The Graveyard Heart, by Roger Zelazny

The ultra-rich hibernate through history, occasionally waking to party and cavort.  A highly literary piece.

A Man of the Renaissance, by Wyman Guin

A future Leonardo on a landless planet — ingenuity is humanity's greatest resource.

The Dark Light-Years, by Brian Aldiss

Can we handle first contact with a physically repulsive species?

Honorable Mention:

Adept's Gambit, by Fritz Leiber (reprint)

Once a Cop, by Rick Raphael

Day of the Great Shout, by Philip J. Farmer

The Fatal Eggs, by Mikhail Bulgakov (reprint…sort of)

Soldier Ask Not, by Gordon Dickson

The Kragen, by Jack Vance

We have a lot more choices this year for the category.  It's probably because we are reviewing more magazines, which is where novellas tend to come out.  They are a really nice length — long enough to develop a theme, but not so long as to compel overstaying a welcome (if it's not necessary).

——
Best Novel/Serial
——

The Boy Who Bought Old Earth/The Store of Heart's Desire, by Cordwainer Smith

The ultimate Instrumentality story, weaving all of the threads spun heretofore.  It is strung across two magazines.

The Other Human Race, by H. Beam Piper

Sequel and superior to Little Fuzzy.  Sadly, we lost Mr. Piper last month, so this is his last book.

Message from the Eocene, by Margaret St. Clair

Billions of years ago, before life evolved on our planet, the alien Tharg must deliver a cosmic gudebook.  He dies in the process, leaving his soul to enlist the aid of humans in 1974…

Honorable Mention:

Equinox, by J. G. Ballard

The Starsloggers, by Harry Harrison

I want the stars, by Tom Purdom

Davy, by Edgar Pangborn

Simulacron-3, by Daniel Galouye

Transit, by Edmund Cooper

Marooned, by Martin Caidin

Starswarm, by Brian Aldiss

The Whole Man, by John Brunner

The Penultimate Truth, by Philip K. Dick

Another hard set of choices!  Davy only didn't make the list because we've seen the stories that make up the novel in prior F&SF issues.  The Starsloggers was a very close fourth.

——
Science Fact
——

The Conventional Approach, by Robert Bloch

An excellent history of science fiction conventions!  No con organizer should start an endeavor without reading it.

Clouds, Bubbles and Sparks, by Edward C. Walterscheid

The best one-article summary I've yet found of how we detect cosmic rays and charged particles.

Anyone Else for Space?, by Willy Ley

The Space Race isn't just the province of the U.S. and U.S.S.R. anymore.

Honorable Mention:

The Early Days of the Metric System, by Willy Ley

Plowshare Today, by Edward C. Walterscheid

Philip Jose Farmer: Sex and Science Fiction, by Sam Moskowitz

A nice spread this year.  I am particularly happy to see Willy Ley back on this list, and also seeing Analog represented again.  Missing are Amazing's Ben Bova, who is improving, but is not yet a star, and Dr. Asimov of F&SF, who is still good, but whose work seems to be a little phoned in these days.

——
Best Magazine
——

New Worlds (3.20 stars; five Galactic Star entries)

Galaxy (3.10 stars; nine Galactic Star entries)

Worlds of Tomorrow (2.93 stars; four Galactic Star entries)

IF (2.90 stars; four Galactic Star entries)

Fantastic (2.81 stars; but twelve Galactic Star entries)

Analog (2.76 stars; six Galactic Star entries)

Fantasy and Science Fiction (2.64 stars; but seventeen Galactic Star entries)

Amazing (2.38 stars; two Galactic Star entries)

and Gamma, with only one issue (3 stars)

Pohl's triplets continue to be very strong showers, but New Worlds across the Pond took the prize.  Fantastic and F&SF are worth reading for their standouts even if their average ranks are unimpressive. 

Shame about Gamma.  It was so promising.

——
Best author(s)
——

Tom Disch

This Cele Lalli discovery, just 24 years old, garnered three Galactic Stars this year.

He narrowly beats out Harry Harrison (and Harrison might have been on top, but he came out with clunkers as well as masterpieces this year).

——
Best Artist
——

John Schoenherr

One of Analog's regulars, I just love his clean, pen and ink style as well as his muted color, realistic covers.

Honorable Mention:

Ed Emshwiller

Kelly Freas

Mel Hunter

——
Best Dramatic Presentation
——

Failsafe

The most riveting and horrifying film about nuclear war ever made.

Mothra vs. Godzilla

The best giant monster movie ever made…and it stars a woman (monster)!

The Dalek Invasion of the Earth, an episode of Doctor Who

Daleks in front of Buckingham Palace.  Nuff said.

Honorable Mention:

Dr. Strangelove

Woman in the Dunes

Goldfinger

Der Hexer

First Men in the Moon

Masque of the Red Death

The Circus of Dr. Lao

Seven Days in May

Demon with a Glass Hand, an episode of The Outer Limits

Marco Polo, an episode of Doctor Who

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, an episode of The Twilight Zone

and

Beauty Contest, an episode of My Living Doll

Why list a comedy I dismissed (from the previews) as frivolous, sexist, and dumb?

Because this show, about a fellow who comes into the custody of a woman android, is genuinely funny — all thanks to Julie Newmar.  The bit where she plays piano a la Victor Borge is one of the great scenes of TV history.

Plus, Ms. Newmar is an incredible person, all 'round.  I hope we see more of her screen outings in the near future!

——
Best Fanzine
——

Starspinkle gave up the ghost last month, though it has a lookalike sequel, Ratatosk.  They were/are both nice little gossip biweeklies.

Of course, we are partial to Galactic Journey, and we you hope are, too!  We have been honored to accept your nomination for Hugo Finalist twice in a row (though we strangely did not appear on the 1963 and 1964 ballots).  We hope you'll choose us again!


And that's that for 1964!  It was a rich year full of worthy titles.  Ho Ho Ho!  Go ye and enjoy them all!




[October 8, 1964] Through Time and Space (November 1964 IF)


by Gideon Marcus

In the presence of greatness

This weekend, I attended a small gathering of SF fans in San Diego.  I'd been invited to give a talk on the first season of Doctor Who, a new science fiction show currently playing across the Atlantic in the UK.  While I've never actually seen any episodes (it doesn't air here, of course), thanks to the wonderful summaries of Jessica Holmes, and various promotional pictures and script transcripts I obtained, I was able to do a reasonable job of summarizing the Doctor's first year of adventures.

It appeared I wasn't the only one at this gathering who was familiar with Doctor Who — some enterprising fan had mocked up a full-size Dalek, one of the aliens featured on the show.  It even had a little engine in it!  Either that or the rope used to pull it along the floor was well-camouflaged…

What I absolutely did not expect was a surprise appearance from none other than Verity Lambert, herself — she is the youngest and only woman producer for the BBC, and she runs the production of Doctor Who. 

Does her presence in the States mean that her show will debut soon on American airwaves?  Stranger things have happened — after all, Danger Man (Secret Agent) made the jump in 1961, not to mention Supercar and Fireball XL5.

Fingers crossed!

The Issue at Hand

In the quiet spaces of the day, I pulled out my copy of the latest issue of IF, which clearly was supposed to have an October cover date, but thanks to problems with the printer, went out with one for November.  While this latest edition didn't have moments quite as stunning as those that transpired at the fan gathering, it was still worthy entertainment.


by Ed Emshwiller

The Hounds of Hell (Part 1 of 2), by Keith Laumer

We start on the baked desert city of Tamboula in the Free Republic of Algeria.  It is the early 21st Century, and this Mahgreb city is a latter-day Casablanca where intrigue abounds by night, and by day, warring Moroccans and Algerians drink together in an intoxicated armistice.  Enter Brigadier John Bravais, a secret agent posing as a journalist, sent to get the inside story on the North African conflict.  At first, the story reads like an Earth-bound Retief tale, with a smart-allecky agent quipping his way out of the hearts of the local authorities.

But in the middle of a battle-torn wasteland, John encounters something most horrifying — a wolf-headed, human-handed alien, fearsome and supremely powerful, appears and kills an Algerian officer with his mind, proceeding to surgically remove and store his brain. 


by Ed Emshwiller

The Brigadier is able to kill the alien, but when he returns to Tamboula to alert the authorities, he finds that the aliens are everywhere, in human guise, and with (apparently) android servants.  Now Bravais must make it back to the United States before he is captured…but who will he find when he gets there?

Keith Laumer is a facile action writer, and once he settles in, this piece is engaging.  The problem is, Bravais is a virtual cipher — his background, his personality, his motivations.  The setting is a mere thumbnail (unlike, say, the future Africa of Mack Reynolds).  And Laumer struggles with the bugaboo all writers (including me!) face when writing the first person viewpoint: excessive use of sentences starting with "I".

It may well be that this is a chopped down version, and when this two part serial be novelized, we'll get some expansion.  As is, Hounds is a decent adventure but will not be one of Laumer's enduring classics.

Three stars.

The Perfect People, by Simon Tully

Thirty years to finish a doctoral thesis?  It's possible, especially when the alien race you're studying remains stubbornly enigmatic.  The "symetroids" spend their day strolling and eating, making perfect circuits of their sea-side area over the course of several months.  They don't converse or use tools, yet their investigator is certain their is a pattern to their movements, a code to their sentience that he just needs a little more time to crack.  Sometimes perfection is perfectly impenetrable. 

Sadly, while this tale by neophyte Tully shows promise, its end does not pay off the beginning.

A high two stars.

The Ultimate Racer, by Gary Wright


by Ed Emshwiller

Newcomer Gary Wright's first work appeared in IF nearly two years ago.  Captain of the Kali was an interesting tale of naval combat on an alien world.  Wright's second work is more down to Earth, literally. 

In Racer, it is the 1990s, and auto racing has become truly "auto" — due to the lethality of the sport, humans have been banned from the driver seat, and cars are remote controlled or self-driving.  Among the sleek IBM-GMs and Volgas and Lotuses, one aging duo insists on racing their vintage 1980 Ferrarri.  But on the eve of the big race, one of the car's solenoids goes kaput, making telemetered driving impossible.

If you've read the classic Matheson story, Steel, then you'll recognize where this is going.  It gets there vividly and with great affection for the sport, but it also takes too a bit too long to reach the finish line.

Three stars.

The Diogenes Planet, by L. J. Stecher, Jr

How can a space merchant captain make a living if he's compelled to be 100% honest?  It all hinges on what truths he decides to tell…

If this shaggy dog tale is not one for the ages, there is certainly nothing unpleasant about it.  A good three stars.

Assassin & Son, by Thomas M. Disch

There's been much discussion here about how newcomer Tom Disch ranges from superb to, well, disappointingly less superb than he can be.  Rest easy — this is one of the good ones.

Around the far sun of Sepharad lies a hot world inhabited by the blob-like and telepathic Sephradim.  These seven-gendered aliens possess a particular racial quirk: when one is murdered, the killer augments their own powers with that of the victim.  For this reason, murder is specifically and rigorously outlawed.

By other Sephradim.

And so, a busy import business of human assassins has built up.  Highly esteemed and ritualized, the assassin tradition is a proud one, passed on from father to son.  But what role can a second-born have in such a system?  It's all a matter of opportunity.

Disch spins a beautiful tapestry here, creating truly alien extraterrestrials, and defining a unique culture that is as compelling as that of Frank Herbert's Dune World, developed with far fewer words.  My only complaint is that the novelette reads like the first few chapters of a book.  While being left wanting is usually a good sign, there is far too much left to be said!

Four stars…and fervent hopes for expansion.

Father of the Stars, by Frederik Pohl


by Ed Emshwiller

So far as I know, Fred Pohl is the only editor who contributes significant amounts of his own material to his magazines.  Far from being a self-aggrandizing enterprise, the issues in which his stuff appears are generally the better for it.

This concluding novelette features the last days of the man who gave humanity the stars, spending his fortune and life to fund 26 slower-than-light generation ships, only to see the development of FTL drives before any of the slowboats make planetfall.  What place can this superseded man have in history?

While Pohl never turns in a bad piece, there's not a great deal to this story.  This is a shame because the premise is fantastic, and I'd love to see a novel that expands on this theme.  Imagine generations of humans living and dying in their tiny mobile world, and once they reach their destination, it's already fully inhabited.  I know there have been stories that touch on the subject, but I don't think any have made it the central premise.

Add to that the superfluous bits about spacers grafting their consciousnesses to chimpanzees while their bodies remain in suspended animation, and the piece feels both undeveloped and misfocused.

But not bad.  Three stars.

Things to Come

Between meeting Ms. Lambert and exploring the wealth of worlds offered in this month's IF, October has started with a bang.  I can't wait to see what wonders the coming weeks have to offer!


[Join us at Portal 55, Galactic Journey's real-time lounge! Talk about your favorite SFF, chat with the Traveler and co., relax, sit a spell…]




[July 16, 1964] Un-Conventional (August 1964 Galaxy)


by Gideon Marcus

All Together Now

Out in San Francisco, in the humorously named "Cow Palace", the GOP are having a convention.  Their goal is to pick the fellow they feel most adequately represents the convictions of the party of Lincoln, of Roosevelt, of Eisenhower. 

To all accounts, they have settled on Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, a nativist, opponent of the Civil Rights Act, and advocate for expanded use of nuclear weaponry.  Despite a last-ditch attempt by Republican moderates Scranton, Rockefeller, and Romney, nothing can stop General Goldwater from tilting against LBJ in November.

Whether or not Barry wins the general election (I don't believe he can), his candidacy has reshaped the Republican Party into something regressive, "Primitive".  God help us if someone with his platform actually ascends to the Presidency…

Politics takes center stage in the latest issue of Galaxy, too, and like the Cow Palace convention, most of the names between the covers of this magazine are heavy hitters, known to all.  Let's see if we get a better result from Mr. Pohl (editor of Galaxy) than we did from Mr. Morton, Chair of the GOP convention:

The Issue at Hand


by John Pederson, Jr.

The Dead Lady of Clown Town, by Cordwainer Smith


by Gray Morrow\

Over the past decade and a half, Cordwainer Smith has woven a tapestry of tales, telling the thousands year history of The Instrumentality, technocratic oligarchy spanning much of the galaxy (except for the longevity-drug-growing Norstrilia, the wealthy and proud remnant of the British Commonwealth).  This domain is run by true humans and maintained by underpeople, animals cast in the rough images of people but with no inherent rights.  In recent tales, we learned of the revolt of the underpeople that tore down the Instrumentality.  This latest story tells of the first abortive attempt that set the seeds for the successful rebellion.

At the center of Lady is Elaine, an embryo germinated and dispatched, by accident, from Earth to Fomalhaut III to serve as a physician.  The problem is that none of the humans there needed medical attention, thus rendering Elaine's life fruitless and frustrating.  But her coming was prophesied by Lady Panc Ashash, long deceased but imprinted on a Fomalhautian computer.  The Dead Lady introduces Elaine to D'Joan, a young dog person, who is to be the martyr who gives life, love, and hope to the underpeople.  Together, Joan and Elaine lead the first movement against the Instrumentality.  The measure of its success depends entirely upon the time frame in which its effects are gauged.

Lady presents a quandary for me.  On the one hand, I adore Cordwainer Smith, and his fairytale, off-center approach to science fiction is usually far more effective than it has any right to be.  This time around, however, I felt the format had gotten stale.  The story is laden with portentous language, like a tale from a religious text, but events are presented as overdetermined, inevitable, and none of the characters makes a conscious decision.  In particular, the "love scene" between Elaine and 'The Hunter', a telepathic human with mind control powers who sides with the underpeople is not only perfunctory but disturbing (smacking of rape).

In the end, this is a redundant story, one that did not need to be told.  And Smith's poetic style is more grating than compelling this time 'round.

2.5 stars (half stars being permissible for novellas and novels).

For Your Information: A Century of Fossil Man, by Willy Ley

This month's non-fiction is about the historical and current state of physical anthropology — the study of human fossils.  Willy is back to his recent mode: informative but brief and dry.  I miss Ley of the early '50s, the one who convinced me to subscribe to Galaxy in the first place.

Still, not bad.  Three stars.

Jungle Substitute, by Brian W. Aldiss


by Jack Gaughan

Deep in the heart of a decaying city, robots and humans live a symbiotic relationship of despair.  People no longer have meaningful jobs, their lives guided by endless superstition and taboo; the machines are slowly breaking down.  One young man, Robin, discovers a government project to declare him and his family obsolete — but is the Government Investigation Bureau what it seems to be?  And what can he make of the resourceful GIB agent, Gina, who seems to know far more about the city and its condition than anyone else?

With Jungle, Aldiss paints as good a dystopian vision of the man/machine world as I've ever seen, as exciting and evocative as the first stages of his Hothouse series.  This is the kind of quality that won him the Best Promising Author Honorable Mention in 1959.

Five stars.

The Watchers in the Glade, by Richard Wilson


by Jack Gaughan

Somewhat less effective (but no less vivid) is this story by pulp-veteran Richard Wilson.  In Watchers, four journalists and two medics are banished to an uncharted world after a ship's mutiny.  To survive, they must murder and feed upon the only edible matter on the planet — sentient, telepathic beings.

All six of them go mad in their own ways, living with their daily crime while they wait on the slender hope that rescue will someday come for them. 

A solid three stars.

Neighbor, by Robert Silverberg


by Jack Gaughan

Silverberg pens another intimate piece, on the most local of politics: the rivalry between two neighbors.  On a planet of vast holdings, old McDermott builds an enormous tower in full view of the Holt estate.  For decades, Holt amasses a huge arsenal, waiting for the chance to get even.  But when the opportunity finally presents itself, can he take it?

The author described it to me as "a pretty good character study."  It's told with a certain degree of style, anyway.  Three stars.

The Delegate from Guapanga, by Wyman Guin


by Virgil Finlay

Lastly, we have Wyman Guin's first piece in eight years.  It's really been too long — this is a wonderful piece.  Guin presents us an alien culture (if not an alien race) on the eve of election time.  Only the telepathically capable, the elite and the "cupra" half-breeds, are franchised; the two dominant parties are the conservative Mentalists, favoring peace, polygamy, and interbreeding of the telepathically gifted and ungifted, and the Matterists, who value work, monogamy, moral purity, and the invasion of Earth.

It's a most appropriate story for our politically fraught year of 1964, and the storytelling and worldbuilding are quite good.

Four stars.

Summing Up

All told, even with the inferior Cordwainer (and it's not horrible), I imagine you could get a lot more pleasure out of the latest Galaxy than a trip to San Francisco's convention.  It's cheaper, too. 

Anyone want to lay odds on the next issue versus the DNC convention?


[Come join us at Portal 55, Galactic Journey's real-time lounge! Talk about your favorite SFF, chat with the Traveler and co., relax, sit a spell…]




[July 10, 1964] Greetings from the Red Planet (The Movie, Robinson Crusoe on Mars)


by Natalie Devitt

Spacewrecked

According to the previews for Robinson Crusoe on Mars, the movie is "scientifically authentic. It is only one step ahead of present reality." This update of Daniel Defoe’s 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe is directed by Byron Haskin, best known for directing The War of the Worlds, which was produced by George Pal (The Time Machine (1960)). Haskin and Pal have also made another picture that attempted to depict a more accurate Mars: Conquest of Space (1955). Intrigued by these films and interested in Haskin’s more recent work on some of my favorite entries of The Outer Limits thus far, like The Architects of Fear and A Feasibility Study, I was determined not to miss Robinson Crusoe on Mars.

So, is the movie worth a trip to your local theater?

The movie opens up aboard a spaceship carrying Commander Christopher Draper (played by Paul Mantee, appearing in his first film major film role), Colonel Dan McReady (Adam West, an actor commonly found on television westerns) and an adorable monkey named Mona. Things take an unexpected turn when they detect a meteoroid and are "forced out of orbital velocity to avoid collision with planetoid into tighter orbit of Mars." As the situation worsens, the crew is left with no other option than to immediately attempt to land on the fourth planet. While fleeing the vehicle in their individual escape pods, Draper is separated from McReady and Mona.


Welcome to Mars

Draper adapts to the conditions on the red planet, while searching for McReady and Mona. Even though he is part of the first crew on Mars, Draper learns quickly what it takes to survive. He finds shelter in a cave. For heat, Draper discovers yellow rocks that "burn like coal.” Heating the rocks not only keeps him warm, but also produces oxygen, which he then uses to refill his oxygen tank. Throughout the film, Draper keeps a careful audio record about all that he experiences, which provides a useful narrative device when things happen off-screen.

After many days, Draper finally locates McReady’s pod, but the poor colonel did not survive the landing. Shortly after giving McReady a proper burial, Draper runs into Mona, who is happily alive. Reunited with her and assuming that they are all alone, Draper tries rationing what little food and water they have. Surprisingly, the reduced rations do not seem to bother Mona one bit. She "spends most of her days off somewhere." Finding this unusual, Draper devises a plan, which involves feeding her a salty meal without water, believing that she might be able to lead him to a water source. Sure enough, she does — an underground hot spring. In the water, Draper also notices some strange plant that his little primate pal is eating, which resembles seaweed on the outside, but once peeled, contains something that looks an awful lot like sausage. Draper calls it "Martian food." He soon finds that the plant has several other uses, because you can "eat it, weave it and you wear it.”


No happy sunset for Adam West this time


Martian hot springs

After more than four months on Mars, Draper longs for human companionship. All of his training has not prepared him for the extreme isolation he experiences while stranded on a strange planet, and his mind begins playing tricks on him. Snapping out of an episode in which he is visited by the ghost of Colonel McReady, he concludes that "a guy can lick the problems of heat, water, shelter” and that that loneliness is the greatest obstacle that he has encountered while on the planet. Around this time, he stumbles upon alien remains. On the extraterrestrial skeleton are strange black bangle bracelets. Draper believes that the being is a murder victim due to its skull showing signs of trauma and being charred.

Later, Draper's radio picks up signals of an "interplanetary vehicle.” Draper rushes toward the spaceship, only for its crew to shoot directly at him and narrowly miss. In the chaos, Draper runs into an alien bearing a striking resemblance to a man, dressed in clothing that looks straight out of some ancient civilization, with black bracelets on both wrists identical to the ones he found on the skeleton earlier. He soon realizes that the alien (played by Victor Lundin of Ma Barker’s Killer Brood) is an escaped slave who worked in mines on Mars, while other human-like creatures in spacesuits held the slaves at gun-point.


Hebrews building the Martian pyramids

Draper feeds the slave and offers him a place to stay. Draper believes that the slave owners are from a planet "other than Mars” and that they handle their slaves "electronically”, using the black bangles. He names the slave, who he presumes to be mute, "Friday, with apologies to Robinson Crusoe."

Friday, as it turns out, is actually capable of speech. Once Draper realizes this, he tells Friday, "You’re going to learn English, if I have to sit on your chest for two months.” The two eventually become close friends. Friday is part of an alien species originally from ”the center of the belt of Orion.” Friday shares with Draper painful memories of working in the mine. The alien also expresses concern that "the enemy" will use his bracelets to track him down, so Draper tries to help Friday remove them. Friday’s captors return for him, but Friday, Draper and Mona are determined to stick together.

Thus ensues a long trek to the Martian North Pole, mostly underground to avoid the slavers. This portion of the film is very scenic, although not much happens. Upon reaching the polar ice caps, Draper picks up a spaceship again…but this time, it's an Earth rescue vessel. The three will be saved.

A Mixed Bag of Oxy-rocks

Robinson Crusoe on Mars feels like two completely different movies in one, due to its changing tone midway. The first half of it is a much more serious and slow story about a man’s struggle for survival. But once Friday enters the picture, things speed up and get a lot sillier. To be perfectly honest, the transition from one part to the other is not as smooth as I would have liked. That said, screenwriters Ib Melchior (The Seventh Planet) and John C. Higgins do a surprisingly good job of bringing Defoe’s story to space.

The first half of the movie is not just slow, but also fairly quiet. Most spoken words are Draper recording himself or talking to a pet monkey. Draper seems like a person with good intentions, but I have to admit he is not the friendliest guy and often treats Mona better than Friday. Draper whines about not having someone besides Mona and when he finds someone kind of like a human, he treats him pretty poorly at first.


Single living on Mars is a drag

To the movie’s credit, Robinson Crusoe on Mars does seem to be much more rooted in science than many science fiction films that came before it. Most equipment used by the actors seems fairly realistic. The actors are pretty believable operating their spaceship and using different devices. Many of the characteristics of Mars seem a bit more accurate than you tend to see in the movies. Still, one has to suspend disbelief to enjoy the film.

My big issue with the film was the way it handles the planet’s lack of oxygen, which the characters deal with by consuming their pills that "bypass the lungs and produce oxygen right in the blood”, or using an oxygen tank as sparingly as once every 10-15 minutes. It's not that there isn't enough oxygen, but that there is still probably far too much compared to what we actually know of Martian conditions. There are also fires that manage to burn heartily on Mars’ surface, despite the lack of oxygen, though they did contribute to the overall look of the film.


Two ways to deal with the lack of oxygen on Mars

Visually, Robinson Crusoe on Mars is a stunning achievement. It is more than a movie, it is an experience with Winton C. Hoch’s gorgeous Technicolor photography, Matte paintings by Albert Whitlock, and auroras which dance in the sky to yet another memorable score by Nathan Van Cleave. The highly-saturated colors and all the Death Valley exterior shots look incredible on the big screen. Also, fans of 1953’s The War of the Worlds might be amused by some of the miniatures used in the film.


Alien craft looking…strangely familiar.

All in all, I am happy to report that I did not leave the theater disappointed. The movie is worth the price of a ticket, and I hope it gets the attention it deserves. Reportedly, the picture was made independently and distributed through Paramount. The film is superior to many movies with much larger budgets, which is why I am giving it a pretty solid three stars.


[Come join us at Portal 55, Galactic Journey's real-time lounge! Talk about your favorite SFF, chat with the Traveler and co., relax, sit a spell…]



[January 15, 1964] That was the Year that Was (1963 at Galactic Journey)

We've got High Hopes

First things first.  Thank you for being on the Journey with us.  We love you!

It's Hugo nomination season, and that means folks are going through their files, figuring out what stuff is worth their signature on the selecting ballot.  We at the Journey were so honored to have been a finalist for Best Fanzine last year, and we think our output has only improved since then.

Check out some of the nifty things that we did in 1963:

Expanded Foreign Coverage

Science fiction is hardly a monopoly of the United States.  To that end, we brought on a slew of new associates. 

For instance, Jessica Holmes is now covering Doctor Who and other things UK.

Cora Buhlert has provided a wealth of information on German (West and East!) science fiction, in print and on the screen.  She has also brought her keen insight to English-language SF.

Then there's Margarita Mospanova, who hails from Leningrad and covers Soviet science fiction!  We are pleased as punch to have added her unique perspective.

And let's not discount the sterling continued work of Ashley Pollard and Mark Yon, who have been covering British movies, television and magazines for several years now.

We Read Everything…so You Don't Have to Read the Bad Stuff

Despite the incessant predictions that SFF is a dying genre, there is more and more stuff to read every year.  Wading through all of that to find the gems (and there are plenty) can be a slog.  We feel for you.  That's why each year, the Journey awards the Galactic Stars, providing our readers a cream of the crop report:

Spotlighting the Unsung

We've said it before: Women write 10% of what gets published, but 25% of what's worth reading.  And now there is a cadre of other marginalized voices also finally making their way into print.  The Journey has made it a mission to feature those who might otherwise be overlooked, now and in the future. 

Behind the Digital Scene

Thanks to the arrival of Los Alamos staffer Ida Moya into our ranks, the Journey's science coverage grew to include the fascinating world of computers, as well as the often hidden role of women engineers and programmers. 

Wrapping up the First Lap of the Space Race

Project Mercury wrapped up this year with the impressive 24-hour flight of Gordo Cooper.  Of course, the Soviets then had to one-up us with the (likely) conclusion of their Vostok program — a stunning two-person flight involving the first woman astronaut, Valentina Tereshkova.  The Journey has kept you up to date on all the latest crewed and automatic space shots, distilling reams of scientific data into clear, accessible prose.

Not to mention mini-biographies of the woman engineers and scientists who have made space travel possible.

To the Outer Limits

Also added to our team was the inimitable Natalie Devitt, a film expert whose reviews of Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits are often even better than the episodes themselves.

Comprehensive Coverage

And let's not forget the work of our veterans:

Gideon Marcus, the Journey's founder, who reviews Analog, Galaxy, IF, Fantasy and Science Fiction, and much more,

Victoria Silverwolf, who lyrically covers Fantastic, Worlds of Tomorrow, and the news of the day,

John Boston, covering Amazing in his delightfully candid fashion,

Rosemary Benton, our first associate and expert on the Cold War and movies,

Erica Frank, the Journey's Curator and reporter on the Weird,

Gwyn Conaway, whose fashion articles are as lovely as the clothes and models they discuss,

Vicki Lucas, our resident highbrow (who would be quite at home as one of the faces on the back of F&SF),

Jason Sacks, whose preference for DC is mitigated by his unparalleled knowledge of the comics field,

and of course, the Young Traveler, who despite her age, writes better pieces than those of many adults.

A Balanced View

Science fiction has generally been seen as the province of the white and the male since its inception.  The Journey has striven to maintain a staff representative of the genre's future rather than its past.  To that end, we (including the non-writing but essential Janice L. Newman, our Editor, and Tammy Bozich, our Archivist) are a diverse bunch in terms of age, background, and circumstance.  We feel this is one of the main reasons the quality of our work has been so consistently high.

The Request

Galactic Journey is a labor of love.  Lord knows we don't do it for the money (What money?  The Journey doesn't charge or ask for donations, and we certainly don't carry ads.)

But we do love recognition.  A lot of people have said really nice things about us over the years.  When Rod Serling's foundation gave us the Serling, we were blown away.  And when y'all made us finalists for the Best Fanzine Hugo, well, you made it all worthwhile.

You out there with World Con memberships, if you liked us enough to nominate us last year, we'd love it if you could do it again.  And if you're new to the Journey and/or to World Con, welcome, and please consider helping us get on the ballot!

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you, and here's looking forward to a bright 1964!




[January 2, 1964] All's well that ends well (January 1964 Analog science fiction)


by Gideon Marcus

Auld Lang Syne

Greetings from 1964!  Given the challenges we faced in the latter part of last year, it was proper and cathartic to wrap up 1963 with a bang.  Here are some snapshots from our gala (and weren't we lucky to find a film developer willing to work on New Year's Day?)

Speaking of wrapping up, the last magazine of the old year, though dated January 1964, was the January 1964 Analog.  This is usually among the lesser science fiction magazines I read, but this time around, I was pleasantly surprised.  Come take a look!

Ending Well

Secondary Meteorites (Part 1 of 2), by Ralph A. Hall, M.D.

Could that black chunk of meteorite actually be from Mars?  There is an increasing body of evidence that the meteorites that hit the Earth were, themselves, bits of other planets blasted away by their own meteor strikes.  The subject matter is fascinating, but Dr. Hall manages to make it nigh incomprehensible.  It's too technical and presented all out of order (even Dr. Asimov learned early in his career that you have to define your terms first).  And this is only PART ONE!

Two stars.

The Eyes Have It, by Randall Garrett

My disdain for Mr. Garrett has been a constant of the Journey, ever since the offensive and just plain bad Queen Bee.  Over time, he has occasionally written decent stuff, and when he teams up with others, his rough edges get smoothed a bit.  Still, his name in the Table of Contents has always made me less eager to read a magazine.

Well, never let it be said that I can't keep an open mind.  Garrett's latest work is a tour de force.  If Asimov perfected the science fiction mystery with The Caves of Steel, Garrett has created the genre of magical mystery with The Eyes Have It.

The year is 1963, the place, France.  But this is no France we know.  Instead, it appears to be in a timeline that diverged nine centuries prior, one in which the Angevin Empire remained ascendant…and in which the use of magic developed. 

Lord D'Arcy is Chief Criminal Investigator for the Duke of Normandy, summoned to investigate the murder of the fantastically lecherous Count D'Evraux.  With the aid of his assistants, Sorcerer Sean O Lachlainn and chirurgeon Dr. Pately, he must find out how and at whose hand the Count met his untimely demise, and he has just twenty four hours to do it.

The attention to detail, the world-building, the characterization, the writing — all are top notch.  This is the sort of work I'd expect from Poul Anderson (and only when at the top of his game).  For Garrett to pull this off is nothing short of miraculous.

Dammit, Randy.  It's going to be hard to keep hating you.

Five stars.

Poppa Needs Shorts, by Leigh Richmond and Walt Richmond

The last piece by the Richmonds was an utterly unreadable book-length serial.  This one, on the other hand, is a cute vignette convincingly told from the view of a 4-year old child who just wants to know about "shorts."  Leigh and Walt have a pretty good idea how kids learn, I think.

Three stars.

Subjectivity, by Norman Spinrad

The pages of our scientific journals offer a wealth of ideas that can be turned into SF stories.  New author Norman Spinrad seizes on Dr. Timothy Leary's paean to LSD in technical clothing, Psychedelic Review as inspiration for his second story:

Though humanity has invented an engine that will propel spaceships at half the speed of light, the heavens remain out of reach.  It's not the endurance of the ships that's the problem — it is that of the crew.  No matter how well-adjusted they are, all of them go crazy in less than half the time it takes to get to Alpha Centauri.  After twelve failed attempts, the powers that be assemble a crew of misfits with a twenty-year supply of hallucinogenics to keep them sane (if potted) and open up the stars.

Mission #13 succeeds…but not in a way anyone could have predicted.  A fun, slightly acid (no pun intended) little piece.  Four stars.

See What I Mean!, by John Brunner

In this disappointing outing from Brunner, a deadlock in negotiations between East and West is resolved when the four foreign ministers involved are psychoanalyzed, and it turns out the British and Russian officials have more in common with each other than with their ideological partners (from the U.S. and China, respectively).

Not much here.  Two stars.

Dune World (Part 2 of 3), by Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert's epic in the desert, a kind of Lawrence of Arabia in space, continues.  After the assassination attempt on his son, and with warnings that he has a traitor in his midst, Duke Leto of the House of Atreides attempts to shore up his position on Arrakis, sole source of life-extending "spice".  The planetology and culture bits are pretty interesting, particularly the depiction of the forbidding dune world of Arrakis and the spice-mining operations thereon.  I continue to get the impression, though, that Herbert is still too raw for this project.  The viewpoint jumps from line to line, much is conveyed through exposition, and the incessant use of italics is really trying to read.

Three stars again.

Crunching the numbers

So how did the first batch of magazines dated with the new year fare?  There are definitely some surprises.

  • Analog, came in first with a respectable 3.4 star rating.  Moreover, Randall Garrett of all people had the best story.  These must be the end times.
  • Fantastic came in a close second at 3.3.  New World tread water at 3.  IF got 2.8.  F&SF scored a disappointing 2.5.  Amazing dragged through the muck at a miserable 1.9.
  • All in all, there were nearly 200 pages of good-to-excellent stories.  Not a bad haul.
  • Women only wrote one and a half of the 31 fiction pieces this month, and theirs were short ones.  No surprises there.

Next up: the first book of the new year!