Magazine/Anthology, Science Fiction/Fantasy

[May 12, 1970] War and Peace (June 1970 Fantastic)

1 Comment

black and white photo of a dark-haired white woman with vampiric eyebrows
by Victoria Silverwolf

These are troubling times.

We are all still recovering from the shock of the killing of four students and the wounding of nine others by Ohio National Guard troops at Kent State University on May 4.  A mere four days later, construction workers and office workers clashed with anti-war protestors in New York City.

A black and white photograph of a group of white men marching down a city street.  Some are are chanting and/or holding poles.  The poles extend out of frame so we can't tell if they have signs or flags attached.  Some of the men are wearing construction outerwear and hard hats, others are wearing dress shirts and ties.
Due to the distinctive headgear worn by some of the construction workers, the incident has become known as the Hard Hat Riot.

In the chaos that ensued, with an estimated twenty thousand people in the streets near Federal Hall, the counter-protestors attacked the anti-war demonstrators while police did little to stop the violence. 

The pro-war crowd later marched up Broadway and threatened to attack City Hall.  They demanded that the building's flag, flown at half-mast in commemoration of the Kent State killings, be raised to full mast.  In an example of grim irony, the hard hats and their allies also attacked nearby Pace University, a conservative business school.

About one hundred people were injured, including seven police officers.  Six people were arrested.  Only one of them was a construction worker.

With all of this going on, it's tempting to escape from the real world and allow our imaginations to run wild.  As we'll see, however, the latest issue of Fantastic contains as much violent conflict as reality.

The cover of Fantastic magazine. The title appears near the top in yellow-green block capitals.  Above, Always the Black Knight: A new kind of Fantasy Novel by Lee Hoffman is written in orange serifed font.  Down the left of the cover are listed the short stories included, with authors in orange and titles in yellow: Into the Land of the Not-Unhappies, by David R Bunch; I of Newton, by Joe W. Haldeman; Communication by Bob Shaw; Psychivore, by Howard L. Myers; The Time, by David Mason; The Prince of New York, by Benford & Littenberg.  Underneath is written Beginning in this issue: Science Fiction in Dimension, a new column by Alexei Ranshin.  To the right of the short stories list is a picture of a the Black Knight against an orange background. He is wearing black armor and gauntlets and a face-concealing helmet that resembles an insect head with pincers at mouth level. The main part of the helmet is black. The face has red decorations in an X shape that crosses at the nose and ends in the pincers.  The eyes are also outlined in red and above the X there are two small red circles on the forehead. he is holding a sword out toward the viewer, held upward in salute. In the bottom right corner two much smaller people are looking up toward the Black Knight as though he is on a giant poster. One is a white woman with brown curly hair wearing a short burgundy tunic and belt.  Her legs are bare.  She is holding her right hand to her mouth in surprise.  Behind her, a brown-haired white man in a short yellow tunic is staggering in shock.  His right arm is against his forehead in a fainting pose, and his left hand is clutching the upper arm of the woman in front of him.
Cover art by Gray Morrow.

Editorial, by Ted White

The editor describes in great detail the tasks he performs to put out the magazine.  I found this to be a fascinating look behind the scenes.

No rating.

Always the Black Knight (Part One of Two), by Lee Hoffman

A black and white pen and ink drawing of the Black Knight.  He is in full Renaissance-esque plate armor with helmet down so that only his eyes are showing. He is wielding a long striped lance which extends past the top of the frame.  He is riding a horse which is also wearing armor and a full-face helmet.  They appear to be galloping toward the viewer across a tournament field.
Illustrations by Gray Morrow.

Our hero is named Kyning.  His job is to take part in jousts for the amusement of folks on various planets.  As the title implies, he plays the Bad Guy, who gets trounced by the White Knight.  This is all just a simulation, of course.  He gets a few bruises from time to time, but only fake blood is spilled.

(At this point, I was reminded of the new novel Six-Gun Planet by John Jakes, which I recently reviewed.  Both stories feature people recreating romanticized versions of the past, complete with robot horses.)

An accident during a joust leaves Kyning severely injured.  Several days later, he emerges from a coma, fully healed.  The bad news is that his squire and the White Knight have left him stranded, blasting off for some other planet.  With no money and a phony passport confiscated by the authorities, he's stuck here.

(Why the phony passport?  We don't really know yet, although there are hints that Kyning doesn't want to talk about his past.)

Things could be worse.  The folks who run the planet give him a place to live, with a roommate, and a small stipend.  He's given the education needed to get a job, which boils down to TV repairman.

Kyning soon finds out that the populace is kept in a peaceful, passive state through a universally consumed drink containing tranquilizers, as well as subliminal messages to keep drinking the stuff.  He convinces his roommate to stop swallowing the liquid, and gives him lessons in sword fighting.

A black and white pen and ink drawing of two men against a gray background. In the foreground, a man in a light-colored renaissance-esque doublet and pantaloons is has his back to the viewer and cringing backward.  He is facing a man in a checkered doublet and black hose who is swinging a sword .  His sword arm is covering his face so only his angry eyes are visible. The hilt of a knife is visible at his belt.
A lesson gets out of hand.

It seems that, once released, the suppressed aggression inside the tranquilized folks can explode out of control.  Despite this risk, the roommate convinces others to give up the drink.

Meanwhile, Kyning makes a pass at a pretty young women, only to discover that the tranquilizers also completely repress sexual desire.  She doesn't even know what a kiss is.  On this planet, people marry and have children only in order to maintain the population, without any pleasure.

So far, the novel fits the common science fiction pattern of somebody fighting against a repressive society.  Once again, I'm reminded of a new book I reviewed recently.  Like Ira Levin's This Perfect Day, we've got a peaceful world that is only kept that way by drugging the populace.  It's keeping my interest so far, even if it's not outstanding in any way.

Three stars.

Psychivore, by Howard L. Myers

A black and white pen and ink drawing of an alien landscape.  in the foreground is a body of water with some small rocks and water plants sticking up from the surface. A slimy-looking collection of roots appears to be crawling out of the water and toward the straight trunk of a tree, whose leaves just extend down into the frame from the top of the image.  In the background, a man stands with one foot resting on the slight rise in front of him.  He is resting his elbow on his knee, and has his other hand on his hip.  He is looking curiously at the slimy roots and tree.  Behind him, there is an oval spaceship with an opened round hatch in the top.
Illustration by Michael Wm. Kaluta.

On a planet full of carnivorous plants and other hazards, a boy orphaned by a recent war ekes out a living by gathering wild fruits and selling them at the spaceport.  He meets a very old, very weak man, one of the original colonists.  The fellow wears goggles over his eyes.  The boy agrees to give the man a ride to the city.  Along the way, his strange story emerges.

The man encountered a creature that feeds on the souls of others.  When he looked into the thing's single eye, his mind went into the being's brain.  The man now has the unwanted ability to project his mind into anybody who looks into his eyes, hence the goggles.  Looking into an animal's eyes kills it, and gazing into a human's eyes drives that person insane.

(I may be explaining the premise badly, because I found it hard to follow.  It's unique, if nothing else.)

An accident causes the boy and man to lock eyes.  In order to avoid driving the lad mad, the fellow puts his soul into the boy, losing his life in the process.  The rest of the story deals with the boy's wild adventures, now that he has the man's memories in his mind.  These include trying to stow away on a starship and meeting the title soul-eater.

As I said, original but confusing.  It's also outrageously implausible, even for this kind of complicated story, which throws in bizarre concepts left and right.  And yet, it's still not bad to read.

Three stars. 

The Time, by David Mason

A man quits his job, drops his girlfriend, and just sits in his apartment waiting.  The impact of the story depends entirely on what he's waiting for, so I won't say much more.  Suffice to mention that it reminds me of an old Ray Bradbury story, the title of which would give away too much.  There's a striking final image, which you may or may not anticipate.

Three stars.

Communication, by Bob Shaw

A black and white composite image.  At the top, straight lines and circles arranged to resemble a circuit board descend and transform from perfect circles to paint-like blogs that merge into a face looking directly at the viewer. Below the face the words Subject A are written in a blocky computer font in outlined capitals.  To the right, a string descends as though from around the person's neck and holds a black paper tag.  At the top the words Mervyn Parr are written in white block capitals. A man's face looking to the left is drawn in the same style as the top face. A white arrow curving up and to the left points directly at his lips.
Illustration by Michael Hinge

Our hapless hero is the world's worst computer salesman.  He has to fake his records so it looks like his products don't match the needs of potential customers.  Out of the blue, a mysterious fellow offers to pay cash for one of the advanced machines, as long as it's kept secret.  Forced by his boss to get some publicity for the sale, he tracks the guy down and finds out what it's all about.

The mystery is intriguing at first.  Why does the customer use a false name?  Why did he remove a ring from his finger?  The revelation about what's going on is less interesting.  Without saying too much, I'll just note that there's a reason this story is in Fantastic and not Analog.

Three stars.

I of Newton, by Joe W. Haldeman

A new author gives us this variation on the old deal with the Devil theme.  A mathematician accidentally summons a demon, who will answer three questions, but then the mathematician has to give it a task that is impossible to perform or lose his soul.

Given the premise, you'd expect the guy to ask the demon to find the last digit of pi or some other impossible mathematical feat.  (You may recall the Star Trek episode Wolf in the Fold, which featured this notion.)

Nope.  This tiny tale ends with a trivial joke instead.  Decently written and inoffensive, but it falls flat.

Two stars.

In the Land of the Not-Unhappies, by David R. Bunch

A black and white pen and ink drawing of a man in a knee-length cape facing away from the viewer. He is either wearing a kippah on the back of his head or has a circular bald spot. He is carrying a rifle over his left shoulder.  He is staring toward a pointillist orb hanging above him.
Illustration by Jeff Jones.

More weirdness from a controversial New Wave writer.  The narrator crosses a barrier (possibly mountains) and enters a land where the people emerge from identical domes to spend time sweeping the ground in one direction, then sweeping it the other direction.  This is all explained by the machines that welcome the narrator.

You don't read Bunch for plot logic or characterization, but for strange concepts and allegorical content, often disturbing.  In this case, the futility of human action seems to be the point.  Your interpretation may be different.

Bunch is a matter of taste.  Love him or hate him, there's nobody like him.

Three stars.

Hok and the Gift of Heaven, by Manly Wade Wellman

This issue's Fantasy Classic comes from the March 1941 issue of Amazing Stories.

The cover of the March issue of Amazing Stories.  The magazine name is across the top in white block capitals with red drop shadows. The illustration is a color painting of two people engaged in combat in the desert.  A black-haired man wearing only a white loincloth and belt is in mid-jump with his sword swung across his body as though about to slice forward.  His knee is about at eye level of his enemy, who is wearing a green bodysuit, gold pointed helmet, and red cape and short pants. He is carrying a long spear-pointed lance and facing away from the viewer toward the jumper.  He is riding an eight-legged black and brown alien creature, which is wearing a saddle and harness.  It is rearing backward up onto two horse-like legs.  The head is long like a horse's but looks more doglike. In the background stone city walls rise in the distance.
Cover art by J. Allen St. John.

We've met our caveman hero Hok a few times before.  He's already invented the bow and arrow.  This story gives him an even more advanced weapon.

A black and white illustration of Hok, a white man wearing a short furry tunic and headband. He is on the back of a great white shark as though riding it as the shark leaps halfway out of the water. He grips the left pectoral fin and has a sword held behind his head as though about to strike downward. In the background, palm trees rise from the shore of an island.

Some folks who live by the sea invade Hok's territory.  Before the battle really begins, a meteorite lands at Hok's feet.  A fragment knocks him out.  He wakes up to discover that his people thought he was dead.  Everybody panicked, understandably, when this big rock fell out of the sky.  In the chaos, the bad guys kidnapped Hok's mate and son.

In an amazing set of unlikely circumstances, the meteorite ignited some coal just sitting around, so the iron and other stuff in the rock melted together, eventually cooling into a piece of steel in the shape of a sword.

No, I don't buy it either.

Anyway, Hok hones the edge of this hunk of metal and gives it a handle.  He uses the new weapon against dangerous animals and, of course, the bad guys.  Another extraordinary coincidence occurs at the climax.

I believe I once called the stories about Hok sword-and-sorcery yarns without swords and without sorcery.  Well, now we've got a sword, but still no sorcery.  (On the other hand, Hok's incredible good luck makes me wonder if his sun god has a hand in things.)

The use of footnotes, trying to convince me that this thing is a realistic portrait of the prehistoric world, doesn't help.  If nothing else, old pro Wellman knows how to keep the action moving.  Sensitive readers should be aware that this is an extremely violent story, with too many folks getting killed to count.

Two stars.

The Prince of New York, by Gregory Benford and Laurence Littenberg

A black and white illustration showing a large, fat man with dark hair staring contemplatively at a beach-ball sized earth, resting before him on a pillow.  Behind him to the left of the image, a thinner white man with spectacles and a dark suit is looking over his shoulder.  To the right, a balding man is sitting and writing behind a window over which is written Handwriting Analysis.  Curtains are partially drawn, partially obscuring him.
Illustration by Steve Stiles.

A guy becomes filthy rich by borrowing a modest amount of money, using it to get a bigger loan, and so on.  He enlists the aid of an acquittance to do some routine stuff.  The other guy wonders why the rich fellow is doing things that might wipe out the economy.  Curiosity killed the cat, and the inquisitive aide might face a similar fate.

The economic stuff that sets up the story doesn't really have much to do with anything, and what's behind the rich guy's scheme is pretty silly.  I think this is a case in which two authors is one too many.

Two stars.

Science Fiction in Dimension, by Alexei Panshin

A new column begins with the author of Heinlein in Dimension (discussed in fascinating detail by my esteemed colleague John Boston) broadening his critical eye to talk about the genre in general.  Maybe not a lot new here, but worth a look.

Three stars.

Fantasy Fandom: Science Fiction and Drugs, by Donald K. Arbogast

The real author of this essay is hiding behind a pseudonym because it discusses the use of illegal substances.  It states that fans used to drink a lot of beer, but now there's more use of marijuana.  Other psychedelic drugs are discussed.  I don't even drink coffee, so I'm not the one to judge.

Three stars.

…According to You, by various

The readers discuss a possible change in the name of the magazine.  Going back to the old pulp magazine title Fantastic Adventures is firmly rejected.  I say leave well enough alone.

No rating.

Worth Fighting Over?

That was a middle-of-the-road issue, for the most part.  From fake medieval battles on another world to slaughter in the Stone Age to threats from alien beings and denizens of Hell, this was a magazine full of real, ersatz, and potential forms of violence.  I can only wish all readers more peace outside their recreational reading.

A black and white photograph of President Nixon standing in profile with two secret service agents in front of and behind him.  He is facing several long-haired college students, who do not look impressed.
President Nixon meets with students on the day of the riot.  A chance for peace?


1 Comment Leave A Comment

One thought on “[May 12, 1970] War and Peace (June 1970 Fantastic)”

  1. I'm in complete agreement on Black Knight." Nothing special, but just enough to hold my interest. A lot really depends on where Hoffman takes things.

    Your summary of "Psychivore" is in line with my own understanding of it. Total agreement again, highly implausible, but readable.

    "The Time" was an odd thing, and I can't say if I liked it or not. At the least, it didn't overstay its welcome.

    "Communication" had a good, if not strong, start, but really fell apart at the end. I was hoping for something a little meatier, and that's without accounting for the part that put this story in Fantastic, rather than Analog.

    I liked "I of Newton" more than you did, probably enough to give it a third star. It's not as good as Niven's "The Long Night," but it didn't fall flat for me.

    Bunch, on the other hand, I liked less. I guess that evens out our scores. Back in the Cele Goldsmith days, this would have driven fans apoplectic.

    The Hok story has become horribly dated. I'm not sure the paleontology was even all that accurate even when it was written. Wellman has merged widely varying time periods into a single "Stone Age" with no consideration for the long, slow development of the tens, even hundreds of millennia that fall under that rubric.

    "Prince of New York" was awful. If you ask me, it may have had two too many authors.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *