by Victoria Silverwolf

Who Turned Out The Lights?

Folks living in certain parts of southern Mexico and the eastern coast of the United States and Canada were treated to a spectacular sight in the sky a few days ago.  On March 7, there was a total eclipse of the sun visible from those areas of the globe.

The sun is about to completely disappear behind the moon.

I live in the southeastern corner of Tennessee, so I missed this extraordinary event.  Let's see; when do astronomers think a total solar eclipse will be visible from my neck of the woods?  Let me check my almanac.

August 21, 2017.  Holy cow, close to half a century to go. 

While I'm waiting, I can spend the time reading.  Just as a solar eclipse causes the Earth to cool down, at least for a moment, the latest issue of Fantastic features a new novella from one of the masters of imaginative literature that is dominated by a sense of cold.  Grab a cup of hot chocolate, wrap yourself up in a blanket, and join me as we dive into its icy pages.

Cover art by Jeff Jones.

Hey!  An original piece of art on the cover instead of something borrowed from a German magazine!  That's a good sign, as is the promise of a new sword and sorcery yarn from the greatest creator of such.  (No offense, Conan fans.)

Editorial, by Ted White

The editor explains that readers have different tastes (obviously) and that he just selects the stories he thinks are the best (even more obviously.) He mentions a new member of the staff, Arnold Katz, who has the job (an unenviable one, to me) of selecting each issue's Fantasy Classic (i.e. reprint) from yellowing copies of Fantastic Adventures.  Finally, he states that he goes through all the letters he gets from readers, separates them out by which stories they're commenting on (even cutting up ones that talk about more than one work), and forwarding them to the authors involved.  Sounds like a lot of extra work, so wish him good luck.

No rating.

The Snow Women, by Fritz Leiber

Illustrations by Jeff Jones also.

We go back to the teenage years of Fafhrd, before he ran around with the Gray Mouser.  (There's one tiny hint that he encountered his future buddy during a brief career as a pirate.) It's the dead of winter in his northern homeland.  A troupe of actors is around to provide entertainment, with a fair amount of nubile female flesh on display, for the men only.

That makes it sound like Fafhrd lives in a male-dominated society, but in fact the women have a lot of power, some of it magical.  They're also not reluctant to attack the men with snowballs, sometimes causing serious injuries.  Fafhrd lives with his widowed mother, who tries to dominate him completely.  He's also got a girlfriend, pregnant with his child, who is a tough cookie indeed.

Fafhrd and the tree where he keeps a cache of weapons and other supplies.

The plot gets started when Fafhrd gets mixed up with an alluring actress, who has a complex back story of her own.  It seems that other northerners plan to buy her as a slave from the leader of the troupe.  Suffice to say that a lot of complications follow.  Wait until you find out how Fafhrd uses some firework rockets he steals from the actors!

It's no surprise that this is very well written, with wit, tasteful eroticism, vivid descriptions, and plenty of action.  We also get quite a bit of insight into Fafhrd's personality.  He's fascinated by the civilized, decadent south in comparison with the barbaric north.  The female characters are fully developed, three-dimensional individuals, which is not something you can say about a lot of fantasy and science fiction written by men.

Five stars.

The Wager Lost by Winning, by John Brunner

Illustrations by Michael Kaluta.

This is one of a series of stories about a mysterious figure known only as the Traveller in Black.  A couple of tales about him have appeared in British publications. (That's why I'm using the double-l spelling.)

He's a god-like being who wanders around a fantasy world.  His mission is a little vague, but it somehow involves order and chaos.  We get several brief sections of text describing how he fulfills the desires of those he encounters, often not to their liking.

The Traveller and an empty pedestal that plays a part in the plot.

The Traveller becomes involved with an aristocrat who has kidnapped the inhabitants of a peaceful village in order to use them as slaves that he can risk in wagers with other lords.  The ruler believes that the local goddess of luck holds him in her favor.  The Traveller makes a bet that she will turn her back on him.  The wager plays out in an unexpected way.

The story is full of imaginative details, from the lazy entity who dwells in a lake at the peaceful village to the bizarre methods of gambling engaged in by the lords.  The theme of Be Careful What You Wish For may be a familiar one, but there's a lot more to the story than just that.

Four stars.

Dear Aunt Annie, by Gordon Ecklund

Illustration by Michael Hinge.

This, the author's first published story, reveals a willingness to experiment and a fair amount of ambition for a newcomer.  It's told from multiple points of view, and we don't get full information on what's going on right away, so it requires careful reading.

After a devastating war, the citizens of the United States are lulled into a state of complete nonviolence through a combination of drugs and psychotherapy.  A problem develops when a woman writes to newspaper columnist Aunt Annie for advice, revealing that she attempted suicide.  That's not supposed to be possible, so Aunt Annie sends one of her assistants to investigate.  The situation leads to debate over how to handle the apparent return of human violence.

The exact nature of Aunt Annie and her assistants doesn't become clear at first, so I won't discuss it here.  (The illustration is a clue.) This is more or less a New Wave story, particularly in its disjointed narrative style.  I found it both intriguing and confusing.

Three stars.

The Freedom Fighter, by Ray Russell

The narrator is a movie director in the near future.  Not only is she one of the few women in that profession (I guess things won't change much over the next few years), she's in trouble with her producer.  It seems she doesn't make the kind of movies expected of her.

The story has only one point to make, so I won't give it away here.  It's a simple reversal of current trends.  The satire plays out as expected.  I should note that the text contains derogatory terms for homosexual women and men, which is distasteful.

Two stars.

Fantasy Books, by Fritz Leiber and Hank Stine

Leiber praises the collections Daughters of Earth by Judith Merril and Jirel of Joiry by C. L. Moore.  He also reveals that he has read the manuscript for the new novel And Chaos Died by Joanna Russ (under its initial title End of Chaos) and states that it describes fully what it would feel like to possess powers of telepathy and clairvoyance.  (Our own Jason Sacks recently reviewed the same novel.)

Stine has high praise for the British television series The Prisoner, as well as for a novel, with the same title, based on the series by Thomas A. Disch.  He is less enthusiastic for Number Two, another book based on the show, by David McDaniel.

No rating.

The Pulsating Planet, by John Broome

The September 1941 issue of Fantastic Adventures is the source of this reprint.

Cover art by Robert Fuqua.

Our two-fisted hero is a reporter.  For some reason he's on an asteroid heading into the solar system.  He claims that he saw a base of enemy aliens, but there's no sign of it.  The military is about to arrest him for misleading them, but he manages to kidnap a corporal and head for where the base should be.

Illustration by Albert Magarian

The mismatched pair follow a dwarf into the hidden base.  The dwarf is a Mad Scientist, so there's also his Beautiful Daughter for the love interest.  Mix in the aliens, some of whom don't really want to invade Earth, and a weird monster for the hero to fight. 

The explanation for fact that the alien base appears and disappears is really silly.  Corny and poorly written, this is an example of the kind of pulp fiction that gives science fiction a bad name among the literati.  If this is a Fantasy Classic, I'd hate to see the ones that didn't make the grade.

One star.

Fantasy Fandom, by Jeffrey Clark

Instead of the usual article reprinted from a fanzine, this is a long letter sent to the magazine's sister publication Amazing.  Clark discusses Old Wave and New Wave, stating that there's room for both, and compares science fiction and fantasy with mainstream fiction.  Decently done, but there's not a lot that's new here.

Three stars.

According to You, by Various Readers

Very much a mixed bag of letters, with no particular theme to them.  Notable is the fact that controversial author David R. Bunch gently points out that one of his stories was announced to be coming soon under the name David Bloch. 

No rating.

The Reader Who Came In From The Cold

Overall, a pretty good issue, enough to warm the heart of the lucky person who peruses it on a chilly night in early spring.  A couple of disappointments, but the two lead fantasy stories are worth the price of the magazine.

Stay warm, everybody!

And keep your food warm, too!

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